Hi, I'm Vanessa Vakharia, aka The Math Guru, and you're listening to Math Therapy, a podcast that explores the root causes of math trauma and the empowering ways we can heal from it. We're about to launch season six, and I cannot wait to share these convos with you. This season covered so many topics that I know will hit home for so many of you. From the roots of math anxiety, to the growing movement to find wonder and joy in the beauty of math, from the challenges teachers face in keeping up with the changes in the education system, to the power of building trust and community in the classroom. Here's a little sample of what's in store.

As adults, we very seldom ever put ourselves in situations where we can be wrong, but we ask our students to do it every single day. Who are we, if we ask our kids to do that every day, who are we then to excuse ourselves from the discomfort of learning? Especially when another human being can be impacted.

If I get to spend 180 days in the classroom with a kid, I would rather them leave my classroom having a positive outlook on who they are as a math learner than knowing a bunch of shit about math. I think it's more important for their well being and their future that they walk out feeling like they have a connection and they see themselves as a math learner.

You don't learn music to start learning to play scales. People put the emphasis on thinking about math as learning scales, versus listening to a symphony. I just want people to experience the symphony, even if they don't end up becoming professional musicians.

The teacher and the student are on the same side. When I was an undergrad, I thought of my professors as like mini boss battles, it's like, I need to defeat this boss to get my degree. but now that I'm on the other side, I'm like, no, like teachers want to help students.

I think every teaching experience is also a learning experience. Like I've never been in a classroom with students where I've not learned something about the math that I'm teaching.

We came in as these like, math geeks, both wanted to be math teachers. One day we were in the classroom and finally realized that other people don't like math, and that's a real shocker, especially when you've gone through schooling and you have this excitement, you want to share it with students. And very quickly we recognize that, the majority of the students that we have to interact with each day, that we've been entrusted to actually educate, are not on the same train as us.

Mathematics classrooms can sometimes be extremely comforting, but they can be borderline abusive at times, hence, you know, why we would need, math therapy. Math doesn't give people trauma, people give people trauma. And I think about that a lot in the classroom.

And at the end, when we debriefed the lesson, the teacher said, that girl who shared first has never spoken all year in my class. But she several times raised her hand and wanted participate because she suddenly felt comfortable. She suddenly has a voice. She doesn't have to know the answer, but she has some opinion about things. And so she can talk about it.

The reason why people feel like they're not a math person is because they've had some type of trauma or some type of negative experience. You might not be a rocket scientist. But you're still a math person. And if you had the right teacher, you would have been able to build that confidence even more. But even if you don't have the right teacher, hang out with people like me, and we'll build your confidence over time. You'll be just fine.

What books are to reading, play is to mathematics. We all know we're supposed to read at home with our young children. Hey, you want your kids to read, read to them, from the moment they're born, right. So then it's like, okay, well, what do you do for math? And the answer is you've got to be playing with kids, but it's a type of playing that has to do with counting and organizing, but also patterns. Playing is really the key element.

Season six kicks off March 28th with a mind blowing conversation with Dr. Pamela Seda about what can really move the dial when it comes to making sure every single student believes that they are capable of building a better relationship with math. Until then, make sure you're subscribed to the podcast wherever you listen, tell a friend about the pod, and follow me@TheMathGuru on Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok.