Happy Friday, Bell Ringers. Next Wednesday, July 22, at 1pm Eastern is our last meeting of the summer school book club—join us for what’s shaping up to be an incredible discussion on teaching writing with Writing Fitness authors David Didau and Rikki Cole. Join Bell Ringer Pro and get the zoom link here.
(Author Kristen Smith with her book Cultivating Math Confidence)
Today’s in-depth video interview is all about what actually builds confidence for math students—and it may not be what you think. Longtime math teacher and coach Kristen Smith has a new book out, called Cultivating Math Confidence: Teaching Strategies to Boost Proficiency in Grades 6 through 12. She’s won awards for her teaching, and her students, many coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, consistently outperform all the other students in her Seattle district.
Smith also strongly believes in using a blend of cognitive science principles and inquiry learning to help her high school students understand and solidify mathematical ideas. In her new book, she argues that the instructional choices teachers make have a lot to do with how confident students feel about their math performance.
In this interview, we get into:
How inquiry learning causes “the headache which creates the need for the aspirin”
Why many classrooms don’t ever solidify the concepts learned from inquiry
How to create a “culture of belief” in your math classroom
How an “inquiry sandwich” lesson routine of both cognitive science principles and inquiry learning builds confidence
Why math anxiety and student confidence are closely linked to instruction and successful learning
Why math facts—and other elementary and middle school math skills—are essential to higher math learning
I learned a ton in this one, don’t miss it:
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