And so it begins.\u00a0\u00a0 The students are flustered. The emails are coming at night.\u00a0 The faces stare at me, scared to death.\u00a0 Although I repeat numerous times, \u201cYou do not have to come to class with each problem done and correct\u201d students are totally freaking out about the fact that they can\u2019t \u201cdo their homework\u201d or they can\u2019t \u201cget\u201d a certain problem on the homework.\u00a0 No matter how many times I attempt to send the message the first few weeks about how unnecessary it is to come to class with a problem complete or an answer to show, students feel the need.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow I am writing on my large post-it notes in HUGE capital letters, \u201cGet comfortable with uncertainty because it\u2019s not going anywhere.\u201d\u00a0 Every year about this time, I give the speech about how my homework is extremely different from any homework they have probably encountered in math class.\u00a0 These are not problems that you are supposed to read, recognize and repeat.<\/strong>\u00a0 They are there to motivate your thinking, stimulate your brain and trigger prior knowledge.\u00a0 In other words,\u00a0 you need to be patient with yourself and truly create mathematics.<\/p>\n Today I met with a young woman who I thought was about to cry.\u00a0 She came and said, \u201cI can\u2019t do this problem that was assigned for tomorrow.\u201d\u00a0 Here\u2019s how the conversation went:<\/p>\n Me: Why don\u2019t you read the problem for me?<\/p>\n Girl:\u00a0 Find points on the line y=2 that are 13 units from the point (2,14)<\/p>\n Me:\u00a0 Ok, so show me what you did. (she takes out her graph paper notebook and shows that she graphed the line y=2, plotted the point (2,14)).\u00a0 Great, that\u2019s a great diagram.<\/p>\n Girl: \u00a0But it didn\u2019t make sense because in order for it to be 13 units away, it had to be like, diagonal.<\/p>\n Me: Huh, what would that look like?<\/p>\n Girl: (drawing on her diagram) There\u2019d be like two of them here and here.<\/p>\n Me; yeah?<\/p>\n Girl: But it can\u2019t be like that\u2026.<\/p>\n Me: yeah? Why not?<\/p>\n Girl: Um\u2026cause it wouldn\u2019t be a straight distance.\u00a0 I think..<\/p>\n Me: Is it 13 units away from (2,14)?<\/p>\n Girl: yeah, I think so\u2026<\/p>\n Me: Hmmm\u2026.how far is (2,14) from the line y=2?<\/p>\n Girl:\u00a0 Oh that\u2019s easier \u2013 it\u2019s like 12. ..Oh My gosh..it\u2019s like a hypotenuse\u2026.and the other side that I don\u2019t know is like the a and the 12 is like the b.\u00a0 I can just find it.\u00a0 Oh my gosh that\u2019s so easy.\u00a0 And the other one is on the other side.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Why didn\u2019t I see that?<\/p>\n Me:\u00a0 Well, you did\u2026actually\u2026.<\/p>\n Girl: well, after you asked me that question\u2026<\/p>\n Me: yeah, but eventually you\u2019ll learn how to ask yourself those questions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And they do\u2026.it\u2019s just the beginning of the year.\u00a0 We have to give them time \u2013 time to look into their prior knowledge as a habit, time to surprise themselves, time to have those moments, time to enjoy the moment and revel in the joy and courage and disappointment.\u00a0 It\u2019s all a part of the breakthrough that is needed to realize that they are creative and mathematics needs them to be.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing and it\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n\n