{"id":69,"date":"2014-09-21T13:54:58","date_gmt":"2014-09-21T20:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.base-ten.com\/tm\/?p=69"},"modified":"2014-09-21T13:59:15","modified_gmt":"2014-09-21T20:59:15","slug":"math-smarts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.base-ten.com\/tm\/math-smarts\/","title":{"rendered":"Math Smarts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"smarter3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Teaching is mostly listening, learning is mostly telling.”
\n-Deborah Meier<\/p>\n

As we dive in to the new school year, those of us in the Olympia School district will be meeting our new math curriculum, Bridges, for the first time.\u00a0 Many parents will be trying to decode the words “Common Core” in the context of this new way of teaching.\u00a0 The most difficult part for many will be allowing their children to struggle with (and through) the math.\u00a0 This will require us to redefine the job of teachers.\u00a0 This will also force us to redefine what “math smarts” are.\u00a0 Even though this may be challenging, the upside is that more kids will have a stronger understanding of math concepts and more will identify themselves as mathematicians.<\/p>\n

The job of teachers is shifting.\u00a0 No longer are we the “Holders of Knowledge” whose purpose is bestowing computation fluency upon our pupils through direct instruction.\u00a0 Actually, good teaching requires just the opposite: teachers are no longer the center of the classroom.\u00a0 Good teachers coach their classes to work collaboratively, provide group worthy tasks that help them access key mathematical concepts, and then retreat to observe and assess, intervening only when necessary.<\/p>\n

The idea of being “math smart” is now outdated.\u00a0 First of all, as Carol Dweck points out, it leads to a fixed mindset.\u00a0 If people say that Johnny has math smarts, it leads him to believe that it is an innate power that he has always had.\u00a0 You either have it, or you don’t.\u00a0 Most people think they don’t.\u00a0 Also, many people mistakenly place far too much emphasis on getting correct answers in math, especially in computation.\u00a0 This definition must now change to show that math is a verb.\u00a0 It is something that we do.\u00a0 The list\u00a0 of math skills must now include listening, communicating clearly, helping others, asking good questions, improving reading skills, flexible thinking, struggling, persisting, and persevering.<\/p>\n

In our new era of “Common Core” and Bridges, the most important thing that parents can do is to avoid telling kids how to do their math.\u00a0 Rather, model the curiosity and inquiry that we are asking of our kids.\u00a0 Please, resist the urge to show your kids the shortcuts.\u00a0 No more “this is the way I learned to do it when I was a kid.”\u00a0 Instead, take the time to just listen to your kid explain their thinking.\u00a0 Ask them “why?”\u00a0 Who knows, maybe you’ll learn something, too.<\/p>\n

Sources:
\nCarol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
\nJo Boaler, How to Teach Maths.
\nFeatherstone et al., Smarter Together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Teaching is mostly listening, learning is mostly telling.” -Deborah Meier As we dive in to the new school year, those of us in the Olympia School district will be meeting our new math curriculum, Bridges, for the first time.\u00a0 Many parents will be trying to decode the words “Common Core” in the context of this … Continue reading Math Smarts<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-common-core","category-thoughts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59e30-17","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.base-ten.com\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.base-ten.com\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.base-ten.com\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.base-ten.com\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.base-ten.com\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.base-ten.com\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74,"href":"http:\/\/www.base-ten.com\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.base-ten.com\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.base-ten.com\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.base-ten.com\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}