Yep – that’s the word: “just.”
That little devil does so much damage to a kid’s math-esteem. His cousin is also a bad guy: “all you have to do is…”
It says to a kid, “It’s so easy, and… what? you can’t do it? GOSH!”
Get rid of it. Let your students charge you a quarter every time you say or write either one.
Say instead: “I find that doing this helps me…”
Or: “How would you feel about doing it this way…?”
If you find math easy, great. Give the kiddos a chance to work through the discovery process, too. And allow them to fail and struggle while supporting them. Just don’t say, “just.”
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Sue Downing passed this article along to me: It’s easy
Another pair of words to avoid!
(Thanks, Sue!)
Biggest mistake I made in my first couple of years of teaching was trying to convince students that math was easy. I thought that if I told them enough times it was easy they’d believe me and automatically know how to do it.
Apologies to all those students.
*hugs*
I can’t tell you how much I LOVE this post, Bon! I hate, hate, hate it when someone tells me “All you’ve gotta do is…” i “just” want to tell them – then why aren’t you doing it? right? 🙂
Thanks for the reminder that we need to build up those around us and sometimes we inadvertently tear them down…
It is strange how our intent and what actually happens sometimes (often?) get wonky with one another.
Thanks for the kind words, Gidget!