JONES COUNTY, Ga. — Many people go through school scared of math, but Jones County High School introduced a new math initiative to engage their students in the subject.
"I just love how it is so simple. You just have to have a calculator, your brain and a piece of paper," says Deajah Farley
Farley, a 9th grader at Jones County High School, loves a subject that only a few others do: math.
"Yeah! Graphing and solving equations, that's my favorite," says Farley.
A significant difference in Farley's journey with math-- starting high school with Jones County's new initiative for math, "building thinking classrooms." based on the principles found in this book.
"The concept behind this was derived from our administrators and teachers getting together and coming up with a list of reasons math has been on the decline and why it become harder and harder for students to become successful in the math classroom," says Alisha Gordon.
Gordon, the math specialist, says they learned-- the common step-by-step process many of us all learned isn't the best way for all students to learn the subject. So they're working on getting students to think through problems more.
"The idea is to get the kids up and thinking so they can use what they know to help figure out new info without us giving them step-by-step scripts," says Andrea Greene.
Math teacher Andrea Greene says they're doing that by breaking down a problem starting from the answer to the question.
"Instead of telling the kid how you get to your solution, we told them what the answer was. I gave them the problem and said to figure out how to get there.
Can you figure out the steps to get you to these answers," says Greene.
Since whiteboards are placed around the classes now, the teachers can see which students need guidance to help them along the way. Students like Farley they're enjoying this way of learning.
"It's the way my teacher breaks it down for me," says Farley.