Think, Struggle, Succeed
- Sarah Hodgson
- Sep 8, 2016
- 3 min read
Since day one I have told my class that I want them to struggle, I want them to fail, I want them to STRETCH their brains.
At first, they looked at me as if I were crazy. Then I read ‘Your Fantastic Elastic Brain’ by JoAnn Deak, Ph.D and they started to understand what I meant. They are still not completely sure if I mean it or not.
Inspired by Jo Boaler’s ‘Mathematical Mindsets‘ I shared a quote from her book with my class that has helped them to understand that making a mistake in our classroom is more than OK.
“Every time a student makes a mistake in math, they grow a synapse.”
I told them that I want their brains to GROW. We celebrate making mistakes and NOT knowing. We constantly refer to our brains growing (or not!). I LOVE and embrace the messiness of not understanding something well.
Today I witnessed a student’s brain growing through struggle and hard thinking. Raw and beautiful. It was the highlight of my day. Possibly my entire week!
We were investigating simple mathematical symbols in Maths centres today. One group working with me were finding out about =, ≠, <, and >. After some discussion, the students were asked to create their own equations to demonstrate their understanding of the symbols we had been exploring. I noticed that one student was taking the easy road… and definitely not stretching his brain!
He started by writing equations such as 9=5+4 and 13<14. While these completely satisfied the criteria of the task, I knew they were way too easy for this particular student! I asked him if he had stretched his brain with these equations. He admitted he hadn't. So I gave him the first part of a more challenging equation and asked him to finish it. I wrote 76+21. He was to complete the equation by adding one of the four symbols (his choice) and writing the number/numbers for it to make sense. Here's what happened:
The best part for me was watching and waiting. I could almost see the cogs turning! I could tell that he knew something wasn’t right. I left him for almost a minute before asking “what are you thinking?”. I’m so glad I just gave him TIME to think and struggle with it. In the end, he figured it out. I didn’t tell him the answer. I didn’t interfere. I let go and trusted that he would find his way through the problem. Letting go is something I strongly believe in. Explained more coherently here by Kath Murdoch – another educator who continues to inspire!
“…the inquiry teacher needs to be someone capable of standing back, holding back, listening, observing, allowing the learner to lead, to play, to explore and to struggle.”
I never underestimate how important it is to KNOW my students well. It’s still early days as we are only in our fifth week together, but I already knew that this boy could handle the challenge I set him today.
Somehow figuring out just how far you can push each and every student to achieve their absolute potential is one of the hardest things… yet immensely satisfying when you have a moment like I had today. A small moment. A huge high five!
More learning to be done. For all of us. Watch this space.
Quotes:
Jo Boaler: Mathematical Mindsets book
Kath Murdoch: http://www.kathmurdoch.com.au/blog/2015/11/9/letting-go-shedding-skins-and-teaching-as-trapeze
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