- Year 2022
- NSF Award #1950106
- Registration Current Noyce Scholar
- First Name Breanna
- Last Name Bolle
- Discipline Mathematics
- Institution Pacific Lutheran University
Abstract
This poster aims to discuss insights on building community and belonging within both the classroom and field of mathematics, with a particular focus on students who may not see themselves as doers of mathematics. This is a post student teaching reflection on successful practices and strategies. Some strategies included will be gamified classroom relationship building, discussions on representation in mathematics and utilizing mathematics as a tool to discuss social justice. Since relationship building is foundational to any positive classroom the question becomes how to build and sustain a positive relationship between all members of the classroom. An approach for sustaining this relationship is making time to engage students outside of content. The practice of Class Competitions positions each class as a team competing with other periods in a short game each day. Another successful practice has been discussion board assignments centered on the issue of representation that feature various groups as mathematicians. Students select someone belonging to that identity that either they know or research and describes how they use or used mathematics in their life. Choosing topics that interest students is powerful and even more so when it is something meaningful to them or people around them. The idea of harnessing math to talk about social justice can empower students to understand what data is truly telling them and where data may have limitations.
