Downtown Grand Rapids has something called "Art Prize" (http://www.artprize.org/) each year, which is an open art competition where thousands of artists can take their work and show it in front of masses of people milling around the city to be entertained, and for the chance to win a monetary prize at the end of the two weeks. The reason I bring up Art Prize, though, is not because of any of these things, but rather because of the types of art that are there. Below are a couple examples of the exhibits they have. (Hover over for source websites on these images).
I don't disagree with those that call these things art; in fact I agree with them. Art can be a plethora of different objects, sounds, or ideas, which means it includes communication. I recently attended a seminar called The Art of Communication: Learning the Secrets of the World's Most Dynamic Communicators, organized by Brad Gray. Although I attended to learn more about how I could use this information in Campus Ministry @ GVSU (which I did), I realized how applicable it is to being an effective and enjoyable educator as well! Below is a quick video explaining the general theme of the seminar, then I will dive into it.
There were so many great ideas in this seminar which lasted most of a day, but in this post I am going to highlight just a few that stuck out significantly to me. As you are reading, think about which of these you have seen to be effective (or, if you believe, ineffective) or think might be effective in the classroom, and feel free to comment and share your experiences & opinions.
1. What's the "Core Idea"
Math can be an overwhelming subject to teach, especially with Common Core Standards and others' expectations coming at you from all angles. You may feel like you have to teach about 15 different concepts in a 50 minute class period. (At least that's how it felt at times from a student's perspective!) Good news...you don't. Brad Gray spoke into a little bit of the psychology behind how the brain works, and it's extremely interesting! The human brain is designed to do 2 things: survive and conserve calories. Yep, you heard right. If the brain is getting a bunch of different ideas all at once, many times, it will deem those ideas not worthy of the calories it would use to understand them, and go into survival/daydream mode. When there is one core, central idea you are trying to get across, you will have your listeners leaning in. So, as you start to prepare a math lesson, think, "What's the single most important thing I want students to get out of today?" and connect everything to that central idea.
2. Why should I care?
You have your core idea. You know the concept you will be teaching is extremely important in the math world. Now you just need to help students recognize their need for the concept. I actually spoke into this a little bit in my last blog post, but Brad Gray has even more to say. We, as educators have what's called the "curse of knowledge" or the idea that we don't remember what it's like to not already know what we know. We need to put ourselves back in that position, really figure out why this information is important, and help the students grasp that the same way. When they understand that they should care about your core idea, the rest is history!
Closing Thoughts
If your students believe that you care enough to invest in them, your teaching will land. If you are a math teacher, odds are you are pretty passionate about math and teaching other people math. (If you're not, let's talk on that..) So, go into each lesson with that core idea in mind, and ask yourself "what's at stake if these students don't hear what I have to say today?" Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for next week's blog, a look into some more of Tanner Rubin's Math Thoughts.
"The joy of communication comes when you move from having to say something to having something to say."
-Brad Gray
5 Comments
10/10/2016 08:46:08 am
Always nice to see new-to-me material. I think the big three points here are very valid. Starting with the big idea, in particular, can help a math teacher get out of teaching this because it's the next section. A good planning question is 'what was this math invented to solve?'
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Tanner Rubin
10/10/2016 10:07:51 am
I will definitely have to check that out! It sounds interesting, thanks!
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Kelsey York
10/10/2016 04:54:56 pm
Tanner, this post was incredible! I loved it partly because you talked about CM and the seminar (which I wasn't able to attend even though I really wanted to), but also because you tied so many different aspects of life into it. I think it's so important for teachers to really communicate with their students in a way that isn't just a 'preach at the whiteboard' kind of way, and stories, like you said, are a great way to do that. I felt like you were telling a story just in this blog post.
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Lauren Grimes
10/11/2016 08:41:25 pm
TANNER, RETWEET TO ALL YOU SAID!
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Amanda Meldrum
10/25/2016 12:54:42 pm
TANNER YOU KILLED IT!! I really got a ton out of this post. Not only did you connect the seminar and the things you learned to CM but you also found connections to math and you connected it to art in Grand Rapids as well. One thing is for sure you did what every teacher hopes to do and that is find connections that matter to your readers/listeners. I really enjoyed reading the three steps portion of this post, it really brought me in and your visuals kept me focused so this blog really played into what you said about the different types of learners. GREAT JOB!
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