resilience

Why Consistency Is More Important Than Intensity: Culture in the Math Classroom

by Jon Orr

Ok so you tried using a problem based lesson like a 3-Act Math Task or maybe you had students solve a task in groups with your brand new whiteboards and it …….flopped! Yep you’re worst nightmare was there with you in that classroom! A failed lesson! You were sure it was going to be a success. You heard that that activity was a great one but for you it just didn’t work.

Don’t worry. It wasn’t you. It’s normal. This comes down to an example of Intensity versus Consistency. I first heard Simon Sinek (an inspiring speaker and author on business and leadership) talk about this on the Tony Robbins Podcast.

Wait, what’s Intensity versus Consistency???

Ok, say I’m looking to get into shape. I want to be physically healthy and fit. Everybody knows that I can’t just go to the gym for 6 hours today and expect to instantly be fit and ripped! No one expects that. That is an example of intensity. Or consider brushing teeth. I can’t just brush my teeth once and hard and then expect my teeth to stay healthy! They’d all fall out after a while! Or let’s say reading books with my kids at bedtime. If I read for two hours before bed tonight with my daughter Lucie it’s not going to make her a better reader. Those are all acts of intensity. Brief intense moments of an event.

We know that we need to brush our teeth twice a day everyday to see results. We know that to go to get in physical shape we need to routinely work out 20 minutes a day and we will see results. We will absolutely get into shape. If we read with our kids every night then they will become better readers and better writers! We know this. These are acts of consistency.

It’s little consistent events that will make the difference not a big one-time or two-time event. But the problem is that we can’t see the benefits of the small acts in real time. I don’t see that my teeth are healthier after the one time brush or that my daughter reads any better…..I have to wait to see those benefits. And it’s hard because those benefits come at different times for different people.

When Simon talks about great leaders he says that great leaders have to build consistency and not intensity. It’s all the little things they do to create a great work culture and not the big hoopla one time event. A great leader can’t just throw an amazing holiday party and expect that to be the solution to a great work environment. They have to show acts everyday that they value their employees. That consistency will create a great work culture!

Intensity versus Consistency for Math Education:

That lesson that flopped was a one-time event! It was because we viewed it as an act of intensity. In order for those lessons to be successful and to bring out deep meaning and learning for our students we need acts of consistency. We need to do this as part of our routine.

That consistency will help create the amazing classroom culture you are dreaming of. That positive, safe, fun learning environment where kids learn with each other and with the teacher! But we have to be willing to put in the work to build consistency.

And the students are not going to be the ones to magically make this happen. We have to do it. We’re talking about middle school or high school here. Students would rather NOT talk to other peers they don’t know. We need to teach them how to help create this environment.

And It’s all the little things we do everyday that will make this happen.

  • It’s the Daily Warm ups where you have kids discussing arguing defending.
  • It’s routinely asking kids to struggle that teach them resilience.
  • It’s your assessment routines.
  • It’s the Random Grouping everyday and using Whiteboards that show them that you value their voice.
  • It’s the problems you use to teach with.
  • It’s how you demonstrate to your students what you value in learning.

It’s the things you do everyday that matter. Those are the things that will build the culture you are looking for. Routine and Consistency are what will drive change in your classroom and student learning.

This takes dedication. I know it’s hard so to help you out I’ve put together a handout that you can download, read and share with other teachers on 5 tips to to build amazing classroom culture. And you guessed it all of them involve being consistent instead of intense.

Click to download 5 Tips to Build Amazing Classroom Culture. 

What are your tips to build amazing classroom culture in your math classes? What are we missing? Just add those in the comments below.

Building Resilient & Determined Math Students

by Jon Orr

Are you frustrated with how easily some of your students just give up while doing a math problem? You know that if they just stick with it that they will learn but they just want to be hand-held through math class every day. In the book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the hidden power of character  Paul Tough argues that students succeed not because of intelligence but because of how much stick-to-it-ness, grit, and Determination they have.

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. – Albert Einstein.

Tough says that you can build perseverance in children by playing chess. From the book, “Teaching chess is really about teaching the habits that go along with thinking,” Spiegel explained to me one morning when I visited her classroom. “Like how to understand your mistakes and how to be more aware of your thought processes.” Playing chess over and over builds up a chess player’s level of determination. They have to take risks and learn from those risks in order to succeed. If we want our math students to build up resilience and determination then we also have to push them take risks and learn from the outcome of those risks.

In math class we can build up resilience, grit and stick-to-it-ness if we put students in experiences where they have to persevere through a tough situation. But think of their whole math class experience up to this point. It’s likely that a student would  never have had the opportunity to try to solve a problem before we math teachers show them the examples and how to solve it the math teacher way. Our students need experience persevering through tough situations like the chess player.

Imagine the first time you play chess and your opponent takes your bishop early in the game. You might think the game is pretty much over. Why go on? Or think of the young basketball player who has the right footing for a layup. They definitely weren’t a pro at that the first few times. But over time in each situation players overcome that resistance and persevere. They learn to be successful.

But in math class we assume math students should be good problem solvers and have grit in our math classes immediately. We say “our students give up too quickly” but when did we ever give them time to build those perseverance skills up? When did we teach them how to persevere? We are the ones that have to give them experiences to build that skill up.

3 Tips to Prevent the “Give Up Moments” and Create resilient Problem Solvers

1. Routinely have students solve unfamiliar problems through a supportive productive struggle process.

Use the Hero’s Journey to structure your math class and create productive struggle moments daily for your students. As an example, if I didn’t push my students to solve these problems routinely on their own to start our lesson then they would not only miss gaining the experience to persevere 

but I the teacher would also miss gaining valuable information about what my students know or don’t know. Problem solving must be a regular part of learning not just a once a unit or end of unit thing.

2. Create an environment where risk taking is low stakes.

In order for students to take risks and learn how to persevere the stakes for failure have to be low. It has to be painless to make mistakes. How are we doing this in our math classes? One easy-to-implement technique to make risk-taking low stakes is to bring dry-erase boards into your classroom. The no-permanence of the boards makes risk taking easy and it’s one of my favourite things. Students can attempt strategies quickly and wipe away quickly if needed. You can read more about the research behind non-permanent surfaces from Peter Liljedahl.

3. Show students that you value perseverance:

Create an assessment routine that promotes growth instead grades. Students quickly learn what you value. If we’re saying to them daily that we value the process of their learning over the final answer then how to we prove it to them? Your actions speak loudly. Give your students room to show that they have persevered while solving problems. Learn how you can implement an assessment routine that promotes growth and resilience by watching Conall’s Assessment story:

Read more about promoting growth in your assessment here.

Disclaimer: This transformation won’t happen over night. You yourself have to be resilient and determined. It’s possible that you might not see that change even this semester. But by allowing students to productively struggle through problems, giving them a low stakes risk taking environment and proving to them you value persistence WILL build their resilience and determination in the long term. We also must have a stick-to-it-ness to build great thinkers!