I get to teach maths

Every night, my husband, children and I each share one thing we are grateful for from our day. This ritual started many years ago when I was lucky enough to listen to an amazing presentation by Hugh van Cuylenburg from the Resilience Project. Hugh shared the importance of feeling and acknowledging gratitude in our daily lives. I love that all of us take a few moments to reflect on our day and be grateful for an action or event that has made us happy. It only takes five minutes (although this is often stretched by children wanting to delay their bedtime- some nights they are overflowing with gratitude!!) but it is a positive way to end each day. There is a great deal of research around the important place gratitude plays in improving the quality of our lives and our mental health. If you haven't looked into this I encourage you to do so.

The other day I was reading some research around gratitude. It talked about making simple changes to the phrases we use, such as “I get to x” rather than “I have to x”. I have been working on using this in my life: for example, “I get to fold the washing” rather than “I have to fold the washing”. Side note: this has actually helped me to enjoy folding washing a little more as I decided to use the time to sit on the lounge and talk to the kids while we all fold washing together!!

I was thinking how this simple change could also be a nice way to help reframe our thoughts around teaching maths. For many teachers maths will be their least favourite session of the day. As much as I loved teaching maths when I was in the classroom, it was often the session for which I most needed to mentally prepare.

I never quite felt in control of my maths session, no matter how much knowledge and experience I gained. Literacy always felt more structured. With maths I wasn’t ever quite sure where the lesson would take me (or the students)! Eventually I came to see this as part of the ‘fun’ of maths, and something I learnt to embrace, but for many teachers this is not the case. I have spoken to several teachers and many pre-service teachers who admitted they feel physically ill heading into a maths session!

So, I encourage you this week to try to reframe your thinking as you approach your maths sessions. After all, our mind is such a powerful tool! 

Change your thinking from “I have to teach maths next” to “I get to teach maths next and help my students develop an interest in this amazing subject”. 

Change from “I have to do this assessment” to “I get to do this assessment and find out more about my students so I can show them exactly what they need to know”

Change from “I have to plan this lesson” to “ I get to plan this lesson so I can scaffold my students to develop their understanding”

Change from “ I have to help these students ‘catch up’, they are way behind” to “I get to make a difference in this child’s life through helping them work on their struggles in maths”

Change from “I have to cater for a huge range of abilities in my class” to “I get to work with a range of amazing students who are all at different points in their maths journey”

Change from "I have to run a PLC meeting tonight" to "I get to run a PLC tonight and help my teachers develop their skills and knowledge in maths, which will in turn helps all the students at our school"

Focus on embracing the chaos (!), and be grateful for the opportunity we have to share our knowledge and passion for maths with the students and teachers with whom we work. 

Have a great week!

PS: While we are on the topic of gratitude, I just wanted to say, I am very grateful that you take the time to  read my blog each week! :)