Thanks for Another Great Year

This year's final article summary is Great Quotes About Teaching.

Whenever I get to the end of a school year, I feel like I’m near the finish line of a marathon—physically and emotionally spent, operating solely on muscle memory. The first day of summer is coming yet the final days of school go by slowly. I long for that first idle day of summer free of any schoolwork.

Typically for me, I decompress over Memorial Day weekend but then find myself the next week ever so slightly beginning to reflect on the past school year and even starting to form plans for the next one. How quickly I forget that I craved free time just a few days before. Such is the life of a teacher—assessment and planning are in our DNA.

Similarly, we keep striving to perfect our craft even through the inevitable surprises, bumps, and mishaps of every school year. There are always ups and downs, yet teaching is the career I’m so gratified to have chosen! It’s both fatiguing and fulfilling.

As we head into summer, below are some notable quotes that illustrate how impactful our efforts are. 

At this time of year, we all need rejuvenation. Still, in a moment of relaxation and reflection this summer, remind yourself how much you mean to your students and colleagues!

Enjoy the summer!

Inspirational Teacher Quotes

• Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best (Bob Talbert)
• Teaching is the greatest act of optimism (Colleen Wilcox)
• Nine-tenths of education is encouragement (Anatole France)
• The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery (Mark Van Doren)
• Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together (Scott Hayden)
• To teach is to learn twice over (Joseph Joubert)
• Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today (Malcom X)
• I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework (Lily Tomlin)
• Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system (Sidney Hook)
• It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom (Michael Morpurgo)
• I touch the future. I teach (Christa McAuliffe)
• The duties of a teacher are neither few nor small, but they elevate the mind and give energy to the character (Dorothea Dix)
• Teaching is more than imparting knowledge; it is inspiring change. Learning is more than absorbing facts; it is acquiring understanding (William Arthur Ward)
• The best teacher of children, in brief, is one who is essentially childlike (H. L. Mencken)
• The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called ‘truth’ (Dan Rather)
• Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students (Solomon Ortiz)
• Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them (Lady Bird Johnson)
• A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning (Brad Henry)
• It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge (Albert Einstein)
• To this end, the greatest asset of a school is the personality of the teacher (John Strachan)
• Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges (Joyce Meyer)
• A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops (Henry B. Adams)
• A good teacher is like a candle—it consumes itself to light the way for others (Mustafa Kemal Atatürk)
• If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society’s heroes (Guy Kawasaki)

Too Much Help From Mom May Backfire

This week's article summary is Too Much Help From Mom May Backfire.

As the research study cited in the article focused solely on how mothers helped their kids with homework, I am guessing that fathers should heed the same advice: helping your child with homework occasionally when needed is beneficial while hovering over and in the extreme completing homework for your child is deleterious.

Our goal as teachers is the same as parents in that we want our students/children to become empowered, autonomous, and independent. As the adults in our children/students’ lives, we ensure their physical and emotional safety and establish basic parameters for their behavior. But then we need to give them the space to find their way, knowing that there will be some obstacles along the way. It’s overcoming these obstacles that builds self-confidence and self-assurance.

One of the toughest challenges being a parent is to remain on the sidelines when our child is floundering, but as this research shows, all parents need to be experienced guides to offer advice and support when needed while avoiding being the rescuing savior.

Joe

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Parent support can help keep students on track academically, but a new international study suggests a light touch can be more helpful for students in the long run.

Researchers analyzed children's and their mothers' interactions around homework in relation to the children's academic progress from grades 2 to 4. The study focused on mothers rather than fathers.

They found that children benefitted from their mothers helping with homework, but the type of help mattered. Children whose mothers provided homework help when asked—but also gave students opportunities to work independently—both persisted at tasks longer and did better in school over time. By contrast, moms who gave very concrete help—for example, sitting down every night to go over every assignment, even if the child had not asked for help—had children who were less persistent over time.

One possible explanation is that when the mother gives her child an opportunity to do homework autonomously, the mother also sends out a message that she believes in the child's skills and capabilities. This, in turn, makes the child believe in him- or herself, and in his or her skills and capabilities.

The researchers also found that the parents' and children's behavior reinforced one another. The more often students disengaged from homework, the more likely moms were to handhold them through it, while mothers whose children stuck out homework longer gave them more autonomy in future assignments.

How Moms and Dads Watch Their Kids

This week's article summary is Dads Are Happier and Less Stressed Than Moms Because They Handle Childcare That's Fun.

I used this article as a springboard for discussion in a Dialogue for Dads session I had earlier in the year.

The positive from the article is fathers today do more with their kids than dads in previous generations. Yet fathers do a lot more of what is considered the fun part of childrearing like weekend recreational play/coaching/games and bedtime reading.

Moms are still primarily responsible for what the article calls ‘managerial’  and ‘solo’ parent duties.

I was intrigued by the article’s final paragraph that looked at how moms and dads continue to be viewed in a societal stereotypic manner. Fathers who play with their kids are lifted up, while moms in the workforce can be conflicted because they may feel they are not doing enough as parents. Dads get praise and accolades when they play with their kids but moms don’t  get the same praise if they work outside of the home and are responsible for the less glamorous aspects of parenting.

It is any wonder the researchers in the article find that dads are happy and fulfilled while moms are stressed!

Enjoy a hopefully stress-free Mother’s Day!

Joe

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As research has shown time and time again, moms tend to be more stressed out and less happier than dads—even despite reports suggesting the current generation of fathers play a more active role at home.

A new study sought to examine the context of how moms and dads care for their children.

During the study, researchers analyzed each childcare activity, using five dimensions: "activity type"—physical (eating and sleeping), recreational (play and sports), educational (helping with homework), and managerial (planning doctor visits or driving kids)—the amount of time spent doing the activity, the location, the amount of care involved, and the presence of any other people during that activity.

Researchers found that dads are more likely to oversee childcare activities that are recreational—like playing with kids, playing sports, doing arts and crafts, and reading to them—and that take place on the weekend. 

Moms are more likely to do "solo parenting," which is any type of childcare activity where there isn't a spouse or partner present, and do activities that involve an infant. 

In other words, dad does the fun stuff, while mom handles the not-so-fun stuff, like changing diapers, and usually all on her own.

The findings suggest that moms tend to be more tired and stressed out than dads are, and that moms are doing more childcare activities that lead to more stress down the line, and less happiness. Examples of this, we assume, are doing school drop-off and pickup, or being the one having to leave work, not their partner, if their kid is sick.

Based on the study, some aspects of parenting are more enjoyable than others and that the way childcare is distributed between mothers and fathers right now brings more emotional rewards for dads than for moms.

There was one area, however, that moms and dads had in common: both groups found caring for children to be highly meaningful, which supports previous research that suggests that today's dads are taking the whole parenting thing much more seriously.

The study did not determine if moms being stuck with the less enjoyable childcare activities is the result of personal choices or whether it's a reaction to outside forces like job demands, yet implies that it’s a combination of both.

Women have been socialized to believe that it's the mother's duty, not the father's, to take on the roles of primary caregiver and household manager. If a mom enters the workforce, she might feel guilty she's not with their kids, and if she chooses to stay at home, she might feel guilty for not having a career. Plus, the American workplace is generally not working-mom-friendly, and the U.S. is the only industrialized country without paid parental leave. 

Overcoming Math Anxiety

This week's article summary is When Teachers Overcome Math Anxiety, Students Benefit, and it's dedicated to Jill, Becky, and Kerry.

As you’ll see from the article, everything we have focused on over the past 6-7 years with respect to math is supported by research: deeper conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, problem solving, flexible thinking.

Like the slow food movement, Trinity embraces slow math: we take the time to have students truly understand math concepts and the reasons and ways they work. 

Even with disruption due to the pandemic, I have been so pleased with our professional development opportunities like the Embolden Your Inner offerings for parents and employees. The three top anxieties adults have are fear of math, writing, and public speaking.

And our students thrive in these areas when our faculty feel more confident and competent in all those areas. Anyone who has taken Jill’s Embolden Your Inner Math classes gains much more confidence in math and hence much more confidently teaches it to their students.

While we’re not a test-driven school, our commitment to and emphasis on deeper mathematical understanding and confidence has led to significant increases in our math standardized-test scores which are now far above the independent-school average. As an example, this year’s fifth grade scores on the two ERB math subtests were 11% and 12% above independent school averages!

Let’s keep up the great work!

Joe 

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For many students (and many adults), just hearing the word math can send a chill down their spine.

My first brush with math anxiety came in college. I had breezed through math from elementary through high school. Then I enrolled in calculus and hit a wall. I got my first F ever on a test. Nothing helped me understand. My very identity as a math person was rattled. I even considered changing my major so that I wouldn’t ever have to feel that way again.

Many adults I have spoken with said their math anxiety began with required timed tests in elementary school. They knew the answers, but their brains froze when up against the clock. Others remembered wanting to understand the why and not just the how, and receiving lackluster or even hostile responses. In particular, women and people of color I have spoken with expressed their frustration at being labeled bad at math because their ideas didn’t mirror what their teachers expected.

Without intervention, children who experience math trauma and math anxiety often grow up to become adults with these unresolved issues. Some may become parents who feel helpless when their child brings home math homework. Some may become teachers who feel powerless when their students don’t understand the content or make self-deprecating comments about not being a math person. Their pain gets passed to the children, and the cycle continues.

Math anxiety and math trauma are very real, are extremely debilitating, and have been studied for decades. Yet they persist. Why, and what can we do about it?

The math classroom that prioritizes rote memorization, meaningless algorithms, and speed must become a relic of the past, and those of us who learned in those classrooms must take a deep dive and hone our own conceptual knowledge. Students need procedural fluency and efficient problem-solving strategies, for sure, but these must be rooted in understanding why the math works, which means the adults need to know why the math works.

Methods of math instruction that focus on conceptual understanding may take longer than what we’re used to, but the positive results are well worth the time. The mysteries of fractions, integers, and variables, topics that often cause the greatest amount of distress, can all be unlocked by a solid understanding of arithmetic crafted in the early grades. This means allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and letting our guard down in front of students by encouraging their questions and being willing to admit that we may not have all the answers.

Several educators are on a mission to assist their colleagues in the math community. Graham Fletcher hosts a series of videos on his website breaking down the progression of math topics, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Math educator and author Pam Harris regularly posts problems on Twitter and welcomes others to find clever solutions to arithmetic problems. Everyone is invited to participate at their comfort level and share their reasoning. Howie Hua, a math instructor at Fresno State, regularly shares his experience teaching math to future elementary school teachers on Twitter.

We have the power to break the cycle of math trauma and anxiety. No one should ever feel terrified of math. Math should be a subject where the rules of logic are tested, and then tested again. When teachers have both a strong conceptual understanding of math and a strong confidence in their ability to do math, they will be able to pass those on to students.