Math Teacher Lounge
Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer)dive deep, with guests, into the math and educational topics you care about. Interact with us on Twitter (@mtlshow) or join our Facebook group (facebook.com/groups/mathteacherlounge) for more content.
Math Teacher Lounge
S3 - 06. Bethany and Dan take on Twitter!
In this episode, Bethany and Dan take a look at several tweets that caught the most fire on Twitter during the 2021-2022 school year. The pair answer questions about viral teaching methods, the best teaching advice you can give in three words, and if students should use pencils or pens in class. Join them as they take on those questions and several others in a fast-paced episode.
Hey folks. Welcome back to the Matt teacher lounge. I'm your co-host Dan Meyer
Speaker 2:And I am Bethany lahar Johnson. And I'm your co-host Dan. Hi,
Speaker 1:We're co-host. Hey, great to see
Speaker 2:You, Dan. This is the last episode of season three, three seasons. It's
Speaker 1:Gotta have a cliff. Hanghanger what will the cliffhanger be? You know,
Speaker 2:<laugh> the cliffhanger is that we love having guests. Like it's one of our most favorite things, because selfishly, we love to talk to all of these amazing folks who are doing this interesting research and thinking about amazing things. But for this last episode, it's just you and I, Dan cliff hanger.<laugh>
Speaker 1:Yeah. Oh, I, I like this. I like this. No. So the cliff hanger was last episode and people are all like, so who's the last guest gonna be of the season before we, uh, roll out into summer. And yes, as Bethany said, we love all the fascinating guests we've had on throughout these last few seasons. And we realized who is more fascinating to each other than both of us. You know, let's talk to each other about things, right? You get that, you get that. Or is this, am I alone here in this? Uh Hmm. Uh, we had this idea about what we should talk about here and that that's this, I am on Twitter, uh, a lot, uh I'm at DD Myer on Twitter. Throw me a follow might follow back. Who knows? I don't tweet much, uh, Bethany, what's your handle on Twitter? Let'em know.
Speaker 2:I'm at Lockhart, EDU, and I was much more active pre mama hood, but I'm still up in there. Go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yep. Yep. In there. Yeah. Great. Um, so I've been keeping track of the hottest conversations in math, education, Twitter, the conversations that the most people who kind of describe themselves as math teachers and their bios and whatnot have been replying to, I've got some, some little things working in the background, keeping track of this sort of thing. And so we are gonna bring for you folks, some of those extremely hot conversations, and even better than the questions, which we hope you'll re you'll reply to and tag us, uh, in your replies, even, even more than those questions, we'll bring you our answers, our answers to those questions. Can you leave that? Will we'll fully settle these questions? Won't we Bethany? My gosh, won't we? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, geez. Louise. No.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:I am Dan Meyer. The point is not our final word on it. The point is this episode, we're, we're furthering the conversation we wanna hear from listeners about what do you think you're right.
Speaker 1:You're right. Get, get, you all need someone in your life like Bethany, who will help you become the best version of yourself. So here's in a few different categories. We're gonna bust through some quick ones, uh, uh, pretty quick. And, uh, there's some meaty ones as well. Let's, uh, let's get into it. The first questions, uh, come to you all. Um, and us courtesy of, of, uh, MTL guest, Howie walk, who has a, a renowned knack for just creating, uh, math means, but also conversation starters that really capture, um, the curiosity and answers of, uh, of a grateful nation. So, um, how he's first question, which I'll pose to Bethany is what's your favorite number? Bethany. And why is it your favorite number?
Speaker 2:Oh, I love it. Um, okay. Well, first thing that came to my mind is 12, cuz it's a, it's a highly divisible number. I mean 2, 6, 3, 4. Like I love it. And it coincides with the day and month of my birth, which like the double come on 12, 12, 12, 12. I dunno. Am I giving away like my bank security code or anything by saying that?
Speaker 1:Yeah. What's your favorite pin?
Speaker 2:Let, let me change my pin. Um, yeah, but it's just such a happy, happy number. Well, 12 is, you know, 10 and two more anyway. Love it. What about you, Dan? What's your favorite number and why?
Speaker 1:Um, I'm into it. I'm into it. Yeah, I think I would choose, um, 16, 16 because, uh, you know, like it's, it's the first number for me where it was like, oh, you can keep on making numbers forever where I'm like, okay. Two times two is for great. We all like, it's kinda like a, an elemental kind of like, uh, uh, expression in mathematics. Four, four times two is eight. Okay, fine. That's like a, but then, but then eight times two is 16 and it's like, oh, you can just keep on doubling that thing over and over and over again. And I can recall feeling pretty, uh, pretty, pretty excited that numbers are just like out there for the finding for the taking cool stuff.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry. Wait, I have to interrupt. You went two times four is eight and you didn't go four times four is 16. You went eight times two is six. You wanted to keep doubling the, the, yeah. You wanted to keep the two the same. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yep.
Speaker 1:You can keep on doubling. You just say keep on doubling numbers and it just keeps on rolling. See how we
Speaker 2:More evidence our brain works very differently.
Speaker 1:We learned more about each other. Uh, let me keep this rolling with how he questions. Okay. Um, how he says, uh, if you could co-teach with, with one teacher from Twitter, who would you choose?
Speaker 2:Oh, oh, it has to be a teacher
Speaker 1:Or, oh, anybody, I guess. I mean like I know you love Oprah
Speaker 2:Oprah, Greg co-teach with Oprah.
Speaker 1:Yes. So there we are. Yep. Okay. Fair enough. We got, we have to work Oprah into every single episode. That's um, I
Speaker 2:Just, I just would love to sit and like, we'd read together. We'd read to the students and then we'd talk. I, I mean, obviously be Oprah, but if we're thinking more of like Mt. B OS like math, Twitter, blogosphere land, I suppose the person I would wanna co-teach with honestly would probably be Alison hints. One of our okay. Former guests as well. Yep. Her book mathematizing children's literature with Anthony Smith. That, that book. I just love the idea of sitting and doing a read aloud and then diving into some juicy math. It's like inspired by what comes out of that read aloud. So, yep. Yes. That that's who I picked Allison let's co-teach
Speaker 1:<laugh> shout out to Allison.
Speaker 2:What about you?
Speaker 1:Yep. Um, I would, uh, choose MTL guest, uh, ill Abdul cutter, um, because, um, and this relates to Allison and, you know, and also Elham coy, they talked about in, uh, you know, our episode, um, about teacher timeouts and like I'm choosing someone who I think is like, like I've never seen I'll teach, but I, you know, work with Adil at Desmos and think she's, uh, fantastic. But what I really want in a co-teacher is someone that I can say, whoa, timeout, do you see what's going on here? This is really interesting. What should we do next about this? And have like a little strategy session and in front of the kids and no one gets, you know, freaked out by that. And I think that that'd be a pile of fun. Bill seems like, uh, she's got like that kind of a, would be receptive to that kind of interaction, uh, teacher to teacher. So that's my vote right there.
Speaker 2:Opportunity for you to grow your own practice, Dan.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. It the, yes, the exactly 100%.
Speaker 2:So Dan, I actually have a question for you from Howie. If we're on the Howie tweet train, I have one from Howie too.
Speaker 1:Howie. Howie had some fire tweets, some fire tweets, this, uh, this, this, uh, current year. Yep.
Speaker 2:Dan, I wanna know. Do you prefer doing math in pin or pencil?
Speaker 1:Ooh. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I see how he says. I don't mean to start any drama, but, and then ask the question,
Speaker 2:But
Speaker 1:Like, I, I, I think, I think that how he lives her drama, you know, I think he, he know he he's messy. I see math and lives for drama. He knows what he's doing this with this question here. He knows. He knows what he's doing. Mm-hmm<affirmative>. Yep. Um, so I would just say, uh, it depends is that cheating? Like if I'm, if I'm doing math to learn or if, if we are learning and not process, then I want to use pen actually. Like I want to see the tracks of the thinking and if we're doing it for presentation, like if I'm presenting something like, I want to like, I, I, that's an area where I'd be fine to not erase things. I don't wanna like prep it. So it's, you know, so we are just, I guess you could use pen for presentation also just pen period. Um, but I like, I, I wanna see the tracks of the thinking if we're doing some learning versus presentation, what about you?
Speaker 2:Well, I heard the voice in my head telling one of my kindergartners, no, you cannot do that in sparkly pen. You need to do it in pencil. And I was like, wait, whose voice is that? It was one of my math teachers telling me I couldn't do it in pin. Why couldn't this kid do it in pin? Sure. Do it in a sparkly pin. Mm-hmm<affirmative> so I wanna say like do it in pin. And since usually pin is what I, I have around. I mean, I do crosswords in pin Dan.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow. Yeah. With a piece of paper in math, you can like, you can like, you have lots of room to kind of like re revise and cross off, but those little, little boxes in the crossword, uh, that says a lot about, uh, yeah. Your, uh, commitment
Speaker 2:To B. I got really good at making an a, into an H or a P or whatever we need Uhhuh. So, okay. I would say, I would say like, Hey, if you're in the room with your kiddos and you're doing, doing math, if somebody wants to do pen, let them do pen. But I do know that I've seen teachers say you need to do pen so that I can see all of your thinking. So I, I think I hear what you're saying, but like, do you think it should be like a classroom rule or something?
Speaker 1:Oh, no, no, no. I mean, I'm gonna ask you like, what how'd you get to this destination? And I wanna know process somehow, and I think you'll get tired of having to explain it verbally rather than just, you know, like showing just don't erase stuff. Don't scratch stuff off. Let's let's see how you're getting there. That is what I'm into.
Speaker 2:Thanks Howie for that trio of thought provoking tweets, because I, I genuinely wanted to know what Dan thought and what our listeners think. I mean, Dan, I gotta say Howie, you got, you, you say you don't wanna cause drama, but I gotta say I'm with Dan on that drama. Pretty hot questions. Mm-hmm
Speaker 1:<affirmative> yeah. We're, we're still friends though. Which so I'm happy about that. Um, our, our next section, let's get, I got a few more, uh, questions queued up here and these ones, uh, these ones relate to kind of advice for educators, uh, advice for yourself. Um, good advice, bad advice. Um, that kind of thing. Uh, so let's jump in. Um, I would love to know, uh, this one's from, uh, per rip and I'm very curious, Bethany, what is the worst teaching advice you have gotten in your life ever?
Speaker 2:<laugh> oh, Ooh. Okay. Um, worst teaching advice was that's. Okay. Just move on. Anyway. And that was in terms of pacing. It was like, you know, students needed to spend do a deeper dive and they're like the, the teacher who I was chatting with said no, no, just it's fine. It's fine. Just move on. Just move on to the next chapter. That was probably the worst advice because no, I don't think that's what I should have done at all.
Speaker 1:<laugh>
Speaker 2:Right. But I was a first year teacher and I was trying to figure it out. And I learned that that was not good advice. And I understand the pressure of pacing, but it was like totally antithetical to the type of listening to my students that I want to do in my craft. And this teacher meant well, but that was not good advice teacher.<laugh> mm-hmm<affirmative> what about you, Dan? What is the worst teaching advice?
Speaker 1:Uh, I dig that, that feels similar to one of the replies to per here. Uh, Francis client says never, like never let them know you've made a mistake being particularly bad at advice, you know, just this like idea of like moving along, uh, you know, covering your tracks, um, not, you know, like backtracking or Otty mistake, those all feel kind of, of a piece. My, my, the worst advice I would, I think I've I was I ever received. Um, and I wasn't given this often, but it's echoed by a lot of the commenters here on this tweet, which is don't smile until X, Y, or Z, where X, Y, and Z, or like Christmas, October, December, January. Just, just the idea that you've gotta like that. You've gotta wait, develop. Don't did you never hear this from anybody? Don't smile until Christmas, perhaps this is a, of a, as a kid
Speaker 2:Teacher. Yeah.
Speaker 1:<laugh> oh my goodness. Can you imagine? Um, yeah, so this might be like a,
Speaker 2:Can you imagine, imagine I don't smile when the second they walk in the tears, the parents' tears, the kids tears, and I'm just like, yeah, for sure. Stoic.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well,
Speaker 2:So we explain it to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, the, I mean, the idea is, is that, you know, for older kids, they're, they're, they're scoping, you, they're clocking you for weakness, you know, they're, they're looking at you, like they're looking to take advantage. And so like, don't smile until Christmas is like, Hey, you've gotta, you can always relax. You can always relax your discipline, but you can't UN relax it if you start out, you know, uh, Mr. Happy pan Meyer, which I just, that was
Speaker 2:Smile perceived as weakness.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Very obviously, uh, poor advice, you know, like eventually you come to realize that like having a rapport and a relationship, um, that is trusting and warm, um, and demanding that has high expectations. That that's the best kind of classroom management. Not some kind of like persona built around, you know, like intimidation or, uh, you know, stoicism, that kinda thing. Yeah. So terrible, terrible advice.
Speaker 2:I feel like I did have a few of those math classes. Yeah,
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. Uh, yeah.<laugh> you, you loved them, right? They were like your favorite math sauces. Yeah. I mean, it was like a, it was a blast, right?
Speaker 2:<laugh> well, um, so we have to ask the opposite. Thank you, Danielle Willingham, who said, what's the best advice you got, but hold on, Dan, he didn't just want the best advice. He wanted the best advice in three words.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah. He doesn't, he doesn't wanna want a book or dissertation or even a, a blog post, or even a tweet wants just three words.
Speaker 2:I think maybe that might have been to me.<laugh>
Speaker 1:This is, yeah. This is someone who's got, doesn't have much time for, uh, this advice wants it distilled down. I'm just obviously stalling here. As I try to think about this, uh, um, I would, I don't know this there're also, uh, there's just like so much nuance lost here. I would say, listen to students, listen to students. Um, that, which I can't say more than, no, I guess, I guess I'm done. I guess I can't say more than that there, but listen to students you're done about that is, uh, is, uh, you're you're in a bad PA bad place. If you are not listening carefully to students. How about you?
Speaker 2:Okay. Mine is ask lots questions.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice. Cause I filled in the word I filled in the word. No, no, no. I, I was able to kinda infer that I did that. I got that.
Speaker 2:Wait, wait, wait, wait. I could have said many. Wait, I could have said many ask many questions.<laugh>
Speaker 1:Strong, strong.
Speaker 2:So yeah. You know, no isolation, like don't put yourself in a bubble ask, not just, not just your students, but the teachers ask a lot of questions. You don't have to have it all figured out
Speaker 1:Into it very much into it.
Speaker 2:Thanks Daniel. Daniel. Thanks Pernell.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Daniel and, and Pernell. Both. Uh, great questions there about advice best and worst. Um, another fire tweet popped up, um, earlier this year, uh, from Dr. Christopher Childs, which was name one thing. Every educator should stop doing.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know. This kind of ties into my best advice about asking questions should be
Speaker 1:Like, stop not asking questions.
Speaker 2:<laugh> avoid the isolation. Um, I, I really love this idea of when we can popping into each other's classrooms. Co-teaching building this collaborative nature, you know, Elham talked Elham Cosmi and our interview talked about this idea of like, like you said, the teacher timeouts learning from each other. So I feel like if we could stop isolating ourself and I don't mean at lunch, sometimes you need to not be in the teacher lounge at lunch. Like if you need a minute, take the minute, but mm-hmm,<affirmative> in general, like as a practice, how can we not be isolated and instead be learning with, and from each other, how can we stop the isolation? That's that's what I would hope every educator would stop doing. What, what about you, Dan?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Um, my, my, I think that educators should, this is gonna require a little bit of elaboration. I think educators should stop taking responsibility for things that are not in their zone of influence. I think that as a society, we are asking teachers to do more and more, to become more and more of a central fixture holding together with chewing gum and twine, all the various parts of a student's life from their health, their fitness, um, emotional health, uh, you know, we feed students at school. Um, it become, becomes very tempting. I think there's a lot of pressures for, to blame, you know, outcomes, disparate and unjust outcomes later on in life, um, on teachers and teachers, uh, should just flatly refuse and to, yeah. Understand what, what the, what the job has been set up to do, what it's good for and do that with excellence and intent and a lot of effort, and then not, not take responsibility for the rest of it.
Speaker 2:If I asked five different people about the definition of what a teacher should be doing, I would get five different answers. So I think it's really interesting that you say that because yeah, many, many hats, which I think yes can lead to burnout can lead to all sorts of things. We're asking schools to be all things, to all, all people. Um, interesting. I wanna think about that more. I need to hear folks response on that. Dan mm-hmm<affirmative>
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm<affirmative> IM I'm curious too. Yeah. I mean, yeah, there are definitely things that are and teachers responsibility and some that are not, that's a that's
Speaker 2:Tough one. Okay. For help name, name one. Okay. Name an example of each. And what's something that you think every teacher should not and should be doing. Cuz I feel like my brain goes to some things like, you know, I had teachers who were saying, well, I don't wanna have my kids have to have breakfast in my classroom in the morning. They should be that shouldn't be my responsibility to have serve breakfast in the morning, but then I'm like, but then your kids are eating and they're, they're gonna be able to learn and be more focused. Should that be the teacher's responsibility? I'm not saying it necessarily should, but I'm saying would I, you know, it it's, I don't know. It gets murky for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. I, I mean, I think that we should, uh, as a country have a really generous social welfare net so that everyone has food at home where like where a school is, not the place where some students have to go to in order to receive, you know, nutrition and nourishment. That seems sad to me. And uh, uncommon and developed nations. I think that, uh, teachers, uh, should watch out for the mathemat should be responsible for the mathematical development of the students. They teach, um, up to a, a point, but should be responsible for learning math and creating relationships in their classes. Um, I don't think that teachers should accept responsibility for larger kinds of outcomes, like, uh, the health of a democracy or, um, international competition who goes to, you know, who goes to the moon first, that kind of thing has, has historically been placed, um, at the feet of teachers. And it is tempting when you're a teacher, I think to like take on that responsibility because you're, you know, like it, it kind of develops your social importance. And I just say, we should say no to that and you know, get compensation, not in terms of, you know, social importance, but rather like in the spendable dollars and monies,
Speaker 2:I'm learning more about you Dan, and you know, this is what I've gotten from that answer. If you're gonna dream dream big. Right.
Speaker 1:Is that what you got from that? I, I, I don't know. I think I'm like trying to dream realistically. Uh, yeah,
Speaker 2:No, like if we're gonna say, if we're gonna say that, you know, if we're gonna say maybe teachers shouldn't re be responsible for serving breakfast in the morning. Well, because we want every child to have access to nutritious and filling food at home and time to eat it in the morning. Right. Like it's bigger than just, I don't want the teacher to have to do this. So we're dreaming, we're dreaming big. We're saying this, we should be the least that students have access to, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. I I'm I'm here now. Yeah. I'm with you. That's a, that's a, I like that. I like that dream. Yeah. Dream where we, uh, take care of folks in their lives outside of schools. So schools don't have to be just the, the last, this like one linchpin for E every kind of social outcome. Like currently runs. A lot of them run through a school cause we don't do a good job of setting up other ways to, to meet those needs. And we should.
Speaker 2:And we're also recording this in, you know, what, two weeks, a week after, um, a tragedy where students and teachers were killed in the classroom. And I think both of us are taking some deep breath and recognizing that there's a lot of debate that is happening about what teacher's role should be in preventing this in the future. And I don't know if you've done drills in your classroom that are supposed to help mitigate disaster, but you know, we collective deep breaths<laugh> is what, we're what, we're what we're where we're at right now.
Speaker 1:Yep. Yep. The idea of, uh, teachers should arm, we should arm teachers is another example of like, no, we should not do that. We should solve, we should solve the, the tendency towards violence outside of the classroom so that teachers and students can teach and, and learn. That sounds awesome to me.
Speaker 2:Collective deep breath. Whew. Okay. So what else you got from me, Dan?
Speaker 1:Uh, that was a heavy one. That was a heavy one. Um, really appreciate chopping that up with you as I have throughout this, uh, whole season. Um, so, uh, let's, let's jump over to, uh, Chris Lesniak who hosts, uh, debate math pod, uh, the debate math podcast. And Chris asks, I do you, do we do, is it a practice worth keeping or getting rid of what say you Bethany?
Speaker 2:Ooh. So I feel like I've heard that in many teaching PDs. I do you do. We do. Um, I, or actually I feel like I've seen like more I do. We do, you do like, I do it like graduated release. Like I do it, then we'll do it a little bit together. And then now you have permission to do it. Right. And I feel like, uh, in directed draw, that's a hundred percent true. Like I'm gonna show you this and then you draw it and then you cut here and then you do it, right. Like if we're trying to create this, like I'm teaching this new art technique, mm-hmm<affirmative> but in mathematics I feel like that's really not what I want my classroom to look like. I want to support my students and set them up for sense making, and then I want them to try it out and I don't want them to solve it the way it first comes to mind for me. I wanna see how they make sense of it and how they solve it. And then I want us to share it with each other so we can grow together. So I think time and place for I do you do we do, or I do we, do you do? Or should we do we, do we, yeah.<laugh> you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, I I've got nothing. I have nothing to add. I thought that was just a yeah. Excellent summary of a classroom. I would love to be a part in love to teach. I think it's, you know, it's got, it is a certain tool in the toolbox that I think is overused. And, but it's also a tool that can be useful in the case of, I think like certain kinds of operations. Um, there are some operations that, you know, do benefit from like, let me just kind of show you how, how, like one way you might do this. I don't know. I'm like helping my kid, you know, whack a nail into a board and you know, like, there's, there's a moment where it's like, Hey, actually, lemme just like, I'll show you when we can do this and do it. And then that's like helpful in some moments, but for so much of math, uh, a lot of math is, does not relate to the operational kinds of fluency. And um, in those instances, it's a little bit, it's a not a useful tool. I don't think, um, for those kinds of skills and ideas,
Speaker 2:I'm thinking of like tool talks in my classroom. So in kindergarten, many of the tools that we use in math and just in class in general, are new to the students. And if I tell them, this is exactly how you should use this tool, then I feel like I'm taking a lot of the sense making away from them. But if I introduce the tool, show them how to use the tool safely, show them this is not a safe way to use the tool chewing on this is not safe. We won't be, that's not how we do use this tool. This is how we take care of it, et cetera, but then support different modes of using the tool that are gonna help, you know, them use it to solve problems and make sense, I think, but I guess I'm just have Dan, have you heard I, do you, do we do or is it I do we do you do
Speaker 1:I I'm with you? And I think that I got clarified, uh, post tweet, but yeah, it typically, yeah, I do. We do. You do, um, yeah, the gradual release of responsibility it's often called and uh, yeah. I, I have heard people do what you described, which is what is it, it's you do? We do. I do like an inversion of that. Like have people do a thing that I can do that's, you know, not too, too abstract for them, just, uh, and then like we all do something together and then I'll offer a summary of what we learned is, um, is one way that goes, I like that tool as well.
Speaker 2:I think particularly in, at least I've seen in elementary classrooms, there's sometimes this fear of letting students just try it out before I've really showed them, but this is how it has to be. And what I am most excited about is supporting students and creating a classroom environment where students can't don't need my permission or need my direct. Like this is the only way to do it instead. Exhausting. Yes. There's lots of things we model, but there's also like, Hey, what do, what do you think? How do you think this should be used? And the joy of that exploration?
Speaker 1:Yeah. There's a feeling of efficiency that comes from I do. We do you do, um, for some kinds of math, but it's undercut in my experience by what it cultivates in the students, which is like, I've gotta wait until the teacher does before I can do anything. Um, so yeah, it, it doesn't exactly, it pays off real diminishing returns over time. And it's just for, for me, an exhausting way to teach, always being the bottleneck for, for new learning is a, is a total drag.
Speaker 2:Oh, what a great way to describe it. You do not wanna be the bottleneck you want to be. What's the other thing, the facilitator, the what's the opposite of a bottleneck, the, the flowing river, the, the, the, the, the, the, uh, help me
Speaker 1:Hit us up in the replies. I don't know. But it's a, yeah, yeah. The opposite of a bottling. That's what you wanna, you wanna not be the opposite? No, you want, yeah, we got this here. We we'll, we'll figure it out. We'll get back to you.<laugh> okay. Well, folks, those were a few of this year's fire tweets. It's been, uh, fantastic chatting with you, Dan, Stephanie, about, about all those.
Speaker 2:You know, my favorite thing to do is interrupting you, Dan, I have to interrupt you because we can't end fire tweets, Dan, without including a tweet from you.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's true. I do. I do have my moments. Yeah, we should. We really should.<laugh> what do you, what, yeah. What
Speaker 2:I'm well, no, Dan,
Speaker 1:Should
Speaker 2:I doing right now? Yes, I loved. No, I loved you tweeted recently. You said, how many years have you been teaching? Which, okay. What has been like the most influential? Like what ha okay. Blah. You tweeted. How many years have you been teaching? And at this point, what has most influenced how you teach? And you gave some ideas, a methods course, a PD sessions, curriculum, TV, a movies, et, etcetera, et cetera. And I love that you put that out there because it we're, you know, this episode is coming out as we're wrapping up another school year. And it also got me thinking about summer and what teachers like what we sometimes do during the summer, but what we might just need to do this summer for self care. But I'm really curious. I love that tweet. And I'm curious, Dan, what did folks say was the thing that had most influenced their teaching and what's most influenced your teaching?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah. People's responses to this one were, uh, really a fantastic, uh, I would, I came into this, I was flying to the association of mathematics teacher educators conference. Um, and I, I just found myself wondering, like, so the, the, the pre-service year, the, the one year of like your learning, how to teach is how we did it in California. Like how much of that has still in, in, you know, like infused my practice. And in what ways? I, I don't think, I think about that stuff consciously, but I think that did like set me up with a, a lot of images that I would be unpacking for, you know, like going on two decades now, working in education. Um, I think that, uh, yeah, like conversations with people, I think observing classes, I don't think that like the one day PDs, uh, the one, the one day development days, you know, you know, throughout the year, four times per year, I don't think those stuck to me much. Um, I, I think that this summer, like, I think that, that I have learned so much, uh, just an embarrassment, uh, of riches from noneducational sources, like from, from, from other disciplines, from storytelling, for instance, from the practice, from like how people have constructed movies. I like, I, I, I'm proud of the way one, one of the aspects of my character that I'm proud of. It's takes a lot to admit this as I'm, as I'm sure you understand Bethany, but the, to integrate lots of wacky stuff and pick from it and use that to, uh, affect my practice and teaching has been really positive. So for this summer, I don't know. I, I hope that people like read a, read a good beach book and just kinda let your mind, let your teaching mind rest a little bit. And in doing so, like, uh, create some openings for new ideas about education, um, from, uh, other parts of the world, kids having kids has been helpful. I don't know, just like everything. It's such a big job education. Uh, everything is so helpful. What about you? What's a, what's a, uh, an influence on your practice that, you know, might, might surprise me or, or other folks out there in MTL and,
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know about surprise. I mean, I definitely, I, I feel similarly like methods courses absolutely impacted my teaching, but I feel like opportunities where I was able to observe other teachers and where I was able to have conversations with folks about their practice that has deeply impacted me, uh, and books I've read. I, I mean, you know, honestly, I've learned so much from sharing with other teachers, like, for example, maybe I'll bring student work and we'll talk about it. And we kind of create this conversation together about how we wanna come back to the students based on the work we see those type of moments where we're, we're collaborating and we're bringing multiple perspectives to the table that I think has really often shifted me out of my first initial reaction or what I thought I was going to do in the classroom the next day. So that continues to surprise and delight me, um, and thinking about this summer. Yeah. I hope that, um, I think there's a lot of creativity and joy that can come out of the marination process when you're just kind of like sitting back and like healing yourself, whether through sleep or sunshine or time with friends and family or whatever that looks like for you. I think there's a lot of creativity that can come from that place of like fertile, like, you know, wellness, right? Yeah. That's what I, I think about. I don't never think of that as wasted time. I think of that as really like, you know, getting the soil ready for like all that's gonna come in the fall. Um, and that being said, I also think it could be a fun time to dip your toes into something that you are like excited to read, that you might not have a chance to read during the school years that could be teaching related. So it's like a very low pressure, like, oh, you know, I've really wanted to read more by this author. I've wanted to read this article. I've wanted to dip into this topic and not with a pressure, but just with like a curiosity. And, um, yeah, I think so. So often we, as teachers love learning and to give yourself space to learn in whatever that looks like can be a real gift.
Speaker 1:Yes. And if you need book recommendations, just hit, hit the, hit the MTL back catalog of episodes, loads of folks that we, uh, interviewed have some, uh, real good. Yes. Books out. Think about it. Think about it
Speaker 2:One quick recommendation again, got a plug. Anthony Smith, Allison Hans book. I read mathematizing children's literature before I, we did the interview, but this summer I wanna read all the children's books that they mention like, oh yeah. I just wanna go to the library and read all those children's books. I wanna read them to my son. I would read'em to myself. So, you know, diving into some good ye children's books, just like, yes. TLC Dan, thank you for such a rich season and a chance to have so many interesting conversations. It is genuinely a joy to learn with and from you
Speaker 1:Likewise, and always hope to see you folks on Twitter now, and then let us know what you're up to this summer at MTL show on Twitter or in our Facebook group, math teacher lounge will be there tuning in now. And then, um, it's been a treat interacting with you folks, uh, over this last season. Take care until the new season so long.
.jpg)
