I notice how very often I am asking people to restate things, or saying "Wait, I'm confused" or "Hold on, I am not following." I mean, it's kind of hard to miss. It's happening with a frequency that can't be ignored.
A little bit ago I was having a post-holiday lets-celebrate-that-we-live-in-the-same-time-zone chat with Ashli, and I said something offhanded like, "I'm sure I'm going to be bad at everything. I hate being bad at things." And she said, "Kate, that is not true. I think you like being bad at things, because you like learning."
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| Adventuretime |
We should not be too quick to dismiss confusion or try to resolve it or spackle over it. I would even argue we need to consider it a badge of honor and an activity worthy of our time, consideration, and cultivation. The only way to cultivate curiosity is to cultivate an environment that is supportive of wallowing — active engagement and presence in the process of being confused.
It's okay to be bad at something. (Josh Giesbrecht )
It’s not just that we tell kids, “You can’t do this.” It’s that we tell them, “If you can’t do this now, then you can’t do this ever.”
I'm not missing class yet, but, oh, your basic freak out over that, it's coming. I am really grateful this exists.
It melted my heart. It was so genuine. It was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment. And it came from the mouth of a seventeen-year-old. (Rebecka Peterson)But I can't deny, I am enjoying all the day-to-day differentness of not being a teacher. You know, not having to drop everything because a bell rang. That sort of thing. And that I get to work with my friends, who are not just breathtakingly smart, and have really good hearts, but are also fun to be around.
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| Sandol Stoddard Warburg |
So let's all take a moment and appreciate all that being bad at something has to offer. Your assignment for this week is to notice a moment when you are confused, or you don't get something, and not try to hide it. Especially if you are around young humans. At a minimum say, "I am confused!" At a maximum, be really, flamboyantly bad at it, and celebrate how you found a problem worthy of you.
4 comments:
This post was very timely! I've been worrying all weekend about whether I was 'good enough' to help HS teachers transition to the Common Core. Am I dynamic enough? Am I smart enough? Am I creative enough? I'm the HS person in a team in Vermont who are doing a series of 5 day-long K - 12 presentations throughout the year focusing on the implementation of CCSSM.
I'm doing all the talking! When I try to get them to engage in dialogue with each other, I either see blank stares or the I get complaints about how much the CCSSM has put on their plates. So, to fill in the silence and blank stares, I am falling back on the same instructional habits that I am asking them to break. I fill the silence with more talk. I feed them the CCSSM in an easy to digest format of show and tell, which is exactly what I want them to get away from in their classroom instruction.
So, I have to admit that I'm confused. This is what I do for a living and I want to be good at it. However, recently, I've wondered if I am indeed good at it. I can react in two ways: (1) Find something else to do for a living...or (2) Buck up and face it head on and figure out a way to get better at it. I think I'll try the latter.
So, thanks for this post that is a good reminder that there is a reason that I call what I do "work". When it comes easy, when I have a receptive group to work with, I will savor the moments. When I happen upon a group full of "tough nuts to crack", understand that this is the work I am here to do, hunker down, and get 'er done!
WOW. This comes at a great time! I took the year off of teaching this year.. you know.. I got to that point. It was scary to step out of the classroom. I've asked myself, "Just what am I capable of doing if I am not teaching HS math?" ANYTHING! Although, I do feel vulnerable as I pursue something outside the classroom. I'm living the lesson that I sold to my students - courage and curiosity motivate us to learn and learning takes place outside our comfort zones. Saludos - to continuously growing and taking leaps of faith!
Hi. Your post reminded me of something I tell my students at the beginning of a course: I didn't always understand math the first time around - or the second - and sometimes I never understood it all. Students seem amazed to hear this from their math teacher. It's OK not to understand everything - it doesn't make you a bad person. But it helps to give it your best try.
Jerry
http://onlinecollegemathteacher.blogspot.com/
Preach it, sister. Just today, my Algebra II kids were trying to figure out a geometric sequence and having a very hard time with it. "We're just really strugglin' today, Mrs. P." I responded, "Yes, you really are struggling. And that's a very good thing."
As my favorite Cantor quote goes: "In mathematics, the art of proposing a question must be held of higher value than solving it." Now to convince students of this fact...
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