Feels Good

One thing that I love about teaching and learning is the immediate gratification of success. I just had a wonderful experience this morning. I helped a student with their math via SnapChat. This student was sending “streaks” via SnapChat and I happened to be one of the recipients. I replied, “looks like fun.” It was a picture of a math book. The student replies, “idek and test is Thursday.” Classic frustration and disengagement. Our conversation moved from distress to sending a picture of a question, taking a screenshot, and sending a picture back of the solution with steps… a short delay, another screenshot, and another picture of another solution. BINGO. Engagement. The student asks, “is it right?” I reply, “yup.” The student replies, “yippppeeee.” Immediate gratification experienced by ME and the student.

I love that. I miss that. The sheer joy of learning. This is why I love to teach mathematics in comparison to other subject areas like science or chemistry. There is an immediate gratification when you “get” something, solve a problem, or realize your math efficacy. It’s AMAZING. Yes, certainly, it works the other way as well. When things “get down” in math… things get DOWN. Sometimes it feels like a hole (or vortex to others) that almost feels impossible to get out of. We get stuck there and form another type of math efficacy that sounds like “I will never do math again.” Albeit a dramatization, but it’s not too far off the truth. But there is nothing more satisfying than hearing a student say, “hey, I can do this”… “that wasn’t so hard”… “I can do better next time” after you helped them out.

Another social media experience to CELEBRATE MATH involved a school principal from my school district sending me a photo of a TTOC doing math OUTSIDE with grade 1/2 students with sticks and chalk. I love that!!! Social engagement, experiential learning, and being outside to learn with your classmates are AWESOME. Furthermore, this teacher is taking a risk, doing something different, and figuring out what will help students learn math. I love how doing math on the playground also makes learning VISIBLE… to self and classmates as they are learning, but also makes it visible to the rest of the school when students have an opportunity to look and learn during recess and lunchtime. This is AMAZING (again). Celebrate learning via social media. I love how I got this information from Twitter with a tweet and a tag. Of course I’m retweeting, commenting, and replying to this tweet. It doesn’t take that much to get me excited about teaching, learning, and MATH, and in both cases, via social media. Happy learning.