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Discussing The Elephant in the Math Classroom

Wow. Can I just start this blog entry with a huge round of applause for Jo Boaler who communicated so effectively all of the reasons why I am so passionate about becoming a math educator. 

One of the things that really stood out to me when listening to her talk was her points about encouraging and praising a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. The reason this stood out to me is because I am a direct product of the fixed mindset praise. She mainly focused on how saying “you’re so smart” affects the way students learn and engage in education, however, I additionally wanted to touch on the emotional stress that this sort of praise can have on a student. I remember since I was 10 and all through high school, I felt a pressure to perform because I had been labeled as smart since I was young and now that was who I was. That was my identity, and with that was a fear of making mistakes. I cannot wait to get to the classroom and celebrate students specific successes with a focus on growth, improvement, critical thinking, and communicating!!! 

The other major theme I took away from her talk was her focus on our AIM in teaching math. This sort of reminds me of thesis statements in papers... All of our body paragraphs should relate back to the thesis, and as we go through writing a paper, we often think “how does this relate to our thesis”. I think this applies to our classroom as well! In our curriculum and pedagogy we should be asking the same question - how does what I am teaching relate back to my aim.
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  1. Susan GerofskySeptember 23, 2020 at 9:44 PM

    These are great goals! It can be tricky to wean ourselves away from the fixed mindsets we have grown up with, but it is well worth the effort to move towards a growth mindset for ourselves and our students.

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