Mathematical Mondays

Kids, Don’t Apologize for Making Me Do My Job

The other day, my ninth graders were working on a review assignment. Mostly independent, or working through with friends, while I circulated to help out.

These were mostly things we’d learned between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it was a little tricky to remember some of the concepts. Not a problem. That was the point of reviewing.

In more than one class, a student or two got to the fourth or fifth question they’d asked me and prefaced with this:

“Sorry.”

Sorry to bother me? Sorry I had to weave through rearranged desks to get to them? Sorry they had so many questions?

Well, at least one said it was the last one. “Sorry, I have a lot of questions.”

Mind-boggling, from my perspective.

I guess there are teachers who prefer that their students work in silence while the teacher sits at their desk and does their own thing. And okay, I admit, there are days when I’m exhausted and sitting down sounds really nice.

But like I said to my students … “What are you apologizing for? Why do you think I’m here?”

Helping students is what makes teaching fun. Seeing them piece things together until they understand. It’s certainly not about hearing myself lecture from the front of the room.

If you have kids, make sure they know they should never feel like they have to apologize for asking a teacher to do her job.

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To Get Kids’ Attention, Sometimes You Fast-Forward

A simple fact of life is that sometimes you have to learn basic, not-so-exciting stuff before you can move on to the really cool stuff. It’s certainly true in math class. I have to get my students used to handling variables and exponents (basics of algebra) before I can teach them cool stuff like revolving functions around an axis and finding the volume of the solid formed.

What? I totally thought that was the coolest thing ever when I was in calculus.

But just because students aren’t ready to dive into something yet doesn’t mean I can’t give them a sneak preview of things to come.

My classes recently did some activities with graphing calculators. Mostly stuff that looked like this:

Hi, we’re linear equations, and we’re a little boring.

While they were thrilled at using the calculators instead of graphing by hand, it wasn’t all that exciting. In several classes, I put something like this on the projector while they were all working on their assignment:

Flowers! Using math! So pretty!

Trust me, even the most macho teenage boys think it’s mind-blowing that you can make flowers using equations.

They’re not going to learn rose curves this year. It’s either next year or the year after (I need to check) that they’ll cover polar functions. But kids who really wanted to know, I gave them a quick overview of how the polar graphing system works.

It got their attention, and got them asking, “What else can we do with graphs?”

And when they’re asking questions, I’m happy.

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Just Because They’re Behind Doesn’t Mean You Have to Keep Them There

Math teachers in my department have had a significant challenge this year. As part of implementing the new core standards, nearly all students at each grade level have been placed in the same math class. (The main exceptions are the accelerated classes, which account for 20-30 students in each grade, 7th-9th.)

This means some kids have had to learn material at a condensed rate, while others have had to endure a ton of review to start with.

We’re nearly halfway through the year, and I can’t count how many times I’ve heard that it doesn’t work, that we need to get the “low” kids back in a class of their own. For instance, the 9th graders who took Pre-Algebra last year and are now in class with mostly kids who already passed Algebra 1.

I understand where they’re coming from. Truly. I see students in my class who haven’t quite grasped solving for X yet (simple linear equations), and we’re doing exponential functions and recursive sequences now. I have plenty of students bombing tests and quizzes.

But part of me says that the way we’ve been doing things only perpetuates the problem. These kids are behind grade level in math, and putting them in a slower or repeat math class will only put them further behind.

Then again, does this way just set them up for failure? Some seem to think so.

Something happened the other day that makes me think that may not be true. One of those “shoved into the fast lane” kids came in after school. He has the supplemental “math lab” period that many of these kids do, to give them more time and support to learn concepts, yet still hadn’t been doing too well.

He said, “Miss Lewis, can you help me with this Chapter 5 and 6 stuff? I need to retake that test, but I just don’t get it.”

(He also apologized, asked if it wasn’t too much trouble, etc. I’m thinking, “Dude, what do you think I’m here for?”)

We started at the beginning of Chapter 5 (inequalities) and I wrote a few examples on the whiteboard. We talked about the process, and I got him working through them himself. (He mentioned it makes sense when I explain it, but then it crumbles when he tries on his own.) Moved through that and on to Chapter 6 (systems of equations).

He picked it up quick.

He said, “Now it seems so easy.”

I’ve seen this before. I had students at the deaf school who couldn’t reliably solve simple equations when they were all the way in Algebra 2. I kept pushing them forward, kept supporting and reviewing and reinforcing. When I taught them Calculus, they still had to work at it, but they had some serious math skills.

We could’ve said, “They can’t solve basic equations. They need to repeat this course.” We chose not to.

When we don’t make falling (or staying) behind an option, and when we give the right support, they can catch up. But there’s a key.

That kid came in after school to work on math instead of going to the basketball game. The kids need to be willing to put in the effort.

The best we can do is try to convince them that the effort will be worth it. Saying they’re destined for “low” math classes doesn’t seem to do that job.

What do you think?

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Mathematical Constipation

Have you ever had some kind of information you were trying to take in, but your brain just clenched up and would NOT let it in?

Yeah, I think I’m going to create some interesting visuals in this post.

I have students who go through this all the time. They’ve decided they don’t get math, so they won’t get math. Sometimes it’s because someone (even a previous math teacher) told them they couldn’t.

Excuse me. Must calm down the rage.

Other times, the mental block is self-inflicted. I have one particular student who spends so much time and energy declaring she doesn’t get it and complaining about how hard it is, her brain forms a rubber wall my words bounce right off of.

Once I get her to slow down, take a breath, and listen, she gets it fine. I’m trying to get her to stop “clenching up” … to relax and believe that even if she doesn’t get it instantly, she will get it eventually.

Sometimes the old, trite sayings are true. Try this one on:

If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re probably right.

Habits are hard to break, though. Getting students to loosen up their brain cells isn’t easy. Building confidence in people who are at a stage of life where they’re hormonally inclined to beat up on themselves is … well, not impossible, but there are days where it almost feels that way.

I’m not into blowing sunshine at kids. I’m not going to tell them they’re a math genius when they’re not. I will tell them honestly that math doesn’t come easily to them, and that’s okay, because they CAN get it. They just have to let themselves. And put in a little work (or a lot).

Anyone have other ideas on getting this through to kids?

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How Does a Math Teacher Tell a Kid How to Write?

I know, it’s Mathematical Monday and this is only loosely mathematical, but it’s the question on my mind at the moment.

I like showing my students that people don’t (and shouldn’t) fit into neat little pigeonholes. I like encouraging them to be multifaceted and be their entire selves in my math classes. But there’s a drawback. Kind of.

As my students find out about me being an author, a few will ask me to read something they wrote.

That’s cool, in theory. At my last school, we were such a small, tight community that it wasn’t really a problem. But now, I find myself unsure how to respond.

After I read it, what do I say?

“That’s great! Keep at it.”

“I like how you describe the forest. Just watch your run-on sentences.”

“Great start. Here are some things you might consider to tighten the narration and give us a stronger point-of-view.”

Do I just give general encouragement? A tip or two? Or deeper feedback? Sometimes I just don’t know, because I’m not the English teacher.

If I were the English teacher, I’d know what kinds of things we’d already discussed in class. The things kids want to show me aren’t always for class assignments (some are actually doing NaNoWriMo at the direction of our librarian—which is awesome). But when it is an assignment, maybe there’s something specific they’re focusing on. As the math teacher, I have no idea.

Perhaps I’m worrying too much. With so many students, it’s hard for me to get to know individuals well enough to know what kind of feedback they want/are ready for. Not like my last school, where I had super-tiny classes and often taught specific students for up to four or five years.

If anyone out there is an English teacher, can you answer this question? If you had a novel-writing math teacher in your school, how could she best support your students’ writing efforts, without undermining any methods you’re using in class?

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Grades Aren’t Given—They’re Earned

“Ugh, Mr. Peabody gave me a D-plus.”

“Miss Lewis, you should just give me an A.”

These are among the more annoying statements I hear in my classroom, and it’s a particular word that sets me off.

GIVE.

A lot of students have this attitude of teachers giving grades. One student said a teacher ruined their sibling’s high school graduation because of the bad grade a teacher gave that sibling in ninth grade. (It meant not qualifying to wear the fancy gold cord with the graduation regalia.)

What? Really?

Okay, I’m sure there are teachers out there who are spiteful and mean and evil. I’m even more sure there are teachers who are really difficult to learn from.

But by and large (and certainly in my case, I hope), teachers don’t give grades. Students earn them. I just do the accounting, verifying what they’ve earned.

Part of me hates that I have to grade at all. I like looking over student work to see what they understand, but I hate assigning a numerical value to it, figuring out what all those numerical values together mean and assigning a letter to that.

The students who think I give grades are part of the reason we have to use them. They only care about that letter on the report card, and in their minds (much of the time), it’s arbitrary. If I could rely on every student to learn for the sake of learning, and to commit to doing the work necessary, there’d be no need for grades.

In a perfect world … maybe someday.

For now, I’ll keep with the response I’ve been using.

“Miss Lewis, you should just give me an A.”

“Okay, I will … as soon as you earn it.”

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