March 7, 2024 • 50 mins
It’s hard for students to feel intimidated by math when their using it to make cookie dough.
Middle school math intervention teacher Melody Jacklin, from Michigan, shares how she’s helped her students build math confidence through hands-on STEM projects, like mixing cookie dough and creating 3D printed bubble wands. Tune in to hear strategies on creating relevant and meaningful math lessons, incorporating STEM challenges in math instruction, and getting students comfortable with productive struggle.
Teachers in America profiles K–12 teachers across the country. Hear firsthand from the people who are shaping young lives in the classroom every day. If you or someone you know would be a good candidate for Teachers in America, please email us at shaped@hmhco.com.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
to remind yourself that it's okay to make mistakes
and it's okay to be a growingmath learner instead of I'm not
a math person.
Well, you might not be good atmath right now, but you can
learn to be good at math.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to Teachers in America, a podcast from HMH
where we connect with educatorsacross the country to bring you
teaching tips and inspiration.
I'm your host, noel Morris, andthis season I'll be chatting
with new and old teacher friendsto learn how to ignite student
interest.
Today, we're talking abouthelping students develop a
positive math identity with ourguest, melody Jacqueline, a
(00:35):
middle school math interventionteacher from Wayne Westland
Community Schools in Michigan.
Melody is currently on her 11thyear of teaching and for seven
of those years, she's had thejoy of teaching math.
She also serves as the middleschool math content leader for
her district and in 2023, shehad the honor of being a winner
of HMH's 180 awards.
(00:57):
In today's episode, we'll diveinto creating meaningful and
relevant math lessons, gettingstudents comfortable with making
mistakes and engaging studentsin STEM projects like creating
3D printed bubble wands.
Well, hey, melody, so great tohave you on our podcast.
Teachers in America Today'sepisode.
(01:20):
We want to talk about buildingmath confidence, but before we
can even go to that conversation, we need to tell everybody who
you are.
So will you, in like 30 secondsor less, introduce yourself to
thousands of listeners?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Sure, so my name is Melody.
I teach a seventh and eighthgrade math intervention class in
Michigan, so what I do is Itake students who are not the
strongest math learners and Ihelp them build math skills and
turn them into math rock stars.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Awesome.
Everything that ends in being arock star is fascinating in my
book.
So when we think about buildingmath confidence and we start
with just that, as you knowwhere we want to go to tell us
about the foundation that youset in your classroom to really
(02:23):
build from there.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Sure.
So what I do with my studentsis I start right off the bat
with talking about kind of howeveryone has their strengths and
has their weaknesses in math.
You know we tend to think aboutmath as being like people are
math minded or I don't have amath brain, or we hear adults
(02:49):
all the time that talk about notbeing good at math and it tends
to be more socially acceptablethan not being good at other
things.
So I know my students arecoming to me with kind of that
mindset of I'm not a math person.
You know, in the nature of myclass I wish there was a way to
(03:10):
kind of change what the class isor how students are scheduled
in it.
But they kind of come to meknowing that maybe they had low
test scores or they're notperforming, you know, at grade
level.
So I kind of really have thestigma that I have to break with
my kids very early on, rightfrom the beginning.
So the way that I do that is Italk a lot about understanding
(03:34):
that everybody has theirstrengths, you know, and I
always tell them some of youmight be rock stars with
multiplication but are terrifiedof division.
Some of you might be rock starsat decimals, but a fraction
scares the heck out of you whenyou want to run in the other
direction.
But everybody is going to haveit.
Everybody is going to havetheir strengths and everybody is
(03:54):
going to have their weaknesses.
And we kind of start there and Ialways get kids that will say,
oh, I'm not good at anything inmath.
And I say, well, I bet youthere's problems that if I put
them in front of you right nowyou would be able to answer
those questions successfully.
And we'll do a couple of reallysimple ones.
You know, one plus two or fiveplus five, and and I go yeah, I
know that, so you can do math.
(04:15):
There's just certain skillsthat maybe you're not so great
at.
So I really work hard at thebeginning to talk about.
You know, my job is to findyour strengths and help you use
those strengths to build theskills that aren't strengths for
you, and I find that that helpsa lot.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, just, I mean just recognizing right that
within any you know area, anydiscipline, we all have
strengths and we all haveweaknesses.
So do you mind giving someadvice?
And I say this because I, Ipromise just the other day I
know that I said, you know, mathisn't really my strength, I'm a
(05:00):
literacy person and part of it,melody, was because I I'm I'm
leading right and I'm doingsomething and I'm supposed to
always be able to quicklyproblem solve, right then.
And math, I do have to take astep back and really look at it,
understand it, and a lot of itI can't necessarily do in my
(05:22):
head.
So I'm a teacher, right, I comefrom that place and I know that
I have said that, or I justsaid it in my current work.
What's your advice?
To get that out of yourself asa teacher, to not accidentally
say that, not say I'm not a mathperson, I'm not gifted in math.
(05:46):
What tell us what your advicewould be?
Just to sort of nip it in thebud as fast as you can.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
I think, reminding yourself that everybody is
learning, where nobody is reallylike perfect at anything,
nobody's an expert at anything,so you might not necessarily be
a math person but to remindyourself that it's okay to make
mistakes and it's okay to be agrowing math learner instead of
(06:15):
I'm not a math person.
Well, you might not be good atmath right now, but you can
learn to be good at math.
So I think just remindingyourself, if you're feeling that
urge to say I'm not a mathperson, to remind yourself I'm a
math learner instead of I'm nota math person, and I think that
that can really help shift themindset of, instead of shutting
(06:39):
it down and saying I can't domath, but say, well, I can't do
math yet.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Right, and plus.
I mean, if you're in a mathclass, you don't want to hear
your teachers like I'm not amath person.
It's like, oh, I'm in the wrongplace.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yes, but sometimes you know the way that teaching
is right now.
I mean, sometimes we haveteachers that are really strong
in certain subjects and maybenot so strong at other subjects,
and they're doing the best theycan.
But I think that conversationhas to be with both students and
staff, because there are somany adults that don't consider
(07:15):
themselves math people, and Ithink it's just as important
with adults as it is for kids toremind everybody that you know,
maybe you're not a math personyet, but you can get there.
You can be a math person.
So maybe that's the advice.
Maybe the advice is, instead ofsaying I'm not a math person,
add the word yet to the end ofthat sentence Everything yet.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
So that's great philosophy.
I mean great advice, just ingeneral.
Just add yet to it, andimmediately.
That should boost yourconfidence.
Hey, teacher friends, if you'rean HMH user, did you know you
have access to teachers corneron Ed included with every HMH
program?
Teachers corner is a communityof teachers, learning experts
(07:59):
and coaches gathered in oneplace to support you with a new
kind of professional learning bysize, teacher selected and
teacher driven, with on demandsessions, lesson demonstrations,
program support and practicalresources.
Teachers corner let's youchoose how you interact with our
content.
I like to think about it asinspiration.
(08:20):
On demand, what do you think?
Your students?
You know biggest challenges areat the beginning of the year,
and where, what have you seenshift?
But what's a new challenge?
You know, middle of the year,going into towards the end of
(08:41):
year.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
So I think the biggest challenge that I have
seen is I get my students inseventh and eighth grade.
So they have had six or seven,eight years of current previous
math learning experience and weactually just talked about this
in the training I was at.
Today Our kids are soconditioned to get the right
(09:07):
answer in math.
You know it's with math there'sa problem.
There's a right answer and it'sthe speed with which you can
get the right answer is a lot oftimes promoted as the most
important thing.
It's you need to get the rightanswer, you need to get it
quickly.
These are the steps to followto get the right answer.
So what we find is whenstudents get to middle school,
(09:30):
they are afraid to take chancesand take risks and make mistakes
, because if they don't know theright answer right away, they
don't want to try, because theydon't want to look silly from
not knowing the answer.
They don't want to make amistake.
You know, and middle schoolershave lots going on socially and
(09:52):
being judged is a very highconcern for middle school
students.
So one of the things that Ihave has been a real challenge
for me is helping studentsunderstand that it's okay to
make mistakes in math.
I've actually.
I tell my students that there'san entire branch of math that
(10:12):
is error analysis.
You know our workbook that weuse.
We use the math 180 workbooksand there are exit tickets in
the math 180 workbooks that arehere's a student's work find
their mistake and explain howthey could correct it.
So I really try to try to tellmy students, remind them that
(10:33):
this is part of math.
It's so much a part of maththat we actually have a whole
branch of math questions andmath work that is analyzing
these errors.
So it's, you know you're goingto make mistakes, it's going to
happen.
I'm not going to sit here andtell you that you're all going
to be perfect all the time and Itell them I'm not going to be
(10:53):
perfect all the time.
I know I'm here to teach youmath.
I'm going to make mistakes too.
It's okay, it's part of it.
So I think you know that hasreally been my biggest challenge
is learning how to breakstudents of that fear of making
a mistake or getting somethingwrong.
And another way that I have,besides explaining to them that
(11:18):
that is part of math, anotherway that I have kind of learned
how to break that or started tolearn to break.
That is, we actually do wronganswers only questions in my
class.
So I'll do like number talks ismy do.
Now is a lot of the time and Igive my students one once a week
.
We do a wrong answers onlyquestion and I'll put something
(11:41):
simple that most of them shouldknow the answer to.
Like you know 100 plus 200.
And the idea is you have togive me a wrong answer but you
have to be able to explain themistake that was made to get
that wrong answer.
So you know, I'll get studentsthat tell me it's 20,000.
(12:02):
And I'll say what they do andthey'll say, oh, they multiply
it instead of added, excellent.
Or if we flip it and make it 10plus five, they'll tell me the
answer is five and I'll say howdid they get that answer?
And they say, well, theysubtracted instead of added.
And really forcing kids to tomake mistakes intentionally
(12:26):
makes them then more comfortablewith making them accidentally.
And I find that through thatprocess and I just started doing
that last year and I find thatsince doing those types of
questions regularly in my class,my kids are less afraid to make
mistakes when they don't knowthe answer.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Do you think that helps them?
I mean, this is a two partquestion.
One, does it help themunderstand how sometimes a
mistake is because you're movingso fast and you're making an
error with the operation or theprocess.
(13:07):
You know what you do first andnext, and the second part of
that question is how is thathelping have that conversation
around productive struggle andunderstanding the value of
effort plus being comfortablemaking mistakes?
Yes, great question.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
So you know, one of the things that we'll talk about
when we talk about these errorsand things like this is the kid
will say you know, especiallywith division questions, I'll
give them a simple divisionquestion, like 10 divided by
five, and a lot of kids will say, oh, they would have gotten the
answer of 15, because theyadded and we'll talk about well,
yeah, if you just looked at itquickly, a division symbol can
(13:52):
absolutely look like a plus signif you just glance at it really
quickly.
So we talk about with somethingjust that simple.
We talk about like you reallyhave to look at the question,
you really have to pay attentionand look at the details,
because if you're just speedingthrough, you might easily make
(14:16):
that mistake because you're notpaying attention.
You're just trying to get itdone quickly.
But if you slow yourself downand really look at the details,
you might not make that mistakeagain or in the first place.
So I kind of use those littletricks to remind them it's
really important to slow down.
We also I'm also veryintentional with when we do our
(14:39):
number talks.
I don't give them the answerright away.
I put the problem on the board.
I give them time to thinkthrough their answer and then we
collect their answers and thenI have them explain their
strategy for getting theiranswers and I only tell them the
right answer at the very end,once we've had all their
discussions and I've heard alltheir thoughts.
Then I tell them the answer,and what it does is it
(15:03):
reinforces the process.
So my students are taking timeto think about what their
strategy is and what theirprocess is.
And what's really interesting isI'll have kids that just want
to be the first one to answerand then they'll get their.
They'll put their answer on theboard and I know it's a wrong
answer, but I don't tell themand I don't show any way that
(15:26):
it's a wrong answer.
I just put it on the board andI'll get kids that'll start to
other students that will givetheir answers and that first
student you can see them justlooking at the board, going wait
a minute.
And then they'll tell me wait,I'm changing my answer.
I think it's that and then I'llask them I don't erase their
answer, I cross it out and writetheir new one.
(15:47):
So then I'll come back to themand say this was your original
answer.
Can you tell me what you did toget that answer and why did you
change it?
And nine times out of 10, it'sI did it too fast and wasn't
thinking about it.
So it's another reminder toslow down, and I think the best
(16:07):
thing we can do for our studentsis reminding them, especially
with math, that the process ismore important than the answer.
The journey is more importantthan the destination.
We really have to focus ourstudents on understanding that
the process and taking the timeto learn the process will
(16:29):
eventually help them get to thatanswer.
It's okay if it's not fast.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
So in that second part too, about the productive
struggle.
So now they're working bythemselves or they're at home,
or it's state testing time.
What have you put in place inthe classroom or in your
(16:55):
delivery from that I do to youdo have you put into place for
the student to self-regulate, toself-talk, to persevere through
, to keep going even though whenyou've hit, when you think
you've hit the wall, but yet youstill know that you have to
(17:16):
keep giving more?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
So I actually, with my students, I do weekly STEM
activities.
We do like STEM or Hands onMath, and a lot of times they
are just like STEM challenges,really simple, like tower
building, simple, simplechallenges.
But what I found is that thatproductive struggle, those
problem solving skills, a lot ofmy students are coming to me
(17:40):
without those skills and I knewthat they needed them, so I was
trying to figure out how toteach them.
So what I do with theseactivities is I give them a
challenge and then I say this isit, these are your parameters.
Go.
And it's really interestingbecause the students will start
to.
(18:00):
I have a favorite story.
It was a paper table challengeand I forget the website that I
got this from, but it's outthere.
It's called the paper tablechallenge and the idea is you
give students I think it's eightsheets of newspaper and a piece
of cardboard and tape and theyhave to build a table and that
(18:21):
table has to support weight.
We use dictionaries, but theyhave to use the cardboard for
the tabletop.
They can't use it for the tablelegs.
You tell them this and they'relooking at their materials,
their flat materials, and theydon't know how to do it.
And the very first time I gavethis activity, I had a student
that after two minutes of trying, something went this is
(18:42):
impossible.
And she just kind of lookedlike she was gonna give up and I
walked over and said well, canyou tell me what you've tried so
far?
So she said well, we tried this, we tried this.
And I gave her a little hint.
Nothing that gave an answeraway.
But I gave her a hint and shekind of looked at me and I said
I want you to think about thathint for a minute and I see what
(19:06):
you can do with that.
And she said okay.
So I walked away and I cameback a few minutes later and she
was trying something else andby the end of class she was.
Actually they had built thestrongest table, her book had
built the strongest table theyhad.
I think they got 10dictionaries, a binder and a
laptop on top of their tablewithout collapsing.
(19:30):
And I said to her I said do youremember 20 minutes ago when you
told me this was impossible andnow you won?
What happened?
And she said well, you told meto think about what I did
already.
So I started to think aboutwhat I did.
That didn't work and then I gotan idea from thinking about
what didn't work.
(19:50):
That gave me an idea of whatmaybe could work.
So I've kind of used that withmy students since then to remind
them that mistakes lead us tosuccess.
Failure leads to success.
So I always remind them ifyou're feeling like you can't do
something, take a breath, lookat what you've tried already and
(20:11):
see if that gives you any ideasto move forward.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
It's so important in the real world too, because in
today's working for so much istesting and trying and looking,
and always you know you want tonot let that, like it can't be
done, like not to get in yourway, even if you are observing
(20:37):
that and not jump in right awayand think that the person is
done.
Usually what I find from thatstyle of learner is they're not
going to let that frustration,not let them finish, because
there is a intrinsic motivationof I will not turn something in,
(20:59):
I will not figure this out, butthat outburst is needed In
their style.
That outburst is needed to justget it out, get it out of the
way.
Potentially here a teacher send, like you did, a lifeline or
just a little bit of a nudge,but there's others who would
(21:20):
work that out around them, or afriend in the classroom would
see.
How are you thinking about STEM?
Not just from that perspectiveof what you've noticed, it being
a benefit to your predictivestruggle and problem solving,
but actually like building itinto your lessons, because not
(21:43):
every lesson might have.
You know, here's a STEMactivity, so are you naturally
just going through a lesson andfinding opportunities Like and
how did you learn to do that?
Speaker 1 (21:55):
So a little bit of both.
The beauty of the class that Iteach is that it's really
flexible, and I don't have.
You know, we use the Math 180program, but we have some kind
of flexibility within that aswell, so it doesn't always.
I started trying to findactivities that were curriculum
(22:15):
driven and then, when I reallytook a step back and thought
about it, my thought was well,the goal here is to teach
problem solving skills.
So if I can tie it tocurriculum, beautiful.
But it doesn't always have tobe curriculum driven.
It can just be a break from thecurriculum if it needs to be.
(22:35):
And understanding that problemsolving and perseverance are
still math skills.
They're actually part of themathematical practice standards.
Those are still math skills,even if it's not curriculum
skills.
But my students will ask one ofmy favorite ones we do it.
We're actually going to do itthis week.
It's our very first one we do.
We do a pattern block challenge.
(22:55):
I pull out the little patternblock shapes and I give them
challenges that they have to,you know, build a vehicle or
build a castle or build ananimal, or we'll start to throw
in math vocabulary and I'll tellthem make me something that's
symmetrical.
And we talk about what issymmetrical mean and you know,
and I'll show them examples of,is this symmetrical?
Is this symmetrical and we talkabout, we have a nice little
(23:17):
conversation about it and 20minutes into this project my
kids will go how is this math?
And I'll say, do you under?
Do you know what geometry is?
And they'll say, yeah, geometryis like shapes.
And I said, what are youworking with?
And they go shapes.
And I go there, you go, there'syour math, right, you know.
And and it kind of helps, andmy class is supposed to be
(23:38):
building foundational skills formy students.
Well, in eighth grade they'reworking on transformations and
rotations and dilations ofshapes.
So for them to be able totransform shapes, they need to
understand what the shape is andwhat it looks like and how to
work with it and what it lookslike if you turn it sideways.
So those kinds of of activities, while they seem simple and fun
(23:59):
, are really teaching them someof those visual geometry skills.
So where I can, I try to tie itin.
We do my favorite activity andthe kids' favorite activity.
I've pretty much pigeonholedmyself to into a place where I
have to do it every singlesemester.
Is we do a cookie doughactivity and it is a fractions
(24:21):
lesson.
So we'll do a lot of work withdecimals and then we'll talk
about fractions and we doconverting decimals to fractions
and then, right in the middleof that, we do this fractions
activity.
We talked about dividingfractions and multiplying
fractions.
So we do this cookie doughactivity where I give them a
recipe and I have threedifferent options of just
(24:43):
regular, like safe to eat,edible cookie dough Three
different options.
I pull out math manipulativesand we do a whole day where we
work on halving and doubling therecipe.
So it's practice with wholenumber division and
multiplication and fractionmultiplication and division and
it just it happens to just fitright into our curriculum
(25:06):
because we do a lot of work withmultiplying and dividing
fractions.
So we do that and then thefollowing week I bring in all of
the ingredients and they maketheir half recipe in class.
So we actually make thephysical cookie dough and they
love it, but it ends up being afractions activity.
(25:26):
That is probably one of the mostreal world activities I could
give them and we talk a lotabout like how many of you have
used recipe, how many of youcook at home or have families
that cook at home, and a lot ofthem will ask me well, why do I
even need to have a recipe?
And I said well, for example, Ilive at home with just me and
(25:46):
my husband.
If a recipe says it serveseight, there's two of us.
I don't need to make enoughfood for eight people when
there's only two of us, so I cancut that recipe in half and
make it make sense for us, orI'll tell them if you're having
a party and you need to makemore, you need to learn how to
double it.
And it's really fascinating howmany of them are like well,
(26:10):
then come back to me later andsay oh, I did this at home.
I made this at home.
So it ends up being this reallylovely real world connection to
the curriculum that we'reworking on and I think it helps
them contextualize that fractiondivision of multiplication
piece when they can actually seeit with measuring cups.
So I-.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
When you think about waste, I mean there's so many
like your budget saving, thecost saving.
I wish these are things that Iwish I would have been better at
listening to, because theyweren't necessarily when I was
in high school.
I can't remember them beingpart of math right, Because it
wasn't in when I was in middleschool or high school, it was in
life skills, but I remembergoing.
(26:54):
I probably should have paidmore attention to what's the
asses, what's the cost, is thisa better price versus this and
all of that looking atingredients.
What a great real world.
Just moment, right, and youweren't right.
I would say you're gonna beknown as the cookie dough
(27:15):
teacher.
Please, you know you wanna getMs Jacqueline, and if she does,
not do the cookie dough.
You need to ask her what iswrong with her, why she's not
doing it.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
It is the question I get asked the minute.
Kids walk in my door everysingle semester Cause if they
don't have me, their friends hadme and we're walking around
with their cookie dough oncookie dough day last time and
we have so much fun with it wesaid it looks like a cooking
show.
When we walk in, I puttablecloths out and they all
have their little cooking stillmixing stations and we love it.
(27:47):
But yes, I think I will foreverbe known as the cookie dough
teacher.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yes, that is which.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
I'm okay with.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, like how cool is that?
Now my producer gave me somenotes and all I see is 3D
printing.
Yes, I would say, Do you have a3D printer?
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I was just gonna lead into that cause it's another
perfect curriculum connectionthat we have found.
So our science departmentactually has a couple.
We have a construction techdepartment we're like a woodshop
class that she has a 3D printerand then one of our science
(28:27):
teachers applied for a grant andgot 3D printer.
So I am fortunate enough in mybuilding to have a 3D printer.
That is in my, not just in mybuilding, but we have an office
that connects my classroom tothe science teacher that got
this grant.
So the 3D printer just sitsbetween our rooms so I do have
(28:49):
access to a 3D printer.
So another curriculum connectionactivity that we did was I
actually used the 3D printer andTinkercad to have kids design
projects that they then 3D print.
And it ends up being theperfect connection because the
program that we're doing ourcurriculum is we're doing the
(29:09):
decimals and integers curriculum.
So we talk a lot about and themeasurements on Tinkercad are
given in decimals.
You can set them to do decimals.
So we will talk about measuringin decimals and recognizing
decimal lengths and it helpswith placement on a number line
(29:30):
because if I tell them thattheir maximum height, we did
bubble wands this semester so Ihad students design a bubble
wand.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Actual bubble wands, like I can bring a bubble.
Actual bubble wands yes.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
So cool so I had them design.
I had gotten that activity ideafrom an ed tech conference that
I went to and somebody saidthey did it and I went that's
brilliant, that sounds great.
So we talked about what are thefeatures of a bubble wand, what
should it look like?
And we talked about it has tohave a handle so that you can
(30:03):
dip it in the bubble solution.
It has to have holes for thebubble solution to sit in.
And we talked about should itbe?
Is a bubble wand that's an inchand a half thick going to
produce good bubbles or does itneed to be much, much thinner?
So we had a lot of conversationaround what that should look
like.
(30:23):
So then I gave them parametersand I said your maximum height
has to be.
I think I said 120 millimeterswas what the height had to be.
So then it becomes kind of adecimals on a number line
activity for them, because iftheir height is 119.5, they have
(30:45):
to understand that that's lessthan 120.
Or if they're looking at aheight that's 135.3, you're
probably a little too high, it'sa little too tall.
So it really helps them kind ofcontextualize that
understanding of where decimalsfit in line with whole numbers
(31:09):
and in the past I've had them dothings where they have to kind
of add pieces together.
So if I have students that are,they put their handle down and
their handle is a certain lengthand then they add their actual
wand piece to it and they haveto understand that those two
measurements are gonna combinefor their total height.
(31:30):
So it helps them add andsubtract decimals as well,
because they're having to putthose pieces together and those
measurements together withintheir constraints.
So it ends up being a reallynice curriculum connection too.
So, we've done all kinds of-.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Super cool, super cool.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, and we did have .
I did print all of their bubblewands.
They did their designs.
I printed them all and theyloved it.
I actually pulled the becauseour 3D printers on a cart.
I actually pulled it into myclassroom and my kids at the
beginning of class, before thebell ring, during passing time,
they would all come in and theywould just stand in front of the
(32:08):
3D printer and watch it printuntil class started and they
just loved getting to see thatprocess.
But yeah, I printed them all.
We brought it, we made bubblesolution, we took them all
outside for like 20 minutes andlet them just be kids and play
with bubbles.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
So and it was great.
Do you mind me asking, likewithin your materials and your
budget, is that type of materialexpensive, or how are you
planning out how many activitiesyou can do on a 3D printer?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
So that was part of what led us to the decision to
do the bubble wands thissemester, the very first project
we did.
We had them design, we did itaround Memorial Day and we had
them design many scaled downparade floats and we did it as
like a Memorial Day parade.
Oh, wow.
So we had them design paradefloats and I'm sorry I say we,
(33:01):
my instructional, our buildinginstructional coach and I work
together for our STEM activitiesevery week.
So we had them design paradefloats and then we printed them
and it was really cute.
We got the little scooters fromJim and we connected them all
and we put their parade floatson the little scooter and we did
a mini parade around the school.
(33:21):
But it used a ton of filamentbecause the floats were
relatively large.
So we tried to kind of scaleback and, in order to preserve
filament, tried to think ofsomething that was maybe a
little bit smaller.
The roles of filament, dependingon what brand I mean, they
(33:46):
range from like $30 to $50 aroll and I can print the bubble
wands.
I did 60 bubble wands and Ithink I went through a roll and
a half of filament.
So it's not.
If you do a small project, it'snot terrible.
We, thankfully in our district,have access to a lot of grant
(34:07):
opportunities.
So I actually had applied for agrant for materials for our
STEM activities and was awardeda grant that I used to buy
several rolls of filament forthe year.
But I try to be conscious of howmuch filament I have and try to
plan small projects around that.
(34:27):
But even within a small project, the kids are just happy to get
something that is printed.
You could, you know, if ateacher wants to try a 3D
printing thing or a project butdoesn't have the actual 3D
printer, you can still havestudents design projects on
Tinkercad's, a completely freeprogram.
(34:51):
Kids can still design, even ifthey can't do the print.
It's just more fun for them tohave the print.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
So what?
What careers are your studentstalking about?
And have you heard any?
You know from the beginning ofthe year I'm not a math person.
I don't have a math mind too.
Now they are thinking about, orseeing potential in, a career
where you know everything usesmath.
(35:19):
But you know that there will bea need for that math discipline
.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
So we actually, hilariously enough and I haven't
gotten the results yet becausewe're still in the process of
doing it our students aredistrict wide.
Our middle school students aredoing a career exploration
activity with our math kit withour math students, where we're
having them explore careers thatuse math and then later in the
(35:45):
year we're going to have thempick their careers that they
would like and research how mathis used in those careers.
So we actually are working onthat district right now.
But for my students I see a lotof students who want to be
athletes, they want to beYouTubers.
You know we have we live inthis age where there's all these
(36:06):
there's so many possibilitiesof careers for our students.
I have a lot of kids that wantto be marine biologists, which
is surprised but pleasantlysurprising.
I also, when I was a child,wanted to be a marine biologist.
So it makes me really happyevery time they talk about it.
But we talk about every time wetalk about careers.
(36:28):
I try to ask them well, how doyou think math would be used in
that career?
You know, when we did cookiedough they go, I forget that
cooking uses math.
Oh yeah, all the time, you know, we talk about.
A big one that we talk about isfinances, where I've had
students in the past that say,oh, I'm going to be a football
(36:48):
player, I don't need to learnmath.
And I said then who's going tohandle your finances?
Because you're going to bemaking a lot of money and you're
going to want to make sure thatyou're handling that money
appropriately.
And I had a student one yearthat said I'm just going to pay
someone, do it.
And I said and you're going totrust them not to not to take a
bunch of your money, don't youthink you should probably know a
little bit so that you wouldyou know if they're messing with
(37:10):
your money too much?
And he said oh yeah, I guess so, but I try, anytime a student
talks about I'm going to do this, I don't need math, I'm really
quick to point out to them,either to point out where
they're going to use it or say,well, hang on a second, think
about it.
Where do you think you're goingto use math?
(37:30):
And I actually had an activitythat I did with them last year.
At one of my bulletin boards Icut out a bunch of shapes and I
had them think about careersthat they thought, used math
regularly and then I knew theywere all going to write down a
accountant and math teacher.
So I turned it into an exitticket and I said here's the
(37:53):
thing If you turn this in with a, if you turn your little, your
shape in with a career on it,you're going to get one out of
two points.
But you'll get your full twoout of two points if you can
come up with something that noone else in the class has
written down today.
And I'll tell them everyone'sgoing to write math teacher, so
don't even think about it, don'teven write it.
(38:14):
We know, and I'll tell themeverybody's going to put banker
or accountant.
Don't write it down, you wantyour two points.
So then they start to getreally creative with it and I
had some kids that said that,looked at me and said what about
interior designers that goingto use math?
And I said, well, what do youneed to know to be an interior
designer?
What do they do on a dailybasis?
And I said, well, you know,they figure out how much you
(38:36):
know they like paint and theyput furniture in a room.
And I said don't you need toknow the size of the room to be
able to fit furniture in it?
And they said oh yeah.
And I said don't you need toknow the size of the furniture
so that you know if it's goingto fit in the room?
And they said yeah.
So we kind of started to havethese conversations about yes,
you're absolutely right, youwill use that math in that
career more than you think youwill.
(38:58):
And I think, especially with mymiddle schoolers, we're just
starting to talk to them aboutwhat careers they want, planning
their high school path towardthe career that they want.
So I think just having thoseopen, honest conversations with
students and allowing them tothink about, pushing them to
(39:18):
think about how is that going tobe used.
My favorite favorite story Ihave about math in the real
world is I had a student once wewere learning fractions and I
had a student who looked at meand said I don't need to know
how to use fractions.
My brother works at a fast foodrestaurant or he works at
(39:39):
McDonald's.
He says he doesn't usefractions ever and without
missing a beat, I looked at himand I said do you know what a
quarter pounder is?
And he said, well, yeah, it's aburger on the McDonald's menu.
And I said and do you know whata quarter means mathematically?
And he said, well, no, and Isaid a quarter is one fourth.
(39:59):
And I wrote it on the board andI said does this look like the
menu item, you see?
And he goes, yeah.
And I said so, there'sfractions right on the
McDonald's menu, honey.
And he just he kind of lookedat me with these big eyes and
went oh my God, I didn't evenrealize, right?
So it's just finding thoseopportunities to point out to
(40:19):
students you are going to usethis here's how but also taking
the opportunity to not just tellthem, but let them kind of
discover that for themselves.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
So, as we wrap up, melody, I mean this has been
just fascinating talking withyou and learning from you.
You teach math 180, which isone of our programs at HMH.
It is intervention, it is toredirect how students think
(40:54):
about math, think aboutthemselves in math learning and
accelerate.
And what I know is that youwere a recipient of one of our
180 educators of the year award.
So, first of all, like, whonominated you?
Like what?
(41:14):
What was the experience whenyou learned?
How did your students react andwhat do you think about your
teaching differently now thanbefore you got that reward?
Speaker 1 (41:30):
I will tell you I I don't actually know who
nominated me.
Apparently I had been nominatedby multiple people and I think
my, my principal might have beenone of them.
She kind of she told me aboutit and I said I don't even know
where that came.
I didn't even know that wasn'ta word that you could win.
I don't know what, how thathappened, how that came about,
(41:52):
and she kind of gave me a lookwhen I said I didn't know.
So I think she might have beenone of them.
The students were reallyexcited.
It was kind of it was just areally fun big day because my
ELA counterpart so the mathclass that I teach my ELA
counterpart also won the read180 award last year as well oh
(42:12):
cool, okay.
So it was kind of a.
It was a really exciting dayfor us because everybody came in
and the kids were all.
They were balloons andcelebration and the kids really
thought it was, was it exciting?
And I kind of, when I found outabout it, I looked at them all
(42:33):
and I said I don't know if Ireally deserve this.
Like, we're still learning math180.
We're still.
This is our first.
It was our first year with itand I said, you know, I still
don't necessarily feel like anexpert here.
I feel like I'm, I'm stillfiguring this out.
And my kids said, yeah, butyou're doing your best to make
it work for us.
You're really, you're reallytrying to make it work.
(42:53):
And we were.
You know, when I was inmeetings with with HMH lots last
year and talked to the math 180team a lot and we were
constantly improving and doing alot of that work, and my kids,
my students, were just so sweetabout it and they were like,
well, yeah, you absolutelydeserve it, you're doing a great
job with it.
So it was, it was very, verysweet.
(43:18):
And I guess, you know, goinginto this year, having won that
award, I think going into thisyear, I have a lot more
confidence with this programbecause I really I kind of felt
like I was.
You know, I had jumped right inand was doing what I could with
(43:39):
it and trying to figure out howto fit it into my schedule and
what pieces to use and whatpieces not to use and how to
schedule because we only have 56minutes per class, so trying to
figure out within a classperiod how do we get that timing
just right.
And I did a lot of playingaround with it and I felt like
(44:04):
maybe I'm kind of gettingsomewhere, I think I'm maybe
getting the hang of this, andthen winning that award really
just kind of boosted myconfidence to know that, yeah,
maybe I am onto something, maybeI am figuring this out more
than I think I am.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Yeah, you totally are and I commend you for you know
just the authenticity of sayingI don't know if I deserve it and
that's part of the reason forthat award right.
Like it is to reward that youare deserving, it is jumping in,
(44:40):
it is seeing the opportunity,it is knowing who your learners
are and loving everything aboutworking with intervention.
But one of the things I lovefrom this episode, melody, and
talking with you, is that youhave seen yourself in the
curriculum and potential andpossibilities of where the
(45:03):
curriculum can be extended orwhere it's like, okay, we're
working on this concept, butthat activity is not in here, so
I'm gonna add it in.
That is phenomenal teaching anyday, regardless of any program,
and so I commend you for thatand just wanna share and ask you
(45:24):
as we wrap up, thinking aboutteachers who are in their
mid-year of their first year, orthose future teachers why math?
Why should I consider teachingmath?
Speaker 1 (45:43):
That is a great question and full transparency.
When I was in school, Iactually did not want to teach
math.
My major is language arts.
That was all I wanted to teach.
And I had a college academicadvisor that said, well, you're
(46:03):
only three classes away from amath minor, you should think
about it.
And I said thank you for theadvice, but no, thank you, I
don't wanna teach math.
Just because I'm good at itdoesn't mean I wanna spend the
rest of my life doing math.
No, thank you.
And he said well, I really wantyou to think about it because I
think it would be good for you.
So I obviously did it.
(46:28):
And then I avoided math jobslike the plague.
I didn't want to apply foranything.
I was like, yes, I have thisdegree, but I don't wanna teach
math.
And I finally had an experiencewhere I was doing a long-term
subbing position in an eighthgrade math class and I just kind
of went for it and embraced itand I realized within a week and
(46:50):
a half that like, oh, this iswhere I should have been my
whole life.
I don't know.
So, and I always tell mystudents the story too, and I
say so this is me telling youthat sometimes the universe just
kind of pushes you where you'remeant to be and listen to the
universe when it tries to pushyou in a certain direction.
(47:12):
But and part of what I fell inlove with with teaching math was
that math is more than justproblem solution.
Math really is.
I mean, we talk about math asproblems.
They're math problems.
Every other discipline hasquestions and math has problems,
so it's really focused onproblem solving.
(47:41):
And I was at a math leaderstraining today actually and
somebody said something aboutthey view math like art, where
math you can be creative andactually the most creative
people are the ones that come upwith the best solutions for
things.
And I think, just remindingmyself that math is problem
(48:04):
solving and there's room to becreative and there's room to
have fun with it, and theninstilling that fun in students
and helping them understand thatmath isn't some scary thing
that they should hide from orsay they're not good at.
Math can be fun and it can becreative and it can be
interesting.
And I've just had a lot of funfinding creative ways to make
(48:28):
those connections for them andto help them see the fun in it.
But I also think as a teacher.
I think math has been one ofthe most rewarding subjects that
I could teach, because kidscome to me struggling and
because they come to me withthis mindset of I can't do math.
And to watch them break thatthroughout the semester and to
(48:51):
watch them find their confidenceand come out of that, I think
is one of the most rewardingthings about being a math
teacher.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Well, thank you.
Thank you for being who you are.
Thank you to the coach or theprofessor who was like you
should do this and just thankyou for being a guest on
Teachers in America.
I know many teachers out there,even if they don't teach math,
are gonna take lots of greatideas away from this, Thank you
(49:21):
and thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
This has been a blast .
Thank you, chris, of course.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
If you are someone you know would like to be a
guest on the Teachers in Americapodcast, please email us at
shaped at hmhcocom.
Be the first to hear newepisodes of Teachers in America
by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you listen
to podcasts.
If you enjoy today's show,please rate, review and share it
with your network.
(49:48):
You can find the transcript ofthis episode on our shaped blog
by visiting hmhcocom.
Forward slash shaped.
The link is in the show notes.
The Teachers in America podcastis a production of HMH.
Executive producers areChristine Condon and Tim Lee.
Editorial direction is byChristine Condon.
(50:08):
It is creatively directed andaudio engineered by Tim Lee.
Our producer and editor isJennifer Carujo.
Production designers are MiaFry and Thomas Velazquez.
Shaped blog post editors forthe podcast are Christine Condon
, jennifer Carujo and AliciaIvory.
Thanks again for listening.
to remind yourself that it's okay to make mistakes
and it's okay to be a growingmath learner instead of I'm not
a math person.
Well, you might not be good atmath right now, but you can
learn to be good at math.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to Teachers in America, a podcast from HMH
where we connect with educatorsacross the country to bring you
teaching tips and inspiration.
I'm your host, noel Morris, andthis season I'll be chatting
with new and old teacher friendsto learn how to ignite student
interest.
Today, we're talking abouthelping students develop a
positive math identity with ourguest, melody Jacqueline, a
(00:35):
middle school math interventionteacher from Wayne Westland
Community Schools in Michigan.
Melody is currently on her 11thyear of teaching and for seven
of those years, she's had thejoy of teaching math.
She also serves as the middleschool math content leader for
her district and in 2023, shehad the honor of being a winner
of HMH's 180 awards.
(00:57):
In today's episode, we'll diveinto creating meaningful and
relevant math lessons, gettingstudents comfortable with making
mistakes and engaging studentsin STEM projects like creating
3D printed bubble wands.
Well, hey, melody, so great tohave you on our podcast.
Teachers in America Today'sepisode.
(01:20):
We want to talk about buildingmath confidence, but before we
can even go to that conversation, we need to tell everybody who
you are.
So will you, in like 30 secondsor less, introduce yourself to
thousands of listeners?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Sure, so my name is Melody.
I teach a seventh and eighthgrade math intervention class in
Michigan, so what I do is Itake students who are not the
strongest math learners and Ihelp them build math skills and
turn them into math rock stars.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Awesome.
Everything that ends in being arock star is fascinating in my
book.
So when we think about buildingmath confidence and we start
with just that, as you knowwhere we want to go to tell us
about the foundation that youset in your classroom to really
(02:23):
build from there.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Sure.
So what I do with my studentsis I start right off the bat
with talking about kind of howeveryone has their strengths and
has their weaknesses in math.
You know we tend to think aboutmath as being like people are
math minded or I don't have amath brain, or we hear adults
(02:49):
all the time that talk about notbeing good at math and it tends
to be more socially acceptablethan not being good at other
things.
So I know my students arecoming to me with kind of that
mindset of I'm not a math person.
You know, in the nature of myclass I wish there was a way to
(03:10):
kind of change what the class isor how students are scheduled
in it.
But they kind of come to meknowing that maybe they had low
test scores or they're notperforming, you know, at grade
level.
So I kind of really have thestigma that I have to break with
my kids very early on, rightfrom the beginning.
So the way that I do that is Italk a lot about understanding
(03:34):
that everybody has theirstrengths, you know, and I
always tell them some of youmight be rock stars with
multiplication but are terrifiedof division.
Some of you might be rock starsat decimals, but a fraction
scares the heck out of you whenyou want to run in the other
direction.
But everybody is going to haveit.
Everybody is going to havetheir strengths and everybody is
(03:54):
going to have their weaknesses.
And we kind of start there and Ialways get kids that will say,
oh, I'm not good at anything inmath.
And I say, well, I bet youthere's problems that if I put
them in front of you right nowyou would be able to answer
those questions successfully.
And we'll do a couple of reallysimple ones.
You know, one plus two or fiveplus five, and and I go yeah, I
know that, so you can do math.
(04:15):
There's just certain skillsthat maybe you're not so great
at.
So I really work hard at thebeginning to talk about.
You know, my job is to findyour strengths and help you use
those strengths to build theskills that aren't strengths for
you, and I find that that helpsa lot.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, just, I mean just recognizing right that
within any you know area, anydiscipline, we all have
strengths and we all haveweaknesses.
So do you mind giving someadvice?
And I say this because I, Ipromise just the other day I
know that I said, you know, mathisn't really my strength, I'm a
(05:00):
literacy person and part of it,melody, was because I I'm I'm
leading right and I'm doingsomething and I'm supposed to
always be able to quicklyproblem solve, right then.
And math, I do have to take astep back and really look at it,
understand it, and a lot of itI can't necessarily do in my
(05:22):
head.
So I'm a teacher, right, I comefrom that place and I know that
I have said that, or I justsaid it in my current work.
What's your advice?
To get that out of yourself asa teacher, to not accidentally
say that, not say I'm not a mathperson, I'm not gifted in math.
(05:46):
What tell us what your advicewould be?
Just to sort of nip it in thebud as fast as you can.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
I think, reminding yourself that everybody is
learning, where nobody is reallylike perfect at anything,
nobody's an expert at anything,so you might not necessarily be
a math person but to remindyourself that it's okay to make
mistakes and it's okay to be agrowing math learner instead of
(06:15):
I'm not a math person.
Well, you might not be good atmath right now, but you can
learn to be good at math.
So I think just remindingyourself, if you're feeling that
urge to say I'm not a mathperson, to remind yourself I'm a
math learner instead of I'm nota math person, and I think that
that can really help shift themindset of, instead of shutting
(06:39):
it down and saying I can't domath, but say, well, I can't do
math yet.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Right, and plus.
I mean, if you're in a mathclass, you don't want to hear
your teachers like I'm not amath person.
It's like, oh, I'm in the wrongplace.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yes, but sometimes you know the way that teaching
is right now.
I mean, sometimes we haveteachers that are really strong
in certain subjects and maybenot so strong at other subjects,
and they're doing the best theycan.
But I think that conversationhas to be with both students and
staff, because there are somany adults that don't consider
(07:15):
themselves math people, and Ithink it's just as important
with adults as it is for kids toremind everybody that you know,
maybe you're not a math personyet, but you can get there.
You can be a math person.
So maybe that's the advice.
Maybe the advice is, instead ofsaying I'm not a math person,
add the word yet to the end ofthat sentence Everything yet.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
So that's great philosophy.
I mean great advice, just ingeneral.
Just add yet to it, andimmediately.
That should boost yourconfidence.
Hey, teacher friends, if you'rean HMH user, did you know you
have access to teachers corneron Ed included with every HMH
program?
Teachers corner is a communityof teachers, learning experts
(07:59):
and coaches gathered in oneplace to support you with a new
kind of professional learning bysize, teacher selected and
teacher driven, with on demandsessions, lesson demonstrations,
program support and practicalresources.
Teachers corner let's youchoose how you interact with our
content.
I like to think about it asinspiration.
(08:20):
On demand, what do you think?
Your students?
You know biggest challenges areat the beginning of the year,
and where, what have you seenshift?
But what's a new challenge?
You know, middle of the year,going into towards the end of
(08:41):
year.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
So I think the biggest challenge that I have
seen is I get my students inseventh and eighth grade.
So they have had six or seven,eight years of current previous
math learning experience and weactually just talked about this
in the training I was at.
Today Our kids are soconditioned to get the right
(09:07):
answer in math.
You know it's with math there'sa problem.
There's a right answer and it'sthe speed with which you can
get the right answer is a lot oftimes promoted as the most
important thing.
It's you need to get the rightanswer, you need to get it
quickly.
These are the steps to followto get the right answer.
So what we find is whenstudents get to middle school,
(09:30):
they are afraid to take chancesand take risks and make mistakes
, because if they don't know theright answer right away, they
don't want to try, because theydon't want to look silly from
not knowing the answer.
They don't want to make amistake.
You know, and middle schoolershave lots going on socially and
(09:52):
being judged is a very highconcern for middle school
students.
So one of the things that Ihave has been a real challenge
for me is helping studentsunderstand that it's okay to
make mistakes in math.
I've actually.
I tell my students that there'san entire branch of math that
(10:12):
is error analysis.
You know our workbook that weuse.
We use the math 180 workbooksand there are exit tickets in
the math 180 workbooks that arehere's a student's work find
their mistake and explain howthey could correct it.
So I really try to try to tellmy students, remind them that
(10:33):
this is part of math.
It's so much a part of maththat we actually have a whole
branch of math questions andmath work that is analyzing
these errors.
So it's, you know you're goingto make mistakes, it's going to
happen.
I'm not going to sit here andtell you that you're all going
to be perfect all the time and Itell them I'm not going to be
(10:53):
perfect all the time.
I know I'm here to teach youmath.
I'm going to make mistakes too.
It's okay, it's part of it.
So I think you know that hasreally been my biggest challenge
is learning how to breakstudents of that fear of making
a mistake or getting somethingwrong.
And another way that I have,besides explaining to them that
(11:18):
that is part of math, anotherway that I have kind of learned
how to break that or started tolearn to break.
That is, we actually do wronganswers only questions in my
class.
So I'll do like number talks ismy do.
Now is a lot of the time and Igive my students one once a week
.
We do a wrong answers onlyquestion and I'll put something
(11:41):
simple that most of them shouldknow the answer to.
Like you know 100 plus 200.
And the idea is you have togive me a wrong answer but you
have to be able to explain themistake that was made to get
that wrong answer.
So you know, I'll get studentsthat tell me it's 20,000.
(12:02):
And I'll say what they do andthey'll say, oh, they multiply
it instead of added, excellent.
Or if we flip it and make it 10plus five, they'll tell me the
answer is five and I'll say howdid they get that answer?
And they say, well, theysubtracted instead of added.
And really forcing kids to tomake mistakes intentionally
(12:26):
makes them then more comfortablewith making them accidentally.
And I find that through thatprocess and I just started doing
that last year and I find thatsince doing those types of
questions regularly in my class,my kids are less afraid to make
mistakes when they don't knowthe answer.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Do you think that helps them?
I mean, this is a two partquestion.
One, does it help themunderstand how sometimes a
mistake is because you're movingso fast and you're making an
error with the operation or theprocess.
(13:07):
You know what you do first andnext, and the second part of
that question is how is thathelping have that conversation
around productive struggle andunderstanding the value of
effort plus being comfortablemaking mistakes?
Yes, great question.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
So you know, one of the things that we'll talk about
when we talk about these errorsand things like this is the kid
will say you know, especiallywith division questions, I'll
give them a simple divisionquestion, like 10 divided by
five, and a lot of kids will say, oh, they would have gotten the
answer of 15, because theyadded and we'll talk about well,
yeah, if you just looked at itquickly, a division symbol can
(13:52):
absolutely look like a plus signif you just glance at it really
quickly.
So we talk about with somethingjust that simple.
We talk about like you reallyhave to look at the question,
you really have to pay attentionand look at the details,
because if you're just speedingthrough, you might easily make
(14:16):
that mistake because you're notpaying attention.
You're just trying to get itdone quickly.
But if you slow yourself downand really look at the details,
you might not make that mistakeagain or in the first place.
So I kind of use those littletricks to remind them it's
really important to slow down.
We also I'm also veryintentional with when we do our
(14:39):
number talks.
I don't give them the answerright away.
I put the problem on the board.
I give them time to thinkthrough their answer and then we
collect their answers and thenI have them explain their
strategy for getting theiranswers and I only tell them the
right answer at the very end,once we've had all their
discussions and I've heard alltheir thoughts.
Then I tell them the answer,and what it does is it
(15:03):
reinforces the process.
So my students are taking timeto think about what their
strategy is and what theirprocess is.
And what's really interesting isI'll have kids that just want
to be the first one to answerand then they'll get their.
They'll put their answer on theboard and I know it's a wrong
answer, but I don't tell themand I don't show any way that
(15:26):
it's a wrong answer.
I just put it on the board andI'll get kids that'll start to
other students that will givetheir answers and that first
student you can see them justlooking at the board, going wait
a minute.
And then they'll tell me wait,I'm changing my answer.
I think it's that and then I'llask them I don't erase their
answer, I cross it out and writetheir new one.
(15:47):
So then I'll come back to themand say this was your original
answer.
Can you tell me what you did toget that answer and why did you
change it?
And nine times out of 10, it'sI did it too fast and wasn't
thinking about it.
So it's another reminder toslow down, and I think the best
(16:07):
thing we can do for our studentsis reminding them, especially
with math, that the process ismore important than the answer.
The journey is more importantthan the destination.
We really have to focus ourstudents on understanding that
the process and taking the timeto learn the process will
(16:29):
eventually help them get to thatanswer.
It's okay if it's not fast.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
So in that second part too, about the productive
struggle.
So now they're working bythemselves or they're at home,
or it's state testing time.
What have you put in place inthe classroom or in your
(16:55):
delivery from that I do to youdo have you put into place for
the student to self-regulate, toself-talk, to persevere through
, to keep going even though whenyou've hit, when you think
you've hit the wall, but yet youstill know that you have to
(17:16):
keep giving more?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
So I actually, with my students, I do weekly STEM
activities.
We do like STEM or Hands onMath, and a lot of times they
are just like STEM challenges,really simple, like tower
building, simple, simplechallenges.
But what I found is that thatproductive struggle, those
problem solving skills, a lot ofmy students are coming to me
(17:40):
without those skills and I knewthat they needed them, so I was
trying to figure out how toteach them.
So what I do with theseactivities is I give them a
challenge and then I say this isit, these are your parameters.
Go.
And it's really interestingbecause the students will start
to.
(18:00):
I have a favorite story.
It was a paper table challengeand I forget the website that I
got this from, but it's outthere.
It's called the paper tablechallenge and the idea is you
give students I think it's eightsheets of newspaper and a piece
of cardboard and tape and theyhave to build a table and that
(18:21):
table has to support weight.
We use dictionaries, but theyhave to use the cardboard for
the tabletop.
They can't use it for the tablelegs.
You tell them this and they'relooking at their materials,
their flat materials, and theydon't know how to do it.
And the very first time I gavethis activity, I had a student
that after two minutes of trying, something went this is
(18:42):
impossible.
And she just kind of lookedlike she was gonna give up and I
walked over and said well, canyou tell me what you've tried so
far?
So she said well, we tried this, we tried this.
And I gave her a little hint.
Nothing that gave an answeraway.
But I gave her a hint and shekind of looked at me and I said
I want you to think about thathint for a minute and I see what
(19:06):
you can do with that.
And she said okay.
So I walked away and I cameback a few minutes later and she
was trying something else andby the end of class she was.
Actually they had built thestrongest table, her book had
built the strongest table theyhad.
I think they got 10dictionaries, a binder and a
laptop on top of their tablewithout collapsing.
(19:30):
And I said to her I said do youremember 20 minutes ago when you
told me this was impossible andnow you won?
What happened?
And she said well, you told meto think about what I did
already.
So I started to think aboutwhat I did.
That didn't work and then I gotan idea from thinking about
what didn't work.
(19:50):
That gave me an idea of whatmaybe could work.
So I've kind of used that withmy students since then to remind
them that mistakes lead us tosuccess.
Failure leads to success.
So I always remind them ifyou're feeling like you can't do
something, take a breath, lookat what you've tried already and
(20:11):
see if that gives you any ideasto move forward.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
It's so important in the real world too, because in
today's working for so much istesting and trying and looking,
and always you know you want tonot let that, like it can't be
done, like not to get in yourway, even if you are observing
(20:37):
that and not jump in right awayand think that the person is
done.
Usually what I find from thatstyle of learner is they're not
going to let that frustration,not let them finish, because
there is a intrinsic motivationof I will not turn something in,
(20:59):
I will not figure this out, butthat outburst is needed In
their style.
That outburst is needed to justget it out, get it out of the
way.
Potentially here a teacher send, like you did, a lifeline or
just a little bit of a nudge,but there's others who would
(21:20):
work that out around them, or afriend in the classroom would
see.
How are you thinking about STEM?
Not just from that perspectiveof what you've noticed, it being
a benefit to your predictivestruggle and problem solving,
but actually like building itinto your lessons, because not
(21:43):
every lesson might have.
You know, here's a STEMactivity, so are you naturally
just going through a lesson andfinding opportunities Like and
how did you learn to do that?
Speaker 1 (21:55):
So a little bit of both.
The beauty of the class that Iteach is that it's really
flexible, and I don't have.
You know, we use the Math 180program, but we have some kind
of flexibility within that aswell, so it doesn't always.
I started trying to findactivities that were curriculum
(22:15):
driven and then, when I reallytook a step back and thought
about it, my thought was well,the goal here is to teach
problem solving skills.
So if I can tie it tocurriculum, beautiful.
But it doesn't always have tobe curriculum driven.
It can just be a break from thecurriculum if it needs to be.
(22:35):
And understanding that problemsolving and perseverance are
still math skills.
They're actually part of themathematical practice standards.
Those are still math skills,even if it's not curriculum
skills.
But my students will ask one ofmy favorite ones we do it.
We're actually going to do itthis week.
It's our very first one we do.
We do a pattern block challenge.
(22:55):
I pull out the little patternblock shapes and I give them
challenges that they have to,you know, build a vehicle or
build a castle or build ananimal, or we'll start to throw
in math vocabulary and I'll tellthem make me something that's
symmetrical.
And we talk about what issymmetrical mean and you know,
and I'll show them examples of,is this symmetrical?
Is this symmetrical and we talkabout, we have a nice little
(23:17):
conversation about it and 20minutes into this project my
kids will go how is this math?
And I'll say, do you under?
Do you know what geometry is?
And they'll say, yeah, geometryis like shapes.
And I said, what are youworking with?
And they go shapes.
And I go there, you go, there'syour math, right, you know.
And and it kind of helps, andmy class is supposed to be
(23:38):
building foundational skills formy students.
Well, in eighth grade they'reworking on transformations and
rotations and dilations ofshapes.
So for them to be able totransform shapes, they need to
understand what the shape is andwhat it looks like and how to
work with it and what it lookslike if you turn it sideways.
So those kinds of of activities, while they seem simple and fun
(23:59):
, are really teaching them someof those visual geometry skills.
So where I can, I try to tie itin.
We do my favorite activity andthe kids' favorite activity.
I've pretty much pigeonholedmyself to into a place where I
have to do it every singlesemester.
Is we do a cookie doughactivity and it is a fractions
(24:21):
lesson.
So we'll do a lot of work withdecimals and then we'll talk
about fractions and we doconverting decimals to fractions
and then, right in the middleof that, we do this fractions
activity.
We talked about dividingfractions and multiplying
fractions.
So we do this cookie doughactivity where I give them a
recipe and I have threedifferent options of just
(24:43):
regular, like safe to eat,edible cookie dough Three
different options.
I pull out math manipulativesand we do a whole day where we
work on halving and doubling therecipe.
So it's practice with wholenumber division and
multiplication and fractionmultiplication and division and
it just it happens to just fitright into our curriculum
(25:06):
because we do a lot of work withmultiplying and dividing
fractions.
So we do that and then thefollowing week I bring in all of
the ingredients and they maketheir half recipe in class.
So we actually make thephysical cookie dough and they
love it, but it ends up being afractions activity.
(25:26):
That is probably one of the mostreal world activities I could
give them and we talk a lotabout like how many of you have
used recipe, how many of youcook at home or have families
that cook at home, and a lot ofthem will ask me well, why do I
even need to have a recipe?
And I said well, for example, Ilive at home with just me and
(25:46):
my husband.
If a recipe says it serveseight, there's two of us.
I don't need to make enoughfood for eight people when
there's only two of us, so I cancut that recipe in half and
make it make sense for us, orI'll tell them if you're having
a party and you need to makemore, you need to learn how to
double it.
And it's really fascinating howmany of them are like well,
(26:10):
then come back to me later andsay oh, I did this at home.
I made this at home.
So it ends up being this reallylovely real world connection to
the curriculum that we'reworking on and I think it helps
them contextualize that fractiondivision of multiplication
piece when they can actually seeit with measuring cups.
So I-.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
When you think about waste, I mean there's so many
like your budget saving, thecost saving.
I wish these are things that Iwish I would have been better at
listening to, because theyweren't necessarily when I was
in high school.
I can't remember them beingpart of math right, Because it
wasn't in when I was in middleschool or high school, it was in
life skills, but I remembergoing.
(26:54):
I probably should have paidmore attention to what's the
asses, what's the cost, is thisa better price versus this and
all of that looking atingredients.
What a great real world.
Just moment, right, and youweren't right.
I would say you're gonna beknown as the cookie dough
(27:15):
teacher.
Please, you know you wanna getMs Jacqueline, and if she does,
not do the cookie dough.
You need to ask her what iswrong with her, why she's not
doing it.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
It is the question I get asked the minute.
Kids walk in my door everysingle semester Cause if they
don't have me, their friends hadme and we're walking around
with their cookie dough oncookie dough day last time and
we have so much fun with it wesaid it looks like a cooking
show.
When we walk in, I puttablecloths out and they all
have their little cooking stillmixing stations and we love it.
(27:47):
But yes, I think I will foreverbe known as the cookie dough
teacher.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yes, that is which.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
I'm okay with.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, like how cool is that?
Now my producer gave me somenotes and all I see is 3D
printing.
Yes, I would say, Do you have a3D printer?
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I was just gonna lead into that cause it's another
perfect curriculum connectionthat we have found.
So our science departmentactually has a couple.
We have a construction techdepartment we're like a woodshop
class that she has a 3D printerand then one of our science
(28:27):
teachers applied for a grant andgot 3D printer.
So I am fortunate enough in mybuilding to have a 3D printer.
That is in my, not just in mybuilding, but we have an office
that connects my classroom tothe science teacher that got
this grant.
So the 3D printer just sitsbetween our rooms so I do have
(28:49):
access to a 3D printer.
So another curriculum connectionactivity that we did was I
actually used the 3D printer andTinkercad to have kids design
projects that they then 3D print.
And it ends up being theperfect connection because the
program that we're doing ourcurriculum is we're doing the
(29:09):
decimals and integers curriculum.
So we talk a lot about and themeasurements on Tinkercad are
given in decimals.
You can set them to do decimals.
So we will talk about measuringin decimals and recognizing
decimal lengths and it helpswith placement on a number line
(29:30):
because if I tell them thattheir maximum height, we did
bubble wands this semester so Ihad students design a bubble
wand.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Actual bubble wands, like I can bring a bubble.
Actual bubble wands yes.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
So cool so I had them design.
I had gotten that activity ideafrom an ed tech conference that
I went to and somebody saidthey did it and I went that's
brilliant, that sounds great.
So we talked about what are thefeatures of a bubble wand, what
should it look like?
And we talked about it has tohave a handle so that you can
(30:03):
dip it in the bubble solution.
It has to have holes for thebubble solution to sit in.
And we talked about should itbe?
Is a bubble wand that's an inchand a half thick going to
produce good bubbles or does itneed to be much, much thinner?
So we had a lot of conversationaround what that should look
like.
(30:23):
So then I gave them parametersand I said your maximum height
has to be.
I think I said 120 millimeterswas what the height had to be.
So then it becomes kind of adecimals on a number line
activity for them, because iftheir height is 119.5, they have
(30:45):
to understand that that's lessthan 120.
Or if they're looking at aheight that's 135.3, you're
probably a little too high, it'sa little too tall.
So it really helps them kind ofcontextualize that
understanding of where decimalsfit in line with whole numbers
(31:09):
and in the past I've had them dothings where they have to kind
of add pieces together.
So if I have students that are,they put their handle down and
their handle is a certain lengthand then they add their actual
wand piece to it and they haveto understand that those two
measurements are gonna combinefor their total height.
(31:30):
So it helps them add andsubtract decimals as well,
because they're having to putthose pieces together and those
measurements together withintheir constraints.
So it ends up being a reallynice curriculum connection too.
So, we've done all kinds of-.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Super cool, super cool.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, and we did have .
I did print all of their bubblewands.
They did their designs.
I printed them all and theyloved it.
I actually pulled the becauseour 3D printers on a cart.
I actually pulled it into myclassroom and my kids at the
beginning of class, before thebell ring, during passing time,
they would all come in and theywould just stand in front of the
(32:08):
3D printer and watch it printuntil class started and they
just loved getting to see thatprocess.
But yeah, I printed them all.
We brought it, we made bubblesolution, we took them all
outside for like 20 minutes andlet them just be kids and play
with bubbles.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
So and it was great.
Do you mind me asking, likewithin your materials and your
budget, is that type of materialexpensive, or how are you
planning out how many activitiesyou can do on a 3D printer?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
So that was part of what led us to the decision to
do the bubble wands thissemester, the very first project
we did.
We had them design, we did itaround Memorial Day and we had
them design many scaled downparade floats and we did it as
like a Memorial Day parade.
Oh, wow.
So we had them design paradefloats and I'm sorry I say we,
(33:01):
my instructional, our buildinginstructional coach and I work
together for our STEM activitiesevery week.
So we had them design paradefloats and then we printed them
and it was really cute.
We got the little scooters fromJim and we connected them all
and we put their parade floatson the little scooter and we did
a mini parade around the school.
(33:21):
But it used a ton of filamentbecause the floats were
relatively large.
So we tried to kind of scaleback and, in order to preserve
filament, tried to think ofsomething that was maybe a
little bit smaller.
The roles of filament, dependingon what brand I mean, they
(33:46):
range from like $30 to $50 aroll and I can print the bubble
wands.
I did 60 bubble wands and Ithink I went through a roll and
a half of filament.
So it's not.
If you do a small project, it'snot terrible.
We, thankfully in our district,have access to a lot of grant
(34:07):
opportunities.
So I actually had applied for agrant for materials for our
STEM activities and was awardeda grant that I used to buy
several rolls of filament forthe year.
But I try to be conscious of howmuch filament I have and try to
plan small projects around that.
(34:27):
But even within a small project, the kids are just happy to get
something that is printed.
You could, you know, if ateacher wants to try a 3D
printing thing or a project butdoesn't have the actual 3D
printer, you can still havestudents design projects on
Tinkercad's, a completely freeprogram.
(34:51):
Kids can still design, even ifthey can't do the print.
It's just more fun for them tohave the print.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
So what?
What careers are your studentstalking about?
And have you heard any?
You know from the beginning ofthe year I'm not a math person.
I don't have a math mind too.
Now they are thinking about, orseeing potential in, a career
where you know everything usesmath.
(35:19):
But you know that there will bea need for that math discipline
.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
So we actually, hilariously enough and I haven't
gotten the results yet becausewe're still in the process of
doing it our students aredistrict wide.
Our middle school students aredoing a career exploration
activity with our math kit withour math students, where we're
having them explore careers thatuse math and then later in the
(35:45):
year we're going to have thempick their careers that they
would like and research how mathis used in those careers.
So we actually are working onthat district right now.
But for my students I see a lotof students who want to be
athletes, they want to beYouTubers.
You know we have we live inthis age where there's all these
(36:06):
there's so many possibilitiesof careers for our students.
I have a lot of kids that wantto be marine biologists, which
is surprised but pleasantlysurprising.
I also, when I was a child,wanted to be a marine biologist.
So it makes me really happyevery time they talk about it.
But we talk about every time wetalk about careers.
(36:28):
I try to ask them well, how doyou think math would be used in
that career?
You know, when we did cookiedough they go, I forget that
cooking uses math.
Oh yeah, all the time, you know, we talk about.
A big one that we talk about isfinances, where I've had
students in the past that say,oh, I'm going to be a football
(36:48):
player, I don't need to learnmath.
And I said then who's going tohandle your finances?
Because you're going to bemaking a lot of money and you're
going to want to make sure thatyou're handling that money
appropriately.
And I had a student one yearthat said I'm just going to pay
someone, do it.
And I said and you're going totrust them not to not to take a
bunch of your money, don't youthink you should probably know a
little bit so that you wouldyou know if they're messing with
(37:10):
your money too much?
And he said oh yeah, I guess so, but I try, anytime a student
talks about I'm going to do this, I don't need math, I'm really
quick to point out to them,either to point out where
they're going to use it or say,well, hang on a second, think
about it.
Where do you think you're goingto use math?
(37:30):
And I actually had an activitythat I did with them last year.
At one of my bulletin boards Icut out a bunch of shapes and I
had them think about careersthat they thought, used math
regularly and then I knew theywere all going to write down a
accountant and math teacher.
So I turned it into an exitticket and I said here's the
(37:53):
thing If you turn this in with a, if you turn your little, your
shape in with a career on it,you're going to get one out of
two points.
But you'll get your full twoout of two points if you can
come up with something that noone else in the class has
written down today.
And I'll tell them everyone'sgoing to write math teacher, so
don't even think about it, don'teven write it.
(38:14):
We know, and I'll tell themeverybody's going to put banker
or accountant.
Don't write it down, you wantyour two points.
So then they start to getreally creative with it and I
had some kids that said that,looked at me and said what about
interior designers that goingto use math?
And I said, well, what do youneed to know to be an interior
designer?
What do they do on a dailybasis?
And I said, well, you know,they figure out how much you
(38:36):
know they like paint and theyput furniture in a room.
And I said don't you need toknow the size of the room to be
able to fit furniture in it?
And they said oh yeah.
And I said don't you need toknow the size of the furniture
so that you know if it's goingto fit in the room?
And they said yeah.
So we kind of started to havethese conversations about yes,
you're absolutely right, youwill use that math in that
career more than you think youwill.
(38:58):
And I think, especially with mymiddle schoolers, we're just
starting to talk to them aboutwhat careers they want, planning
their high school path towardthe career that they want.
So I think just having thoseopen, honest conversations with
students and allowing them tothink about, pushing them to
(39:18):
think about how is that going tobe used.
My favorite favorite story Ihave about math in the real
world is I had a student once wewere learning fractions and I
had a student who looked at meand said I don't need to know
how to use fractions.
My brother works at a fast foodrestaurant or he works at
(39:39):
McDonald's.
He says he doesn't usefractions ever and without
missing a beat, I looked at himand I said do you know what a
quarter pounder is?
And he said, well, yeah, it's aburger on the McDonald's menu.
And I said and do you know whata quarter means mathematically?
And he said, well, no, and Isaid a quarter is one fourth.
(39:59):
And I wrote it on the board andI said does this look like the
menu item, you see?
And he goes, yeah.
And I said so, there'sfractions right on the
McDonald's menu, honey.
And he just he kind of lookedat me with these big eyes and
went oh my God, I didn't evenrealize, right?
So it's just finding thoseopportunities to point out to
(40:19):
students you are going to usethis here's how but also taking
the opportunity to not just tellthem, but let them kind of
discover that for themselves.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
So, as we wrap up, melody, I mean this has been
just fascinating talking withyou and learning from you.
You teach math 180, which isone of our programs at HMH.
It is intervention, it is toredirect how students think
(40:54):
about math, think aboutthemselves in math learning and
accelerate.
And what I know is that youwere a recipient of one of our
180 educators of the year award.
So, first of all, like, whonominated you?
Like what?
(41:14):
What was the experience whenyou learned?
How did your students react andwhat do you think about your
teaching differently now thanbefore you got that reward?
Speaker 1 (41:30):
I will tell you I I don't actually know who
nominated me.
Apparently I had been nominatedby multiple people and I think
my, my principal might have beenone of them.
She kind of she told me aboutit and I said I don't even know
where that came.
I didn't even know that wasn'ta word that you could win.
I don't know what, how thathappened, how that came about,
(41:52):
and she kind of gave me a lookwhen I said I didn't know.
So I think she might have beenone of them.
The students were reallyexcited.
It was kind of it was just areally fun big day because my
ELA counterpart so the mathclass that I teach my ELA
counterpart also won the read180 award last year as well oh
(42:12):
cool, okay.
So it was kind of a.
It was a really exciting dayfor us because everybody came in
and the kids were all.
They were balloons andcelebration and the kids really
thought it was, was it exciting?
And I kind of, when I found outabout it, I looked at them all
(42:33):
and I said I don't know if Ireally deserve this.
Like, we're still learning math180.
We're still.
This is our first.
It was our first year with itand I said, you know, I still
don't necessarily feel like anexpert here.
I feel like I'm, I'm stillfiguring this out.
And my kids said, yeah, butyou're doing your best to make
it work for us.
You're really, you're reallytrying to make it work.
(42:53):
And we were.
You know, when I was inmeetings with with HMH lots last
year and talked to the math 180team a lot and we were
constantly improving and doing alot of that work, and my kids,
my students, were just so sweetabout it and they were like,
well, yeah, you absolutelydeserve it, you're doing a great
job with it.
So it was, it was very, verysweet.
(43:18):
And I guess, you know, goinginto this year, having won that
award, I think going into thisyear, I have a lot more
confidence with this programbecause I really I kind of felt
like I was.
You know, I had jumped right inand was doing what I could with
(43:39):
it and trying to figure out howto fit it into my schedule and
what pieces to use and whatpieces not to use and how to
schedule because we only have 56minutes per class, so trying to
figure out within a classperiod how do we get that timing
just right.
And I did a lot of playingaround with it and I felt like
(44:04):
maybe I'm kind of gettingsomewhere, I think I'm maybe
getting the hang of this, andthen winning that award really
just kind of boosted myconfidence to know that, yeah,
maybe I am onto something, maybeI am figuring this out more
than I think I am.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Yeah, you totally are and I commend you for you know
just the authenticity of sayingI don't know if I deserve it and
that's part of the reason forthat award right.
Like it is to reward that youare deserving, it is jumping in,
(44:40):
it is seeing the opportunity,it is knowing who your learners
are and loving everything aboutworking with intervention.
But one of the things I lovefrom this episode, melody, and
talking with you, is that youhave seen yourself in the
curriculum and potential andpossibilities of where the
(45:03):
curriculum can be extended orwhere it's like, okay, we're
working on this concept, butthat activity is not in here, so
I'm gonna add it in.
That is phenomenal teaching anyday, regardless of any program,
and so I commend you for thatand just wanna share and ask you
(45:24):
as we wrap up, thinking aboutteachers who are in their
mid-year of their first year, orthose future teachers why math?
Why should I consider teachingmath?
Speaker 1 (45:43):
That is a great question and full transparency.
When I was in school, Iactually did not want to teach
math.
My major is language arts.
That was all I wanted to teach.
And I had a college academicadvisor that said, well, you're
(46:03):
only three classes away from amath minor, you should think
about it.
And I said thank you for theadvice, but no, thank you, I
don't wanna teach math.
Just because I'm good at itdoesn't mean I wanna spend the
rest of my life doing math.
No, thank you.
And he said well, I really wantyou to think about it because I
think it would be good for you.
So I obviously did it.
(46:28):
And then I avoided math jobslike the plague.
I didn't want to apply foranything.
I was like, yes, I have thisdegree, but I don't wanna teach
math.
And I finally had an experiencewhere I was doing a long-term
subbing position in an eighthgrade math class and I just kind
of went for it and embraced itand I realized within a week and
(46:50):
a half that like, oh, this iswhere I should have been my
whole life.
I don't know.
So, and I always tell mystudents the story too, and I
say so this is me telling youthat sometimes the universe just
kind of pushes you where you'remeant to be and listen to the
universe when it tries to pushyou in a certain direction.
(47:12):
But and part of what I fell inlove with with teaching math was
that math is more than justproblem solution.
Math really is.
I mean, we talk about math asproblems.
They're math problems.
Every other discipline hasquestions and math has problems,
so it's really focused onproblem solving.
(47:41):
And I was at a math leaderstraining today actually and
somebody said something aboutthey view math like art, where
math you can be creative andactually the most creative
people are the ones that come upwith the best solutions for
things.
And I think, just remindingmyself that math is problem
(48:04):
solving and there's room to becreative and there's room to
have fun with it, and theninstilling that fun in students
and helping them understand thatmath isn't some scary thing
that they should hide from orsay they're not good at.
Math can be fun and it can becreative and it can be
interesting.
And I've just had a lot of funfinding creative ways to make
(48:28):
those connections for them andto help them see the fun in it.
But I also think as a teacher.
I think math has been one ofthe most rewarding subjects that
I could teach, because kidscome to me struggling and
because they come to me withthis mindset of I can't do math.
And to watch them break thatthroughout the semester and to
(48:51):
watch them find their confidenceand come out of that, I think
is one of the most rewardingthings about being a math
teacher.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Well, thank you.
Thank you for being who you are.
Thank you to the coach or theprofessor who was like you
should do this and just thankyou for being a guest on
Teachers in America.
I know many teachers out there,even if they don't teach math,
are gonna take lots of greatideas away from this, Thank you
(49:21):
and thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
This has been a blast .
Thank you, chris, of course.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
If you are someone you know would like to be a
guest on the Teachers in Americapodcast, please email us at
shaped at hmhcocom.
Be the first to hear newepisodes of Teachers in America
by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you listen
to podcasts.
If you enjoy today's show,please rate, review and share it
with your network.
(49:48):
You can find the transcript ofthis episode on our shaped blog
by visiting hmhcocom.
Forward slash shaped.
The link is in the show notes.
The Teachers in America podcastis a production of HMH.
Executive producers areChristine Condon and Tim Lee.
Editorial direction is byChristine Condon.
(50:08):
It is creatively directed andaudio engineered by Tim Lee.
Our producer and editor isJennifer Carujo.
Production designers are MiaFry and Thomas Velazquez.
Shaped blog post editors forthe podcast are Christine Condon
, jennifer Carujo and AliciaIvory.
Thanks again for listening.
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