“One thing is certain: The human brain has serious problems with calculations. Nothing in its evolution prepared it for the task of memorizing dozens of multiplication facts or for carrying out the multistep operations required for two-digit subtraction.” (Sousa, 2015, p. 35). It is amazing the things that our brain can do and how our brain adapt to perform these kind of calculations. As teachers, we need to take into account that our brain is not ready for calculations, but it can recognize patterns. That is the way that I learned multiplication. I remember when I was in 2nd grade, I told my mom to buy me a cassette of an artist that make the multiplication tables in rap. I remember lying on the floor with a piece of paper and a pencil and singing the song. I learned the multiplication tables before they taught me that in 4th grade. Our brain can memorize a song by repetition, and in that way I also learned the multiplication tables, repletion and singing them. Still now, I remember the melody of each one of the table and the things that the singer have done during each song. …show more content…
“[…] People who learn a second language generally continue to do arithmetic in their first language. No matter how fluent they are in the second language, switching back to their first language is much easier than relearning arithmetic from scratch in their second language.” (Sousa, 2015, p. 45). That it is true for me. I learned in Spanish and I go back to make the calculation in Spanish. I noticed that took me longer for because of translation. However, Sousa (2015) said that we need to be careful about assuming if a student has a problem with language will have problems with calculations, and vice versa because language and mathematical reasoning areas are in two distinct parts of the