What I’ve learned from 30 years of Teaching High School Math
Oh boy, where do I start with this? I wish I could say I’ve figured it all out, but that would be a lie. I still have days when I’m not prepared for something a student says, audacious demands from administrators, a prep period that somehow gets used for everything except prepping, and lessons that go sideways before I’ve even finished taking attendance.
I vaguely remember that young teacher who was under the assumption that students had to get through all the curriculum the district deemed necessary. The hours of planning, preparation and creating those awe-inspiring lessons and thinking, “This is a great lesson, my students will love it!”. Only to learn I was wrong… way wrong. I took it personally for a while, then it dawned on me that I was trying to get students to learn the way I do. Why? Because it was easy and familiar.
If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard, “I don’t know,” “We never learned that” or “I’m not good at math,” I’d be incredibly wealthy and have a lot less grey hair. Grey hair aside, I’ve learned not to automatically take those statements at face value. Sometimes “I don’t know” means “I don’t know where to start.” Sometimes it means “I’m afraid I’ll be wrong.” And sometimes it means, “Um yeah, I didn’t hear a word you said.” Figuring out which one I’m dealing with is part of the job. The student who just needs a nudge is usually easy enough to redirect. The student who is terrified of being wrong is a different story. I’ve learned that sometimes the best thing I can do is let them see me get something wrong, too, and show them that a mistake isn't evidence that they can't do math.
Nothing about this job is easy. It requires constantly evaluating your students and figuring out where they are, not where you think they should be. Insert factoring and not being able to quickly recall the factors of 40 that have a sum of 22… ugh. I’m just as guilty of thinking, “You guys should know this,” as the next person. But if they don’t, they don’t. Here’s where young me would be mortified. If I don’t get as much curriculum covered, oh well. If I covered less content but taught students how to reason, adapt, recover from mistakes, and keep going when something doesn't make sense, did I really fail to teach them?
Thirty years has taught me to be flexible, laugh more and just roll with it. There are so many things out of my control that I need to focus on what I can control. And that is realizing students are going to forget the math and that’s okay. What they need to remember is how to reason, make sense of the unfamiliar and persevere.
