Try Something New
We’re a few months away from spring yet. How will you blossom?
A short list of the best professional development I’ve ever done as a math teacher:
1) Singing lessons
2) French studies
3) Online Handstand Class
4) Personal Finance Book Club
What do these all have to do with math?
1) I love singing by myself in the shower. But singing in front of people is TERRIFYING. The first (and only time yet) I stepped on stage at an open mic, nerves surged and all my practiced skills dropped out from under me. I made a big, fat, conspicuous fail. Guess how my students feel when they have a lot of math anxiety or choke on a test?
2) Back in my youth, I decided I was “bad at” foreign languages. I had to drop that baggage to learn French. When I ask my students to break up with their old, limiting identities around math, I had better walk the walk.
3) I still haven’t mastered handstands. Some days I get it. Most days I don’t. But I’m laughing my way through the learning. Some days my students are going to fall flat on their faces, too. But if they keep showing up to practice, they’ll grow some pretty fun skills with time.
4) Guess who’s afraid of talking about money? THIS full grown adult. Plenty of my students, especially the adult ones, feel the same way about math. Leaning into the awkwardness, discomfort, and fear opens incredible room for growth.
Putting myself in the shoes of TOTAL BEGINNER is integral to my teaching, especially because math came rather easily to me growing up. How am I ever going to relate to a student who “just doesn’t get” what is so natural for me? By regularly escaping my own comfort zone. I have got to push myself just as hard as I’m pushing my students. And when they call my bluff and ask me to sing for them, I have to actually do it.
So here’s my challenge for you: Looking for a cool and different new year’s resolution? I challenge you to try something as a total beginner or revisit something that scared you in childhood. Nothing is too big or too small. Get inspired by your interests, chase a dream, or confront an old fear.
Does this speak to you? Let me know what you pick in the comments.
And if you choose to lear some math, I’ll be right here to hold your hand through it!