you here tonight how many of you love
horror movies raise your hand okay I see
one one brave soul in the audience how
many of you like roller coasters raise
your hand
adrenaline junkies of some sort I have
to be honest and say those things
they were never quite my cup of tea it’s
not especially in the case of horror
movies it wasn’t just the blood and the
gore and the monsters that would keep me
up at night it was that I absolutely
hated that gross feeling in my chest
whenever my heart would start to beat
and it turns out that I’ve only
experienced that sensation a couple of
other times before one of those times
was whenever I was in about five or
sixth grade and I was visiting
grandfather mountain which is close to
here and there’s this big suspended
bridge well it turns out I learned that
day that I’m afraid of heights
convene your time to hear and on top of
this ravine essentially perched on this
bridge I was trying to get from one edge
to the other it was a windy day
nonetheless she can imagine this bridge
swinging back and forth it earned its
name of a swinging bridge fortunately I
got through it the other time and that
my heart was beating outside of my chest
like that actually was and essentially
any math class I can think of from first
grade to now it wasn’t just that I was
unmotivated I was a great student in
every other class I made all A’s I
always tried to participate it wasn’t
even that I couldn’t do math I could I
could you know count the money in my
piggy bank
I could mentally calculate the price of
a tip at a restaurant but there was
something about being in a math class
sitting down that made me feel like I
had the stomach flu my stomach would
start to turn knots like any roller
coaster the
I was also afraid of turns out I have
many fears as many of us do my palms
would start to sweat especially any time
I imagine the teacher was going to call
on me and in those moments I didn’t know
it at the time I was suffering from math
anxiety what is math anxiety in the
first place the theme of this whole
entire day is simplicity so maybe we’re
getting off on the wrong foot because it
turns out math anxiety is a lot more
complicated than we could have guessed
math anxiety is a negative emotional or
mental response to mass aka a
fight-or-flight response there’s a
section in our brain called the amygdala
that is the fear siren the big red
button so to speak and for me that fear
siren lit up
guess when math class oh look at a
scantron sheet I would look at that math
problem and suddenly whoa I’m surprised
no one else in the class could hear it
it was so loud for me I have to use the
bathroom sometimes just because the
numbers would start to flow before my
eyes was like math ception I was
surprised that no one else at least that
I knew of had this negative response to
math and it wasn’t just me although it’s
hard to even acknowledge or diagnose
math because turns out most horror
movies don’t feature finding the
circumference of a circle and most
students with math anxiety don’t go
screaming and terror from their
classrooms or at least not that I’ve
seen math anxiety as it turns out has
multiple facets they’re really
complicate the whole issue parents
expectations the effectiveness of your
teachers social anxiety learning
disabilities bullying gender norms well
I don’t know if we can ever really
simplify something that is this many
components in the first place and so
it’s easy to see how math anxiety
definitely may not be as simple as we
first thought it’s not just that we’re
we just like math it’s not even that
we’re just bad at math it’s that there
are so many cultural roots that lead us
to feel this way
even now as someone who wants to be a
teacher I sometimes open up and I say
look just like I’m doing now I have math
anxiety it’s not just that I’m bad at
math and kind of the cutesy way that we
see on TV it’s that it genuinely makes
me feel sick to my stomach well a
response I oftentimes hear is you’re an
English major English majors just aren’t
that good at math anyway or people will
say oh you’re a girl you know girls tend
to not be that good at math in the first
place you’re not the only one but really
these problems feed into the bigger list
of issues that prevent our students from
having these skills that they need in
the real world so flashing back to my
days whenever I didn’t quite know what
to call my upset stomach trembling hands
heart beating outside of my chest I did
as many other people naturally do in
math class I disconnected I started
writing poetry it was a great way for me
to fulfill my anxiety to distract myself
from the math that freaked me out and
whenever I was doing it I would feel
accomplished I would feel like as you do
a word puzzle and you twist the words to
fit the meaning and finally you say yes
I figured out this problem that’s what I
felt like whenever I would write a poem
sometimes it would take me several class
periods to write one but whenever I
finally did whenever I twisted those
syllables into place to make those words
work it felt like I had done something
great so first it started off as a way
to avoid math but I never realized while
I was writing poetry in my math classes
I couldn’t have even written any poetry
at all unless I had some basic level
math skills because after all poetry is
largely math and I don’t think we can
appreciate the vastness of pie without
really having a poetic understanding of
what infinity could mean
poetry essentially is math I don’t see
anyone fighting that but I say in your
mind you’re feeling a bit hesitant so I
hope to win you over in my math classes
my anxiety needed a bridge like that
bridge on grandfather mountain that got
me from one rocky area to the other
that’s what we need for our students who
have math anxiety poetry can serve as a
bridge between basic level math skills
something as simple as counting or
identifying patterns and it can build
them up to having a mastery poetry
introduces us to this idea of trial and
error
it helps us become less intimidated as
an equation would that right or wrong
nature that we often ascribe to math
Shakespeare for example uses iambic
pentameter as a form of poetry however
whenever we study I am but pentameter in
its definitions it sounds pretty darn
intimidating at least to me as someone
who may not immediately understand what
these words mean it operates on a zero
one binary rhythm with five I ambach
feet now how many of you whenever you
start to see that that siren in your
brain that big red button it’s starting
to in the distance wildly shriek a
couple I can tell from your facial
expressions that maybe this is not what
you’re entirely familiar with so let’s
put these words into context after all
what are we scared of we’re scared of
things that don’t make sense to us
things we don’t understand so a way we
can break down that math anxiety of
seeing words like this is by putting it
into a real-world context so go ahead I
want you all to help me out here raise
your hand and you’re gonna clap out a
heartbeat with me okay are we ready okay
though I love it duh dum dum dum very
good so whenever we see zero one binary
ribbon with five I am big feet
that’s just a heartbeat it’s the pattern
of a heartbeat many of us would feel
much less intimidated if we learned of
iambic pentameter in that context if our
teacher said write me a poem in iambic
pentameter versus write me a poem that
sounds like a heartbeat they’d probably
have a different context let’s do a
little more practice here okay I want us
to all count it out again all right this
time we’re putting words to it so we’re
kind of elevating it here are you still
scared of counting syllables very good
gallop rows let’s do one more time are
you still scared of counting syllables
what you’re doing without even realizing
it is that you’re doing some sort of
math you may not be counting okay I’ve
gone through four syllables now we’re
going into the fifth but in doing a
pattern your mind is counting who would
have thought that maybe we’re making
math a little more simple than we
expected William Shakespeare sonnet 130
operates on this principle so now is the
real tried and true test I’m will be
able to clap this one out with me as
well
my mistress eyes look nothing like the
Sun coral is far more red than her lips
red what’s awesome with poetry is that
it’s individualized and it has less
pressure mass that we may think just has
one right or wrong response how many of
us in a math class we’ve gone through we
know the exact steps of how to solve an
equation we may spend an entire page
working on that but the professor counts
us wrong we ask why I knew everything
but it turns out about 3/4 of the page
down we’ve accidentally had a positive
sign instead of a negative or we’ve made
an error unfortunately for many of us
with math anxiety that prospect of
getting something wrong of not having
that exact right answer may prevent us
from even trying which happens for many
of us with
any sort of anxiety at all but poetry
operates on the principle of trial and
error
I can’t imagine hardly anyone who would
write a poem just right off the bat not
having to think of what syllables to add
which words would work and would think
this poem is a masterpiece this poem is
my best work no it takes revision and
students learn that over time it also
has a form an equation is a form an
equation would require students to plug
in certain words certain ideas to work
it out is a poem any different in that
students in doors write a stanza of a
sonnet they would need to have you know
the ten syllables per line in order to
meet fourteen lines so poetry is much
more similar to math than we ever would
have expected and as well on the basic
level they’re learning patterns
especially if they’re using I Amba
containment that heartbeat sound and
even more than that they’re counting and
practicing those basic level math skills
it’s individualized in that while we’re
scared that in a math problem our
response sorry if it’s not the right
answer at the bottom your whole entire
work is wrong to different students
could write two very different sonnets
about two completely different things
but they both would be correct so to
speak they both would meet that form
they all would have ten syllables per
line fourteen lines but one sonnet is
about love the other hate one about fear
the other joy one about nature the other
a city life and what those different
results those different ends be wrong
not at all because in poetry even though
you’re practicing these math skills that
individualization is really really
heralded as the root of authenticity the
golden fib is an example of how poetry
really serves not only based upon
not only the adult from these math
principles of counting finding patterns
but it helps us better understand
certain mathematic ideas in the first
place
the Fibonacci sequence I have to be
honest I knew nothing about it and it
scared the living daylights out of me
until I was writing this talk and
whenever I was trying to teach myself
what is the Fibonacci sequence I asked
several of my math major friends they
would tell me and I would instantly hear
that little siren in my brain that
amygdala start to wail in the distance
because do you know what the Fibonacci
sequence looks like this and whenever
you see it this wave you have a very
difficult time of identifying what does
that even mean in short I’ll break it
down for you all at the center are small
numbers maybe 1 and then the numbers
built up 2 3 5 8 bigger and bigger and
bigger so essentially this illustration
shows us another pattern as poetry often
does and it shows us how numbers build
upon each other to create a wave the
golden fib helps us better understand
that by putting it into practice here’s
a golden fib example that I wrote it
starts off as you can see small you have
one syllable then another one syllable
then it starts building up and getting
bigger and bigger and bigger and after
you’ve written this golden fib poem
imagine what it would look like if you
folded it up you crinkled it on a piece
of paper so to speak it would look an
awful lot like this like a wave and
whenever you’re saying reading this poem
aloud it sounds an awful lot like a wave
because the numbers get bigger and
bigger so for students who are having
difficulty with the Fibonacci sequence
what better way to help them really
understand at least on an elementary
level what that means than by helping
them write it out and make their own
conclusions based on practice in other
words why is it so important for all of
us as teachers people who want to be
teachers
to do work like this to work on poetry
in our math classes especially for
ourselves not that great at poetry what
good is it other than just becoming
great at ourselves it’s because we have
two rules as teachers two duties those
duties are to provide accurate
information to our students and to
provide applicable information I think
many teachers would agree with me and
this is how I was taught to teach my
students and what I stand by whenever
you applicable eat each student’s you
help them realize what those lessons
mean to them perhaps that’s why I was
always afraid of math because I was
never able to learn exactly what it
meant for me and how I could and how I
should and need to use it in my everyday
life and also whenever we do things like
this find these bridges these simple
solutions to math anxiety we not only
better understand each other’s fields
and help bolster knowledge as a whole
reaching students who you know without
poetry maybe they wouldn’t be able to
really find their niche in English we
also help shape citizens who are
creative thinkers and who can really use
their analytical skills to go on and
recognize one social problems in our
world but with their practice of
applying these real-world skills and a
creative way unique to them they can use
that authenticity to change the world in
a better way
identifying solutions as informed
citizens questioning knowledge in order
to make it better and to shape their own
so the next time you or someone you know
is really thinking about teaching an
English class or really any class at all
in which a student may have math anxiety
I want you to remember one thing
use poems as a simple bridge to math
thank you so much for your time I hope
you have a great day you