Week 1 Task 1: Your mathematical dreams and worries
Today your mission is...
Before starting something today, ask yourself “What is it really all about?”
Ready, Set, Go
This question helps you make or recall the list of things that matter the most to you. It is a value affirmation question. Affirming your values before an activity gives you emotional support. It reduces anxiety and increases the will to persevere. But did you know that value affirmation also helps with problem-solving and with computational accuracy? Learn more at the Brilliant Report.
With kids, value affirmation can be as simple as recalling their favorite things before or during math activities: puppies, snowflakes, superheroes… Listen to the song from The Sound of Music for more ideas.
When working with grown-ups, we usually ask them to share their dreams. We’ve found that adults often share dreams together with worries. Not wanting to repeat past negative experience can be a powerful value affirmation.
As we plan activities for kids, it helps to keep dreams in mind. So here are two questions to get you started:
1. When it comes to your children and learning mathematics, what are your dreams? What is it really all about?
2. Imagine that your math dreams for your children came true. How do you see your children learn multiplication, and use multiplication?
Respond below!
1. I want my children to love math as much as my husband and I do. We try to show them the importance of mathematics in everyday life and hopefully they will be able to appreciate the beauty of numbers and understand the concept behind the natural design. My youngest daughter likes numbers but dislike busy work. I dream that she would understand multiplication and learn the multiplication facts without unnecessary time spent on memorization (she would find it boring).
2. We look for patterns in nature, examine our finds and draw conclusions. Kids love to discover new things.
1. I want my child to enjoy math, and I want him to be able to deal powerfully with what's so in the world. Math is so often a way to do that.
2. We explore the patterns together, and my child has the experience of showing me things he discovers.
1. To see World as a more complex system then just a set of coincidences. I hope she will learn to recognize patterns in the events, will see the reasons behind them, will learn more concepts of the Universe.
2. Multiplication is a beautiful concept, I hope my daughter will see it around naturally.
1. I want my daughter to change the way she thinks about math. I don't want her to think math is "hard", or that it is a subject separate from her other studies. I hope that she can find math broad and interesting, and that she can enjoy solving problems.
2. I hope that my daughter can do better than just memorize multiplication tables. I could see her using multiplication as a tool, or scaffolding, that can help her advance to more interesting and throught-provoking mathematical issues and problems.
1. That maths will come to them naturally. As a child I hated maths and decided that I would study art. I discovered that I did still need maths in the arts and for everyday life.
2. They can use different methods to calculate complex calculations. They should realise that it isn't a subject to fear and that once the basic are mastered, the can go on to bigger and harder things.
I dream of keeping my daughter excited about math. She told me she likes math at home, but math at school is boring her. I see her using multiplication to talk me into giving her more allowance.
1. My dream for my children is to be able to see the relationships to the world around them.
2. For multiplication I want them to be able to quickly see the relationships of the numbers and be able to explore new concepts without feeling like collapsing to their knees when I introduce something new.
I dream that my children can speak the language of math confidently as adults. I dream that they will see the beauty of the patterns found in the physical world, and enjoy the games of mathematics. Specifically, I hope that my children will recognize multiplication when it appears in their every day lives.
1. I dream that my children will enjoy learning math - figuring out how the world works - and that they enjoy math for math's sake as well as gain abilities to do whatever they want to in life that requires math.
2. I see my children learning multiplication with a sense of wonder at the way the world works. I see them using multiplication to make play more creative, to do art, to understand rhythm, to build higher math skills.
1. I dream that they can see the math...the patterns, the space it occupies, and how it is relevant to their lives. I want them to be able to use math to make life simpler, and more importantly, to be able to ponder a question and know how and when math can help them formulate how to ask the question in a way that helps them find relevant answers.
2. 2 of my 3 boys have learned multiplication differently than I expected and differently from each other. I hope to gain a variety of access points to support their learnings. I see them as using multiplication as a way of more quickly figuring out tangible amounts around them.
1. To understand, learn and use math in a way that is integrated with their everyday lives. To view math as just one of many tools that may be of use and of value in their journey as they try to make sense and develop a deeper understanding of life and the world.
2. Learning multiplication in whatever way makes the most sense to them. It may mean memorizing multiplication tables to master the basics so that they can then take the next (creative) leap in their understanding of multiplication. It may mean learning multiplication in "nontraditional" ways which is more intuitive to their style of learning. Once learned, to use this knowledge when needed to deepen their understanding of whatever subject, art, expression, etc they are pursuing.
Listening to the kids is an easy idea, but a complex practice. "Creative leap in understanding" - these are great to watch, and to try to follow!
Yes, and a challenging practice as well! I find that sometimes I do not recognize when a creative leap in understanding is occurring because my mind may not understand things the same way. It is easy to forget to trust a child's learning process no matter how "unlike" learning it seems to be.
It takes me days or weeks sometimes to understand what it was the kid was trying to do or to say. I gradually developed three practices that help. First, I try to develop "mistakes" into new ideas - to see what the mistake might be all about, for the kid. Second, I document what we are doing, taking notes of things kids say, and photos of what they do. Looking at that later helps to notice kid ideas. Third, when we observe together with other parents in our math circles, we can compare notes later, and chat about what we noticed - that helps a whole lot. And kids often join these conversations to add their observations, too!
I imagine my children learning to see math in the real world around them, to see it as an integral part of their lives and to feel comfortable and confident in experimenting with it.
I want my children to love what mathematics can show them, whether it be the natural world or their day to day life. I hope they will not see math as a 'chore' but as a step towards better understanding of other subjects. I see my children learning multiplication in whatever way 'clicks'.
My dream is to have my children love math and not see it as a separate subject that they study in school. They would also easily be able to use math in their daily lives (paying bills, budgeting, etc.). I would also like it that if they were faced with math problems that they would find it enjoyable to work at it and to solve it. I would also like them to see the beauty in math.
First that my children enjoy learning. Not just easy learning, but ideally "hard fun." That they learn to use math in their lives for practical purposes (staying out of debt, living within their means, budgeting, building wealth etc) and hopefully that they find beauty in math (if they are built way)
My goal is that my children can learn to do math more intuitively and creatively than I was ever able to, and to eventually be able to "speak math" in ways that I can't.
I see a common theme that rings true for me as well. I have always enjoyed manipulating numbers to learn math concepts and to find patterns. Although I'm a perfectionist in other areas, I've always enjoyed playing with numbers and math concepts. I now work at a college and part of my job involves teaching math concepts as they relate to statistics. I love helping adult learners overcome their learned fear of math through my love of numbers. My dream is that my son develops a similar appreciation for math if not an even deeper understanding and appreciation and that he one day uses it to help others. I have reviewed the natural math multiplication tables and it has helped me realize the unique ways to informally teach my son math and that is how I see him learning multiplication :) In fact I used French fries on the weekend to introduce multiplication as a form of repeated addition (I asked him if he'd rather have 3+3 French fries or 3x3 French fries - and then we worked it out to see which one was more)
What a clever way to invite a young kid to play with operations new to him! I thought of remixing your game with function machines. If kids invent their own operations, for example, a function machine that adds a number to itself several times, or creates some other pattern, you can keep playing these comparison games with their creations. Is it better to have 3#3 fries or 3A3 fries? It depends on how you invent 3 and A operations!
1. I want my children to enjoy math and use it as a tool to do whatever they want to do with their lives. Not see it has 'un-girly' or 'hard'. It's just a tool
2. I see my children using multiplication in cooking and other planning activities when playing with multiple children.
Mathematics is surprisingly vulnerable to demographic stereotypes such as gender or race. I wonder why stereotype threats have such a strong effect. Maybe because mathematics takes high-order thinking and creativity, and both are incompatible with any sort of fear.
1. Seeing students spend energy and effort efficiently: doing routine calculations naturally and easily but also being able to take on multi-step puzzles and enjoying the difficulty when they encounter challenges. Hearing them express curiosity and wonder about math. Hearing them ask and answer their own questions.
2. Learning multiplication by identifying patterns. Learning how multiplication relates to addition and division. Memorizing multiplication tables through pleasant repetition. Using multiplication in classroom games as often as they use it "in real life".
"Pleasant repetition" is a nice turn of phrase. Mathematical repetition can be meditative, or playful, or exciting - pleasant in many different ways.
I want M and R to be comfortable and confident enough with math that they can weather future difficulties without giving up or hating it -- difficult topics, neverending worksheets, bad teachers, or a best friend who says math is for nerds. I want them to be "the math guru" in whatever field they go into, which I see as a huge leg up. I want them to be financially savvy as well, which math-ease plays into strongly. I see multiplication as part of the big picture -- but I would like them to have a more naturally intuition than I do. I would like them to NOT have to recite the little multiplication chants in their heads like I do! (Hmmm... does this mean I should avoid teaching them the chants for awhile?)
There is a certain danger in chants, yes. We'll talk about it a bit more during the fourth week. The danger is that chants stand in the way of noticing patterns. You have to recite a large chunk of the chant to retrieve one fact. It's better not to use mnemonics for anything that you can calculate, or that has other math meaning. You can use mnemonics for names and other information that does not have a pattern to it.
