When am I ever going to use this?

Posted on by

A student asked me the week before winter break, “Ms. Rice, when are we ever going to use y=mx+b?”  If a student had asked me this question my first years of teaching I would have excitedly told them all the amazing uses of linear algebra outside the classroom.  But, lately, I just don’t see it that way any more. Instead I said, “never, you will probably never use y=mx+b unless you go into a career in engineering, computers, mathematics and not everyone needs to be an engineer.”  Then I pointed to the 8 mathematical practices put out by the common core that are displayed at the front of my room. “That is what I hope to teach you. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. That is what you do every day and that is what I hope you walk away with from this classroom.”  Interestingly enough that ended the conversation. She persevered and went back to y=mx+b.

Let’s get real here. Math is important.  The world needs math to do all sorts of amazing things. (Think: Hidden Figures, the Golden Gate Bridge.)  BUT, we must not forget that the students we are teaching matter more than the math we are teaching.

Imagine missing two weeks of school because you were moving, had a family emergency, your parents work multiple jobs and your older brother (who is your ride to school) just doesn’t feel like going to school.  That is a description of the student who asked that when are we ever going to use this question from before. She’s got a lot going on.  I owe it to her to understand her absences, her lethargy in class and her reluctance to engage in the math that seems so inapplicable to her.  This is her story. The more stories I’ve learned about my students the more I realize how I need to make my class a bit of an oasis. A place where I will meet them where they are at.  A place where I will always start fresh with them even after a bad day. A place where we learn to struggle through hard math.

We need to shift from asking “What is wrong with this child?” to “What happened to this child?”  Maybe you saw Oprah get enlightened by this mindset this past year. This stems straight from trauma informed teaching.  The fact is that our students have a story and we owe it to them to acknowledge their stories in our classrooms.

Disclaimer: I can’t carry all their stories with me and neither should you.

We won’t survive if we do (see vicarious trauma or compassion fatigue).  We can recognize they have a story and adjust how we view their behavior.  Think of it this way. Suppose someone cuts you off while driving. Should you honk, probably.  They need to know that they nearly caused an accident. Should you close the gap and tailgate them to get back at them for their bad behavior?  Probably not. Instead you could chose to think about how they might be going through something tough, maybe a parent is in the hospital, or they have a child they are late picking up. A honk from you might be a friendly reminder that they are driving and could cause an accident if they aren’t paying attention, but but they can also use our compassion, our patience for we know not what they are going through.  Tailgating won’t change anything but raise your blood pressure and potentially lead to another near accident. Does that accomplish anything?

We must also avoid being trauma detective and become the connection maker instead.  Connect kids who are struggling (to behave, show up to class, engage in the work, etc.) with resources in your school.  And if you don’t have these resources in your school, then get involved and work with your counselors and administration to make it happen.

And here’s the thing, teaching is a hard job.  Choosing to see these students’ stories helps me survive teaching just a bit longer.  It helps me leave the school day thinking about ways I can better support students instead of leaving school throwing my hands up in exasperation “these kids won’t do anything”.  Honestly, it’s the best survival tactic I know.

This year for the day before break, we took a break.  We played a game and I watched kids flourish who don’t normally and saw students challenged who quickly learn most of the time.   It was a beautiful thing. Winter break is hard for my students. They lose the stability of school and the guarantee of two meals a day.  They earned a break before they have two weeks of instability.

Which student have you struggled with this year? How can you look a bit deeper and find out why this kid can’t do the work you’ve set out for him/her?  How can you tap into counselors and support staff to figure out why they aren’t doing the work? How might shifting your mindset from what’s wrong with this kid to what happened to them make your teaching experience better and create more space for learning?

Here are some resources that have shifted my thinking over the years:

I saw Jeff Duncan Andrade, an educator from Oakland, California, speak at the first Educational Equity in Action Conference in 2016. He contributed to a blog post about his take on Equity.  I appreciated his holistic approach to looking at equity and how to properly grow roses in concrete.

The Trauma Informed Teacher–Silent Front Line— A parent’s plea to teachers to recognize her child’s trauma and its effect in the classroom.

This American Life: Harper High School in Chicago.  A podcast following students over a year as they navigate school and life in Chicago.

But this episode (659: Before the Next One) came out more recently and is also great for educators.

Crash Course on Trauma Informed Teaching— I just found this podcast that gives a good overview of trauma informed teaching. Quote from the podcast: “The student isn’t giving you a hard time, but the student is having a hard time”

Jessica Rice

MCTM Communications Editor and High School Teacher