Latest / Math Therapy / 2026: The Year of Student Engagement!

Transcript

2026: The Year of Student Engagement! · Math Therapy

• 0:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
• 0:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: Do the ball drop sound.
• 0:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: Happy New Year, right?
• 0:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like confetti, confetti, woo woo.
• 0:12
  Vanessa Vakharia: Right?
• 0:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: Do something like that to start the episode.
• 0:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay guys.
• 0:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: Hi.
• 0:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: Happy New Year.
• 0:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: It is January 1st.
• 0:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: It is an auspicious day.
• 0:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: I just wanna say I actually am not like a New Year's girly.
• 0:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like I'm not the person that makes resolutions on New Year's, I don't know, we just like made up the calendar year system and then wherever we're always like, oh my God, January 1st, big deal.
• 0:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: And people are always like, Ugh, I'm so glad, like 2025 is over, like I'm so excited for the new year.
• 0:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: And I'm like, I don't know.
• 0:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't like looking at our lives in these like chunks of time we've just invented.
• 0:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like any day is a good day to like let go of the past and move forward.
• 0:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: That being said, I do love a reason to start fresh and let go of things that no longer serve us.
• 0:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: So we are doing a New Year's episode.
• 0:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because like January 1st, it feels monumentous, like the world thinks it's a big deal.
• 1:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: So I think it's a big deal.
• 1:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay.
• 1:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: I was thinking, let's look at 2025.
• 1:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's nice to look at a nice 12 month chunk of time.
• 1:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: What are the things I've been talking about on the podcast?
• 1:12
  Vanessa Vakharia: I've been on so many trips.
• 1:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: I've spoken to so many teachers, I've talked at so many conferences.
• 1:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: I've been to so many sessions, I've learned so much.
• 1:19
  Vanessa Vakharia: What are the things that keep coming up?
• 1:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: I was thinking about it and the thing that has come up time and time again is the idea of student engagement.
• 1:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: I have heard so many teachers say.
• 1:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: We're having a problem with engagement.
• 1:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: My students are not engaged.
• 1:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm trying all these amazing new things and there's no engagement.
• 1:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: And I started also realizing even when we're not using the word engagement, that's actually what we're talking about, right?
• 1:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like I'll hear students aren't motivated.
• 1:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay, what that actually means is they're not engaged.
• 1:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'll hear things like they're not showing their thinking.
• 1:55
  Vanessa Vakharia: They're not showing their work.
• 1:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: Again, I'm like, Ooh, you're talking about engaging with mathematics.
• 2:00
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'll hear things like, even though I am using this new instructional method, or I'm teaching content in this new cool way, or I'm like giving them manipulatives, like they're not using them.
• 2:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: Again, we're talking about engagement.
• 2:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: My students freeze when they can't just mimic when I ask them to like think.
• 2:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: When I ask them to use a whiteboard, when I ask them to collaborate, they're not doing it.
• 2:19
  Vanessa Vakharia: Again, we're talking about engagement.
• 2:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: What is engagement?
• 2:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: When it comes down to it, we're all talking about the same thing, which is students like participating.
• 2:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: Showing up.
• 2:31
  Vanessa Vakharia: Doing something, trying, right?
• 2:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: We're not talking about, oh my God, our students aren't getting the right answer, they're not getting the results we want.
• 2:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: What we're all wanting is students to just like do some stuff.
• 2:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: Try, right.
• 2:44
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now, I feel like this is such an important theme for me because my goal with Math Therapy is to help students build a better relationship with math, right?
• 2:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: That is like my only goal.
• 2:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want everybody, whether you're a student, whether you're an adult, I want you to build a better relationship with math and through doing that with yourself because you see yourself as more capable, then you once thought you were, right.
• 3:05
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're learning stuff about yourself that you didn't know before.
• 3:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: And the truth is, you guys, if you know me, you know that my mantra for growth mindset and for growth in general is believe, behave, become.
• 3:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: You know, it's important to have the belief that we can do something new, like engage in math.
• 3:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's important to then engage in a new behavior, try something new.
• 3:26
  Vanessa Vakharia: And then the becoming piece only happens when those two things happen, when we believe it's possible, and then we engage in a new behavior that will get us new results than we have previously gotten.
• 3:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's that engagement, AKA behavior,'cause engagement is a behavior, it's that behaving that actually shows us something about ourselves.
• 3:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: We can believe all we want that like, I guess it's possible to do math, but until we engage in a behavior and have a different mathematical experience, we never truly internalize that as a part of our core being.
• 3:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can't kind of believe your way into building a better relationship with math.
• 4:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can't believe your way into being better at math, right?
• 4:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's like, believing that you can ride a bike and never ever getting on a bicycle.
• 4:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can't go from believing, oh, I, I, I believe that I'm a person who could ride a bike to then getting on a bike and then riding it.
• 4:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: You have to get on that bike.
• 4:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: You have to engage in behavior.
• 4:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe you start with training wheels.
• 4:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe you go around the block, like maybe this and that, and eventually that behavior takes that belief into an actual becoming a person who can ride a bike.
• 4:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: I also wanna say, I think one of the reasons we're having such a big problem with it now, think about it, engagement is like doing the thing.
• 4:41
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's trying, it's participating.
• 4:43
  Vanessa Vakharia: I bet you students did use to engage more before.
• 4:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: I think that's actually true.
• 4:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: But the way we got students to engage was through compliance.
• 4:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: It was this idea of you have to do it.
• 4:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like if you think of like back in the day when like you would, I don't know, get like a dunks cap on or like you literally back back in the day where like you might actually get hit with a ruler or something.
• 5:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: It was like if you didn't engage and participate and do what your teacher was telling you, you'd be in trouble.
• 5:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: We don't have that anymore and that's good.
• 5:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like it's good, but what it means is if we want students to engage, we now have to engage them through something that is not consequence or punishment driven.
• 5:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: We have to engage them in a way that is meaningful to them.
• 5:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: We have to give them a reason to want to engage.
• 5:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: And there's another piece here that's really, really important.
• 5:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: We have to realize that engagement is a risk.
• 5:31
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's a risk to show up and participate in something that you might have anxiety around, think you're bad at, an actual risk.
• 5:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's not just a risk to yourself because you might prove to, like you, you're scared that if I do this thing that I already think I'm bad at, I'm just gonna prove that I'm right and I'm gonna feel these shitty, uncomfortable feelings.
• 5:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: Who wants that?
• 5:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's also a social risk, right?
• 5:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: To engage and participate in a classroom setting in front of people.
• 5:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like traditionally and historically, many of our students have, their math trauma comes from being embarrassed in math class, of getting the wrong answer of saying the quote unquote wrong thing, of getting laughed at, of a teacher actually scolding them for not knowing something.
• 6:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: So it's a risk.
• 6:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: And when we look at engagement through that lens, through the lens of meaning and risk, something really opens up and we're able to tap into how to truly meaningfully engage our students.
• 6:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now remember, we don't wanna engage our students through compliance.
• 6:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because if we think of back in the day, historically, many of us engaged in math class, we did the thing, but what that resulted in was us handing in a piece of paper, possibly forgetting every single thing that we wrote down on that piece of paper, or we just like copied shit down and mimicked and handed something in but we didn't really understand it.
• 6:43
  Vanessa Vakharia: And also it resulted in most of us hating math.
• 6:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: So that is not the kind of engagement we want.
• 6:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: We don't just want students to do the thing and participate.
• 6:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: We want'em to do the thing and participate meaningfully in a way that feels safe and good to them.
• 6:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: So today we are gonna be talking about four ways to meaningfully engage students this year, 2026, the year of engagement.
• 7:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: I also wanna say you are probably already doing incredible things to engage your students, so keep doing those things.
• 7:12
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to feel, feel like affirmed for doing those things.
• 7:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now I know we're all trying to engage our students and you guys are probably doing an amazing job, but I want you to hang onto those things you're already doing and I actually can't wait to hear about them.
• 7:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: So feel free to text the podcast at any time.
• 7:26
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can find a link to that in the show notes of the app that you're using right now.
• 7:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: I wanna hear what you're doing to engage students that's really working for you, because I can share those with teachers on another episode.
• 7:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: But one thing I hear a lot is we are trying to engage students.
• 7:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: We tell them that mistakes are great.
• 7:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: We, we always tell them that participation is incredible.
• 7:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: That we're not looking for perfection, we're just looking for them to like try, like we say those things, but the thing is what students hear is be perfect, don't embarrass yourself, everyone else gets it except for you.
• 7:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: Even if you're not saying those things, previously, when they have been told, just try, just show your work, just raise your hand, what actually was coded to them was kind of a false narrative.
• 8:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: They were told it was okay to make mistakes, but then it didn't really land well when they did.
• 8:15
  Vanessa Vakharia: The truth is that engagement isn't really about what we say, it's about the conditions we create.
• 8:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: Remember, if we go back to believe, behave, become, we can't just say something without creating the conditions for that thing to be true.
• 8:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: We need the behavior in our classrooms to be true.
• 8:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: We need to encourage kids to take behavior that will bring their belief to reality, and we can only do that when we create those conditions in our classroom.
• 8:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: So let's do it.
• 8:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: We're gonna talk about four ways that you can do that right now.
• 8:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: ​Okay.
• 8:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: First reason students don't engage in math class and what we can do about it.
• 8:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: Students don't engage in math class because they feel like they don't have a say.
• 8:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: They feel like math class isn't really for them.
• 8:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: It doesn't mean anything to them.
• 8:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: They're not a part of the discussion, so they're just kind of showing up and being asked to do some shit that doesn't really matter.
• 9:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can turn this around with this engagement move.
• 9:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: That move is make engagement democratic.
• 9:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: This year, start off by walking into your classroom and having a conversation with your students and just point blank, ask them.
• 9:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: Hey, what's up?
• 9:19
  Vanessa Vakharia: What would make this math class meaningful to you?
• 9:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: We have a lot of ideas about this.
• 9:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: I've been to so many amazing sessions and had so many conversations about how to make math relevant to students, how to make it culturally relevant, how to bring their interests into the classroom, and those things are all amazing.
• 9:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: But I do feel like when we assume what our students want, we're already starting on our back foot.
• 9:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: Is that how the saying goes?
• 9:43
  Vanessa Vakharia: I think it's something about your back foot.
• 9:44
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like we're already starting at a disadvantage, I would say.
• 9:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: Right?
• 9:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: If we're assuming, okay, you know what, my students aren't interested.
• 9:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: They just need me to like bring like Pokemon or like K-Pop demon hunters into the mix and like all of a sudden they'll get it.
• 9:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: Or they just need me to say like six seven a couple of times and like, that does work for some students, but we're kind of assuming what it is that they really want.
• 10:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: So start by asking them what would make math class meaningful to them.
• 10:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: And I have done this so many times with students, and I've heard teachers doing the same thing and they've shared with me, sometimes the most surprising things will come up.
• 10:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: Students will say things like, well, this is pointless.
• 10:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like when am I gonna use this in real life?
• 10:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: We've all heard that before, right?
• 10:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: And my, my tip to you is if they say that.
• 10:26
  Vanessa Vakharia: Ask them more.
• 10:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: Be like, what do you mean?
• 10:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because they might mean, how do I use this in real life?
• 10:31
  Vanessa Vakharia: As in how am I gonna apply this, like, I don't know, trigonometry to real life?
• 10:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: Or they might be like, I don't know, like what's the point of sitting down and just like doing worksheets?
• 10:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: How am I using that in real life?
• 10:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: Right?
• 10:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: Or like, in real life, I'm never gonna have to take a test.
• 10:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: Or in real life I'm now I could just use a calculator.
• 10:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, so maybe that's what they mean.
• 10:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe they're not engaging because math class isn't meaningful to them because they're like, I don't know, when I come here, I just feel really, really dumb.
• 10:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: It feels like there's nothing I can do to really excel in this classroom.
• 10:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: Or when I come here I just don't really feel supported, or when I come here, it really throws me off because like I feel like I've gotta sit still for so long and that's just not the type of person I am.
• 11:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: You might hear all sorts of like things about why math class doesn't feel like it's for them, and that's a really, really great opening to be like, Ooh, like that's what you mean by what's the point of doing this?
• 11:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: Or Why am I even here?
• 11:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: Some questions you might ask, could be what would make math class worth showing up for, for you?
• 11:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: What would make it worth showing up for?
• 11:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: You might ask what shuts you down in this class?
• 11:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like when I asked you guys to do something and you're not doing it, what's actually going on in your minds?
• 11:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, why aren't you doing the thing?
• 11:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: And again, you might hear things like, I'm just really tired, or I just don't know what to do and I feel stuck.
• 11:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: You could also ask, how do you guys want math class to feel this year?
• 11:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like it's 2026.
• 11:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: How do you wanna feel in my classroom this year?
• 11:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: These are just some questions to like start letting them, first of all, it's giving you information, right?
• 11:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like you're gonna get some answers to your question.
• 11:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe it will come up that like, they just want you to talk about Pokemon, I don't know why I'm talking about Pokemon, I don't know anything about Pokemon.
• 12:05
  Vanessa Vakharia: Actually, even saying, saying that word is like tripping me out, but like, you know what I mean?
• 12:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like they might say that, but they might say something else and that might give you really great insight.
• 12:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: But the other reason this is so important to democratize engagement is by having these conversations, you're showing them, hey, I want you to feel good in this classroom.
• 12:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's actually important for me.
• 12:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't want you to just come here and do what I tell you to do because I told you to.
• 12:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: I actually wanna know how I can like, help you feel good and enjoy math class this year.
• 12:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: And you're not saying the word engagement, but that's like the code here, right?
• 12:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like you're kind of like, I'm having a conversation with you because I, I want you to want to do the stuff I want you to do.
• 12:43
  Vanessa Vakharia: When students feel like they are valued in helping shape the space and the experience, they take ownership over it.
• 12:48
  Vanessa Vakharia: And when they feel like, Hey, my voice was really actually included in that, they're more likely to be like, I wanna be an active participant in this.
• 12:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: I helped create this.
• 12:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay, so the second reason students don't engage is they don't know how to engage.
• 13:05
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, I'm actually thinking about how I introduced this episode and I kept saying engagement and I was like, I'm not even defining engagement.
• 13:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: And I actually think this is another thing, you know, this is a common thread in my episodes, is I'm like, we're throwing these words around and I'm not sure that we all know what it means.
• 13:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, you know that line in The Princess Bride when he is like, I don't think that means what you think it means.
• 13:26
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't know what word he's referring to.
• 13:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: What word is he referring to?
• 13:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: Remember there's that line.
• 13:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's like, I don't think that means what you think it means.
• 13:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: Hold on.
• 13:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: I need to look it up.
• 13:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: Princess Bride.
• 13:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's a famous line.
• 13:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: Oh, here we go.
• 13:38
  Vanessa Vakharia: This is good.
• 13:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: This is a famous quote from the Princess Bride spoken by Inigo Montoya.
• 13:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: After Vizzini, is that his name, keeps saying inconceivable when things don't go his way, he keeps going,"that's inconceivable", and then inconceivable, inconceivable, and then Inigo Montoya goes,"you keep using that word.
• 13:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: I do not think it means what you think it means" because what he is actually meaning is impossible instead of inconceivable, which, kind of the same thing, but like not the same thing.
• 14:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay.
• 14:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: Point is we keep using the word engagement and actually, so students don't know how to engage.
• 14:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: But my first thing is, I'm actually wondering if you, the listener who is listening right now, when you say students aren't engaging, what do you mean?
• 14:19
  Vanessa Vakharia: What does engagement mean to you?
• 14:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: I do this when I talk to teachers and I do a talk with teachers often about student motivation.
• 14:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: 'cause teachers will say all the time, students are not motivated, and I'll say, what does motivation mean to you?
• 14:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: And we'll go around the room and every teacher has a different definition of motivation.
• 14:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now, sometimes those definitions overlap and actually most of the time what they're actually talking about is engagement, but sometimes they don't.
• 14:44
  Vanessa Vakharia: Sometimes they're completely different definitions.
• 14:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: So what does engagement mean to you?
• 14:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's the first thing is for you to define that, because once that's clear in your head, you can figure out.
• 14:55
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe you're gonna use the tips I share today, but maybe the tips I share today have nothing to do with what you are considering engagement.
• 15:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: One of the key things we talk about with engagement we covered in a previous episode about student thinking.
• 15:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: So one of the things I'll hear a lot are, well, I tell students that all I want'em to do is think it doesn't matter if they get the right answer or not.
• 15:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: You know, like just the thinking is what I wanna see.
• 15:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: But then when I ask them to show their thinking, they don't do it, they'll say, I don't know.
• 15:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: Or they'll just shut down.
• 15:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: And what's really happening is so interesting.
• 15:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: Show your thinking is a skill.
• 15:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's not a switch we can just turn on.
• 15:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's not like just because, oh my God, guess what guys?
• 15:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: We no longer are pressuring you to get the answer.
• 15:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: We just want you to show your thinking that students can now automatically show their thinking.
• 15:38
  Vanessa Vakharia: It just doesn't work that way.
• 15:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: And in that previous episode, I talked about five things we can do to actually help students get into the vibe of showing their thinking, because again, it's not just a switch we can turn on.
• 15:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: They, they haven't necessarily been taught what show your thinking means.
• 15:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: So I'm not gonna get like super into the nitty gritty of that because we already covered it, but some of the things I talked about was actually breaking down for them what thinking looks like.
• 16:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: Modeling, what thinking looks like.
• 16:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like when you are thinking out loud to your students, be like, hold on, I'm thinking right now.
• 16:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: Model that it's messy model that thinking can be a partial answer, it doesn't even have to be an answer.
• 16:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: Thinking can be an incomplete thought thinking can be talking out loud to someone and just bouncing ideas back and forward.
• 16:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: But like we actually have to just like we have to define engagement.
• 16:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: We have to define what thinking is and then teach kids how to do it.
• 16:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: Which is why tip number two is to teach engagement the same way we teach content.
• 16:31
  Vanessa Vakharia: Think about it, when you are teaching content, you're teaching, I don't know, like how to add fractions.
• 16:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: What do you do?
• 16:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're scaffolding, you're breaking things down.
• 16:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're, you're maybe not even teaching at all by direct instruction.
• 16:43
  Vanessa Vakharia: So you're allowing kids to discover for themselves what fractions even are.
• 16:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're using visual representations.
• 16:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're using models, like you're using, I don't know what you're doing over there, but you are teaching it, right?
• 16:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're not just showing up to class and being like, all right guys, today it's time to, I'm gonna give you a bunch of cookies and I want you to make fractions and add them up together.
• 17:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: The end.
• 17:05
  Vanessa Vakharia: We don't do that.
• 17:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: We care take and we teach, we assume, we go in, assuming students do not know this concept.
• 17:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: They might have prior information that will help them learn this concept, but they don't know it.
• 17:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's a new concept and I wonder what would happen if we actually taught engagement the same way.
• 17:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: How would the same skills you're using to teach content apply?
• 17:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: Some things you can do are to break down what engagement looks like.
• 17:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: So this, this could be like a direct instruction model.
• 17:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: I guess if, if we're looking at the, now I'm into this analogy.
• 17:38
  Vanessa Vakharia: You could be like, okay guys, so engagement looks like this, here are some options of what you can do to participate, to engage.
• 17:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can give me a partial answer.
• 17:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can ask me a question, you can chat with a friend about the topic we're working on.
• 17:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can take a guess without being scared.
• 17:55
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can make a mistake.
• 17:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can guess a wrong answer.
• 17:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can just draw a picture like.
• 18:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: So you could give them a menu of like ways to do something, you know, ways to do something in the classroom, ways to engage.
• 18:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: But another thing you can do is you can model what engagement looks like by doing those things yourself and pointing them out.
• 18:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: Right.
• 18:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: Labeling them.
• 18:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: So you can say, all right guys, we're gonna work on a question, I actually don't know the answer to this.
• 18:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't even know what first step to take.
• 18:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: Let's do it together.
• 18:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: Right?
• 18:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: And you might say, okay, what's a first thing we can do?
• 18:26
  Vanessa Vakharia: And maybe get students to participate, and you know, maybe someone could say, I don't know, you could ask a question about the question.
• 18:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: So you could do that and be like, all right, what I'm wondering is why are there so number many numbers in this word problem?
• 18:38
  Vanessa Vakharia: What, which ones matter?
• 18:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: And then you can be like, all right guys, that is me.
• 18:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm already in it.
• 18:43
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm now in it because I just asked that question.
• 18:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: I've already, I'm already engaging.
• 18:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm already doing something.
• 18:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: Then you might say something like, you know what I'm gonna do guys?
• 18:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm gonna actually draw a little diagram because I'm a bit confused right now.
• 18:55
  Vanessa Vakharia: You could start drawing your diagram and be like, guys, I just wanna pause right now and point out that like I'm now in the question.
• 19:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: I have no idea how to do it.
• 19:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't know what the answer is.
• 19:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't even know how to get there.
• 19:05
  Vanessa Vakharia: But already I feel really good about myself because I'm just trying something.
• 19:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: So modeling that and showing students that's what engagement looks like, and showing how you're celebrating and rewarding yourself along the way so that they can do the same thing, is really, really helpful.
• 19:19
  Vanessa Vakharia: Another thing you can do is actually walk around the room and point out like, you know how we point out thinking like, we like to be like, Ooh, great thinking, I like the way you're thinking.
• 19:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: Point out anything that's engagement related.
• 19:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: Remember, this is very like Pavlovian in a way, right?
• 19:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like in a reward system.
• 19:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like when you're rewarding students and complimenting them for things that matter to you, they start to matter to the student.
• 19:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because students are kind of trained to be evaluated.
• 19:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: We hate that, but they, they kind of have been trained by the school system to be like, when I get a reward or a compliment, I'm doing something right.
• 19:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: And historically, we've only given them a reward or compliment when they've gotten the right answer.
• 19:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: So walk around and anything that to you is engagement point out and reward.
• 20:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: So you might say something like, I love the discussion you guys are having right now.
• 20:05
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's awesome.
• 20:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: I love that you just, I know that's just a scribble on your page, but I love that you're kind of like working through what this thing might look like.
• 20:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: I love that you guys are arguing right now about what this question even means.
• 20:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's actually awesome.
• 20:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like this is you're doing math.
• 20:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: So those are some ways to show your students what engagement looks like.
• 20:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: Remember the second reason your students aren't engaging is because they just might not know how to.
• 20:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: So when we teach engagement the same way we teach content, when we approach those two the same way, you are using all the amazing teacher skills you already have to teach the content you're teaching and you're teaching them how to engage in this behavior, which is the behavior of engagement.
• 20:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: This has gone a bit too crazy, but you know what I'm saying.
• 20:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: The point is engagement is a muscle, it's not a personality trait.
• 20:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: It has to be taught.
• 20:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: ​The third reason your students aren't engaging is because they think this whole progress over perfection thing is bullshit.
• 21:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm just gonna say it as it is.
• 21:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's what they think.
• 21:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: Why do they think that?
• 21:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's not your fault, okay, so number one.
• 21:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: But literally it's because they don't believe you, because that has never been true.
• 21:12
  Vanessa Vakharia: And because they exist in a system where grades exist.
• 21:15
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like the elephant in the room, like let's just throw it out there.
• 21:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: Grades exist, so we can tell them progress over perfection all we want, but they know that they're getting graded and their grades matter at some point.
• 21:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: So what do we do?
• 21:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's two things here.
• 21:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: The first is we do eventually want them to like get an answer.
• 21:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: We know that grades, as flawed as they are, are some representation of what a student knows.
• 21:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: It is not the only representation, it can be a flawed representation, but they exist.
• 21:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: So we know if a student is gonna get an F on something, they are not going to feel good.
• 21:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: And all of our progress over perfection, like stuff is not gonna land well with them.
• 21:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: So in a way, I'm almost like, I want my students to get a good grade just so they don't feel like I've been gaslighting them.
• 22:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: We're not gonna talk about grading and the whole system of grading and how it's flawed.
• 22:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like that's not the point of this.
• 22:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: The point is you, you co-exist in this system.
• 22:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: So we kind of have to live within it and figure out how to show them that progress is more important than perfection, while honoring the fact that they're going to be graded and they're gonna have to deal with those feelings.
• 22:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: So the first thing is, I think the general public has gotten it all wrong when they're like, math doesn't even have answers anymore.
• 22:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, we don't even care, we just wanna see their thinking, but they can get everything wrong and then get an A.
• 22:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: No.
• 22:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: We would like them to get the answer to a math question eventually.
• 22:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: That is our goal.
• 22:38
  Vanessa Vakharia: We want them to know that two plus two equals four, like we do want that.
• 22:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: We just don't want them to have a complete meltdown and shut down before they get there.
• 22:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: Again, we want them to engage with the math regardless of the fact that they might not get two plus two equals four the first 10 times.
• 22:55
  Vanessa Vakharia: We want them to still be able to engage with the math so that they can have a chance at getting to the point where they know that two plus two equals four.
• 23:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: The other thing we have to remember is they're unlearning years and years of teaching, and that teaching has been that perfection and the right answer is the goal of math class.
• 23:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: They have been taught that.
• 23:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now we are saying to them, that's really not the goal.
• 23:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: Honestly, you don't need to get a hundred percent.
• 23:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: You don't need to get everything right.
• 23:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: We just want you to like, we want you to think, we want you to participate, we want you to feel good, we want you to give it a chance, we want you to try.
• 23:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: We're saying that, yes, because we want'em to feel good, but also we know that if they give themselves as a chance and aren't so stressed out about the fact that they don't know the answer, chances are they will then engage with the math.
• 23:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: And when they engage with the math, they're going to get better at the math.
• 23:38
  Vanessa Vakharia: And if they get better at the math, they will eventually get the answer.
• 23:41
  Vanessa Vakharia: So your engagement move here.
• 23:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: Your third engagement is to give them more entry points and to give them more chances to win.
• 23:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: They need to feel good.
• 23:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: If there are no entry, if the only entry point is what is the answer to this question, solve it.
• 23:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: You are gonna get shut down.
• 23:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: You are gonna get a lack of engagement.
• 24:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because any student who a, kind of knows how to solve it, but is so scared they're gonna get the wrong answer, they're not gonna engage.
• 24:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: And then the other students who actually don't know how to solve it aren't gonna engage either.
• 24:12
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're kind of screwed either way.
• 24:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: We really have to make it so clear that the answer is not what we're looking for at first.
• 24:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: And now, here's the other thing I wanna say.
• 24:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: We have done such incredible work on, um, multiple, like, ways to solve a problem, right?
• 24:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like right now we're very, I think we're doing a really good job at being like, Hey, you can solve this problem any way you want.
• 24:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, do you know what I mean?
• 24:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't care how you get the answer, like use a visual representation, like use manipulatives, like do it this way, that way the other way, like whatever.
• 24:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: Those two are not the same thing.
• 24:44
  Vanessa Vakharia: Giving a student the opportunity to use any method they want to solve a problem is not the same as giving students, the opportunity to engage with the problem without the answer being the goal.
• 24:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: Do you see what I mean here?
• 24:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: The first one being like, you can solve this problem anyway.
• 25:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: The requisite is still that you should get the answer at the end.
• 25:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: You should know that the important thing that I value is, yeah, I love your thinking, but I want you to solve the problem.
• 25:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: The second thing that I'm saying, the idea of being like, Hey, you know what?
• 25:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm gonna give you a problem and I actually don't care about the answer for a while.
• 25:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: I just want you to engage with this problem.
• 25:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now, the right answer, the perfection piece is off the table and that unlocks a big thing for a lot of students who don't know how to get the answer, who have been trained to be like, if you got the answer wrong, you're gonna be punished.
• 25:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now remember, we are doing the second piece.
• 25:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: We are gonna give them the opportunity to engage with a problem without getting the answer, at first.
• 25:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: The reason I say this is okay, and I always use the example when I do talks, of cold plunging.
• 25:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay, lemme just, just work with me here.
• 25:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: I cold plunge, which means I like to get into a frozen lake and freeze my body for like three minutes.
• 25:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: I really like it.
• 25:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: I personally like to get right into a cold plunge tank or a lake, I wanna jump right in.
• 26:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: I have a friend I cold plunge with, and he literally needs to dip his toes in, then walk a little further and dip his knees in, then walk a little further and dip his waist in.
• 26:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like he wants to make sure he's safe every single step of the way.
• 26:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: When he finally gets to the point where like, I'm already sitting in the lake plunged, he's like, all right, I'm gonna get in.
• 26:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: He'll never walk in toe by toe and then knee by knee, whatever, and then decide to turn around at the end.
• 26:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: But, he needs to feel like there's no, the risk needs to be smaller for him to get in the water.
• 26:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: Does that make sense?
• 26:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, I don't mind dunking my whole body in, he needs the risk to be really, really minimized.
• 26:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: He needs to feel safe every single step of the way.
• 26:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now, this is why one of my favorite things to do is task scaling.
• 26:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: Remember, the goal is for me and my friend, our goal is to take the cold plunge.
• 26:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: Just like our goal for students is we want them to get the answer, but we have to remember that sometimes the answer being on the table and being the goal is going to lead to lack of engagement because students will shut down.
• 27:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's a lot of pressure to be like, you need to find the answer.
• 27:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's not a lot of pressure to be like, I don't know, just like, try something.
• 27:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: Can you like dip your toe in?
• 27:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: Right.
• 27:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's a bit less.
• 27:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: So task scaling is one of my favorite things.
• 27:12
  Vanessa Vakharia: And that is when we literally scale a task.
• 27:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: So it could be multiple entry points, scaffolding.
• 27:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: My favorite way to do this is Chris Luzniak, actually, Debate math podcast.
• 27:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: He has this strategy called"ask for opinions instead of answers".
• 27:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: When you ask for an answer, only some people know the answer, it's very high stakes.
• 27:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: When you ask for an opinion, every single person has an opinion.
• 27:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: So for example, let's say I had a word problem and I was like, someone's going to a Taylor Swift concert.
• 27:38
  Vanessa Vakharia: They're making 80 friendship bracelets.
• 27:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: They end up coming home with a hundred friendship bracelets.
• 27:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: How many more friendship bracelets do they come home with than they started with?
• 27:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: There is an answer to that question.
• 27:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: A hundred minus 80.
• 27:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: You went to the concert with 80, you came home with a hundred, you have 20 more.
• 27:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: That might be too risky for a student to just start with, so chris Luzniak says, ask an opinion question instead.
• 28:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: That means you can put anything in front of this question or ask a question about this question.
• 28:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: I've done this with students and it's incredible, so I might put this question on, I actually wouldn't put this question on the board to be honest.
• 28:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: I would start this lesson by being like, guys, has anyone, did anyone go to the Eras tour?
• 28:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: Does anyone like Taylor Swift?
• 28:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay.
• 28:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: Then I might say something like, once everyone's arguing about that, I might be like, what's with the whole friendship bracelet thing?
• 28:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: Why do people make friendship bracelets?
• 28:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now we're talking about friendship bracelets.
• 28:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: Does anyone here make friendship bracelets?
• 28:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe, maybe not.
• 28:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: If you're trading friendship bracelets, do you always like.
• 28:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: Come home with the same amount that you brought.
• 28:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like if you bring five friendship bracelets to school and you trade them, are you gonna come home with five?
• 28:44
  Vanessa Vakharia: Or is there ever a situation when you'd come home with more?
• 28:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now we're all just talking about this stuff, and eventually my questions can get closer and closer to the final question I want to ask, right?
• 28:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: I could be like, wait, so why would you come home with more though?
• 28:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe you'll have students say, well, sometimes it depends on the quality of the bracelets, like this, that, the other thing.
• 29:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: Then I might be like, but how would you know if you came home with more?
• 29:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, what would you do?
• 29:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: And like someone might be like, I don't, you would just count them like you'll, you're gonna get all sorts of responses.
• 29:12
  Vanessa Vakharia: You finally end up by putting the question on the board, right?
• 29:15
  Vanessa Vakharia: So what about this situation where somebody goes to the concert with 80 bracelets and they come home with a, a hundred?
• 29:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: By this point, this is like my friend in the cold plunge.
• 29:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: He has waded in so deep, he's up to his chest.
• 29:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: He is now not gonna shut down and decide he wants to walk back home.
• 29:31
  Vanessa Vakharia: He's probably gonna just do the full plunge.
• 29:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: Just like by now, all of your students are talking about it.
• 29:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's been no risk, they're engaged, they, they're showing mathematical thinking.
• 29:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: By the way, the whole time they're engaged, this is your opportunity to be pointing out, ooh, I love that point.
• 29:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: Huh, that's so interesting, I never thought about it that way.
• 29:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like you're, you're complimenting them, you're, giving them wins, you're validating them.
• 29:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: By the time the actual question with the answer goes up on the board, not everyone may get the right answer, but everyone's probably going to try.
• 30:00
  Vanessa Vakharia: They're going to engage, which is what you wanted.
• 30:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: So remember, the third reason your students aren't engaging is they think the whole progress over perfection thing is bullshit.
• 30:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: And by doing something like task scaling by, by even celebrating all the little wins they get when they're not getting the answer to a question, even if you're not task scaling, right, just in your regular practice, by celebrating those wins, by really evaluating and um, you know, like making a point to compliment and reward all those skills you want, perseverance, effort, thinking, by doing all of these things, you are showing them that your money is where your mouth is when you say progress is over perfection, it matters to you.
• 30:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: And by doing things like tasks scaling, you're not taking the answer off the table, that is the end goal, but you are giving them more wins and more entry points to eventually get to that end goal.
• 30:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's this tip, tip number three.
• 30:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: Give them more wins and more entry points so they can eventually get to that end goal by engaging in a low stakes way.
• 31:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: ​All right.
• 31:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: And the fourth reason students don't engage, well, I'm gonna actually frame this as a question I often hear, which is no matter what I do, my students still aren't engaged.
• 31:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: And so the fourth reason students don't engage is because their needs are unmet.
• 31:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now, here's what I've learned, through all of my work and research on polyvagal theory and trauma-informed education, that when students are off task, it is usually because they have an unmet need.
• 31:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: And that's why my fourth tip is actually one of the four agreements, which is, don't take things personally, don't take things personally.
• 31:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: When students are off task and not engaging, it is often because they have unmet needs.
• 31:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: And when we look at lack of engagement through that lens, things really change.
• 31:55
  Vanessa Vakharia: We soften and we react differently.
• 31:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: And when we react differently, we create safer conditions for students to engage.
• 32:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: So something you can ask yourself if your students are in, aren't engaging the way you envision, is ask yourself, what's going on right now?
• 32:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: Is this student feeling anxious?
• 32:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: Do they feel seen?
• 32:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: Do they feel capable?
• 32:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: Are they in regulated nervous systems right now?
• 32:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: Are they feeling dysregulated?
• 32:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: Are they in one of the four trauma responses?
• 32:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like are they experiencing fight, flight, freeze, or fawn?
• 32:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like do they have an unmet need?
• 32:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: And now the truth is, the answer might be yes to a lot of those questions.
• 32:31
  Vanessa Vakharia: And their unmet needs might be a need you can't meet.
• 32:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe something's going on at home.
• 32:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe they've got something on their mind.
• 32:38
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe they're like hungry.
• 32:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: You know what I mean?
• 32:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like maybe their unmet need is they want attention or they feel stuck.
• 32:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: There are certain needs you can meet and there are certain needs you can't meet, but you can recognize and have empathy for.
• 32:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: And lack of engagement isn't always a reflection of you, and that's why I say don't take it personally.
• 32:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: I think there are a lot of things you obviously can try.
• 32:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: We're talking about tips, like we want to engage our students, but sometimes it's just not about you.
• 33:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: When a student's needs aren't being met, engagement isn't possible.
• 33:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's not defiance, it's protection.
• 33:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's really honestly what's happening.
• 33:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: And your job isn't to like fix students, but it's to create the conditions in which engagement can happen and you're doing that.
• 33:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: So my fourth tip really is to not take it personally because I think when we take it personally, we become dysregulated, and when we become dysregulated and we're upset, and we're not assuming positive intent, like we're assuming our students are like being defiant or you know, that they're, they're being obstinate or they're not engaging because like they're being lazy, like any of those words that feel like ick, first of all, it's usually not true, right?
• 33:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: It really is usually not true.
• 33:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: Our students are complicated humans just like that, and there are a million reasons why they're not engaging.
• 33:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to not take it personally, and just be reflective.
• 33:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can think to yourself, what am I doing here?
• 33:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: Am I doing what I think I need to be doing to engage students?
• 34:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: And if the answer is yes, and remember, don't be so hard on yourselves, right?
• 34:05
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like you, you are, you can't like change the entire system.
• 34:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're just doing what you can in your classroom and what you're doing is enough.
• 34:12
  Vanessa Vakharia: If you're thinking about this, if you're listening to this episode and you're interested in engaging students, I promise you, you are putting in the work.
• 34:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: So sometimes students don't engage and sometimes it's not about you.
• 34:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: And I just want you to ha give yourself the grace in those moments to be like, today it's really not about me.
• 34:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: The student is going through something.
• 34:31
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe I know what it is.
• 34:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe I don't.
• 34:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: I can just be empathetic.
• 34:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: I can ask them what's up.
• 34:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: And honestly, my new rule, is ask don't tell anytime you get a chance to, if a student isn't engaging, instead of being like, oh my God, do this thing I told you to do this thing, you know, crouch down next to them, pull up a chair and be like, Hey, what's up?
• 34:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, can I ask why you're not doing this right now?
• 34:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: And this kind of goes to tip number one, which is de democratize engagement.
• 34:55
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like asking them and allowing them to tell you is gonna give you more answers than assuming it's like some personal affront, like this personal thing to towards you.
• 35:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay.
• 35:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: So we've got four solid reasons why students don't engage, and those aren't the only reasons in the world obviously, they're just four things that have really, really stood out to me, thematically through the students I've worked with, the teachers I've worked with, and the conversations I've had.
• 35:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: And I feel like things that, there are things that we kind of like overlook sometimes, so I really wanted to point those ones out.
• 35:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: And I'm just gonna recap them here for you before we close up today.
• 35:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: But before I do that, I just wanna be like, take a minute to center ourselves of why do we want students to engage?
• 35:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: You know, I gave you my reasons.
• 35:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's because I want students to build a better relationship with math and with themselves.
• 35:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: And, I know that when students engage in new behavior, they have the opportunity to have new mathematical experiences that help them rewrite the math story they are walking into our classrooms with.
• 35:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because often that math story shuts them down.
• 35:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: Often that math story they're walking into our classrooms with tells them math sucks.
• 36:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're not a math person.
• 36:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can't do it.
• 36:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: And I want them to rebuild that.
• 36:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want them to rewrite that.
• 36:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: And for them to do that, they need to have new experiences.
• 36:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: They need to engage in new behavior, right?
• 36:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: Develop new beliefs to become this, this elevated version of themselves that they didn't know existed yet.
• 36:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: And in order to have a new experience, to take on new behavior, all of that points back to engagement.
• 36:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: We are trying to rewire the belief that many students have, which is when I do math, this horrible thing happens.
• 36:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: When I do math, I reaffirm this horrible thing I believe about myself.
• 36:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: When I do math, I'm embarrassed.
• 36:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: When I do math, I get in trouble.
• 36:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like we're trying to rewire that so we want students to engage.
• 36:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: But I'm curious for you, why do you want your students to engage?
• 36:44
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because I think that'll help inform a lot of the action you take this year in your classroom.
• 36:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: Engagement is a risk.
• 36:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: We have to also go into it with that lens.
• 36:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: We have to remember that it is a risk to our students and if we want students to take that risk, we've gotta help create those conditions for where taking that risk feel safe.
• 37:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: So four things you can try, I'm just gonna recap them'cause we went by them so quickly.
• 37:05
  Vanessa Vakharia: Number one, make engagement democratic.
• 37:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: Number two, teach engagement the way we teach content.
• 37:12
  Vanessa Vakharia: Number three, give them more entry points and more chances to win.
• 37:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: And number four, don't take it personally.
• 37:19
  Vanessa Vakharia: So your Math Therapy homework, your first assignment for 2026 for the new year, is to pick one of these strategies and to try it out.
• 37:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to try it out this week in your classroom.
• 37:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to text the podcast, go to your app right now, wherever you're listening to this, hit that text button and send me a text.
• 37:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: Tell me what you tried.
• 37:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: Tell me how the energy in the room shifted.
• 37:38
  Vanessa Vakharia: If you've got another strategy you love, text that to me too.
• 37:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: This has been such an amazing way to start the year, I hope, for you.
• 37:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: I hope you're feeling like renewed.
• 37:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like I don't know what your resolutions are, if you're that type of person, but like I really hope that this just adds a little inspo of how we can make 2026 the year of engagement, and the year of the magician.
• 37:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because you listener, you are a magician.
• 38:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: You have all the tools you need to turn shit into gold, to turn lack of engagement into engagement.
• 38:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're amazing.
• 38:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's the end of this episode.
• 38:12
  Vanessa Vakharia: See you next week.
• 38:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: Uh, message me on Instagram@themathguru.
• 38:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: Follow me.
• 38:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: Review the podcast.
• 38:19
  Vanessa Vakharia: Leave us five stars.
• 38:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: Go to your favorite podcast app.
• 38:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: Share this with a friend.
• 38:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: Share this with that teacher or person or group chat that's like my students just won't engage.
• 38:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: Let's make 2026, the year of magical engagement.
• 38:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: The end.
• 38:39
  David Kochberg: Let's make 2026 the year of learning how to end an episode.
• 38:43
  Vanessa Vakharia: Goodbye.