You remember Mr. Rogers right? Watch him here trying breakdancing with Jermaine.
Mr. Rogers gets it. Look how he ‘s willing to look potentially silly to show his audience something new. Something different. A different experience and to share a story. He knew the value of not worrying about what others might think of him while being curious and exploring amazing experiences. He definitely stepped out of his comfort zone!! — “Like there’s a wave going the whole way through your body” — That’s gold!
As math teachers we get comfortable and complacent with our audience and that sometimes makes us reluctant to try something new. Maybe we’re afraid that the class will be unruly, the day would be wasted, not as much learning will happen, We’ll lose our authority?
But like Mr. Rogers, we too should try something new if it means that our audience may experience something amazing or a different way of seeing the same old thing or getting another “a-ha” moment. We want to inspire learning so students can continue to inspire themselves into the future. That may take us to step out of our comfort zone and we will need to try a little break dancing.
Try a little breakdancing this week.
- Try: Introduce algebra through puzzles. Sneak in algebra.
- Try: A Desmos class lesson on proportional reasoning and unit rates wth Click Bot
- Try: Solving equations this week with Clothesline Math.
What new things have you tried these last few weeks? Let me know below in the comments or send me an email. I’d love to hear about it.
