Savvy teacher’s free gift makes math a snap

Do you know of a high school student who is struggling with math courses? Check out this math teacher’s free web site that offers online help and “cheat sheets” for math courses …

Math teacher Bradley Heintz shows an example of a free high school math card he’s making available to all high school students in the greater Portland area.

Story and photo by David F. Ashton
Bradley Heintz, Milwaukie High School math teacher and Sellwood resident, says he’s dedicated to stripping away the mysteries of math for all students in the greater Portland area.

“There’s no reason that students who are taking classes ranging from pre-algebra through pre-calculus shouldn’t have a ‘road map’ to guide them through their courses,” Heintz tells us, as we talk in his home office.

This 17-year veteran of math teaching calls his math road maps “note cards”. “Each subject’s note card lays out the basic concepts for a course, all on two sides of a notebook-paper-sized sheet. There’s no reason why each student can’t have a summary of math class. Why make it a secret?”

Gives away ‘math secrets’ cards
And here’s the best part: Heintz is giving away his math note cards – no strings attached. Anyone can print them off from his web site.

When we ask why he’s giving away such a valuable resource, Heintz says, “I created them to make my life easier as a math teacher. There’s no reason not to share this information.”

All of the Math Cards are offered online, as are tutorials.

Online math help
In addition to the note cards, Heintz shows us how access math lessons on his web site.

“Most of the time, kids don’t know what they don’t know. If they have a problem with ‘systems of equations’ they don’t know where to look. On this site, you run your mouse over a list of concepts and an example of it pops up.”

Once again, Heintz stresses that this information is free. After our conversation, we ourselves check out the site, and find no pop-ups or hype. We do find a link to his other site, which promotes his Savvy Minds summer “math prep” courses offered in the Portland area.

Developed for tutoring
“Much of this information came from doing math tutoring earlier in my career, and from the summer math prep programs I’ve developed to prepare students to better in their next year’s courses,” Heintz explains.

We muse, “I sure could have used that when I was in school.”

“That’s what I hear from many adults,” Heintz says. “Hardly anyone gets it right the first time through.”

The math note cards, and information about the Savvy Minds math prep courses, are available online at: www.savvyminds.org.

Comments are closed.