The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Best practices, tips, and stories to help you be extraordinary in your classroom and beyond, featuring Curriculum Associates' Manager, Voice of the Customer, Hayley Browning.
The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Building Mathematical Thinkers with Meghan Froman
In today's episode, Meghan Froman joins to talk all about how she has built an incredible classroom full of mathematical thinkers. From incorporating math discourse to encouraging productive struggle, Meghan has created a space that gives her students room to grow, learn, and thrive.
Whether you're looking to reduce math anxiety in your classroom, create more meaningful student interactions, or help your students develop deeper mathematical understanding, Meghan's wisdom offers a roadmap for nurturing confident, capable mathematical thinkers.
Curriculum Associates, an education technology company, and the makers of iReady, presents the Extraordinary Educators podcast. Join host Haley Browning to hear tips, best practices and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. We believe all educators are extraordinary and we are here to support you. Hi, everyone, welcome to today's episode of the Extraordinary Educators podcast. Today we're joined by the wonderful Megan Froman.
Speaker 1:Megan is a math teacher from Mississippi and she's talking to us about this idea of building mathematical thinkers. You know, when you look around your math classroom, what do you want to see from your students? Are we looking at discourse? Are we looking at productive struggle? Are we seeing any math anxiety? And Megan dives into all of that on today's episode and with that, we hope you really enjoyed today's episode with Megan. Hi, megan, welcome to today's episode of the Extraordinary Educators podcast. Hi, it's good to see you, great to see you as well. So, megan, you wrote an incredible blog, which we'll be sure to link in the show notes, but we want to talk to you today about this idea of building mathematical thinkers and really solidifying this idea and understanding of math in your students. So understanding this idea of building mathematical thinkers is step number one. What does that term mean to?
Speaker 2:you. I think that the mistakes that I've made in the past have really helped me to understand that a lot more clearly. I, you know, used to think that it was just about teaching the standards and having them understand what they need to be doing for a problem, and through my progression over the years, I've learned that that's not the case at all, that they need to be able to understand the standard and also apply it to real world problems. So I think that that's a really big thing. Having them learn the standard and also be able to apply it somewhere other than just in a textbook is really, really important. And then also being able to make the connections to standards that will come later for them to be able to build on themselves and their learning, is really important.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, 100%. I love that. And, megan, you had mentioned this idea of the fact that you've learned over the years and you've adjusted your teaching styles. And I'm curious in the blog you had mentioned, you had shifted from this idea of a more teacher-centered approach to something that's much more student-led. As you were experiencing that change and going through that change. What challenges did you face?
Speaker 2:I think the biggest challenge I faced was being okay with productive struggle. I feel like I often wanted to just run to their rescue, because seeing them struggle can be really difficult and I feel like there is a lot of fear around math in a lot of students. They're learning new things every year. It builds on itself and if they didn't really solidify something one year, it can get really difficult the next year. It builds on itself and, you know, if they didn't really solidify something one year, it can get really difficult the next year. And I think as teachers it comes from a good place. We don't want them to have math fear. But I've seen more growth allowing my students to have productive struggle and realizing that they can figure it out and they can make connections and they can do it on their own rather than me just jumping in and pulling them out whenever it gets really difficult. And so that's kind of where that's kind of the biggest shift that I made and when I started really seeing a difference in my classroom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, productive struggle is so important but so difficult and, as you had mentioned, like all of you wonderful teachers, megan, and you all listening as well, it's hard to take that step back and recognize like the struggle is where they learn, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It really is. And, megan, I'm curious when you're starting to become okay with this idea of productive struggle, how are you supporting your students through that? Is it, you know, making sure that they have this expectation of you being hands off, or are there ways that you have made them understand productive struggle a little bit better?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Um, I have been very honest with my students about making mistakes myself. I haven't been afraid to make a mistake and tell them that I was wrong. I made a mistake, so they can see that it happens. And even the people who study the curriculum and are you know, have a college degree and know what they're doing. And I've also just worked really hard to make my classroom a safe place for making mistakes. I feel like my students really know that when they do have struggle and they do make mistakes, that they can talk to their peers about it. Discourse has been a huge change I've made in my classroom as well, and I feel like through all of those things, they feel more comfortable with struggling and they feel more comfortable asking their peers for assistance, and I've learned that when they put their brains together instead of me just jumping to the rescue, they come to their conclusions together, which is so much more powerful for them. They take so much more ownership over their learning.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that, and I'm just picturing your classroom, right?
Speaker 1:now with the fact that your students are having these incredible conversations and it sounds so, so powerful and you're clearly leaving quite the mark on your students and you know, setting up this idea of productive struggle and encouraging that discourse. They will carry that on forward, so thank you for leaving your mark with them. Okay, on that note, megan, I do have another question for you, as you are thinking about your ideal math classroom and again I'm sitting here picturing what I expect your classroom to look like. But in your mind, when you're looking around, looking at your students, looking at you know, manipulatives, things that you may have tucked away, what are you seeing? You know, are they having these conversations? What are you seeing amongst your students?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've actually gotten a very special experience. I've been so lucky to loop for three years with the same group of students. Now I went from second to third to fourth, and so each year I have, like, new students that I, you know, saw the year before I didn't actually have in my class, and this past year was the first year I got to teach all of them in fourth grade and that's been a really special thing because I've had certain students that I've been able to see grow throughout the years, and I'm thinking of one student in particular who came to me. I had him in third and fourth and he came to me in third grade and was very upfront. He's like I don't like math forth. And he came to me in third grade and was very upfront. He's like I don't like math, I hate puzzles, you know, it's just, it's not my thing. He was a very ELA driven, loved reading, and I was determined to make a difference, and so I think he did have a lot of fear around math and we had a lot of talks about, you know, saying I can't do this yet but I'll get there. And this past year he made his way to proficiency on our state tests.
Speaker 2:And so I saw over, you know, between last year and this year, how he's become more comfortable talking with his peers. I've had students come up to me and tell me that they really enjoy all the discourse. And tell me that they really enjoy all the discourse and I'm really thankful that the curriculum has that in there for them to also see in the book and it also kind of helps remind us as teachers that it's important, you know, because sometimes I think we get stuck in this, like I think I said in my blog, like an I do, okay, you do, I do, you do and we kind of skip over them talking together and working through it. But I think that that has made the biggest difference and they're so much more comfortable with each other and it is cool to think that every year they're moving along with that same group of kids and so it makes my heart happy to think that they're going to be bringing that into next year and the years to come and that they're comfortable with each other and that they're helping each other.
Speaker 1:Oh, megan, I have goosebumps. It's so, so clear that not only are you building up these students to be the incredible students that they can be, but you're leaving your mark, you're helping, support them, you're building these lasting relationships and the ability to loop with them Incredible. Yeah, yeah, I love that and and I think on that note, megan, it's the perfect note to wrap up yeah, thank you so much for your time today and truly thank you for all that you do for your students and for solidifying their relationship with math and building the relationship between themselves and the other students and you and yourself, and you're setting up these students for success. So, thank you for all that you do. We appreciate you. Thank you so much.
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