Jim Ryan, BA, MA, BEd

For over 20 years, Jim Ryan has sought to help students learn. His teaching experience ranges from elementary classes to university courses. Jim constantly strives to link common sense practicality with modern educational research to create a method that appeals to all types of learners. Jim currently lives in Carleton Place, Ontario, with his wife, Lisa, and two children, Kelsey and Connor.

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Mission statements can sound lofty and not really be something that you can live with. I’ve thought about this for a long time and I’ve reduced all the talk down to a few simple sentences.

"My goal is to do good things for kids before I die.

It’s as simple as that."

To this end, I want to build ‘authentic’ self-esteem by teaching children the basic knowledge that they need to succeed and believe in themselves as learners. Many children get confused and frustrated as they go through their schooling. As a result, they start to shut down and even quit. By the time they get to high school, some of the childhood dreams have vanished and some really negative behaviours have taken their place.

Learning the Times Tables through cartoons, stories and songs is the first volume in a series of books to try to help children, regardless of their learning style, learn these basic math facts so that they believe that they can succeed in this area.