Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Take Care (and taking a break)

This is hard. I hope you’re ok. Please take care of yourself.

Friends, that’s all I’ve wanted to write. For months.

Whether your ‘this’ is figuring out how to connect with students through a screen, or going into a classroom and worrying about exposure, or juggling your own kids’ remote schooling with work, or just (as if this were a thing we could minimize to “just”) living through this past year, it’s been hard.

I hope you’re ok. I hope you’re doing what you can to take care of yourself through your ‘this’.

Taking care of ourselves looks different for each of us, and for each season. Sometimes it looks like finding the things we can control and doing what we can about them, and sometimes it looks like focusing on the positives (and remembering they are always there, despite the reality of the hard stuff)

Sometimes it looks like thinking deeply, and setting intentional priorities, and being gentle with ourselves and others.

I love teaching. I love talking about teaching with other teachers. I love thinking through the teaching and learning process, and the way writing helps me do that.

But for me, this is not the season to churn out a stream of tips and resources and new ideas complete with graphics and links and social media posts.

It’s a season to focus on taking care of myself and my people, to be gentle and real and thoughtful.

And in truth, it might be the best teaching tip or idea I can offer right now.

Please take care of yourself.

Please be real and gentle and practice care. Please pick your priorities and set some things down when it’s not their season. And when we’re ready and re-charged, we can again pick up the things that matter.

For me, this means I’m taking a break from writing/publishing here, until things shift and space opens up to do it with care and attention and gentleness again.

I’m looking forward to that time. Until then, take care.

PS – I’m not going completely off the grid. While I’m not writing here, I’ll be channeling my writing energy into my monthly newsletter

And connecting with other teachers in presentations at a bunch of great conferences:

Posted on

Going Digital

We’re disappointed we won’t see you in person… but we respect the decision to protect public health.

So… we’re going digital.

Details to follow, but mathacognitive will offer our workshops scheduled for the 2020 MCAE NETWORK Conference digitally.

Sign up below to receive information as we work out the details!

Thinking about Thinking: Low Prep Tips to Boost Metacognition

Many adult learners enter ABE programs with big goals, and a desire to achieve, but little understanding of how to learn/study effectively. We’ll explore low-prep classroom routines and activities to help students understand their own learning, practice metacognition, and become more skillful, independent learners.

For “non-math people”… who teach math anyways

Anyone can learn math … but for teachers who did not have positive math education experiences themselves, teaching math can be stressful. Still, it’s part of the job for many multi-subject adult educators. We’ll explore some of the research on math and learning and discuss how people who don’t identify with math can use their unique strengths to help their students succeed

The struggle is real: self care & balance

Teaching is meaningful, important, rewarding… and hard. If we are to do our best work and sustain our efforts, we must find ways to manage the hard parts, amplify the positives and maintain our energy. 

Posted on

Worksheet Fail

I have one class this year that’s about 40% people who just moved up from our lowest level and are still getting their feet under them, 40% who have been at this level for a while because life and learning challenges get in their way, that one woman whose math anxiety trumps her actual skills and the guy who clearly got placed wrong.

It’s a class where I need to go slow and gentle, but some how still teach all the things.

(You’ve had that class, right? They’re lovely people. It’s so gratifying when they learn. And, slow and gentle, slow and gentle, slow and gentle)

We’re working on area, and we did my compound shapes DIY, and it was great. They were in small groups, they were getting it, they were bored even it was so easy.

And then, I handed out a worksheet.

Splat.

It was one of those generic 12 questions, computer generated free worksheets.

And it did not work.

There were a few too many side measures missing, the format didn’t look friendly, it was all too much for my slow and gentle crew.  None of the confidence they’d built up on the previous activity translated.

It was awful to watch.

So, I went looking for some better options. Something that was clear. And had the sides you needed labeled. And only used quadrilaterals (because, one shape at a time with my slow and gentle folks)

And, right, worksheet hunting is always harder than I think it should be in the era of google.

I found one nice one, that wanted me to sign up for some site to download it

I found lots with the same problems as my first try.

And others that would be good down the line, but had too many moving pieces for a first step.

And the third grade ones that were a little too easy

My pinterest board is full of neat projects, but I just need some practice to solidify it.

And the perfect-looking one that lead to a 404 error.

Some nice perimeter ones.

I really did not want to make my own. I could. But I’m not that great with graphics.

But, wait!

After way too much scrolling, the perfect slow and gentle follow up from TES. (You do have to sign up, but they’re not sketchy about it. )

 

 

Posted on

Goals. And playlists.

New school year goals: Something about learning. Every. Single. Class.

I make long lists of goals each year, and this is on the list for September.  I do something about learning a lot of classes already (see, basically all of this blog), but I want to make it more consistent.

My students got a steady drip of unhelpful messages about learning in their previous schooling, so this matters.

However, there isn’t enough class time to cover all the content as it is. And — much as I love finding ways to integrate learning about learning and learning about math — there isn’t enough prep time to design new activities for every class. (Yet!)

So, one of my go-to’s for those other classes will be, um, YouTube.  (I wish I had a fancier more creative answer for you, but sometimes, you just gotta do what works)

I’ve been building myself a collection of short, accessible videos about the learning process in general or about math in particular.

I figure they’re a two-fer.

We get some good info and messaging about learning. And it’s kind of a brain break; we’re still learning, but it mixes things up a bit.

Mostly, I’m dropping these into class at/as a transition. We come in, we do our spiral review, we watch a video about learning, we move on to something new. Good, but low-fuss.

But – can we have a moment of honesty about what a slog it is to search for videos for class? It takes me forever to sift through and find something that’s the right topic/level/tone/length. (If you have hacked this, please tell — because I have not. at all. )

But, I’m slowly finding them, and (summer projects!) started a playlist. to share them with you.

YouTube: Learning About Learning, collected by Mathacognitive

Enjoy.

And, if you’ve got favorite, student-friendly videos… please return the favor! The year has a lot of classes.

 

Posted on

What I’m emailing myself 11.17.18

Thanksgiving is here. The fall has been a whirlwind. But the internet is full of ideas.

Here’s what I’m emailing myself

Combining Like Terms Search (Hat Tip to Math Equals Love)

Why Teachers Should Experience Productive Struggle

Fraction War Cards

Three in a Row   (Second Hat Tip to Math Equals Love, because she had a particularly fruitful round up this week )

Growth Mindset Videos (I haven’t watched them all yet, but hoping to add a few to my collection)

Mistake Wall

Posted on

Leveling Up Homework

My homework system challenges students to be independent learners

I like this. But many of my students don’t know how to study particularly effectively. Most students, period, don’t know how to study particularly effectively, but it’s particularly challenging to do it as an adult with competing responsibilities.

This year, I challenged them to try some different study goals and formats. I gave out a list, added it to their homework folder, and asked them to initial/date when they achieved each.

(In the future, I might find a way to integrate my  homework log and this list, but I’m not there yet)

Here’s the current version of our ‘Level Up’ Homework Challenge

(The title was inspired by the power of ‘leveling up’ in Chip and Dan Heath’s The Power of Moments) 

The goal was to encourage them to work more at home, in general. But in particular, to help them become better independent learners by experimenting with different formats (to see which worked for them and/or do something new)

My impression as we went along was that students’ mostly forgot about the list, and certainly weren’t challenged or inspired by it.

Yet.

(that powerful word)

There are some advantages to our frequent first days. Lots of fresh starts and chances to improve.

As we change terms, I’m asking students to review their progress and set some goals for the next trimester.

And I’ve already made a note on my term plan: in a few weeks, we’ll be checking in on our progress, and I’ll be returning a copy of their goals to them as a reminder.

Here’s the check in we used (PDF)

Posted on

About

 

About Me

I was that girl. Smart, good in school, and somewhere around sine waves and that teacher I didn’t like but had two years in a row, I decided I wasn’t a math person. I was a social sciences person, I was going to save the world, and I didn’t see how calculus was going to help with that.

Years later, a volunteer gig in a GED class showed me there was joy to be found in teaching adults and the intellectual and interpersonal challenge of convincing them that they were math people. Or at least, capable math learners.

One career change later, I teach math, but really I think about brains and learning, about anxiety, efficacy and metacognition. In short, about the human side of math class

 

About my class

My students left school as teenagers, before that they mostly went to schools that struggled and where they struggled. They’re back as adults, and balancing work, kids, family, life and school. They’re determined (and awesome, in my humble opinion) but they’re not necessarily convinced they can learn math.

My job is to convince them otherwise (and then help them learn enough math to get a high school credential). I have two about hours a week with each group of students, a math education that stopped in high school, and faith in them.

In the process, they’ve taught me about second chances, doing hard things (and how fun it is to achieve them), and more about teaching and learning and what it takes than I learned in grad school.

 

This blog is about the human side of math class. How students learn to be math learners, and what they teach their teacher in the process.  Welcome.