This school year has so many of us feeling like our first year
teacher-selves, struggling with the work and effort that is required
when you’re learning how to do something new.
It feels like we are facing more obstacles than solutions and more
don’ts than do’s. It has brought us face to face with so many gaps,
struggles, emotions, hardships, and inequities. As teachers who are
on a mission to ensure all means all in our school buildings, we
confront these struggles on a daily basis as we dive into the complex
work of building trusting relationships with our students to help
them grow to their full potential.
For me personally, this school year has catapulted me back in time
to the beginning of my teaching career, facing a classroom full of
children traumatized by the hardships of poverty, of Hurricane
Katrina’s devastation, and of just being black in America. I’m
reminded right now more than ever of all the lessons I learned from
my students in New Orleans as I failed over and over again at being
their teacher. Being reminded of what matters most on a mission for
all students has me convinced that a math workshop model matters
in our classrooms right now more than ever.
First and foremost, this school year has reminded me that the
backbone of teaching is relationships. We learn from the people we
have relationships with. The more trust we have in the relationship,
the more open we are to learn from each other. You cannot ask for
the level of risk and willingness to fail that real learning requires if you
have not exchanged respect for each other in the relationship. The
relationships we build in our classrooms and school buildings are the
backbone of our teaching.
Secondly, this school year has reinforced my belief in the power of
the 5 to 1 positive to negative ratio in establishing those positive
relationships. Our students, our students’ families, and our
colleagues are all in need of being seen and recognized for the hard
work, effort, and perseverance they are bringing to school each day
despite the challenges of this pandemic. Especially on the days we
are failing big time, positive recognition and acknowledgement
matters so we can keep moving through the struggle.
Finally, I’m reminded of the power of mindset and social emotional
wellbeing in everyone’s growth journeys. A negative or fixed mindset
or poor social emotional wellbeing can completely halt a student’s
growth. Sometimes it halts them by impacting their motivation,
attention, or behavior. Sometimes it halts them by changing their
belief in themselves and what they think they are capable of. It is our
job as educators to identify the challenges students face with their
mindset and their social-emotional well-being. If we’ve done the
work of building trusting relationships with our students, taking the
time to see and recognize them (5 positives to 1 negative), then we
can challenge them to do the hard work of confronting their fixed
mindset or to have the courage to change habits that will impact
their social-emotional wellbeing.
A math workshop model, with Math Menus for all students, helps us
do all these things that matters most in our classrooms right now.
The math workshop model prioritizes building those strong
relationships with your students. I strive to create a classroom
environment where every student in my classroom feels like I believe
in them and they can trust me. My goal is for every student to know
that I have incredibly high expectations of what they are capable of
in their math and problem solving and that I believe in each and
every one of them to meet those expectations. I build that culture in
how I run my Launch and Main Lesson, asking all students to
grapple with building their own understanding of grade level math
concepts. I show them that I value their voices, their thinking, and
their diverse strategies. I trust them with the math as a sign of
respect in our relationship. Next, I build Math Menus for my students
that further honor and reinforce my relationship with each student.
In designing their Math Menus based on what I know about their
strengths and their struggles, I’m honoring my students by giving
them the power of choice and independence. I can use the choices
they make, the effort they bring, and their willingness to take on
challenges in their Math Menus as positive reinforcements in our
growing relationship. If I’ve truly taken the time and effort to know
where each student is in their own development of the
High
Leverage Concepts (HLCs), I can design purposeful Math
Menu
offerings and small group work that also allows me to help deepen
students’ own growing identities with math. I can use Math Menu
time to show and highlight their own growth and improvement in
areas where they have struggled. The math workshop model
strengthens and grows my relationship with each of my students.
In an exceptionally challenging school year, I’m holding tight to the
practices I know will help me stay focused on my mission for all
students. I believe that relying on a math workshop model and
focusing on designing Math Menus for all students helps to keep me
focused on what matters most.
I’m excited to share that there are a bunch of opportunities in the All
Learners Network right now to help more teachers leverage the
power of Math Menu in your own classrooms and schools.
What Now?
- Learn more about Math Menu and how it fits into a balanced
math block in chapter two of our free book. Review some of our
free Math Menu resources here.
- Read about encouraging playful productive struggle during
Math Menu here.
- Bring All Learners Network (ALN) into your school or district for
embedded professional development.