Today, I am a young college graduate struggling to call myself a mathematician, even though I am fully in love with math, and I realize that I can do things with numbers that a vast majority of people cannot. Which is one of the reasons why I find it so important to show young people that there are mathematicians, and scientists, and doctors, etc. that look like them. I think for a lot of us, minorities and women, it is hard to include ourselves in these spaces because growing up all a lot of us saw of mathematicians and scientists were older white men. Some of my goals in the coming years, as a soon to be high school math teacher, are to be an influence to my young students and show them that there is more to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) than just the typical older white men that they see in their textbooks, and that they are capable of greatness in this and any field that they choose to go into. I want to incorporate the things that I have seen and learned in my college experience, to show my students that anything is possible and that they are no less than anyone else because of the color of their skin or their SES (Socioeconomic Status).
Diversity and inclusion are very important to me because I did not grow up seeing people like me being celebrated in math or science. I plan to change that in my classroom when I begin teaching. Some ways of doing that, are by talking about important figures from each topic that I teach on and making sure that I show women, and minorities whenever possible. I think this is important because a lot of students have a mindset that math isn’t important in the “real world” and they are not able to identify with the subject. Based on conversations I’ve had with peers as well as the readings from Math Mindsets chapter 6, I know how important being able to see yourself represented in school is to young students.
Another thing I strive for, is to eliminate the stresses that come with always wanting to be right. I want my students to understand that a lot of times, understanding the process is much better than getting a correct answer. I plan to showcase this in my classes by encouraging my students to elaborate on their reasoning for taking different approaches to a problem, as well as having regular discussions about how they got to their answer. This can be done by doing pros and cons of methods, having class discussion about different answers, having my students stop midway through their work and explaining their thoughts, etc. The goal in this, is to help eliminate some of the fear that comes with getting things wrong in math. A lot of students shut down when they are told that they are wrong, so I want to help bring them back out of their fears and show them that it is ok to make mistakes and we must move through them and keep striving.
Which leads to my last goal in teaching, I want my students to work on developing a growth mindset and know that just because they are not good at something or don’t understand something right now, that does not mean that they never will. From a Ted Talk by Angela Lee Duckworth entitled “Grit: the power of passion and perseverance,” I learned about the importance of having a growth mindset in relation to grit (which is a persons ability to grind and push themselves to achieve long term goals). By encouraging growth mindsets in students, we can try to ‘build’ grittier students, who then can become gritty adults, meaning that they will be able to work hard and not give up on themselves when striving for long term goals and when faced with adversities.
I know that these are not easy things to do, and I cannot just tell my students to believe in themselves, don’t stress, and be persistent. I know that this will be a challenge that I probably will not achieve in my first year teaching, but the goal for me is to be gritty and to always strive to create space for my student’s well-being and for them to be able to see good things when they think about themselves and when they think about math. I will continue to strive for better and I will always accept feedback and criticisms with listening ears and know that the feedback is from a place of wanting what is best for the children. I also intend to continue to educate myself after college by attending teacher seminars and trainings so that I can stay the most up to date, about the science of learning, that I can be.