Look Good, Feel Good, Math Good

Oh, hello there. Back again for some Primeau Math tips and strategies? Well you’re in luck, because in this post I will be talking about the most important step everyone needs to take before executing any math procedure ever, of all times, across all flat circles.  The first step is all about positivity.

LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, PLAY GOOD.

                One of my earliest and most fond memories I have while playing football at a young age did not happen on a field, instead it was in the equipment room. My first head coach as a captivating character, a very large man with as much charisma as he had muscles. With the addition of his slight southern drawl, he epitomized the description of “old school football coach”. My coach’s name was Larry, and he taught me a lot of things that really made a lasting impression on me. That first day, in the equipment room, he passed me as I was putting on a football helmet for the first time in my life. He stopped and placed his palm on the top of my newly gigantic head and said “Amazing! Look Good, Feel Good, Play Good”. Our whole team would go one to hear that message at least once a practice, it was part of Coach Larry’s manifesto, and I have taken it to heart.  As simple as that message is, it is all about positivity. Feeling good, feeling confident, will help anyone perform better than they would if they approached their task with a negative outlook. For Coach Larry, the first step he took was all about positivity. 

A short clip from 1963's "Little Engine That Could",  and boy could she ever!.

 Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx9xO98kcBU

              Last week there was a great focus on whether some people can do math because they are “math people” and some people can’t do math because they’re not “math people”.  It was only a few short years ago when I really would have considered myself as being one of the many people who have a general negative outlook towards math. I attribute my newfound confidence toward math to being thrust into a situation where I had to teach math in my placement. When I found out that I would be teaching math to Grade 7 and 8 students, I had to have a “put up or shut up” moment. It was either I take it in stride and believe in my abilities, or perform and negatively affect these kids experience in my class.  I had to alter my view about math; I had to approach with a different mindset. The little engine and I share an origin story, her positivity to get over the obstacles she faced epitomizes the growth mindset. Although she had all the tools to get over the hill, it was only when she exhibited a growth mindset that she was able to do so. 

               

                The topic of having a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset was in focus this week, as well as the difference between teachings for understanding math versus teaching for knowing math. When I look back, in addition to having a primarily fixed mindset when it came to my time in math class, I believe my teachers were more focused on having us as a class be able to just know how to do the math instead of really understanding the math. I remember how obsessed some students were with learning their times tables, and how I struggled with them because my memorization skills were not up to par. This was a common situation for me throughout my time in math class as I got older as the focused remained on the procedural aspects of math in order to get a certain final answer. This way of teaching math embraces a fixed mindset, as it is more focused on arriving at a certain final answer rather than how the student got there. It is refreshing to see that there is a shift occurring in the teaching world, so that there is just as much focus on the journey students take to get their final answer as there is focus on what number they ended up with.

                What I want to embrace in my math class is much more growth mindset focused. Teaching math so that my students are less obsessed with the final answer and memorizing, and more focused on understanding why the math works and its various concepts. I really believe that the difference between knowing math and understanding math is simply having a more positive outlook while completing tasks. If students are taught to approach math as more of an open subject that is still up to interpretation and exploration, I think they will be more positive in their ability to get better and better in class, because their understanding will be deeper and deeper.

                I want to end this post with saying that for anything, having growth mindset in general will only help you. I am not naïve, I understand that being positive about everything all the time is impossible, it would be hard to enjoy a good feeling if you never felt a bad one. But I can guarantee that if your first step is believing in yourself and your ability to learn and get better, than you have already succeeded.

Thank you Larry.

Drive on.