A ‘‘nadir’’ is a low point. A nadir experience, therefore, is the opposite of a peak experience. It is a low point in your experiences with math. Thinking back over your life, try to remember a specific experience in which you felt extremely negative emotions about math. You should consider this experience to represent one of the ‘‘low points’’ in your math story. What happened? When? Who was involved? What did you do? What were you thinking and feeling? What impact has the event had on you? What does the event say about who you are as a teacher?
A low point in my mathematics career happened during my 6th grade. I was sitting in class and my teacher was reintroducing division and my inner circle of friends all knew long division. I was really embarrassed because I managed to make it to the 6th grade without learning division and all of my friends could do it. I was even embarrassed to tell my teacher. Eventually I told my teacher and she made me feel so bad at first, but not on purpose. She couldn't believe it. She took me in and taught me division in that same hour.
Sounds like a humbling and embarrasing experience ended up being a good one, because you learned that it was okay to share ignorance with your teacher and that you would get help.
ReplyDeleteAnd, check out Allison's blog for a lively attack on long-division. I personally think it's one of the hardest and most difficult things we teach students, and a pretty unnecessary skill that teachers sometimes place way too much emphasis on.