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I have experienced teachers in high school who only taught math in the most standard of ways and didn't really leave room for creativity for a learning experience. I know that some teachers use a fear technique or may belittle students in their class without having a self-reflection as a teacher. I know that I did not have one math teacher that catered to the students who where struggling and just left them to sink or swim by themselves.

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Instead of encouraging working through the many obstacles and difficulties in math, students are often deemed incapable of complex math subjects like algebra, and geometry. One thing that I experienced in school is how my placement effected my confidence as a student. Seeing myself be placed in "lower level" math placements was somewhat discouraging. I guess the way we frame math in the first place is problematic and it leads to frustration. I think the reason for this is because we tend to think of it as such a linear, and product oriented subject. Students aren't given much opportunity to express themselves.
To compare it to a different subject, I remember being in alot of literature classes where the teacher would say, "here, there are no WRONG answers" why cant we be more like that with math?

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As described in the text, I actually believed math is a beautiful, I just began struggling with it later in life (I actually failed pre-calculus!). I say this because I remember when the foreign exchange students who studied at my high school for a year. Almost everyone never felt out of place in math class and I wondered why. If you were to ask them they would tell you math was a language they could understand easily! I think that's amazing, as math could somehow be thought of as a universal language. I believe my perceptions of math changed in high school because I had teachers who just didn't know how to teach math (plain and simple). I never understood math was so diverse, or could be culturally relevant in any society. As an educator, I will encourage my students to not give up never think there is one way to solve problems.

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All throughout grammar school, Ive heard teachers say math is not for everyone and if you do not understand math then you probably won't understand math.
Ive even heard teachers say that kids are gifted if they are really good at math.

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Math for me has never been “easy”. I always felt like I had to do the most to get to the same level as my classmates. In 7th and 8th grade I was put in an advanced algebra class and although I did well, learning math did not come natural for me. I felt that the people around me always knew what they were doing and I didn’t feel like I belonged. My teacher was very helpful and the reason I didn’t fail out of the class is because I would go to after school tutoring. Even then I was usually the only one of a few kids who stayed after school for tutoring. I felt it was a little unfair for the school to place me into the class because I was excelling in ELA at the time they automatically thought I would be good at math too, which was not the case. I knew other people who were way better at grasping math than me who were not considered for the advanced class because their ELA scores were low.

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Math has never been my forte' But in my experience it seems like the teachers i had always pushed those who were not good to the side instead of really getting in their face and thinking about it.

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During my primary and secondary school years, Ive heard many teachers say, "Math is not for everyone." Although these words were never said to me, I can see how they can be discouraging. Ive always been a year ahead in math. My senior year, I even took two college math courses. I often helped my friends with their math homework because they were told they weren't good, but the more we studied the more they realized math is just like anything else, you have to practice. You also have to figure out what methods work for you.

In my classroom, I will make sure not to be closed minded. I will be open to my students playing with the equations to solve them how they feel comfortable. I would also make sure that my students know that you have to practice math, just like anything else in life.

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Structuring HW to make ties and connections outside the classroom as they solve Mathematic problems in everyday life (Washington Post Article)
Uplift Girls/students of color as needed.
Focus on the growth and don’t dwell on the negatives (+2 vs -18 ...Every kid deserves a champion)
Give all students high level content.
Encourage deep thinking with mathematics.
Lesson plans aligned with deep thinking for students.
Structure activities for group work and group identity.

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James Sneed

Sometimes in math teachers think that students already know how to do certain types of math . Kind of that myth that says you are born to be good at math. I know for me math has always been a low subject of mine and I’ve never had a math teacher push me

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I resonate with the myth of you are genetically determined to be good at math. at school I was never pushed to fully understand mathematics, and was always told math wasn't for me. my family has always reinforced to me that I am just not wired to be good at math. because of this, to this day I really struggle with math and blame it on myself thinking that I am just not supposed to be good at it. as a teacher i am working to break these biases I have had my entire life, and hopefully change the discourse to my students that math is possible for everyone.

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I think teachers often perpetuate a notion into students as either you’re gifted at math or you’re not & if you’re not you can’t learn it. Teachers seem to continue making math more difficult as the school year passes but they. never stop to provide extra support to the students that are struggling. To make math more equitable teachers should get to know all of their children’s strengths and weaknesses and design a lesson plan that will meet the needs of all students.

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The idea of the Model Minority was not discussed in the reading, but one of my best friends is Chinese and was never "naturally" good at or inclined to math. She has heard countless times from people of all races - including her own, right down to her own family members - that her not being good at math is strange and practically unacceptable, all because of her race. She was forced to go to summer school for math and take it IB HL all through high school, and she hated every minute of it. She was also pressured into majoring in Computer Science, where she continued to be miserable until she finally decided to major in History and become a teacher instead.

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My math teachers from K-12 (Except for 2. One from elementary school and another from high school. They were amazing!) always called those who were good at math "gifted" while other students like me were not. This made me feel discouraged. Both of my parents work in the STEM field so they would say I was the odd one out of the 3 which made me dislike math more and not give any thought towards it.  I agree with the example that this book gave about Einstein because if you know math that doesn't determine how "gifted" you are. When I walk into a classroom, I want to be able to encourage students that they are able to excel in math through multiple ways. I also want to confront colleagues and have conversations who think that they're superior. A lot of people in the STEM field think like that way!  It all starts in the workplace before it spreads to our students.

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When I had moved to New York in Middle School, my math was more advanced than the other students so sometimes I would help the teacher in class. When teaching especially Math it is important to show students different techniques to solve a problem because different students learn things different way. So you have to be considerate.

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When I think of inequities involving math, I immediately think of students who are dissuaded from the subject because of bad teaching. Math is a language of a logic, and the concepts that are communicated in mathematics have implications for science, technology, and for social justice as well. When teachers can't connect to students or provide students with engaging mathematics lessons or digestible problems, students are often left feeling frustrated or confused. It's a gross injustice when you consider that students are less likely to encounter mathematics education outside of the classroom, especially when it pours into practical matters such as personal finance and problem-solving.

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I must say how every Math teacher that I ever had in my life have always made sure that students in the classroom understands the concept of math, even if you did not 100% grasp the math problem and could do it on your own. When Boaler states that everyone is not good in math, that is 100% true. In some math classes, I was good in, but in others I was not. At times it will depends on the teacher and the lessons. Homework was helpful but not the hard homework assignments in what my peers and I couldn't get, it affected our learning and comprehending.
I can make my classroom/teaching equitable by creating an environment for students to learn at their own pace. Never make them feel like its a rushing process, and to to use small groups activities, because it can make a difference in a long run in a struggling student academic performance. That definitely helped me!

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When the author mentioned that everyone may not be strong in math, that everyone is me. I have always struggled with math but it got worse in middle school and went downhill from there. Moving forward for my classroom I can make sure my teaching is beneficial  to all students. Making sure all can comprehend mathematics in all forms.

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As I progressed through my K-12 education, most of my schools partook in tracking. I was put on the advanced track, but in a way I feel that this hindered my growth in mathematics because I was constantly met with surprised looks from teachers. They did not expect to see a Latina woman in higher level math courses. Therefore, I often felt isolated and different from my other classmates and looked at math as something that was not meant for me.

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Teachers think that assigning hard homework is equivalent to making the course challenging and raising standards for all students! I disagree as the reading demonstrated how this homework is a form of inequity! Culturally responsive teachers need to know their students so they can assign homework that will best serve them. Include more reflection and research style assignments...eliminate such homework that causes frustrations...that could be a barrier for learning!

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When I think of inequities surrounding mathematics, I think about gender and racial stereotypes. I have heard things like "Asians are just good at math," and "Boy are just better at math than girls are." I myself been on the receiving end of stereotypes because I attended a predominately white school with a minority population of about 1%, where I was treated like I was the spokesperson for the black race whenever I spoke up in class or merely existed.

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Math seems to be an awkward subject where many educators assume students have a natural ability or inability to do math. Teachers seem to assume that by presenting the content, a certain amount of gifted students will understand, while another group will struggle to comprehend due to a lack of innate math prowess.
As someone who will teach math at some point, I want to encourage my students to think deeply about math. Math is not meant to be something easily grasped by a select few, rather an experimental process in search of an answer. I'm hoping that by encouraging students to think about math, they will not fall into a habit of viewing math as a set of steps that they can never seem to get right.

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I connected with the part when the author stated that everyone may not be strong in math. I have always struggled in math, so that was interesting. Also, I have only had a few math teachers that taught me math in a way I could understand it. The other ones were just teaching in one style so it made it difficult for me to understand what was going on.

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I think that I had a fairly unique experience in high school math, because I attended an all-girls school with 30% international/ exchange students, primarily from East Asian countries. Our school had a limited number of spots in honors classes, and those honors spots in math and science classes almost exclusively went to international students (and almost no international students were placed into honors English or history). The majority of the international students attended summer school programs in math and science in their native languages to prepare them for taking the same subjects in English during the school year. When I did manage to place into honors math and science in 10th grade, I was one of 5 students from the U.S., and we were the only ones in the classroom learning new material. Since even the American students who got into advanced math struggled to keep up, the stereotype of Asian students being good at math was very reinforced at my school. Most students who did not go into honors classes dropped math as a subject by their senior year of high school.

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During my experience in grade school, I was treated with more respect by my teachers in every mathematics course I had taken; due to the fact that I always did well in those courses. In other words, my teachers respected my future as a student would be more prominent that other students because I would be able apply these skills that benefit everyday working citizens and business owners. Now, I am aware of how mathematics in grade school segregates the student population on every campuses, whether by performance or disability. I can make sure my classroom teaching is equitable by using multiple teaching strategies to ensure that all students can comprehend mathematics numerically and written, and throughly breaking down math word problems that are related to real words problems or situations.

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Personally, I resonated with the idea of math being separated into those that can or cannot do it, and I very much fell into the category of someone who just could not do math. I think this falls into the idea discussed of the "elitist construction of math" and the myth of the gifted child. I think an important thing to consider when teaching math and equity is that just because a student doesn't "get it" off the bat doesn't mean they never will, and to get rid of this "my way or the highway" approach to teaching, since students all come to our classrooms with unique perspectives that we must consider as part of their learning process, and embrace these different perspectives and methods of problem solving as unique gifts.

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When I think of inequities in mathematics I think of students that are taught only to solve math problems in the way provided by the teacher, not their own way. I think of the emphasis on math problems needing to be graded on the correct answer and not the process itself. I know to sort of rectify this as a teacher I need to encourage innovation when it comes to solving mathematics problems

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I was placed in advanced courses for mathematics in middle/highschool, for a college prep program. There was only an original exam to enter the program and students were not allowed to apply or take the exam to enter the program, no matter how exceptional their scores past 6th grade. Classes were divided between "basic" and "advanced" and teachers made sure we knew that we were "better" than the students in regular coursework. This type of negative correlation made many of my friends hate math and not want to try. So I think it is important to make sure we meet students where they are and have a growth mindset. Had there been more opportunities for growth within my school, I feel students would be more willing to try and reach success.

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So, I was a "gifted" kid in elementary. Everyday I'd be taken out of my class along with a handful of other students. We played games and wrote stories and went on special field trips, and there was very much this sense that because we were naturally skilled academically, we deserved better than the other students. Our ability to process information more quickly than other students was lauded as a moral achievement. And I did consider myself to be superior to my peers. But it's an ouroboros. You take academically inclined students and provide them with resources that spur their love of learning, so of course they love to learn. Meanwhile you take resources away from other students and  teach them to resign themselves to mediocrity.

But having a head for numbers is of no more moral consequence than having blue eyes. Children have to be taught that the rate and ways in which they process knowledge isn't something that can be classified as 'good' or 'bad'. They simply are what they are. My job as a teacher is to get the kids where they need to go, their job is to work with me to get there.