The Culture you Create: Mathematics

Hi all! I hope the term is going well for you!

Are the best maths teachers necessarily the best at maths? The simple answer is no. As teachers, we model the behavior we want to see in our students. We want them to follow the IB learning profile attributes, but are we open-minded, reflective, knowledgeable, and risk-takers ourselves?

How can we expect them to exhibit these qualities if we don't model and coach them?

We simply can't.

If we convey that everything is easy, what message are we sending to the students? If we say, "You should know this," how are we helping? If we teach to the test and do not encourage critical thinking, are we really teaching them mathematical problem-solving?

In this blog, I will cover a few key elements of teaching and learning for maths teachers that I believe are essential for creating the optimal culture for aspiring Mathematicians.

Passion and Enthusiasm:

I absolutely love teaching maths! Not because I excel at mathematics, but when a student presents a complex problem, I relish brainstorming on the whiteboard, collecting familiar ideas, and then starting problem-solving.

So what am I passionate about? Numbers, Trigonometry, Algebra? Not quite. My passion lies in students' reflection, self-awareness, and problem-solving ability to overcome mistakes. I promote passion and enthusiasm for my subject by creating fun and authentic tasks for them to apply their knowledge in situations connected to their lives. This leads nicely into my next section...

Authentic Activities:

As I write this, I experienced a misjudgment today while teaching angles of elevation. I assumed all students had flown a kite, though, thinking about it, I don't believe I have ever flown one. I assumed they would know that if it flies, it should be on a diagonal rather than vertically. This situation was not authentic or relatable to all students, making the task harder and less enjoyable. When students feel detached from learning, you'll get the famous "When will we need this?" question. When that happens, you are not creating an authentic learning environment, and you might need to pivot. Simulations can help, like PHET, Mathsbot, or Geogebra.

Community Trust and Connection:

I am fortunate in my current role, starting out as the sole maths teacher who opened the school, i gained vast experience in opening the school and developing the curriculum. Many parents had questions, and I have worked hard to build trust with them. The main thing I focused on with parents was understanding their children's abilities and how their language as parents can negatively affect their children. I constantly hear "Well, we are engineers" or "Maths is easy in our family," and I have become more confident in stopping parents and asking them to consider the messages they are conveying. When someone tells you your intelligence is genetic or "should" be easy, you begin to blame and question yourself. By helping the parents, the students also began to have more trust in me, seeing I am there for them even to help manage their parents' "over-support."

Having trust with parents is key to being able to help them listen to the messages they are conveying to their children. All parents want is for their children to do well and be successful. Sometimes they need help seeing that, as teachers, we want that too.

So be a passionate, exciting, confident risk-taker in education. Work on ensuring your (maths) teaching is authentic and connects with the students, and even better yet, with the parents too!

As always, I love to hear how you create a positive culture around Maths at your school! It is always great when other educators reach out to collaborate!

Take care.

Whitney Edmondson

11th March 2024