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Math Friend
Happy April!
Lately, on my walks, I’ve been noticing spring arriving in small but unmistakable ways. The light is stretching later into the evening. Buds are appearing on branches that looked bare just days ago. Tiny signs of green are pushing up through the ground. Even the ocean feels different this time of year; one day churning, the next calm and shimmering in the late afternoon light. And now, the daffodils have begun to arrive. It all feels full of possibility.
Every year, these early signs of spring bring me back to something I’ve always loved about this point in the school year. It’s often around now that you can really begin to see the learning. The routines are solidly in place. Students are more comfortable taking risks. Their language is stronger. Their thinking is deeper. The seeds that have been planted all year are beginning to sprout.
Almost without realizing it, the quiet work of teaching begins to rise to the surface. Small shifts at first, and then more and more, until classrooms start to fill with an unmistakable sense of confidence, energy, and joy. A student explains an idea more clearly than they could have in the fall. Someone who once hesitated begins to share more freely. Strategies become more flexible. Like the first green shoots after a long winter, confidence begins to peek through. And joy follows, bursting into view like the daffodils, leaves, and blossoms that suddenly make the whole world feel alive again.
I am curious: What’s beginning to bloom in your classroom?
This is such a powerful time to pause and notice what is emerging in our students; and to help them notice it, too. We do a beautiful job of this kind of reflection in the fall as we get to know our students. But do we take the time to bookend that journey in the spring?
Do we ask:
- What is the same, and what is different about your thinking in mathematics now?
- What has taken root for you?
- What is beginning to grow?
When we take time to name growth, celebrate progress, and make learning visible, we do more than reflect. We help shape students’ mathematical identities. We help them see themselves as capable, growing, and full of possibility.
In this month’s newsletter, I’m sharing a few resources to help you pause long enough to really see what’s beginning to bloom; including reflection tools for teachers and students, Problems of the Month, and a link to the beautiful Count Me In Challenge from Vicki Abeles writer, producer and director of the film Counted Out.
There is so much joy in this part of the year when we take the time to notice it.
Kindly,
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