Yingying's Math Teaching
Teaching math for a thoughtful world!
Teaching Philosophy
Connect Math with the Real-World
I believe the best way to learn is through engaging in the real world. Before I came to the US and pursued my master’s degree in education at HTH GSE, I started a learning and playing center in Harbin, China. At our center, Time Kingdom, our kids have no problem quickly falling into learning: they learn how to solve problems by role-playing detectives who carefully look for clues from the scene of the “crime” and make reasonable assumptions; they explore the ingredients of a range of drinks by playing scientists who do experiments in their magical lab; they learn architecture by working as architects and builders, designing and building igloos in different styles using ice bricks. These working experiences make me believe that children get to express their creativity and learn about the “real world” with a hands-on approach. So working as a math teacher, I always want to connect my teaching with real-life experiences or scenarios and get students to think like real mathematicians. A lot of complaints about mathematics seem to be related to the dry questions with memorization of formulas and concepts. But the origin of math is to solve the problem in the real world. So the most important thing for math teaching is to make it relevant, give students questions they are interested in, show students the most relevant questions, and cultivate their critical thinking.
Teach Math to Cultivate Virtues
I also believe math should be so a subject to cultivate virtues such as perseverance, creativity, inclusiveness, logic, and clarity. Math class should be fun and challenging so that students will develop their creativity, curiosity, and perseverance through doing it. And learning math should also be a process to realize the diversity and beauty of human thinking, which will remind us that we should be fully accepted and others as human beings with their own feeling, thoughts, and identities in the math class, regardless of their level, gender or race. There should be no judgment and bias over right or wrong, good or bad, smart or dumb. Math is not a subject for them to criticize themselves, rather, it should be a subject to flourish their humanity. An equitable math classroom means celebrating differences, welcoming various strategies, and validating students’ feelings and personal experiences.
Teach Math for Better Thinking
I believe that teaching math is for teaching better thinking. Math can help us think logically, analytically, abstractly, and critically, having the capacity to weigh evidence with impartiality. It seems even more important to learn math in a world that is full of bias, hate, and lies. Math can help us see through things, connect consequences with causes and view things from different angles. It empowers us to build a more thoughtful and equitable world.
Reflection
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Teaching Superpowers
I am good at designing math lessons with low-floor-high-ceiling hands-on activities so that students will have the opportunity to apply what they have learned and get interested in what they are learning.
I always connect math with real-life situations so that students can see how they can apply their knowledge in the real world.
I always center students' needs and interests and adjust lessons based on their needs and level.
I am good at asking probing questions to further students thinking, helping them reflect on their strategies and figure out the problem by themselves.
Area for growth
I need to improve my classroom management skills. As a novice teacher, I need to do a better job in classroom norms setting, making sure that every student is respected while the community rules are also respected.
I need to improve my skills in facilitating students to work in groups, including giving them prompt feedback, setting norms, and allocating different roles.
Teaching for Antiracist
I believe teaching and learning math is even more important nowadays because it helps us to think better. With a logical, critical, and analytical mind, we are more likely to build a more thoughtful world and not easily get fooled by lies and hatred prevailing in the mass media.
Teaching and learning math is also a process to embrace different thinking patterns because there are many ways to solve a problem. Every thought in math is valuable and needs to be respected. Through learning math, students will naturally learn to understand others' thinking, and feeling and be even more inclusive and thoughtful.
Students will find out that even the most famous mathematical theorem that seemed so true in an era could be proved to be wrong or not comprehensive in another era. Math teaches us to be humble and modest.
Questions
How might I support students who believe they are not math people to believe they can do a good job in math?
How might I support my students to collaborate better and equally in group work?
How might I manage an active classroom that's full of teenagers?