I am not perfect. I am not even close to perfect. Hell, some days I feel down right awful about what happens in my classroom. But I'm working towards changing the things that I don't like and one of those things is how I treat my students in order for them to feel like they will be successful. Deep down, I know that all my students can't be successful. Hell, half of them are only in this course because their parents forced them to. Many of them have such deep mathematical misconceptions that they are essentially innumerate in Grade 11.
But I think it all comes down to confidence.
The students who are successful are the ones who think they will be successful. I'm not saying that all students who think they can succeed will. Obviously it is not enough to simply be confident if there is no evidence of understanding or mastery. However, if you think that you will fail, then you probably will. So here is my plan:
Step 1: Changing the way students think. Focus on what you want to happen, not on what you don't want to happen. If you want to understand the concepts, then visualize it happening. When you say things to yourself like "I'll never get this." "This is too hard" "I don't get it, I give up" then your brain looks for evidence to support that. If you instead think "I will understand this." "I just need a little more practice" "I think I just need help with this part and then I'll be able to do it" then you set yourself up to be successful.
One of the most famous people in the world with this kind of thinking is Steve Jobs. He constantly did things that no one thought was possible because instead of thinking about how something wouldn't work, he thought about reasons that it would.
Step 2: Students who want to be successful, act like successful students.
Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.
If you want to do well, act like people who do well. Look at the people around you that you admire, what do they do? If you behave like them then through actions, you create habits. Those habits will lead you to success.
Step 3: Let students be receptive to success in all ways. Sometimes success doesn't come the way you want or expect. I don't think that the traditional methods of assessment (tests, exams, grades) can really test what a student knows. I want my students to focus more on the journey of learning.
I had a conversation with a student who consistently uses negative thinking in math class. "I don't get this. You aren't making any sense. You have to teach it to me again, I didn't get it." The other day I stepped back, I let them struggle through it. I gave guidance and examples but I didn't let them cop out of trying. By the end of 80 minutes the student still looked a little defeated. I pointed at the first question on the page.
"How long did it take you to do that?"
"Like twenty f--ing minutes."
"What about that one you just solved? How long did that take you?"
"Not that long, actually. But I got it wrong."
"But the one you just worked on was harder. Do you see how much you improved?"
"Yeah I guess"
It's the first step. I hope that all my students will be successful, but I know that some will fall. I guess I just have to be there to help them stand up again and keep walking. After all, life's is full of things that will rise up and trip us. I guess it's not really the falling that matters, it's the getting back up.
