A REVIEW OF CATHY YENCA'S BLOG - MATHY CATHY
Cathy Yenca (@mathycathy) is a middle school math teacher at Hill Country Middle School, a one-to-one iPad initiative school in Austin, Texas. Yenca has 15 years of experience teaching mathematics, having worked with both middle school and high school students. Through her experiences as a student, teacher, coach, and mentor, she has developed a passion for building strong relationships in the classroom. She has been able to showcase this passion with the use of technology.
Below is a video of a Yenca's inspirational presentation, "Seeing Students Who Hide." She explains how educators can avoid dodging the hidden students who don't know how to ask for help. |
In the same blog post that featured the above video, "ShadowCon Follow-Up: Free Online Courses," Yenca wrote, "Giving value to every student’s thinking, both correct and incorrect, can change classroom culture to a place where mistakes truly ARE part of learning." In math especially, I think students are often discouraged by their mistakes. Most of my friends have a strong hatred for math. After I tell people that I'm majoring in mathematics and secondary education, the typical response is something like, "I'm glad there are people like you because I'm terrible at math!" Why do so many people feel this way? Are there truly THAT many people in this world that are bad at math? Or is it because it's easy to make math mistakes and those mistakes made them feel dumb or inferior? Yenca's idea that mistakes should be valued is spot on. Her video (#ClassroomClips) below explores this topic.
Yenca has many fantastic videos, which can be found on her blog homepage and her youtube channel. I highly recommend watching all of them. I'll include my favorite video, though, which is a presentation she delivered at the Apple Distinguished Educator USA Academy in Houston, Texas.
To learn more, please visit Yenca's blog, MathyCathy. She has wonderful advice for all educators, not just math teachers. My favorite posts include, "First Day Plans: Mine *DO* Include Smiling," "Teachable Moments," and "Yes, I Really DO Use Algebra in Real Life."