by All of my students are in randomly selected teams all of the time with the exception of individual assessments. This allows the students to productively struggle together and move forward together. Unfortunately, our “survival of the fittest” educational system has developed a student culture that in order for one student to move forward they have to be better than the other students. This leads to the corollary that the “advanced” students are held back by the “slower” students. This myth is almost as prevalent as “Learning Styles” not only among students but teachers as well. Research, going back to the 70s, has proven time and time again that when we explain math to someone else our mathematical knowledge gets deeper and we become better mathematicians. In order to overcome the fake news that helping someone holds us back I am constantly reminding my students of this fact. This can’t be a one and done event. I show mindset monday videos about it, I talk about and I am constantly monitoring conversations to ensure that negative lies aren’t growing. Mindset is everything and hence my classroom is full of positive messaging.
