I have talked about Mathematical Mindsets several times on this blog, but it has impacted my teaching this year. After reading the book, I wanted my students to see math as a social experiences. Honestly, students never have problems being social in class, but they needed to be doing math together.
One quote in Mathematical Mindsets that stood out to me was
"Always give help when needed; always ask for help when you need it."
School can be so unlike the real world sometimes. If I need help in my job, I can ask for it. If someone asks me for help, I can help them. Yet, in school, we teach kids that they have to complete tasks by themselves and aren't allowed to ask for help--the only time that is the case in my class is during a test. I encourage students to mostly talk to each other about the math they are doing and rely on each other for help.
I started the year going over this quote, I made it into a poster, I printed it to fit inside their math notebooks. After 6 years of school, it is hard to break them of the habit of not asking their classmates for help. I still have students who are rude to each other, are afraid to ask their peers for help, etc. But this is a mindset that they need to change and it will take time.
The other poster are 3 things I want my students to do every day in math. I also made it into a poster and printed it to fit into their math notebooks.
You can download the poster here to use for your own classroom.
Do you have a quote that you love to share with your class?
No comments:
Post a Comment