What Does it Mean To Belong?

In my first year as a teacher I had a friend who was in her last year of teaching. "The last mile is always the longest," she told me. I am pretty sure that Mrs. Marilyn Stoner was not talking about the last week before break, and yet her words kept coming to me last week as we all - adults and kids alike - waited for winter break to arrive.

A few years ago I discovered the wisdom of assigning a project that last week before break. It keeps us all focused on learning and productivity. But it also adds an element of stress that I sometimes question.

That said, it was gratifying to look around and see how our community of mathematicians (and other supporting adults) came together to get the work done. Among the lovely things I witnessed were kids teaching eachother how to make geometric art in Google Sheets, students asking to spend their lunch working on projects, adults checking in on kids who might need some extra support and kids who had never been to Math Lab before show up for some extra time, care, help and cheese balls.

There are three Essential Questions that drive what we do as a 5th and 6th grade team. They are:

• How do we relate to our worlds?
• What does it mean to belong?
• How do we accomplish things together?

Connecting these questions to mathematics is a fun challenge for me. Belonging in math matters. It is how we create a set of numbers, how we learn the multiples of numbers and how we figure out divisibility rules. But content aside, what I noticed in the last week before break was connecting the idea of belonging to eachother as humans. That was important. If you have ever spent part of your life feeling like you don't belong, you know what I am talking about.

Math is tricky. Problems need to be accessible, but they also need to be hard enough to make you keep trying. Middle school is also tricky - and sometimes less forgiving. 

Often, I worry that we aren't learning enough math and not getting enough practice done. That is a thing. But then I am reminded that this sense of belonging is a more important piece.

It was lovely to be reminded that the thing that enables us to learn more math is in place. It grew each time a kid helped another kid, each time someone stayed during lunch to ask a question, each time a frantic email was sent (and answered) because there was confusion at home, each time extra work was done, each time a kid brought in a problem to share and each time someone made a new friend in math class.

Starting on January 2nd, we can focus on the math and on the practice. But for today, I think we can all bask a little in the glow of belonging.