When I give a Math test, I generally don’t answer questions.  Why?  Because students are really good at tricking their teachers into doing problems for them.  We, as teachers, care about our students so when a student comes up really struggling, “I just don’t know where to start” or “I don’t understand why my answer isn’t working”, it’s really tempting to show them how to start or to find their mistake for them.  And this creates a really slippery slope.  There’s all sorts of factors (relationship with student, type of student (did they do their homework?), student’s emotional level (are they crying?) ) that can bias the amount of help we give one student compared to another.  To make my life simple, and to keep things objective and fair, I follow a simple rule that I don’t offer any help to anyone on a test.  I also do this to honor the integrity of the test.  A test should measure what the student knows, on her own, without me scaffolding and guiding the way. 

I do, however, let students ask as many questions as they want.  They just know to not expect an answer from me.  I find that just the process of speaking their question out loud helps many of them to find their way.  For others, they’re hoping I’ll accidentally crack and answer their question but I try really hard not to.  For example, if a student comes up and says, “I got an answer of 2 but when I plug it back in, it doesn’t work.  I don’t know why.”,  I’ll might say, “Awesome, you realized you made a mistake!  Your brain just grew!  Now, go try to find and correct your mistake.”  This celebrates the struggle involved in learning and hopefully gives them the pep talk they need to solve their own problems.  To be honest though, they mostly walk away annoyed.  Some persevere through it, others just give up.

Yesterday, one of my more (shall we say outgoing?) students was coming up regularly with questions and returning to her seat loudly annoyed that I wouldn’t help her.  Twice she exclaimed, “It’s your job to teach me, Mrs. Jain!” as she returned to her seat.  It was with humor, but there was truth to it too.  It’s still bothering me today which is why I’m writing this post.  I’m thinking about what Jess said in our department meeting yesterday that our students are getting quite bold, and saying that out loud in class, albeit with humor, feels quite bold and bordering on inappropriate.  Do you ever feel like the students think we’re their employees?

I gently told her that I am teaching her, I’m teaching her how to figure things out on her own,  how to apply the skills we learned in class to problems on her own.  Self-reliance and resourcefulness are such important skills.  I won’t always be there with her and we as teachers will not always be there with our students as they encounter problems in the world outside Carondelet.  I’m thinking about all of the pushback that we’re receiving with our new Algebra program surrounding how (if) we’re teaching.  How can we get students to understand that the best way to teach them, and the best way for them to learn, is if we give them the skills to figure things out on their own instead of giving them (showing them) the path to the right answer?