Math Year 2- Post Four

Welcome Everyone!

     This week what I would like to share with you all is the importance of collaboration.I can speak from personal experience when I say that ever since I was a child I remember growing up hearing stories and watching television programs and movies that depicted the hero as being one extraordinary individual. Whether the hero was gifted physically (as is the case with super heroes such as Spider-man and Superman) or whether the hero was gifted intellectually (as in the case with Dexter from the show Dexter’s laboratory, or characters such as Master Oogway) they were always portrayed as being extremely exceptional individuals (keyword here being individual). These individuals were the main characters in the stories I would hear and/or watch, and at the very least they would be someone that other people would be forced to consult at some point in the story because of their extraordinary abilities. This illustrated to be that the hero is someone that other people need, and at the same time, is someone who needs no one! Naturally, as a child growing up and being exposed to this grand tales, I wanted to be like the heroes in the stories. There can be many benefits to this, for example, the setting of high goals for one’s self is surely an admirable trait, however, I now see that it also had a significant drawback- a negative outlook on the idea of collaboration.
     As I grew older, I transitioned from elementary school to high school, from boyhood to young adulthood, and although there are many changes that accompany such transitions, coincidently enough, what hadn’t changed were the hero stories. In the science and mathematics classrooms in particular, I remember hearing stories about heroes such as Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, as well as other pioneers such as Antoine Lavoisier, Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr. Once again, as I heard or read their stories these characters seemed to all be gifted with incredible intellectual abilities that they were born with and we, as ‘mere mortals’, could only look up to them in awe and wonder. Even now, although a bit older, I still eagerly wanted to be like the heroes I grew up hearing about, I wanted to be smart (who doesn’t, right?), and so I would try to isolate myself from others in the classroom, and sit alone, studying, thinking, writing, and attempting to answer every question on my own so that I could feel good about myself knowing that I needed no assistance from anyone, and that I am intelligent enough to figure things out on my own.
     It was not until I was a university student that I found myself learning about the lives of my heroes in more detail. For the sake of brevity, what I realized was that everyone, even heroes, are born as infants that are weak and ignorant. The most well known writers such as Shakespeare at one point in his life did not know his ABC’s and even great mathematicians and/or physicists like Albert Einstein at one point did not know how to count to 10! Every single one of us needed help; and continue to need help.
     The reason why this realization was so important to me, in particular as an educator, was that it is crucial for me to try to avoid instilling in my students this myth that they must be able to solve all their problems independently, and that seeking assistance should be seen as something that is beneath them. It is important for them to understand that collaboration is something that happens between even the greatest minds and bodies in the world. Professors attend conferences (such as the Solvay Conference-some of the attendees of which are shown in the picture above) and professional athletes train with teammates, partners and coaches. Collaboration in the classrooms allows for students to discuss and share ideas, to discover areas of weakness, and to receive and give guidance among other things. There has been research that was been done that gives supporting evidence to the tremendously positive impact beneficial collaboration has on the overall performance of students, in and outside the classroom. So to all my fellow educators, please be a hero to your students by making collaboration a part of your classroom!

PS.  Since we were discussing great minds such as Einstein's, I hope that maybe this video will be able to inspire you a little bit. Einstein initially couldn't find a job and was forced to work at a Patent office, but he never game up- talk about growth mindset! Now imagine what the world would be if he had a fixed mindset...