Math Studio, 3 years later

I have written a lot about math studio.  Nothing has stirred up so much anguish and learning in my life than math studio.  Math sends my brain into a downward spiral that usually results in flee or flight.  It has been one of the most difficult things I have ever done.  I have had battles and struggles of gigantic proportions to just keep myself fairly calm.

The first day of math studio 3 years ago found me hiding in the bathroom crying.  Since then I've cried in many a bathroom, under a pine tree, in class, and all over the pages of this blog.  Math does not make me feel warm and fuzzy.  It sends my heart to my throat, panic to my brain, and anger and frustration to the table as I try and work math problems.

With this clouded perception it seems that everyone around me got it, except for me.  I never seemed to have enough think time to figure out a problem.  A lot of the time I never even knew where to start to figure out a problem.  I was choked with envy at the ease at which some people could whip out the answer.  I was aghast at how much some of them could care so much about what I thought was a stupid math problem.  I mean really- passion over math?  "Mathorgasims"?  EW!

When it actually came to the teaching of Math Studio I was lost a lot.  Math Habits of Mind?  Math Habits of Interaction?  Slowly, though as I started implementing some of the concepts it began to make sense.  ( I think they must know that and hence the 3 year grant to teach it.)

Now these concept permeates every aspect of my teaching.  Each year more and more has made sense to me.  Let the children talk.  Questioning strategies.  Select and sequence. Perseverance and stuck points.  Explain your thinking.  Private Reasoning Time. Granting Status.  Public Records.  Connections.   Multiple Pathways.

Along the way I started noticing things happening to my students.  Six and Seven year olds able to explain their reasoning, critique and debate each other, re-voice, and make conjectures and generalizations and defend them.  They went from rolling around on the floor like puppy dogs to actively being engaged and responsible for their learning.  One of the best moments was them using a math poster to explaining something in reading. I am a much better teacher because of Math Studio.

I changed myself.  At first I knew I would never really be comfortable calling myself a mathematician.  I wasn't going to be any good at it.  I knew Math Studio was not going away at my school either.  I had a choice,

 "Get the hell out of Dodge."

 or submit myself in all my vulnerability to learning how to teach math the Math Studio way.

So submit I did.  I opened myself up to all the coaching I could get as painful as it was for me.  It helped that I had an awesome math coach and some really good math instructors.  I may have cried in the bathroom a lot and written bloody poems in numbers, but I did learn.  It started showing up in my teaching.

I'm probably never going to be a whiz bang at math.  I probably will never have a "mathorgasim" over a math problem.  I can appreciate numbers and their puzzles, and I see it reflected in all of nature.  My students love math time, and I can truly say from my class there will not be a child that will hate math.

I've come from sniveling in the bathroom to asking questions with a confidence and aplomb.  It shows in my teaching and in my students.  So much so that I was asked if the elementary principals could come in and take data snaps in my room today.  I said yes.  It may have not been "perfect" but 

"I've come a long way, baby!"


I got some great poems out of all that math too!


http://basicallybarb.blogspot.com/2012/06/intersect.html


http://basicallybarb.blogspot.com/2012/06/math-studio-musings-or-here-we-go-again.html

http://basicallybarb.blogspot.com/2012/03/fractions.html

http://basicallybarb.blogspot.com/2011/10/mapping-love.html

http://basicallybarb.blogspot.com/2011/07/disequilibrium-in-math.html

Math Studio survey- HOMEWORK on Saturday!

What connections are you seeing between your implementation of your learning during Studio and your students' understanding and achievement in mathematics? Give specific evidence from your everyday classroom observations, conferences with students, formative and summative classroom assessments, and/or standardized testing. 


It gives me the courage to try new things.  Yesterday we were doing the whale's flukes, and it was just automatic for me to want to make a public record of the pattern we saw between how many whales and how many flukes. That took me a long time to become automatic for me.   I also had students remembering how we labeled the crab chart and told me we need to label the parts.  In fact labeling got brought up twice  and I was thrilled!  That means it is becoming automatic for students to think like that  Yeah!!

I constantly think about select and sequencing as I move around the room.  We were doing the lobster problem solving and I kept remembering how Jill would look for someone to get it started, so other students would have a jumping off place.  Plus looking for multiple representations, so students can see there is more than one way to do a problem.

I also collected the data from the lobster problems to see how they were thinking.  I made a point to look at them the same day while it was fresh.  It was discouraging to see how few really get it.  Perseverance!  I think it will take multiple times doing this to get results.


15. Finally, are there particular teaching ideas, Mathematical Habits­of­Mind/Interaction, Mathematically Productive Teaching Routines, and/or specific practices embedded in those routines that you hope are addressed during the upcoming Studio? Please list those below. 



Refresh. Refresh.  Refresh.  If I was a computer I would say hit the old refresh button.  I can't pick out just one. 


But since I have never tried the math seminar I need to do that, though it gives me a sinking feeling in my heart because I know it means Teena will be in my room soon and it will be HARD work and probably painful.  Yep gird up those loins-ha!  Gird up the brain and go forth into battle against my self crippling mental self perceptions about myself and math.

Bad Teacher Moment

Ok, bad teacher moment today:  I am doing number corner and calendar and in walks my math coach and new principal to take a data snap.  We are discussing the new calendar  piece which is a yellow children's crossing sign.  I asked the students what shape it is and I get the answer trapezoid.  Of course I am so focused on what I am doing to "impress" my principal and I go for details of what makes a trapezoid.

First answer I get is it has 5 corners. We discuss this for awhile and I am oblivious to the obvious when all of a sudden I notice my math coach is standing next to me showing me this yellow note.  I'm used to this because she knows I am open to coaching at any time. I look down, confused.  She whispers in my ear,

 "5 sides is a pentagon. "

I'm mortified. It's not a trapezoid, it's a pentagon.

 So gathering my wits I ask the class if they agree that it is a trapezoid?  I get  the thumbs down from a student and ask him why he disagrees with that and why?

(Meanwhile another student points to the poster"Critique and debate")

"I know it is not a trapezoid because it doesn't match the one on the wall."

 I point to the poster "Mistakes and sticking point. Perseverance"  and tell my class that even adults make mistakes and I made a mistake.

Yep that's me -transparent in my instruction.  Just a bit humiliated that I did it in front of my new principal.  But hey it's math studio time and I am used to feeling  humiliated. (My perception- not reality.)

Math studio is messy. It is ugly.  We bare our practise to other adults and de-privitize our practise so our students can learn.  It makes me cry a lot of the time. It is worth it though to see the outcomes with my students.

Girding up my loins for tomorrow's math studio.

Math Studo- Notes on the brain

Wow!  Things are coming together!  This session of Math Studio is fascinating for me.  It is on equalizing status in the classroom, multidimensionality (the idea that not all students can do everything but everyone will be able to do one.), assigning roles, being responsible for each others learning, assigning competence*, high expectations, effort over ability, and relational Equity.  In fact this class is so rich in information I can only touch upon some of what I am gleaning from reading materials and the teacher.

To help me process this information I'm going to do what helps me the most- write about it.  Hopefully it will help me with new vocabulary and definitions.  I am so excited for the implications of the research, especially the brain research!  I love the brain research!

All along my heart has been with those low status kiddos.  The ones who don't get it.  The ones who don't have much math background.  The ones who can't identify a number after 5 or count to 10 by rote.  They don't have an entry way into grade level problems.  They need much more adult attention and time to play with manipulatives.  It is frustrating for me and them to not be able to do the work that looks so easy to everyone else.

Multidemsionality is the idea that everyone can do some part of the problem.  We need to make sure that "high status " students don't automatically get all the time in the participation and class.  Students who don't get it shut down.  By assigning roles like team captain, supply person,and  recorder I can makes sure  all student participate.

*Assigning competence was a new idea for me.  I like it!.  I can raise the status of the student by praising something they have done in public so the class hears it.  The student feels valued and smart!  It must be public, intellectual, specific, and relevant to the team task.


All of this was from the article, "Opening Our Ideas" by Jo Boaler.

Today's article, Brainology:Transforming Student's Motivation to Learn" by Carol S. Dweck, was fantastic.  It is something I have been reading about lately.  Mainly that our brains are plastic and can be reshaped.  It is not so much the "gifts" or" talents" we are born with but how hard we work or persevere.  It takes practise and hard work to learn anything.  It just does not come easy to anyone.  It just may be more fascinating of a subject area to others and that is what makes it seem like it comes easier to them. It is kind of like the thoughts I had on  creativity.

I may not be a professional artist but I can with practise learn to draw and paint.  The same thing with dance, math, yoga, and writing.  If I work hard and persevere I can learn it.  My brain and body will do it.  This works for our students also,   The mindset that I am not good at math because I am a girl is BS. That is a closed mindset.  With a closed mindset I can't learn anything and I don't even want to try.  (Also called a fixed mindset.)  A growth mindset on the other hand, "believes that intelligence is a potential that can be realized through learning.  As a result, confronting challenges, profiting from mistakes, , and persevering in the face of set backs become ways of getting smarter."

What I hate about going back to school?  I have to stop now and continue tomorrow because I need to finish my homework and go to bed.