Dear Maggie vol.1
I have been teaching middle level kids for 13 years now and have always enjoyed very positive feedback from students, parents and colleagues about my skills as a teacher. In fact, I have never been able to even imagine doing anything else. Until this year.
I have been assigned a math class for the first time. When I learned of it, I thought, “Oh well, I have good teaching skills; I’ll just transfer what I already know.” I was wrong. I have learned that teaching reading is clearly different from teaching math in one rather critical way; if you are teaching reading, you probably don’t have to learn to read first.
To my utter dismay (and embarassment) I have discovered that I don’t know how to answer some of the questions I am required to ask of my students! Although Math was never my favourite subject when I was in school, I was relatively efficient at getting to the answers. The problems were straight forward... you learned how to do it and that was that. But it seems it isn’t like that anymore. There are still some of those kinds of questions but a great deal of it seems to be about understanding why those procedures work. That makes good teaching sense, but the problem is... I don’t know myself! For the first time in my career, I am discouraged, embarassed and worried about my ability to teach.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Hiding in Haliburton
Dear Hiding in Haliburton
The very first thing you have to do is realize that you are in the majority.
The next thing is to give yourself permission to not know.
The third piece to this puzzle is to find out... one idea at a time.
Like most of us, your own school math experiences consisted of learning established procedures; if you could ‘do’ it (remember the steps in the right order) and apply it to word problems, all was well. Why those procedures made sense was rarely, if ever, addressed.
So, tell me... how could you know? It’s time to let yourself off the hook. It isn’t your fault. The only ‘shame’ would be in a lack of willingness to find out.
You are well on your way to solving your own problem; you already have good teaching sense, you have years of experience, and you are looking for answers.
Things you may want to consider:
- Model for your students what a good learner looks like. Show them that not knowing is an exciting (not shameful) place to be, because it presents an opportunity to investigate. Cultivate a spirit of inquiry in your class that includes you as a participant. How you behave when you don't know is as important as what you do know.
- Read, read, read. There is a wealth of valuable information available out there on best practices in teaching mathematics. A good start might be to check the internet links suggested in this (and future) issue(s) of the Chronicle.
- Attend professional development sessions whenever you can: workshops, conferences or informal groups of like-minded colleagues.
But, above all, give yourself the same consideration you give to your students when they are in a position of not knowing. Remember that an expert in anything was once a beginner!
Good luck!
Maggie
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