Where We’ve Been
For the past few episodes, we’ve been talking a lot about this idea of vantage. The purpose of vantage is to gain perspective on our own thinking— to see the beliefs and actions that are currently tacit to us. And seeking vantage is about bringing to the surface our own assumptions and habits — our subconscious beliefs and actions—that may be unproductive to improving our teaching practice.
Listen to Episode 4Where We’re Going
Vantage is all about positioning ourselves to see whatever it is we need to see, so we can get ourselves unstuck and change the story we’re telling ourselves. Changing a story is an extremely difficult thing to do. Especially stories we’ve been telling ourselves for a very long time — like our own math story.
Here we get to the focus of this episode — gaining vantage on our own math story and the beliefs we carry with us from our experiences as students in math class.
It’s absolutely essential that we interrogate and test these beliefs, because much of what we’ve internalized about math class as students is unproductive to our work as math teachers.
We all have a tendency to teach how we were taught. And this is problematic because so much of the pedagogy we experienced as math students is not productive to creating the math stories we want for our students now.
Chase Orton
In order to become the math teachers we want to be, there is a lot of deprogramming we need to do. That requires seeking vantage on our own math story and being willing to disrupt and let go of some long-held beliefs, not just about what it means to be a good math teacher, but also about the fundamental purpose of math class. This includes curriculum, assessment, grading, lesson planning, even how we arrange the furniture in our room.
See you down the road!
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Share your story with us. Here’s how!
I hope the stories and activities in these videos help us create communities of belonging and grace—the type of relationships we need as imperfect and unfinished teachers. And I’m inviting you to share your story with us and the people you work with.
- Reach out to a colleague. Send them a link to Episode 1. Tell them what your experience has been like and invite them on the journey with us.
- Share your experience with us in the comments section of this blog post. And perhaps take a moment to reply to a comment that’s been written.
- Join us in our Facebook Group: The Imperfect and Unfinished Math Teacher. It’s not just for math teachers. If you’re enjoying these videos, come on over and find us there.
- Follow me on Twitter (@mathgeek76) and let’s start a conversation. We’re using #ImperfectUnfinished.
- Send me an email at chase@undercovercalculus.com. You’re not alone. I’ll geek out with you.
