Author Attacks Math Anxiety Issue by Adding New Resource That Builds Mental Math Skills

PRLog (Press Release) – Mar 07, 2008 – Math Attack, LLC of Morrow (suburban Atlanta), Georgia, an industry-respected provider of mathematics learning and development resources including reading material, a game and development workshops for middle and high school students and their parents, and to teachers and school administrators, today announced the launch of http://www.Math-Attack.com, a website dedicated to educating everyone on issues of math anxiety and how to overcome it by building mental math skills.  

The new Math-Attack.com features Math Attack founder Marilyn Curtain-Phillip’s book, “Math Attack: How to Reduce Math Anxiety In The Classroom, At Work And In Everyday Personal Use”, which identifies effects of math anxiety while offering the blueprint to a positive learning environment that will maximize success in mathematics.  The book contains examples of learning styles, classroom management techniques, and other strategies to assess attitudes, skills, and behaviors.  According to high school student, Benthany Peoples, Math Attack helped him to realize that math was not hard.  Benthany added that he was able to increase his math score by thirteen percentage points.  Albert N. Thompson, Jr., Ph.D., Chemistry Department, Spelman College sharing his opinion on the Math Attack book, “I have been a professor of chemistry for more than twenty years, and have observed, repetitively, that poor mathematics preparations inhibits success due mainly to self imposed anxieties, which inhibit the joy of learning mathematics, and the failure of institutions to address and accommodate diverse learning styles. Book topics are excellent reading and discussion for pupils in early and beginning level arithmetic courses. This book is also useful for adults who are retooling from more competitive technical careers”.

While playing the Math Attack card game, students can build their mental math skills.  A few years ago, Ms. Curtain-Phillips was inspired to create a math card game when she noticed her students’ passion for the playing cards during a break between classes.  She stated, “It was an excellent opportunity to help students build their own mental math skills while they have fun!”  Furthermore, she developed the card game by replacing the numbers on the face of the cards with math problems such as the square root of one hundred, two-cubed, and the square root of sixty four, to name a few.   So, anyone playing with Math Attack cards must figure out the math problem on the face of a particular card to determine the “face value” of that card.  A video featuring four students sharing their Math Attack experiences can be found on YouTube. The video can be seen on the MathAttack.com homepage or at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXMjrbt0Lhw  

When teachers attend a Math Attack workshop, they learn valuable techniques such as learning styles, classroom management, the use of math manipulatives and active algebra.  Hundreds of educators have enjoyed learning how to regain control of the classroom by simply understanding what kinds of learners they are teaching.  The educators are able to apply what they learn immediately!  One teacher who attended a Math Attack workshop during the Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of Mathematics (PCTM) Conference said, “I really enjoyed this session… I enjoyed learning different ways on how to get students involved and reducing discipline problems.”  Teacher also learn can effective active algebra techniques by using blocks and algebra tiles, making learning easy for “hands on” learners because concrete items (i.e. blocks and tiles) are used to translate the meaning of a sometime difficult to understand abstract algebra concept.  Manipulatives are any of various objects designed to be moved or arranged by hand as a means of developing motor skills or understanding abstractions, especially in mathematics.