Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Don't know your multiplication tables? You will in a week

Jackie Schlotfeldt News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jschlotfeldt@news-bulletin.com

It's called KWIK MATH, and it's a program designed to teach children their multiplication tables in a week.

Marie Forman plans on testing her theory by offering six free, one-week sessions this summer at Calvary Chapel Rio Grande Valley Church.

"I thought there's got to be a way," Forman said. "I'm going to prove this summer that they (multiplication tables) can be learned and retained."

The sessions will be open to students, ages 8 and up, and adults wanting to learn how to teach the methods. Each session will be limited to five students.

"It's a first-come first-served basis," Forman said.

Forman, who earned her bachelor's degree in education from the University of New Mexico in 2004, said she's been tutoring children in math throughout the community for the past five years, and it was through this that she decided to write math workbooks.

The Multiplication Magic in Three Easy Steps workbook is the one Forman will be using during the summer sessions to prove that students can learn and retain their multiplication tables in one week.

Forman uses rhymes and pictures to help students learn.

"The more senses you use, the more chances you have of learning and retaining," she said.

One student Forman worked with beginning the summer of 2005 was a young man named Carlos Salazar Jr., or Junior for short. Salazar wasn't doing well in math, and Forman began using algorithms she created to help him learn math and bring up his grades.

"Now I have the highest grade in my class in math," Salazar said with a big smile.

"He's more confident now, and he doesn't need help with his homework anymore," Angela Salazar, Junior's mom, said. "His grades have gone up a lot, and he's on the honor roll at Central Elementary."

"It's been a great improvement," his dad, Carlos Sr., said. "It's amazing how well he's done. Even his teacher was surprised."

Forman said the algorithms, the step-by-step process she created, don't exist anywhere else. She said what she's created is a fast and easy way to learn and retain basic math skills.

"In 2002 I saw a need to create something that could be used by other tutors," Forman said.

And today she has two math workbooks published, "Multiplication Magic in Three Easy Steps" and "Drive, Run, Walk," a guide to learning fraction arithmetic. Forman has written a third workbook that has not yet been published.

"I'd love to see multiplication, fraction arithmetic and long division take off," Forman explained. "With those skills in a child's math toolbox they can go on and tackle the rest."