Ask any of my students what my biggest pet peeves are and I’m pretty confident they will be able to tell you my top three. This usually comes up in the first few weeks of school, as I ask them theirs when they create their “What Are You All About” Google Slides. I make one as well, because I always try to complete whatever it is I am asking them to do. Before you read my list, think about your top three. Are they as pedantic as mine?
- People who add an “h” to the end of the word “height”. Length? Yep, there’s an “h” at the end. Width? You betcha! Height? NO! Just… stop it!
- When someone doesn’t return their shopping cart at the grocery store and just leaves it in the middle of the parking spot, thereby fooling you into thinking you have a space to pull into. Savages.
- When a student is working on a math problem and loudly claims “This is so easy!”.
Obviously, the first two items in the list don’t really matter. They just bug me. I put them on my list because they really are just small things that cause me a minor moment of frustration, but in the grand scheme of things really mean nothing. It’s that third one though that can be so damaging in the math classroom.
I use this list as a way to introduce growth mindset and math empathy in my class. When I was in elementary and middle school I routinely had a very difficult time focusing on my work, lessons that were being taught, or listening to others. A.D.D. will do that to you. I struggled in some areas, and excelled in others. During math time, if I was able to focus, I generally did fine (don’t ask me about homework completion though). During the times I could not focus I would fall into a confusion spiral and get supremely frustrated, raising my stress and anxiety levels. My face would get hot and itchy. Invariably I would be staring blankly at my paper as a nearby student would sometimes remark, “This is so easy”.
It. Felt. Awful.
Everyone else can do this, why can’t I?
How come I am so stupid that I can’t figure this out?
What’s wrong with me?
Insert negative thought and/or emotion here.
Looking back, I understand now that the other students weren’t trying to make me feel bad (I hope). In most cases, they were probably proud of themselves and what they could do. But as I struggled, it only made me feel worse.
I share this with my students at the beginning of the year to help them build math empathy. There will be times that they understand a concept very quickly, and other times where it will be a struggle. Some days they just aren’t with it, thinking about an important friend problem, family issue, or just being hungry. Other days they will be a math superstar. Nobody ever knows the full story of someone else. But if we build in some math empathy into our words, it can go a long way.
So we try our best not to judge the math, or the person. Instead of the phrase “this is easy”, we gravitate towards, “I think I understand this”. Instead of “This is so hard” we try, “I’m not sure where to start”, or “What I’m trying doesn’t seem to work. What am I missing?”. Just giving a classmate the solution is replaced with,”Explain to me what you have tried so far”. It can take weeks and months to change the language in the room, but the effort is worth it.
About five years ago I was leading the discussion with one of my classes about why saying “this is easy” can be so harmful to others. After wrapping up a productive discussion, one of my students remarked, “Wait, what’s your first name again?”
“Eric, but you won’t ever be calling me that…”
“And your last name starts with a Z?”
“Yes…”
“So, your initials are E.Z.?”
“Sigh…. yep.”
“So we can’t say easy in E.Z.’s class?!?!”
“Nailed it.”
“That’s wack.”
“I know, right? Ok, let’s get into today’s work on scatter plots and start measuring arm spans and then how tall you are in inches”.
“Don’t you mean our heighth?”
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Maybe…”
“Well played”.
I love middle school.
EZMath Blog 