Math confidence masterclass: part 2

Vanessa Vakharia 0:03

Hello, it's me. Welcome back to another episode of Math Therapy, and this is the first time I've done, like, a two-part series. So I guess, welcome to part two of our two-part Math Therapy mini masterclass series. Now, if you're like, "Oh God, part two? I haven't listened to part one," don't worry, don't panic. Just go listen to part one. Honestly, it'll make more sense if you go listen to part one. 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. 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? 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. Literally, that you're gonna feel more confident about math. You're gonna feel more confident doing math. You're gonna feel more confident when math is present. Even if you don't, like, officially do math in a classroom setting, you're gonna feel more confident when math is around you. Why? Because we are engaging in eight tiny experiences and experiments to help your brain and body feel more safe around math. We are retraining the nervous system. So to recap, last week we did half of the eight experiments, okay? So we went through four of them, and those four were, number one, finding a math friend, okay? Or, like, an accountability partner, someone who can just hype you up when you're feeling down. Number two was replacing the word proving with improving. So just asking yourself daily, What is one thing I could understand 1% better today? 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. Okay? You are showing your brain and body and your negativity bias, "Hi, I can do hard things. 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? 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. I'm vibing. I'm fine. I'm safe." And now we are going to get into the back half of the four. 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. Now remember, it's never too late to start, so you can start right now, and you don't have to do all eight. I would love for you to listen with the vibe of what's one thing here that feels like something easy I can do. It needs to be easy. It needs to be quick. It needs to be fun. It needs to be low stakes, and I just want you to remember, consistency trumps quantity, right? Just small, consistent action. That's why I'm giving you guys eight tiny experiments and experiences. These things should take like two to five minutes daily max, okay? Because that is going to start getting into your brain, into your body, into your nervous system. We are rewiring. We are reaffirming. We are redoing. We are rewriting our story physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually around what it means to be somebody who does math. Okay, here we go. So we

5) practice being bad at something

Vanessa Vakharia 3:18

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. Practice being bad at something. You heard me. 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. I've never felt a- anxious around math," and especially if you're a teacher listening to this, this experiment is for you. 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. 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. Beginner's mind. 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? When we get in the seat of beginner's mind, it actually is quite a relief. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Why am I saying ding, ding, ding so much? I did it last episode, too. Anyways, that's your thing. There, I found it for you. 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"? 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. "I'm not an artist. I'm not a creative person. I'm not good with maps." I don't, I don't know. I don't know what you're saying. But whatever that thing is, that is the thing you are going to start practicing. How are you gonna practice it? Well, I'm not sure. You're gonna just do something, five minutes of that thing. 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. If it's chess, you're gonna watch a tutorial and play. 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. If it is knitting, go buy some knitting needles and some, I don't know, yarn. Is that what they knit with? And again, y- well, there's YouTube now. There's so much stuff. 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. And you are going to practice. You're gonna practice every day, every week, five minutes. That's all I want is five minutes. Because imagine, this is what you'd say to your students. 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. I don't just want you to do this so you'll get better at it. Okay? So first of all, here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna get better at it. You are. You're gonna notice that you're getting better. You're not gonna be where you wanna be. You're still gonna think you suck, but you're going to be getting better at it. 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? 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. You can. But I would love for you to actually practice being bad at something other than math to start with. 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. And, uh, like, it feel... it might be too triggering to start with math. I would like you to start with something you feel bad at that has, like, zero stakes. Like, you don't ever have to do it. You don't have to do it as a job. Maybe it's cooking. Maybe you're like, "I'm so bad at cooking," and you could just start learning how to make some basic meals. Or like, I don't know, how to, like, chop carrots. Like, I don't understand how people do it so thinly, you know what I mean? Like, maybe it's that. Start with something low stakes. Do it for a couple of weeks. Again, you are showing your nervous system, "I can do new things. I can do hard things. I can change." Right? Once that starts getting into your bones, you can transfer that to math. 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. I... A lot of my friends feel this way about cold plunging. 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. Everything feels easier." That's how I feel about math. Honestly, that's why I'm doing this entire program. Yes, it's about math, but it's about math as a gateway. 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. 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. 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. I also wanna-- want you to notice how quickly do you get frustrated? How uncomfortable is the confusion? When do you wanna quit? What stops you from quitting? Because that is exactly where your students live in your class every single day. Confusion isn't failure. Confusion is what learning feels like, but it doesn't feel good, and I want you to feel that. 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. It's not that scary anymore. I recognize this is just a part of the learning process."

6) read a mindset/psychology book (or podcast)

Vanessa Vakharia 9:59

Okay, so that was experiment/experience number five. 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. I want you to read one mindset or psychology book or listen to a podcast. You heard me. Notice I didn't say read a math book. That's because maybe your biggest challenge isn't the math knowledge, it's actually your relationship with yourself. I actually know that to be true. I know that to be true from years and years of experience in tutoring and teaching students. 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. It had nothing to do with their content knowledge. It had to do with so many other things, right? It had to do with what people had told them. It had to do with social conceptions. It had to do with representation. It had to do with, you know, like ex- it had to do with the experiences they've had. At the end of the day, it had to do with experiences they had had, not the knowledge they possessed. And that's why I say I want you to read or listen to self-help mindset psychology content. I want you to understand how your mind is working. 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. 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? 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? 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. Now I want you to start with belief, and I want you to start planting some seeds in your mind. I want you to start learning about the psychology of what gets us over these humps. Some of my favorite books, okay? Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins. I feel any Mel Robbins book. To be honest, any Mel Robbins, and some of them are exclusive on Audible. I've listened to all of her books. I've never even read one by hand, except for Let Them Theory. Every single one of her books is amazing. And if you're gonna go for a podcast, listen to her podcast. There are so many episodes that are gonna be perfect for you right? One's around mindset. One's around making new habits. One's around overcoming failure. Like she's just got so much good content. So I would go Mel Robbins. Honestly, every single time I read a self-help book or a mindset book, it immediately to me applies to math. 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. Okay, Atomic Habits by James Clear. Oh my God, that is such a good book. It's all about building new habits and how we, like, build habits to do things that we feel resistant to. How Minds Change by David McRaney. It might seem like why would I read this? But it's really fascinating. It's just all about how, like, our minds change around what we are and aren't capable of. Mindset by Carol Dweck. Like, if you haven't read it, you have to read it. Like, I'm, I'm forcing you to read it. Daring Greatly by Brené Brown, another great one. Um, you can obviously pick up the book Math Therapy, written by yours truly. 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. It all ties together because we are emotional beings. We are emotional, spiritual, cognitive beings. All of these things work holistically together to determine our relationship with anything, and our relationship with math is no different. So here, I'm gonna list a bunch. 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. And all of these books are available on Audible. I actually only listen to nonfiction on audiobook. It's just a thing. I, like, read fiction paperback, but, like, I like to listen to nonfiction. 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. Honestly. The point is all of this is tied together. We cannot divorce our relationship with mathematics from our relationship with ourselves. 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? Our relationship with math is just an offshoot of that. 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. Every episode is great. You can scroll and find one that speaks to you. There's so much good stuff in there. It's one hour of your life. Put it on one point five speed. It's, like, forty-five minutes. 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. Okay, so that's what you're gonna do. That is the next tip. Okay,

7) download Duolingo Math

Vanessa Vakharia 15:15

tip number seven, experiment, mini, tiny, little cutie experiment number seven that you're gonna do is you're gonna download Duolingo Math. That's right. You are gonna go and download Duolingo, the app. That's right, the language app. And now you're thinking to yourself, "But Vanessa, I don't wanna learn Italian. 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. What I'm thinking is this. A couple of years ago, Duolingo added both math and music to their app. This is a language app. You probably have friends that use Duolingo. Maybe you've been learning it to secretly learn Swedish for the past year, and you haven't told anyone. I don't really know. The fact that they added math and music spoke volumes, because they are treating them as a language. Now, here's what you need to know. This is not... I'm not sending you here to learn math content, okay? 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. I mean, it might happen, but that's not the point. I'm not signing you up for a course. I'm sending you to Duolingo because it's not even five minutes a day. It is small, bite-sized, mathematical experience and experiment. That is what is going to happen when you open it. You're not gonna know what's happening. There's gonna be no instruction. There's gonna be no lesson. There's gonna be some questions, and you're gonna do them. There's gonna be some games. You're gonna engage in them. And slowly but surely, your mind is going to register, "I am doing math. Nothing bad is happening. 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. You're gonna download Duolingo Math, and you're gonna start using it, and every day you're gonna collect that small math moment. You're gonna collect that evidence, and you're gonna put it in your evidence folder. That's two of the experiments, right? 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. So like you're doing three things at once here. You are going to show yourself, "I'm engaging in math and nothing bad is happening. I'm engaging in math and I know more than I think I did. I'm engaging in math and it's kind of fun. I'm engaging in math and I'm getting better at it." That's why you're gonna do it. The thing is, this is low stakes. It's tiny wins. You're gonna click the beginner option and you're just gonna go for it. You're gonna get some stuff wrong. You're not always gonna get the right answer. You're gonna see that it's not that big of a thing. And you know what? If you have a friend who's using Duolingo or maybe you are that friend, I noticed something about these Duolingo people. They're so into Duolingo. I've got friends learning languages they have no need to learn or use. I have this friend who's been learning Turkish for three years, and there's no reason why. He's just doing it. 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. Every day he does his Duolingo. I don't know if he's ever, he's ever spoken the language, if he's ever used it. But there's something about Duolingo, it's gamified, number one, so it keeps you kind of hooked, right? 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. I just-- I kind of-- I-- It's like my dopamine, right? But I'm learning, but it's also my dopamine. That's how Duolingo has it set up. It's on your phone. It's an app. It's gamified. It gives you some dopamine while also it's slowly reworking your brain, right? My dad has been secretly learning Italian on Duolingo for two years. I didn't know this. 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. And I was like, "I, I'm, I'm sorry. Did you..." They started having a full conversation in fucking Italian. Now, was his Italian perfect? I don't think so. I don't know. I don't speak Italian. He was able to understand him. 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? I had no idea. 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. 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. They, there's-- they're not like, "Ugh, I gotta do my Duolingo." They like it, right? They h- because what's happening is in small bite-sized doses, they are learning something. They're feeling good about it. There's nothing explicit going on. There's no test at the end of it. Actually, I do think they might have like some little quizzes and stuff here and there. 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. 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. And that's what's gonna happen with math. So I want you to download this app, and I want you to just start it. 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. We're all just doing it for fun and learning, and we have different strategies. There's no way to be the best at Wordle, and that's the same thing with Duolingo Math. There's no like mastery, I'm the number one person on Duolingo Math. We're all just on there. We have been on there for a different amount of days. We have different streaks. We're engaged in different things, and it's just a low stakes way to, again, what are we doing? Showing your nervous system it's safe when it does math. It's safe when it does math. 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. 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.

8) face your math trauma as a grown up

Vanessa Vakharia 21:03

And finally, the last experiment of the eight, this is a big one, okay? 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. There was a math concept or lesson that broke us, and we have never healed. And so experiment number eight is to go back and relearn the thing that broke your heart. And if you're anything like me right now, you're like, "No, no, no," your entire body is fighting this. 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. I get it. 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. The thing that broke your heart in math class was probably something you learned, like, under the age of 14. I j- I just want you to think about it this way. I'm not trying to excuse myself, but I'm like, taxes are like a grown-up thing, okay? So they're scarier because it's more recent that this thing started stressing me out. For you guys, the thing that broke your heart in math class was probably something you learned under the age of 14. It was probably fractions, or maybe it was algebra. Maybe it was when letters got introduced into math class, as a lot of people say, right? Like, maybe it was your times tables. Maybe it happened that young. Maybe it was long division. Like, I'm just stating some common ones, but maybe it was something else. 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. At the time, it seemed impossible. At the time, think about your young brain, like your nine-year-old brain. The knowledge it had to draw on was very limited compared to all of the knowledge you have to draw on now. You are going to be able to learn that thing. I know you don't believe me, but it is not gonna be as scary as you remember it. 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. So you need to go back and relearn that thing. Now, listen I'm not asking you to relearn this thing because you're gonna teach it. Maybe you're listening and you're like, "I don't- I'm- I teach grade two. I don't need to go back and learn algebra. I don't e-" You don't need to. You don't need to learn it 'cause you're gonna teach it. But learning it is going to prove something so major to you that I really want you to do it. I want you to do it for you, not for the kids you're gonna teach. I want you to do it for you. So first you need to get really clear. What was that thing? I might have already said it and you were like, "Oh God, just don't. Fractions. No." Like, I don't know what it was. What was that thing? Let's get clear. What was it? Once you're clear on it, let's figure out how you're gonna learn it. I want you to picture you had to teach it to somebody. What would you do? Like imagine you had to teach it to your younger self. What would you have done for that person? Would you have pulled on some resources that maybe didn't even exist during that time? Like, we've got so much at our fingertips right now, right? Like, would you pull on some resources? Would you get your best friend to do it? Would you get, like, your favorite math teacher that you know now to teach it to you? Would you ask ChatGPT? Would you need something more tactile and visual? Would you want manipulatives? Would you... Like, I don't, I don't know. Whatever it is you need, we can get it for you, right? Like we're-- It's 2026. We can get whatever that thing is you need, right? 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... Honestly, get Deborah Peart. There. Just get..." I, I know for a fact she's gonna teach it in the best way. Like, do you know what I mean? Like, I'm like, if Deborah taught me anything, like, I would learn it. It would, it would be the-- That would, that would be the end of that. Do you know what I mean? Or like Allison Mello. I'm like, "Yeah, you teach me something." You know what I mean? 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. 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. That's what we're doing. That's it. That's it. And this isn't because you have to teach it, right? It's because the younger version of you deserve that rom-com ending, and you're gonna get it right now. 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. That's what it's all about.

Summary

Vanessa Vakharia 25:46

Okay, guys, I'm really excited for you. We have now done eight things together. 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. Are we ready? Let's run them down. Okay, number one, find that one math friend, your pep talker, that person that's gonna... 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. Don't worry about it. 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. Evidence that you are doing hard things and you are learning new things, and nothing bad is happening. Number four, start collecting math moments. 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. Number five, practice being bad at something, anything. I don't care what it is. Practice and practice consistently and see what happens. Number six, read one mindset or psychology book or listen to one mindset or psychology podcast. Number seven, download Duolingo Math and start right now every single day. It's like two to three minutes. You've got this. And number eight, go back and learn the thing that broke your heart. Are we ready? You guys have got this. I want you to text me right now. Tell me what you did last week, if you did anything. Tell me what you're committed to doing this week, and hey, there are eight things. You could even pick one a week starting right now if you want. So text me. 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. And remember, if you are listening to this and you're like, "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God," you know who needs to do this, I want you to send it to that person. I want you to send this to your group chat. Maybe you have a group chat of teachers that you're like, "Guys, let's all do this together." Okay, guys. Thank you so much for listening to my first ever Math Therapy Mini Masterclass series. That was so fun. I can't wait to hear from you, and I believe in you. I have faith in you. Remember, this is not about perfection. It is about just witnessing our progress, witnessing what happens when we willingly and intentionally engage consistently in these tiny experiments and experiences. When we do, we change. Let's observe that change together. Let's observe it and show our negativity bias, "Hey. Hi. I have the receipts. 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. 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. Because I can't wait for you to tell them about it when you get into class in September. Thank you guys so much for being along for the ride. I can't wait to hear from you. 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. And guess what, guys? I'm gonna go jump in right now.