Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle.
Wilma Rudolph

When I arrived on campus at the University of Mississippi in Fall of 2011, I had a meeting with my boss, Dr. David Rock, Dean of the School of Education at the University of Mississippi, to talk about my new position in the Department of Teacher Education. At that meeting he handed me a manuscript that had been recently rejected for publication. He wondered if I wanted to try and shape it into something publishable as a way to help me meet some of the demands for publication put on new assistant professors.

Fast forward 8 years, a handful of additional rejections and several revisions and that manuscript has found a home! The funny part is the topic of the manuscript is on celebrating struggle…in the math classroom. Though publishing the article was a struggle, the point of the article was to learn how to value and foster productive struggle in the mathematics classroom in order to create doers of mathematics.

In this episode of the Amidon Planet Podcast, I am joined by two of my coauthors, Dr. Ann Monroe and Candies Cook, as we discuss the process, the end product, and how we have learned to #celebratethestruggle!

Enjoy!

View this post on Instagram

So thankful for a great session today hearing how professional educators #celebratethestruggle in their math classrooms. Thanks to @nctm.math for the opportunity to share and for all the folks who came out to learn and share their expertise! We are all smarter together! If you missed the session and want access to all the resources shared check out AmidonPlanet.com and the post “5 Ways to Promote Productive Struggle”. Can also find a link in the bio! #nctmnash19 @olemissedschool @oxfordschooldistrict

A post shared by Joel Amidon (@amidonplanet) on Oct 4, 2019 at 4:06pm PDT

Click here to subscribe via your favorite podcast provider

Links

Shop the Amidon Planet Store (to get yourself a t-shirt, hoodie, or coffee cup) or the Amidon Planet Book Store to support the podcast!

Subscribe to the Amidon Planet Download – a brief periodic email containing teaching resources and updates from Amidon Planet.

Books & Articles

Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom by Elizabeth Cohen and Rachel Lotan 

Smarter Together! Collaboration and Equity in the Elementary Math Classroom by Helen Featherstone, Sandra Crespo, Lisa Jilk, Joy Oslund, Amy Parks, and Marcy Wood 

Strength in Numbers: Collaborative Learning in Secondary Mathematics by Ilana Horn

Group-Worthy Tasks by Rachel A. Lotan

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

Related Amidon Planet Posts

Amidon Planet Podcast E010: An Opportunity to Develop

5 Ways to Promote Productive Struggle

Complex Instruction: Group Worthy Tasks that show we are ‘Smarter Together’

The Struggle is Real…Good #CelebrateTheStruggle

Videos

Reference for Article

Amidon, J., Monroe, A., Rock, D., & Cook, C. (in press). Shame, Shame, Go Away: Struggle in Promoting Doers of Mathematics. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 56(2), 64-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/00228958.2020.172963