My Why: The Purpose
Everyone deserves access to opportunities that nurture the deeply intrinsic human desire to make the most out of life by learning and growing daily through experiences as individuals in a global community.
My How: The Process
Supporting students to become the better people they desire to be by pouring into them the love, encouragement, support, and feedback that has been poured into me comes from teaching 21st century skills in a blended learning environment through the lens of mathematics.
My What: The Result
Students will learn connections between mathematics and the characteristics that set them apart to be positive contributing adult members of society with more opportunities to continue learning and growing in college, career, and/or military.
Education and learning has been my safe space for as long as I can remember. While my parents provided me the foundation for Maslow's Pyramid of Needs, including the physiological and safety needs, it was through my friends and teachers in school that I progressed towards self-actualization from belongingness, love needs, and esteem needs (The School of Life, 2019). I have had the deficiency needs met almost daily and the growth needs fulfilled almost daily as well in some capacity (Hierarchy of Needs, n.d.). I also recognize that I come from privilege and I have been called to use my privilege to provide others opportunity to move from the deficiency needs to growth needs. For most teachers, we get a group of students for only one academic school year while they sit in our classrooms as students on an official roster. We also recognize that our students become a part of our hearts forever, even after they leave for the summer, graduate from high school, and move into adult life as a college student, career person, or military personnel. Because we are invested in their livelihoods as well as academic content, we cannot just spend time focusing only on the subject knowledge. Students who buy into your classroom are the ones who know why we do what we do - we care about their well-being and their future. Our actions of what and how we operate in our classrooms, lessons, and interactions are rooted in this belief in them. We urgently need to meet students where they are at in their hearts first to create deep, meaningful impact on their lives because they deserve the opportunity for someone to invest in them and this very well may be the only chance. We cannot assume students have this in their lives yet through parents, coaches, or other teachers. We could literally be the teacher in their life that they reflect back on and see a monumental shift in their future. We can know that students need this but feel like it is too much work. It is just like, you can know you are smart but feel dumb. You can know you are beautiful but feel ugly. You can know you are valuable but feel worthless. Just because I know something to be true doesn't necessarily change how I feel 100% of the time. This reconciliation of heart versus mind is something I personally struggle with in certain capacities in my life, but part of my personal decision and intrinsic motivation in moving towards change is that I have been able to convince my heart and rely on my past experiences to acknowledge the disconnect between logic and feeling and keep moving towards a goal. It makes me consider all the times when I have tried to build relationships with challenging students. Daily battles, feeling like I did not matter to that child and nothing I could do would change that, did not stop me from continuing to try because I knew that at some point, whether in my classroom or not, they would have an opportunity to reflect back and know that I cared deeply about them as a student and a person. I know this to be true because I have had a student or two who would, at the end of the year, express their appreciation for my role in their education and life. In contrast, there are students who have also expressed their elation for never having to step foot in my class again... but those moments of clarity and reflection from the positive provide me memories and reminders that even when the head doesn't agree with the heart, keep moving until they do. Rather than asking why, we should ask why not now? Tomorrow may be too late and yesterday did not have this opportunity. Today is it.
References
Cassie . (2021, December 21). 23 Inspirational Quotes for Teachers to Lift You Up When You’re Down. Teach Starter. https://www.teachstarter.com/us/blog/10-inspirational-quotes-teachers-us/
Hierarchy of Needs. (n.d.). Www.wichita.edu. https://www.wichita.edu/services/mrc/OIR/Pedagogy/Theories/maslow.php#:~:text=Maslow The School of Life. (2019). Why Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs Matters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0PKWTta7lU Jr, M. (2017). Know Your Why | Michael Jr. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytFB8TrkTo
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Okay, I have my perspectives on fixed versus growth mindset (The Yet in Me - My Mindset Experience as a Student, The Yet Mindset). As I type this in the middle of a planning day before students enter the building, I was trying to find an analogy, metaphor, perspective on where I feel myself and my colleagues in my content team, department team, and campus team are.
For those growing... we start as larvae right? There are so many varieties... some are fuzzy or slimy, poisonous or harmless, brightly colored or monochromatic, thin or thick, short or long, the list goes on. When we encase ourselves with the different surroundings, there are magical results or mundane, underwhelming outcomes. Which do you want to be? A beautiful butterfly, an annoying moth, or a loud obnoxious cicada? How big do you want your wings to be? How do these changes impact others around you? I personally want to be a butterfly with wings that bring joy, fluttering in other stunning surroundings of flowers and the wide world ahead of me. Sure, my wings may be small, but I can also find those around me to support me and bring me up.
References
ChikenWinner. (2007). A Bug’s Life - Beautiful Butterfly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=755f0iUuJY0
Stumbling upon a Reddit post about New York City and the reputation of being rude, someone clearly articulated why there are people who agree with this stereotype and others simply don't see it. The response was about ask culture versus guess culture. The moment of new perspective and clarity hit me so hard that I have to share it and connect it to my classroom. The following video is a great explanation of the two different cultures.
Personally, I lean more towards ask. Being direct with me eliminates any ambiguity of what you might actually mean and it is not my fault that you did not clearly articulate your needs or desires. The superpower of mindreading is one of the last things I would want, especially if I don't need it when you can just tell me what's on your mind if you feel comfortable to do so. Being direct can also mean actually telling me you aren't comfortable to share. Around certain people, I become a guess because it's my attempt to mirror their style and not be offensive. Now, when in my classroom, I have to consider how my students live with these different perspectives and how our interactions are a result of these cultures. Naturally, like-minded people tend to get along well with each other. It's when an ask person and a guess person start to communicate that trouble could happen. Every year, I start the school year off by sharing with students The Yet Mindset but this has me thinking there could be more this or that perspectives worth exploring and sharing, starting with Ask or Guess. Being aware of your own perspective, other perspectives, and how all of them come across to others really opens up better communication and collaboration between students, building a positive classroom culture. Initially, I thought about simply fostering an ask culture in my classroom because that's what I am comfortable with. We tend to follow confirmation bias, especially as we grow older, so rather than restrict students for my benefit (I am literally rolling my eyes with how selfish I sound by saying that) , embracing both viewpoints is another opportunity to incorporate 21st century skills: communication, collaboration, metacognition, and reflection. We can start Teaching 21st Century Skills in a Blended Learning Environment and really building the whole student while also learning and growing ourselves.
References
Therapy in a Nutshell. (2022). Are You Ask Culture or Guess Culture? This Communication Skill Is Life-Changing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OXlZUfbsPI
I was that academic student with a fixed mindset. Most of the praise I received came from a place of how smart I was and the results I got. This forced me into an anxiety-filled perception that grades meant everything and if I failed something, it was because I was stupid or even worse, that the teacher or the class was the problem. I had teachers along the way that build relationships with me to encourage the learning process over the results, but I would ask those same teachers how to increase my grade, not how to increase my learning.
Senior year of high school, sitting in Dr. Igo's world history class, he asked me why I was taking the class. It was part of my graduation plan, but he wanted to know MY why, especially when I considered myself terrible at history. He challenged me to consider that I could prove myself wrong, that I could be good at history, if I kept learning and improving, taking feedback not as an attack on my character or ability, but rather an opportunity to develop my character and ability to be better. I was already at the top of my class, but I still had a fixed mindset; his class would drop my GPA, drop my rank, and limit my access to college choices. Through the struggle of his class and others, I learned a lot of content that I couldn't tell you today but more importantly, I learned that I hold the key to the doors of opportunities with my mindset. What if I had discovered this magical power sooner? This is one of many reasons why I love breaking the chains of the tyranny of now in my juniors and seniors in math. Whenever a student says "I don't know", I ask them to add a word... to which they reply "I don't know yet". Explaining to students from day one that the class is about learning math content, but also our mindset to approaching math has brought some of the most beautiful transformations I have been privileged to witness. Jo Boaler at Stanford University has published a number of books and research to support how growth mindset can change a math student's trajectory (YouCubed). When I experience students who were like me, handling their questions and concerns with empathy but redirection has been best. What would happen if I didn't share the lesson Dr. Igo shared with me? The one place it didn't carry a fixed mindset into was my joy of cheerleading. The area I grew up in had a highly-awarded competitive squad where my peers had been taking classes since three years old. My family did not have the means to afford these extracurricular activities, which supported their fear of me "breaking my neck" doing elaborate stunts or tumbling moves. That never stopped me from practicing tumbling in my living room (while watching the 1996 Magnificent Seven) or learning the cheers at recess. Reluctantly, my mom said okay when I begged her for the thousandth time to try out my 6th grade year and there was NO REASON why I should have made the squad, competing for 12 spots out of 40+ girls. I didn't make it... until I got a call asking if I wanted to cheer for another school that nobody tried out for. When agreeing, I made the decision to keep trying and learning, making up for lost time that my peers had in the gym. By no means was I the best, but I took every skill, every practice, every coach as an opportunity to try again, learn something, and improve daily. This growth mindset let me to being a part of the varsity squad my junior and senior year, capping my senior year off as co-captain, and cheering for a year in college. What if I had decided from the beginning that I didn't have the ability and nothing I could do would change it? What are you deciding to embrace the power of "yet" with today? |
My husband lovingly teases me when I reflect on my day with him and say "I learned something new today!" because he would be surprised if I didn't learn something new.
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