Latest / Math Therapy / Math Therapy Masterclass Part 2: How to start next year with confidence

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Math Therapy Masterclass Part 2: How to start next year with confidence · Math Therapy

• 0:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: Hello, it's me.
• 0:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: Welcome back to another episode of Math Therapy, and this is the first time I've done, like, a two-part series.
• 0:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: So I guess, welcome to part two of our two-part Math Therapy mini masterclass series.
• 0:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now, if you're like,"Oh God, part two?
• 0:19
  Vanessa Vakharia: I haven't listened to part one," don't worry, don't panic.
• 0:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: Just go listen to part one.
• 0:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: Honestly, it'll make more sense if you go listen to part one.
• 0:26
  Vanessa Vakharia: But if you're like,"I refuse, I only wanna listen to the newest episode," then fine, let me tell you what's going on.
• 0:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: So what we're doing right now is we are doing a two-part Math Therapy mini masterclass series on how to feel more confident when you step into the classroom in the fall, okay?
• 0:44
  Vanessa Vakharia: And for those of us who are not teachers, who are not stepping into any classroom, okay, just how to feel more confident about math by the time September rolls around.
• 0:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: Literally, that you're gonna feel more confident about math.
• 0:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna feel more confident doing math.
• 0:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna feel more confident when math is present.
• 1:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: Even if you don't, like, officially do math in a classroom setting, you're gonna feel more confident when math is around you.
• 1:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: Why?
• 1:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because we are engaging in eight tiny experiences and experiments to help your brain and body feel more safe around math.
• 1:15
  Vanessa Vakharia: We are retraining the nervous system.
• 1:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: So to recap, last week we did half of the eight experiments, okay?
• 1:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: So we went through four of them, and those four were, number one, finding a math friend, okay?
• 1:26
  Vanessa Vakharia: Or, like, an accountability partner, someone who can just hype you up when you're feeling down.
• 1:31
  Vanessa Vakharia: Number two was replacing the word proving with improving.
• 1:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: So just asking yourself daily, What is one thing I could understand 1% better today?
• 1:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: Number three was to build an evidence folder and start collecting evidence, evidence, evidence, evidence of every single time you learn something new or do something hard.
• 1:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay?
• 1:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: You are showing your brain and body and your negativity bias,"Hi, I can do hard things.
• 1:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: I can do new things, and I still feel safe, and I still feel great." And number four was to start collecting math moments, right?
• 2:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: To start noticing all the math around you that you're engaging in, that you're observing, that you're noticing to again show your nervous system,"Hey, math is around.
• 2:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm vibing.
• 2:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm fine.
• 2:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm safe." And now we are going to get into the back half of the four.
• 2:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: So four more tiny experiences and experiments we can engage in between now and the fall so that we can feel more confident around math because we feel safer around math.
• 2:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now remember, it's never too late to start, so you can start right now, and you don't have to do all eight.
• 2:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: I would love for you to listen with the vibe of what's one thing here that feels like something easy I can do.
• 2:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: It needs to be easy.
• 2:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: It needs to be quick.
• 2:41
  Vanessa Vakharia: It needs to be fun.
• 2:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: It needs to be low stakes, and I just want you to remember, consistency trumps quantity, right?
• 2:48
  Vanessa Vakharia: Just small, consistent action.
• 2:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's why I'm giving you guys eight tiny experiments and experiences.
• 2:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: These things should take like two to five minutes daily max, okay?
• 2:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because that is going to start getting into your brain, into your body, into your nervous system.
• 3:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: We are rewiring.
• 3:05
  Vanessa Vakharia: We are reaffirming.
• 3:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: We are redoing.
• 3:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: We are rewriting our story physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually around what it means to be somebody who does math.
• 3:15
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay, here we go.
• 3:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: So we are going to start with tip number one for today, but tip number five overall, which is, this is my favorite one, to be honest, so we are starting off strong.
• 3:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: Practice being bad at something.
• 3:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: You heard me.
• 3:31
  Vanessa Vakharia: If you are listening to this, actually, if you are listening and you are like,"Yeah, I'm listening because I'm hoping to get some advice for my friends because I don't really understand this whole math anxiety thing.
• 3:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: I've never felt a- anxious around math," and especially if you're a teacher listening to this, this experiment is for you.
• 3:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to get in the shoes of your students and your colleagues and the people around you in day-to-day life who are afraid of math, and I want you to practice being bad at something.
• 3:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's a whole saying in yoga, you know, in the practice, and when we talk about yoga and meditation, one of the biggest concepts that we need to lock down from day one is the idea of beginner's mind.
• 4:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: Beginner's mind.
• 4:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: What does it mean to be starting something new, to be learning something for the first time, to not be an expert at that thing?
• 4:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: When we get in the seat of beginner's mind, it actually is quite a relief.
• 4:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: Gone are the expectations that we have to know everything, but with that relief also comes that reflex anxiety of,"I have no fucking idea what I'm doing." But the beautiful thing about beginner's mind is we are to welcome that feeling, to say,"I don't expect myself to know anything about this, to be, quote, unquote, good at it.
• 4:41
  Vanessa Vakharia: I just expect myself to sit down and do it like a beginner would, and to see what comes up." Now, beginner's mind for you, the listener, means that you need to practice being bad at something.
• 4:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: That means go do something that you don't feel good at, that maybe you've never tried before, certainly not that you have mastered, because it allows you to understand how your students are feeling about math.
• 5:05
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe you don't feel that way about math, but maybe you feel that way about playing guitar, or playing an instrument, or singing, or playing a sport, or learning how to tap dance, or chess, or learning a language, or juggling, or pickleball.
• 5:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: Whatever I'm saying right now that is triggering you to be like,"Oh God, I would suck at that," or,"I've never been good at that," ding, ding, ding.
• 5:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: Why am I saying ding, ding, ding so much?
• 5:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: I did it last episode, too.
• 5:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: Anyways, that's your thing.
• 5:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: There, I found it for you.
• 5:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's your thing Whatever the thing is that you're alwa- you know how everyone's like,"I'm not a math person," and you're like,"Everyone's a math person"?
• 5:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: I know low-key you're saying,"I'm not a blank person." I don't know what it is, but I know you're saying it.
• 5:43
  Vanessa Vakharia: "I'm not an artist.
• 5:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm not a creative person.
• 5:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm not good with maps." I don't, I don't know.
• 5:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't know what you're saying.
• 5:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: But whatever that thing is, that is the thing you are going to start practicing.
• 5:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: How are you gonna practice it?
• 5:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: Well, I'm not sure.
• 5:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna just do something, five minutes of that thing.
• 6:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: If it's a guitar, you are going to pick up a guitar and start strumming, or you're gonna go onto YouTube and click Guitar Lessons for Absolute Beginners, and you are just gonna start practicing.
• 6:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: If it's chess, you're gonna watch a tutorial and play.
• 6:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna call your friend that plays chess, and you're gonna say,"Can you come over and play a game with me?" If it's a language, well, there are apps for that.
• 6:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: If it is knitting, go buy some knitting needles and some, I don't know, yarn.
• 6:26
  Vanessa Vakharia: Is that what they knit with?
• 6:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: And again, y- well, there's YouTube now.
• 6:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's so much stuff.
• 6:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, just look up a lesson on something and do it, or find a friend who is good at the thing that you suck at and be like,"Can you teach me one thing about this today?" That's it.
• 6:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: And you are going to practice.
• 6:41
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna practice every day, every week, five minutes.
• 6:44
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's all I want is five minutes.
• 6:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because imagine, this is what you'd say to your students.
• 6:48
  Vanessa Vakharia: You'd say,"Just do five minutes of math a day." So I want you to do five minutes of the thing that scares you, that you don't feel good at, a day.
• 6:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't just want you to do this so you'll get better at it.
• 6:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay?
• 6:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: So first of all, here's what's gonna happen.
• 6:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna get better at it.
• 6:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: You are.
• 6:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna notice that you're getting better.
• 7:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're not gonna be where you wanna be.
• 7:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're still gonna think you suck, but you're going to be getting better at it.
• 7:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: And you getting better at it is going to show your brain, your body, your mind, your soul,"I can get better at things that I don't feel good at." Now, guess what?
• 7:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: For many of you, practicing being bad at something, you're gonna think to yourself,"Well, I might as well practice being bad at math because I feel like I'm bad at math." I'm not saying you can't do that.
• 7:26
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can.
• 7:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: But I would love for you to actually practice being bad at something other than math to start with.
• 7:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: I really would, because it is the same muscle you're exercising, and my guess is math is too laden with, like, meaning and overwhelm, and the stakes are high, and you've gotta go teach it.
• 7:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: And, uh, like, it feel...
• 7:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: it might be too triggering to start with math.
• 7:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: I would like you to start with something you feel bad at that has, like, zero stakes.
• 7:55
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, you don't ever have to do it.
• 7:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: You don't have to do it as a job.
• 7:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe it's cooking.
• 7:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe you're like,"I'm so bad at cooking," and you could just start learning how to make some basic meals.
• 8:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: Or like, I don't know, how to, like, chop carrots.
• 8:05
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, I don't understand how people do it so thinly, you know what I mean?
• 8:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, maybe it's that.
• 8:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: Start with something low stakes.
• 8:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: Do it for a couple of weeks.
• 8:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: Again, you are showing your nervous system,"I can do new things.
• 8:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: I can do hard things.
• 8:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: I can change." Right?
• 8:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: Once that starts getting into your bones, you can transfer that to math.
• 8:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: You know, Mel Robbins has been all over my feed lately saying every time you start your day doing something hard, for example, exercising, it makes the rest of the day easier because you've already done this hard thing, so in comparison, everything's like, oh, that's kind of chill.
• 8:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: I...
• 8:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: A lot of my friends feel this way about cold plunging.
• 8:41
  Vanessa Vakharia: They're like,"If you just cold plunge first thing in the morning, I've done the hardest thing I'm gonna do that day.
• 8:44
  Vanessa Vakharia: Everything feels easier." That's how I feel about math.
• 8:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: Honestly, that's why I'm doing this entire program.
• 8:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: Yes, it's about math, but it's about math as a gateway.
• 8:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: Once you show yourself you can progress with math, you can get over this fear, you can just feel more confident around math, all of a sudden, that thing sets the tone.
• 9:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're like,"Oh, if I could do that with math, what else can I do it with?" And that's why this is so important, is to practice being bad at something.
• 9:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: Whatever that thing is for you that you just think you can't get better at, I want you to practice being bad at it, realize it's okay to be bad at it, to not be where you are, and also to see yourself changing and growing, and to remember, if you're doing it in that area, you can also do it in math.
• 9:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: I also wanna-- want you to notice how quickly do you get frustrated?
• 9:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: How uncomfortable is the confusion?
• 9:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: When do you wanna quit?
• 9:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: What stops you from quitting?
• 9:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because that is exactly where your students live in your class every single day.
• 9:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: Confusion isn't failure.
• 9:43
  Vanessa Vakharia: Confusion is what learning feels like, but it doesn't feel good, and I want you to feel that.
• 9:48
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to feel that so that you feel it every day, and by day five, you're like,"Oh, this is just normal.
• 9:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's not that scary anymore.
• 9:55
  Vanessa Vakharia: I recognize this is just a part of the learning process." Okay, so that was experiment/experience number five.
• 10:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: Let's move on to number six, the sixth tiny experiment you can do to help yourself feel more confident in math class in the fall.
• 10:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to read one mindset or psychology book or listen to a podcast.
• 10:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: You heard me.
• 10:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: Notice I didn't say read a math book.
• 10:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's because maybe your biggest challenge isn't the math knowledge, it's actually your relationship with yourself.
• 10:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: I actually know that to be true.
• 10:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: I know that to be true from years and years of experience in tutoring and teaching students.
• 10:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: Often my most anxious students, the ones who thought they were least capable of math, the ones who were the least confident, were the ones getting the highest grades and achieving the highest mastery and understanding of the concepts.
• 10:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: It had nothing to do with their content knowledge.
• 10:44
  Vanessa Vakharia: It had to do with so many other things, right?
• 10:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: It had to do with what people had told them.
• 10:48
  Vanessa Vakharia: It had to do with social conceptions.
• 10:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: It had to do with representation.
• 10:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: It had to do with, you know, like ex- it had to do with the experiences they've had.
• 10:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: At the end of the day, it had to do with experiences they had had, not the knowledge they possessed.
• 11:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: And that's why I say I want you to read or listen to self-help mindset psychology content.
• 11:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to understand how your mind is working.
• 11:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to hear it from someone other than me or your bestie that you can change the way you feel about something, and that your thoughts are not facts.
• 11:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to feed your brain ideas that make you kinder to yourself, but also that target the believe part of my favorite saying,"Believe, behave, become," right?
• 11:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: A lot of these experiments and experiences I'm giving you have to do with actually engaging in behavior that is going to lead to a belief, right?
• 11:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: So you're engaging in behavior, you're practicing being bad at something, and that's gonna show you, oh, wow, I believe that I can get better at something, or I believe trying hard things or trying new things isn't so scary.
• 11:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now I want you to start with belief, and I want you to start planting some seeds in your mind.
• 11:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to start learning about the psychology of what gets us over these humps.
• 11:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: Some of my favorite books, okay?
• 11:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins.
• 12:00
  Vanessa Vakharia: I feel any Mel Robbins book.
• 12:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: To be honest, any Mel Robbins, and some of them are exclusive on Audible.
• 12:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: I've listened to all of her books.
• 12:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: I've never even read one by hand, except for Let Them Theory.
• 12:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: Every single one of her books is amazing.
• 12:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: And if you're gonna go for a podcast, listen to her podcast.
• 12:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: There are so many episodes that are gonna be perfect for you right?
• 12:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: One's around mindset.
• 12:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: One's around making new habits.
• 12:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: One's around overcoming failure.
• 12:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like she's just got so much good content.
• 12:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: So I would go Mel Robbins.
• 12:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: Honestly, every single time I read a self-help book or a mindset book, it immediately to me applies to math.
• 12:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like I'm reading, um, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, and I was like,"This has all to do with math learning." The Four Agreements, to me, I just keep being like,"Oh my God, this is so applicable to math class." Like talking about the ego and how fragile it is, and like taking things personally.
• 12:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay, Atomic Habits by James Clear.
• 12:48
  Vanessa Vakharia: Oh my God, that is such a good book.
• 12:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's all about building new habits and how we, like, build habits to do things that we feel resistant to.
• 12:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: How Minds Change by David McRaney.
• 13:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: It might seem like why would I read this?
• 13:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: But it's really fascinating.
• 13:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's just all about how, like, our minds change around what we are and aren't capable of.
• 13:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: Mindset by Carol Dweck.
• 13:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, if you haven't read it, you have to read it.
• 13:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, I'm, I'm forcing you to read it.
• 13:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: Daring Greatly by Brené Brown, another great one.
• 13:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: Um, you can obviously pick up the book Math Therapy, written by yours truly.
• 13:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: Um, okay, here are some of the books that I've read that you might be like,"How does this tie in?" But I'm telling you, every single time I read a book around mindset, psychology, or self-help, my first thought is math therapy, our relationship with math.
• 13:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: It all ties together because we are emotional beings.
• 13:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: We are emotional, spiritual, cognitive beings.
• 13:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: All of these things work holistically together to determine our relationship with anything, and our relationship with math is no different.
• 13:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: So here, I'm gonna list a bunch.
• 13:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm gonna put them in the show notes, and then just pick one to read or find a podcast that's adjacent to any of these people.
• 13:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: And all of these books are available on Audible.
• 13:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: I actually only listen to nonfiction on audiobook.
• 13:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's just a thing.
• 13:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: I, like, read fiction paperback, but, like, I like to listen to nonfiction.
• 14:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: So I know you're like,"Vanessa, I really don't wanna read an entire self-help book right now," and you don't have to, but I'm telling you, mindset work will be key because your relationship with math is tied to something much bigger, and that is your relationship to yourself and your ability to grow and change.
• 14:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: Honestly.
• 14:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: The point is all of this is tied together.
• 14:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: We cannot divorce our relationship with mathematics from our relationship with ourselves.
• 14:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: The way we approach obstacle, the way we approach things that are difficult, the way we approach things that are new, the stories we've been told about ourselves, they are one and the same, right?
• 14:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: Our relationship with math is just an offshoot of that.
• 14:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: So that's why I think, you know, reading one of these books, or you know what, if you're like,"I don't have time for a book," seriously, just go listen to Mel Robbins' podcast.
• 14:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: Every episode is great.
• 14:48
  Vanessa Vakharia: You can scroll and find one that speaks to you.
• 14:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's so much good stuff in there.
• 14:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's one hour of your life.
• 14:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: Put it on one point five speed.
• 14:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's, like, forty-five minutes.
• 14:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: And getting some thought into your head that's not just from me or, like, your bestie about how our minds work, about well-known and researched scientifically based hacks on how to overcome our fear of adversity and failure is gonna be key to your journey.
• 15:12
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay, so that's what you're gonna do.
• 15:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: That is the next tip.
• 15:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay, tip number seven, experiment, mini, tiny, little cutie experiment number seven that you're gonna do is you're gonna download Duolingo Math.
• 15:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's right.
• 15:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: You are gonna go and download Duolingo, the app.
• 15:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's right, the language app.
• 15:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: And now you're thinking to yourself,"But Vanessa, I don't wanna learn Italian.
• 15:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: I maybe wanna learn a bit of math." Okay, maybe you're even thinking,"I don't wanna learn any math." Okay, here, it doesn't matter what you're thinking.
• 15:38
  Vanessa Vakharia: What I'm thinking is this.
• 15:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: A couple of years ago, Duolingo added both math and music to their app.
• 15:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: This is a language app.
• 15:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: You probably have friends that use Duolingo.
• 15:48
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe you've been learning it to secretly learn Swedish for the past year, and you haven't told anyone.
• 15:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't really know.
• 15:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: The fact that they added math and music spoke volumes, because they are treating them as a language.
• 15:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now, here's what you need to know.
• 16:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: This is not...
• 16:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm not sending you here to learn math content, okay?
• 16:05
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm not sending you here because you're like,"But Vanessa, I feel like I'm not confident around fractions," and I'm like,"Oh, Duolingo will teach you about fractions." That's not what's gonna happen, at all.
• 16:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: I mean, it might happen, but that's not the point.
• 16:15
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm not signing you up for a course.
• 16:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm sending you to Duolingo because it's not even five minutes a day.
• 16:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: It is small, bite-sized, mathematical experience and experiment.
• 16:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: That is what is going to happen when you open it.
• 16:26
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're not gonna know what's happening.
• 16:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's gonna be no instruction.
• 16:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's gonna be no lesson.
• 16:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's gonna be some questions, and you're gonna do them.
• 16:31
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's gonna be some games.
• 16:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna engage in them.
• 16:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: And slowly but surely, your mind is going to register,"I am doing math.
• 16:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: Nothing bad is happening.
• 16:41
  Vanessa Vakharia: And in fact, I know more than I thought I did." Hopefully you're noticing right now that these nice, cute little bite-sized experiments I'm giving you work together because this works with an experiment and experience I gave you in the first part of this miniseries, which was to collect small math moments.
• 16:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna download Duolingo Math, and you're gonna start using it, and every day you're gonna collect that small math moment.
• 17:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna collect that evidence, and you're gonna put it in your evidence folder.
• 17:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's two of the experiments, right?
• 17:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're not only collecting a small math moment, That was experiment number four, you're now collecting evidence, that was experiment number three, and you're downloading Duolingo Math, that was experiment number seven.
• 17:17
  Vanessa Vakharia: So like you're doing three things at once here.
• 17:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: You are going to show yourself,"I'm engaging in math and nothing bad is happening.
• 17:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm engaging in math and I know more than I think I did.
• 17:26
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm engaging in math and it's kind of fun.
• 17:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm engaging in math and I'm getting better at it." That's why you're gonna do it.
• 17:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: The thing is, this is low stakes.
• 17:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's tiny wins.
• 17:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna click the beginner option and you're just gonna go for it.
• 17:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna get some stuff wrong.
• 17:38
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're not always gonna get the right answer.
• 17:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: You're gonna see that it's not that big of a thing.
• 17:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: And you know what?
• 17:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: If you have a friend who's using Duolingo or maybe you are that friend, I noticed something about these Duolingo people.
• 17:48
  Vanessa Vakharia: They're so into Duolingo.
• 17:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: I've got friends learning languages they have no need to learn or use.
• 17:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: I have this friend who's been learning Turkish for three years, and there's no reason why.
• 17:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: He's just doing it.
• 17:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: He-- I think he had a crush on like a Turkish girl at one point and he started learning it and now he's like obsessed with his streak.
• 18:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: Every day he does his Duolingo.
• 18:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't know if he's ever, he's ever spoken the language, if he's ever used it.
• 18:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: But there's something about Duolingo, it's gamified, number one, so it keeps you kind of hooked, right?
• 18:15
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, if you're into like any of those New York Times games like Wordle or like Pips or Connections, I'm very into those.
• 18:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: I just-- I kind of-- I-- It's like my dopamine, right?
• 18:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: But I'm learning, but it's also my dopamine.
• 18:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's how Duolingo has it set up.
• 18:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's on your phone.
• 18:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's an app.
• 18:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's gamified.
• 18:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: It gives you some dopamine while also it's slowly reworking your brain, right?
• 18:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: My dad has been secretly learning Italian on Duolingo for two years.
• 18:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: I didn't know this.
• 18:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: The only reason I know is'cause last week we went to this Italian cafe and, you know, the barista said something, and my dad responded in Italian.
• 18:48
  Vanessa Vakharia: And I was like,"I, I'm, I'm sorry.
• 18:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: Did you..." They started having a full conversation in fucking Italian.
• 18:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now, was his Italian perfect?
• 18:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't think so.
• 18:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't know.
• 18:58
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't speak Italian.
• 18:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: He was able to understand him.
• 19:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: He had a convers- I was like,"What's going on?" He was like,"Oh, I've been doing Italian Duolingo for two years." What?
• 19:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: I had no idea.
• 19:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: And the pleasure on his face, the excitement, like he just looked like a tiny kid getting so excited when this barista started talking back to him because he understood what he was saying.
• 19:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: And I was like,"This is just so cool." I really think Duolingo has it figured out, and you know this if you use it or know people who use it.
• 19:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: They, there's-- they're not like,"Ugh, I gotta do my Duolingo." They like it, right?
• 19:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: They h- because what's happening is in small bite-sized doses, they are learning something.
• 19:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: They're feeling good about it.
• 19:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's nothing explicit going on.
• 19:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's no test at the end of it.
• 19:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: Actually, I do think they might have like some little quizzes and stuff here and there.
• 19:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: But the point is that it's all feel good because- You're kind of casually learning this thing in a very low stakes environment.
• 19:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: Even if you get something wrong, there's an opportunity for you to correct yourself, and then you just move on with the lesson, and before you know it, you know Italian, whereas you never knew Italian to begin with.
• 20:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: And that's what's gonna happen with math.
• 20:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: So I want you to download this app, and I want you to just start it.
• 20:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: Notice no one's walking around saying,"I'm not a Wordle person," or,"I'm not a Pips person." That's not like a thing because there's no type of person who's like mastered Wordle.
• 20:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: We're all just doing it for fun and learning, and we have different strategies.
• 20:19
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's no way to be the best at Wordle, and that's the same thing with Duolingo Math.
• 20:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: There's no like mastery, I'm the number one person on Duolingo Math.
• 20:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: We're all just on there.
• 20:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: We have been on there for a different amount of days.
• 20:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: We have different streaks.
• 20:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: We're engaged in different things, and it's just a low stakes way to, again, what are we doing?
• 20:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: Showing your nervous system it's safe when it does math.
• 20:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's safe when it does math.
• 20:41
  Vanessa Vakharia: Not only is it safe, it gets a little bit excited when it's math time the next day because you're gonna get that dopamine hit.
• 20:47
  Vanessa Vakharia: Remember, confidence grows through hundreds and thousands of many tiny safe experiences, and this is just another one of those experiences you can give yourself every day without having to like do a full math lesson or a course or a worksheet.
• 21:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: And finally, the last experiment of the eight, this is a big one, okay?
• 21:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: Remember, I am here to show you how to feel more confident about math in the fall, and one of the things, one of our biggest triggers for all of us, one of the reasons we're here right now listening to this podcast is because something broke our heart.
• 21:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: There was a math concept or lesson that broke us, and we have never healed.
• 21:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: And so experiment number eight is to go back and relearn the thing that broke your heart.
• 21:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: And if you're anything like me right now, you're like,"No, no, no," your entire body is fighting this.
• 21:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, that's as though I was saying,"Okay, Vanessa, the thing you have to do is go and finally learn how taxes work." I would also-- I would throw my microphone out the window and be like,"I hate you now." I get it.
• 21:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: I get it.
• 21:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: But before you press stop and, like, decide to disown me and never listen to this podcast again, let me tell you something right now.
• 21:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: The thing that broke your heart in math class was probably something you learned, like, under the age of 14.
• 22:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: I j- I just want you to think about it this way.
• 22:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm not trying to excuse myself, but I'm like, taxes are like a grown-up thing, okay?
• 22:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: So they're scarier because it's more recent that this thing started stressing me out.
• 22:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: For you guys, the thing that broke your heart in math class was probably something you learned under the age of 14.
• 22:19
  Vanessa Vakharia: It was probably fractions, or maybe it was algebra.
• 22:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe it was when letters got introduced into math class, as a lot of people say, right?
• 22:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, maybe it was your times tables.
• 22:32
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe it happened that young.
• 22:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe it was long division.
• 22:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, I'm just stating some common ones, but maybe it was something else.
• 22:38
  Vanessa Vakharia: My point is, as an adult, you have now dealt with a million things that are way harder and way more higher stakes than not being able to add two fractions together.
• 22:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: At the time, it seemed impossible.
• 22:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: At the time, think about your young brain, like your nine-year-old brain.
• 22:55
  Vanessa Vakharia: The knowledge it had to draw on was very limited compared to all of the knowledge you have to draw on now.
• 23:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: You are going to be able to learn that thing.
• 23:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: I know you don't believe me, but it is not gonna be as scary as you remember it.
• 23:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: Your body is remembering and hanging on to the trauma response of the math trauma that occurred when you tried to learn this thing and you couldn't learn it, something bad happened, or you simply were just like,"I can't learn this thing, and I feel really, really dumb." Your body's gonna remember that forever unless you teach it a different story, and you can only teach it a different story by giving it a different experience.
• 23:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: So you need to go back and relearn that thing.
• 23:31
  Vanessa Vakharia: Now, listen I'm not asking you to relearn this thing because you're gonna teach it.
• 23:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe you're listening and you're like,"I don't- I'm- I teach grade two.
• 23:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't need to go back and learn algebra.
• 23:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't e-" You don't need to.
• 23:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: You don't need to learn it'cause you're gonna teach it.
• 23:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: But learning it is going to prove something so major to you that I really want you to do it.
• 23:48
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to do it for you, not for the kids you're gonna teach.
• 23:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to do it for you.
• 23:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: So first you need to get really clear.
• 23:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: What was that thing?
• 23:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: I might have already said it and you were like,"Oh God, just don't.
• 23:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: Fractions.
• 23:59
  Vanessa Vakharia: No." Like, I don't know what it was.
• 24:00
  Vanessa Vakharia: What was that thing?
• 24:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: Let's get clear.
• 24:02
  Vanessa Vakharia: What was it?
• 24:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: Once you're clear on it, let's figure out how you're gonna learn it.
• 24:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to picture you had to teach it to somebody.
• 24:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: What would you do?
• 24:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like imagine you had to teach it to your younger self.
• 24:13
  Vanessa Vakharia: What would you have done for that person?
• 24:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: Would you have pulled on some resources that maybe didn't even exist during that time?
• 24:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, we've got so much at our fingertips right now, right?
• 24:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, would you pull on some resources?
• 24:22
  Vanessa Vakharia: Would you get your best friend to do it?
• 24:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: Would you get, like, your favorite math teacher that you know now to teach it to you?
• 24:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: Would you ask ChatGPT?
• 24:30
  Vanessa Vakharia: Would you need something more tactile and visual?
• 24:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: Would you want manipulatives?
• 24:34
  Vanessa Vakharia: Would you...
• 24:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, I don't, I don't know.
• 24:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: Whatever it is you need, we can get it for you, right?
• 24:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like we're-- It's 2026.
• 24:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: We can get whatever that thing is you need, right?
• 24:44
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, I know so many incredible math teachers, some of you are probably listening to this podcast, that I'm like, if I ever had to explain a concept to the younger me or to a student right now, I'd be like,"Oh, get...
• 24:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: Honestly, get Deborah Peart.
• 24:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: There.
• 24:56
  Vanessa Vakharia: Just get..." I, I know for a fact she's gonna teach it in the best way.
• 25:00
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, do you know what I mean?
• 25:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, I'm like, if Deborah taught me anything, like, I would learn it.
• 25:04
  Vanessa Vakharia: It would, it would be the-- That would, that would be the end of that.
• 25:06
  Vanessa Vakharia: Do you know what I mean?
• 25:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: Or like Allison Mello.
• 25:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm like,"Yeah, you teach me something." You know what I mean?
• 25:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: Like, there are people, and, and you, especially if you work in a school, if you're a teacher, you probably know the person that you're like,"Oh, that math teacher.
• 25:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: I wish that..." That person that you're like,"I wish that person was my math teacher," get them to reteach you the concept that broke your heart.
• 25:24
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's what we're doing.
• 25:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's it.
• 25:26
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's it.
• 25:27
  Vanessa Vakharia: And this isn't because you have to teach it, right?
• 25:28
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's because the younger version of you deserve that rom-com ending, and you're gonna get it right now.
• 25:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: The truth is, every time your adult brain understands something that your younger self couldn't, you are rewriting the story, and that is math therapy.
• 25:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: That's what it's all about.
• 25:46
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay, guys, I'm really excited for you.
• 25:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: We have now done eight things together.
• 25:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: On this episode, we've only done four, but I wanna recap all eight of them so you have eight tiny experiences and experiments you can try starting right now to feel more confident about math in the fall and to rewire your nervous system so it begins to feel safer around math so that confidence is possible.
• 26:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: Are we ready?
• 26:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: Let's run them down.
• 26:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: Okay, number one, find that one math friend, your pep talker, that person that's gonna...
• 26:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: You know, you can text when you feel stuck, when you feel like you don't wanna do this anymore, that's gonna be like,"You're cool.
• 26:19
  Vanessa Vakharia: Don't worry about it.
• 26:20
  Vanessa Vakharia: Keep going." Number two, replace the word proving with improving by asking yourself,"What's one thing I could understand 1% better today?" Number three, build an evidence folder.
• 26:29
  Vanessa Vakharia: Evidence that you are doing hard things and you are learning new things, and nothing bad is happening.
• 26:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: Number four, start collecting math moments.
• 26:37
  Vanessa Vakharia: Those are moments around you that you're observing math, you're engaging in math, you're doing math, you're around math, and you're not scared, and maybe you're even having a little bit of fun.
• 26:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: Number five, practice being bad at something, anything.
• 26:48
  Vanessa Vakharia: I don't care what it is.
• 26:49
  Vanessa Vakharia: Practice and practice consistently and see what happens.
• 26:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: Number six, read one mindset or psychology book or listen to one mindset or psychology podcast.
• 26:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: Number seven, download Duolingo Math and start right now every single day.
• 27:01
  Vanessa Vakharia: It's like two to three minutes.
• 27:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: You've got this.
• 27:03
  Vanessa Vakharia: And number eight, go back and learn the thing that broke your heart.
• 27:07
  Vanessa Vakharia: Are we ready?
• 27:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: You guys have got this.
• 27:09
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to text me right now.
• 27:11
  Vanessa Vakharia: Tell me what you did last week, if you did anything.
• 27:14
  Vanessa Vakharia: Tell me what you're committed to doing this week, and hey, there are eight things.
• 27:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: You could even pick one a week starting right now if you want.
• 27:21
  Vanessa Vakharia: So text me.
• 27:23
  Vanessa Vakharia: Click the link in your show notes that says Text Us or Text Me or whatever it says, and tell me the one experiment you are gonna start doing right now, and let's see how it goes.
• 27:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: And remember, if you are listening to this and you're like,"Oh my God.
• 27:35
  Vanessa Vakharia: Oh my God.
• 27:36
  Vanessa Vakharia: Oh my God," you know who needs to do this, I want you to send it to that person.
• 27:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: I want you to send this to your group chat.
• 27:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: Maybe you have a group chat of teachers that you're like,"Guys, let's all do this together." Okay, guys.
• 27:45
  Vanessa Vakharia: Thank you so much for listening to my first ever Math Therapy Mini Masterclass series.
• 27:50
  Vanessa Vakharia: That was so fun.
• 27:51
  Vanessa Vakharia: I can't wait to hear from you, and I believe in you.
• 27:53
  Vanessa Vakharia: I have faith in you.
• 27:54
  Vanessa Vakharia: Remember, this is not about perfection.
• 27:57
  Vanessa Vakharia: It is about just witnessing our progress, witnessing what happens when we willingly and intentionally engage consistently in these tiny experiments and experiences.
• 28:08
  Vanessa Vakharia: When we do, we change.
• 28:10
  Vanessa Vakharia: Let's observe that change together.
• 28:12
  Vanessa Vakharia: Let's observe it and show our negativity bias,"Hey.
• 28:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: Hi.
• 28:16
  Vanessa Vakharia: I have the receipts.
• 28:18
  Vanessa Vakharia: I can do anything I put my mind to, including rebuilding my relationship with math." The truth is, your students don't just learn math from you.
• 28:25
  Vanessa Vakharia: They learn how to feel about math from you, and you doing this with me right now is such a great gift, not only to you, but to them.
• 28:33
  Vanessa Vakharia: Because I can't wait for you to tell them about it when you get into class in September.
• 28:39
  Vanessa Vakharia: Thank you guys so much for being along for the ride.
• 28:40
  Vanessa Vakharia: I can't wait to hear from you.
• 28:42
  Vanessa Vakharia: Text me, and I will see you next week, same time, same channel, same place, same sweaty, hot room where I've been staring at the lake now for two hours wanting to jump in.
• 28:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: And guess what, guys?
• 28:52
  Vanessa Vakharia: I'm gonna go jump in right now.