Math and Anxiety

 

My friends often tease me for having a condition we call Signupitis. The main symptom of this is my inability to not sign up for an interesting-sounding course, webinar or workshop. Maybe it's to fill the void of my empty nest, but anyway, I've always got something on the go. Right now, I'm taking my third course with the Mehrit Centre, a Canadian hub of learning and teaching about all things to do with child development and self-regulation: the ability of a person to bring themselves back to a state of homeostasis when experiencing stress in the biological, social, pro-social, cognitive and/or emotional domains. I have learned a great deal from the Centre's founder, Dr. Stuart Shanker, that has helped me in my work with teachers, parents and students, and also in my personal life as a parent, daughter and friend. 

I am now seeing "misbehaviour" as stress behaviour, and my curiosity about the cause of that stress is piqued every time a student is sent to the office for some infraction, or an adult reacts to something in an unexpected way. Recently at our school, we have been noticing the number of students who tend to "wander" during math class, taking long bathroom breaks and circuitous routes back to class. Or, they show up late for school, conveniently missing math. When they are in class they are inattentive or disruptive. Teachers become frustrated. What's going on?

It is interesting to me that these behaviours do not seem to occur in primary classes, where math is generally about exploration and play with numbers. We see it begin to percolate around grade 4, coinciding with the introduction of textbooks and worksheets, and in some districts, letter grades. I remember my own childhood math anxiety. The pressure to memorize timestables was excruciating. It shook my confidence as a learner. Word problems sent me into limbic overload, especially when my dad tried to help me with homework. He could not understand why I did not understand and I felt embarrassed, distressed and defeated. In high school, I only took as much math as I needed to graduate and although later I had to take a "math for teachers" course, I rejoiced that I would never have to open a math text again.

In Reframed: Self-reg for a just society (2002), Dr. Shanker writes,

        Scientists have been delving into the social and psychological causes of HMA 

        (High Math Anxiety): for example, negative maths experiences, poor self-esteem

        and self-confidence, gender and racial stereotypes. But the biggest problem of

        all is that anxiety breeds anxiety. The more anxious the student, the more she is 

        drawn to maladaptive coping strategies (e.g. avoidance), which results in still         

        greater anxiety down the road (as the student falls further behind). The more 

        anxious the adult trying to teach the child, the more anxious the child becomes     

        and vice versa. The greater the societal angst, the more all of the above becomes 

        exacerbated. (p. 154)

What is the solution? In some jurisdictions, well-meaning ministerial committees have developed math courses with different foci. In BC, Workplace Math was developed to address the mathematical expertise needed in many workplace situations. Unfortunately, in some settings, courses like these are seen to be opportunities to stream students. Kids know who takes these courses. It perpetuates the notion that there is something wrong with the child, that they have some failure to thrive in learning that cannot be remediated. It is as though the curriculum is a house built for one size and shape of human, with "average" abilities. When a student struggles to thrive in the house, we carry out expensive retrofitting, to fix what we could have addressed in the blueprints.

In his popular 2016 book, The End of Average: Unlocking our potential by embracing what makes us different, Todd Rose explains that there is no such thing as average, and that it is time we stopped settling for approaches that do not promote individual success and benefit everyone in the long run. Shelley Moore, BC scholar, author and inclusion champion, talks about the folly of teachers aiming for "the inside pin" in her bowling analogy. If we want everyone to succeed, we have to aim for the outside pins and dismiss our assumptions about who can be successful at what. Proponents of Universal Design for Learning have convinced me that when we design learning experiences beginning with the end in mind, and allow multiple entry points and a variety of ways to achieve success, we increase the odds that all students will achieve success. However, few of us have been taught to teach this way. Successful adoption of Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction as part of our teaching practice would require collaboration with colleagues - and - giving students voice. For those who believe that professional autonomy is more important that collective effort and efficacy, this will be challenging.

I keep coming back tot the JOY of learning that is missing in many of our classrooms. Joy does not mean lack of effort, rigour and pain. Like childbirth and ultrarunning, some of the greatest joys come from doing difficult things. Stress is part of learning, but it does not have to be toxic stress. Children who are well supported in learning environments where making mistakes is celebrated as a result of risk-taking, will thrive in our volatile, unpredictable, chaotic and often ambiguous world. VUCA: it's a thing! Let's equip our students to thrive in multiple settings, from math class, to ADST, to English Lit, to their own areas of passion. Let's reduce societal angst, and instead promote inclusion, equity and excellence in our educational environment.

Thanks for reading.

Grade 7 Assembly

Grade 7 Assembly

Good morning Staff, Students, Parents and Special Guests.

Today we are celebrating the Grade 7 students as they prepare to transition to high school.  Many of them have been here since kindergarten.  If you have been here since kindergarten, could you please stand and be recognized?

I want to talk to you about a challenge that many of you might face as you navigate your high school careers – and that’s the challenge of knowing the difference between belonging and fitting it.

Fitting in is about changing yourself to be like others.  It might mean wearing clothes you don’t really like to look a certain way.  It might involve being mean to someone or excluding someone who does not fit the mold.  It might mean smoking or vaping or worse – to seem cool. It’s about camouflaging your true self, in order not to stand out, but to blend in with a bunch of other people who are doing the same thing.  It takes and enormous amount of energy to sustain, and often leads to the very uncomfortable feelings.  When you compromise your own or your famliy’s values to be in the in-crowd, you not only betray those values, but you betray your uniqueness as a human being.

What can you do instead?

Surround yourself with people who like you for who you are.  Find those confident folks who are comfortable with themselves, who are not always trying to impress others.  Join a club, hang out with other musicians, play on a team, volunteer.  Even if you are shy, you can find other shy people and support and encourage one another.

So speaking of belonging, you will always belong to the McNeely school family.  You’ve been  an important  part of this herd of Mustangs, now your going off to Cambie – you’ll be Cambie Crusaders – riding mustangs.

I wish you safe travels, happy trails, and a lifetime love of learning.

Thank you.

Design Challenge: Human Factors & Your Ideal Learning Space

This year I've been taking a course from HarvardX: GSE2x called Leaders of Learning.  One of my favourite professors from the Instructional Rounds program I did at HGES was Dr. Richard Elmore.  He is the main facilitator of Leaders of Learning, along with teachers' and principals' voices from the field, and guest speakers such as Prakash Nair, a renowned architect of schools for the 21st century.  My final project is to design a learning space based on my theory of learning, and my experiences over the past 27 years in public education.  

Interestingly, in our designs we are tasked with considering aspects of being human that are  similar to the domains that Stuart Shanker uses to organize his ways of describing factors that can influence a persons ability to self-regulate.  These are the biological, social, pro-social, cognitive and emotional domains.  

I'll also try to incorporate the OECD Principals of Learning and the First People's Principles of Learning.

To these seven principals have been added three more dimensions for Innovative Learning Environments.  Powerful learning environments innovate at the pedagogical core, become "formative organizations with strong learning leadership" and are open to partnerships with community, higher education, businesses and cultural organizations.  (Schooling Redesigned: Toward innovative learning systems, p. 24-25.)

The First People Principles of Learning add an important cultural dimension for Canadian learners, not inconsistent with the OECD principles, but adding the recognition of generational, spiritual and place-based knowledge.

Margaret Paxton

Vancouver, BC, Canada

June 12^th, 2019

My ideal school would be in a setting that allowed exploration of the natural environment as well as outdoor spaces that could be cultivated as gardens, meeting places, a mediation labyrinth, and places for sitting, reading and writing, conversing.

There would be a school building for shelter, safety, and learning together.  It would be seismically sound, energy efficient, and built with sustainable materials.  The colours would be neutral, with some soft pastel tones, and textures would vary – smooth surfaces, rougher grains, fabric in places, few hard edges.

Many windows would be strategically placed to maximize natural light.  No fluorescent light would be used and most rooms would have doors opening to the outside. Garage doors, sliding doors, awnings for shelter in the sun or rain, would decrease the barriers between inside and out.

The foyer of the building would be welcoming and warm. Off of the foyer would be a comfortable large group meeting area with tiered seating like an amphitheater for presentations of learning, performances, assemblies, and so on.

The rest of the building would have different kinds of spaces for larger and smaller group meetings, to allow for both learning circles and quiet conversations.  There would be comfortable furniture for sitting, standing, relaxing or being alert and focused.  Resources would be organized, but not subject specific.  Many loose parts and supplies for creative representation would be available as well as tools, both electronic and manual.  Books would still be relevant and valued and used with all ages.

Teachers would be responsible for building relationships with all students, but directly responsible for a a number that would vary, perhaps fifteen for children under 10 and 25 for children between 11 and 16. They would meet every day, giving themselves an agreed upon mutual name that connected them to place.  The Dogwood group, the Salmonberry class.

Students would learn literacy, numeracy, communication, thinking, and social/emotional skills in small groups with peer and teacher support.  Part of everyday would involve some students demonstrating mastery by teaching other students – not necessarily older teaching younger.  Parents, grandparents and other adult mentors would be welcomed in this community of learning.  

Beyond the instruction of core competencies, learners would have the opportunity to participate in authentic and purposeful, cross curricular projects.  In fact, there would be little subject specific instruction.  Rather, learners would develop and recognize expertise in different areas when needed.  Projects would have real-world applications, be subject to critical assessment and feedback, and would be celebrated by the whole learning community.

Arts, culture, physical literacy and ecological impact would be woven into every project.  Learners would be allowed time to prototype, fail, persevere and reflect on their learning.  

Regular rituals and traditions would be a hallmark of this school, and a strong sense of belonging cultivated and enhanced with displays, photographs, and other multimedia representations.

Teachers would meet daily, weekly and monthly in order to discuss learner development, problem-solve, brainstorm, share samples of student learning, and reestablish relationships, trust, shared purpose and collective efficacy with one another.

Conflicts between learners (including adults) would be resolved with conversation, sometimes mediated, always respectfully and without blame and shame.

My ideal school would be a home away from home, or an extension of home.  I cannot imagine a future way of learning for children that does not involve a physical building, adult mentors, and certain structures that demand some compliance. Is that possible or necessary?  If one aim of school is to prepare children to be contributing members of a democratic society I am not sure we can without a way to group them and teaching them about human interdependency and our relationship to the whole planet, not just the place we inhabit.  

So what does a school staff do when they have a building and want to tear down walls, but cannot.  At my current school we began to look at how we couple repurpose rooms and create micro environments within rooms.  We wanted to give students choice in how and where they worked, read, learned.  We also removed all of the school bells from the day, only keeping those to call students in off the playground after recess and lunch.  We ourchased noise-cancelling headphones for students who wished to use them. We bought lamps for classrooms to reduce the need for the overhead fluorescent lights.  We got rid of about 200 desks, and bought tables, high and low, with flexible seating, or places to stand and work.  We invested money and time in our outdoor classroom to make it a useful learning space.   

                                         

In conclusion, we have found that giving students options and providing them with more comfortable ways and places to work, increases their ability to self-regulate, their stamina for work and their engagement in the task.  In Canada, we do not use standardized tests to measure achievement.  However, from teacher observation and students’ own self-reporting, we feel that there is a different kind of thinking and problem-solving going on – more so than before.  And we think it is the kind of thinking that could not be measured on a standardized test at all. A sharp decrease in office referrals of the past four years has proven to be another result of our efforts.

In all, we think that we have demonstrated that a total rebuild is not necessary to create a space for teaching and learning that is like a home away from home.

Presence, Participation and Place: A reflection on Short Course II

Margaret Paxton

Reflections on Short Course II Experience

May 2019

Before writing about this past year of learning, I wanted to reflect back on our shared experience, at UBCO and in the community of Kelowna during the BCPVPA's Short Course II.

 

The Water Ceremony – Courage and Clarity

On our first day, we gathered on the shore of Lake Okanagan to take part in a Water Ceremony with Chief Roxanne Lindley.  There was circling, smudging and offering of tobacco and water brought from many places around the province to share.  This moving ceremony required presence, participation, and understanding the purpose and the place.

Building Connections as a Summit Family

After the ceremony, our Table Groups met in smaller circles, during which we shared our “Gifts of the Four Directions.” What emotional, spiritual, cultural and intellectual aspects of ourselves do we bring to share with others?

This: 

·      Took time

·      Required deep listening

·      Required us to be vulnerable – able to share our struggles, not just our successes

·      Was not about what we do or have done, but about who we are and who we can become.

Learning from David, David and Amelia

Back on campus over the next few days, we learned from David Istance, Amelia Peterson and David Weiss.  We wondered:

·      How could the OECD Principles of Learning enhance our schools?

·      How to help our students, teachers and other staff members flourish in a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous)?

·     How can we learn from other regions about how to create new kinds of schools with human-centred systems design?

Field Experiences

During our visits to local, innovative businesses, we learned from people creating their own occupations, niches in the world. It was as if they we saying: 

“Here is something you didn’t even know you needed, 

and it’s going to change your life for the better.”

We began thinking about how we could infuse our schools with this energy and entrepreneurial spirit.

As the week drew to a close, participants made connections, shared ideas and made plans for the next steps in their learning journey. We committed to connecting with our table groups and supporting one another through the school year.

My Year of Learning

I began my first staff meeting with the story of meeting those young entrepreneurs.  I told my staff how inspired I had been to hear their stories, especially how school had influenced their development.  I confessed that the word “entrepreneur” to me connotes a business focused on making a profit.  I hoped that our students would be inspired to have the same imagination, creativity, growth mind-set and perseverance, but also a drive to make the world a better place. Our school’s inquiry has been around increasing student engagement and flexible learning spaces.  I wondered, how we could now use those flexible learning spaces to accelerate learning and build learner stamina.

One of the things I have been practicing as a school leader is how to find each individual’s entry point – personalizing and differentiating support for my staff.  One way I did this was by providing choice and “going with” teachers’ personal passions.  Thus, we have a working wood shop, an atelier for math/science/art exploration, and a very versatile outdoor classroom space. We also created micro-environments within classrooms.  They feel now more like family rooms.  

We believe that we have seen an increased stamina for learning, and an increase in collaboration and cooperation, both for teachers and students.  We’ve seen an increase in creativity and critical thinking – prototyping, working through many iterations, working with a growth mindset – not just “keep trying” but try different things. We’ve seen students inspiring each other.

The journey continues.  There are always more bridges to build, more obstacles to roll out of the way.  I am grateful to the colleagues and friends I met during Short Course II for inspiring me to “nudge with love,” both staff and students, and to be a “Possibility Broker,” a co-learner saying, “Yes!” to great ideas.  The best part of being a Short Course II facilitator was the reassurance that I am part of a community of educators who are highly invested, thoughtful and reflective about the craft of leadership and the quality of education in their schools and districts.