We believe there are four key components that are required for an effective educational plan. Education should be creative, challenging, cooperative, and connected.

Since students possess a vast diversity of experiences, backgrounds, and learning styles, teachers must be creative when developing their curriculum. Through the use of creativity, a teacher can develop a variety of lessons that suit the needs of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.

In addition to being creative, a curriculum must also be challenging. Because of their diversity, students learn on their own personal levels. Therefore, a lesson that one student might find easy, another might find extremely difficult. It is the teacher’s responsibility to discover the strengths and weaknesses of his/her students in order to develop the optimal curriculum that will challenge them based on their personal learning aptitude.

The third essential element for an effective education is that a teacher and his/her students must have a cooperative learning environment. A cooperative learning environment encourages student participation in the learning process. This participation is vital for students to become exceptional decision makers, outstanding problem-solvers, and to develop many critical social skills that will be necessary to carry out their dreams.

Finally, an educational plan cannot be effective unless it is connected. Not only must education be connected among different subject areas, but it must also be connected to life. New concepts are easier to understand and remember if a student can directly relate the material to his/her life experiences. Perhaps this Chinese proverb says it best, “Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand.”

While the framework of a creative, challenging, cooperative, and connected educational plan may ensure success, one must consider that education is an ongoing process of learning. Teachers must continue to educate themselves in their professional career in order to stay familiar with current educational issues and to serve as a role model for students to become life-long-learners. Here at MathAssist, we feel that the true measure of a teacher is one who continues to learn as well as educate.