Growing Mathematical Minds

For whatever reason, today was a particularly difficult day.  And as I reflected on the day I tried to remind myself that the quarter, which just ended had been one of great growth and success for so many of my students.  I tried to focus on Spring break that had just started and the need for the break to refresh and rejuvenate myself.  As I was thinking of this, suddenly I remembered a letter I had just received from a student and I was almost in tears.

I have made it my goal over the past year to really try to reinvent the way I approached my classroom and instruction.  I had focused on changing so much about my routine, teaching style, classroom set up, and lesson delivery.  I have spent countless hours planning and search for activities that would engage my students and promote a growth mindset.  In fact, I had even focused on using growth language with my own children (age 5 1/2, 4 and 2 1/2) at home.  I want to be sure I was constantly encouraging effort, goal setting, critical thinking and problem solving.  I knew that to present this authentically to my students I had to embrace and encompass that mindset in all aspects of my life.

I have had so many wonderful moments, and days this semester where I left excited and loving math, and even where my students left telling me how much fun the lesson was that day.  But some how all those wonderful moments can so easily get over shadowed by negativity and disappointment, and for whatever reason I was having a really down day today.  Then I remembered this letter:

"Dear Mrs. Van Keulen,

How are you?  I have been enjoying math lately.  In fact, math is now one of my favorite subjects Because you made it easier to do math in your class.  I am writing this letter because you are one of my favorite teachers.  I wanted to let you know that you are appreciated.

You are one of my absolute favorite teachers.  Before your class I never really appreciated math and I didn't think of myself as being good at it either.  I thought it was frustrating. You made it more interesting.  I enjoy doing the critical thinking problems.  I also appreciate that you show us different ways to find the answer and you let us try to figure it out on our own before showing us how.  I also like how you let us do test review because then I don't feel as much pressure on the test, and therefore do better.  Thank you so much for all that you do.

Thank you,"

As I read this letter the first time, I literally wiped tears from my face, not because of all the nice comments that this particular student said, but because of the philosophies that she expressed in this letter were exactly what I had hoped to give to my students.  My goal has always been to show students that they could do math and that it really was fun.

Over the past year that philosophy transformed into the idea behind the growth mindset, and encouraging students to see the excitement and accomplishment in struggling through a task that they previously considered themselves to be "bad" at.  This letter gave me the reassurance and spark I needed to realize that I was reaching some of them, even if only this one, I was reaching them.

So while some days can be overshadowed with the negativity, in all if we keep our minds open, and persevere we all can have a mathematical mindset!