 Our next speaker is Michael Washington from That's a strong following From Atlanta, Georgia Not not so hot on Atlanta in this crowd She is a PhD student in mathematics education. Her speech title is the miscalculation of us or us She'll tell you in a second Please come to the stage Think back to that college math exam. You know the ones you have been anticipating for days now And then as soon as you got in front of you is as if everything that you studied is gone as your foot starts tapping To the speed of your thoughts You think about the last week when you hesitated to ask that question in class and now your heart is beating with regret breaths Getting heavier hands getting sweatier, but even the most basic concepts is one plus one are slipping from your mind Filling all of this as signs that you and math just do not work together And this is the last time you're gonna let it get the best of you Yet, what if I told you that you were misinterpreting all of those physiological Signs the sweaty hands and the running thoughts and that you were not the problem in that situation But there was something bigger going on But that the problem was actually math Now I have a question for all of you and I want you to shout your answers out for me like seriously shout your answers out to me What makes a good math student think college age? What do you tell someone they have to do to be successful in math? study Practice what was that one? Office hours. Yes. Yes. So you all have taken a math class before right because the mantra you have to embrace and math is that practice makes perfect When I was growing up and how I really got into math was that every summer I used to go to a public library and get a math textbook and just do problems because I enjoyed it that much Meaning that I was always prepared the next year always having it on my mind And these are things I used to tell my students do additional problems learn new methods Go to office hours or go to another trusted source YouTube But most importantly You have to be prepared when things go bad because they do in math I've experienced it myself in my courses. They can go bad So you have to have some perseverance and grit just to stick through it and mathematicians like myself We usually really love these math centered approaches I mean, this is really how you get into the beauty of mathematics from the Interview like the way we're intertwined in our global and our economy to the furthest edges of our galaxies There's so much for us to explore through the lens of mathematics but as a math instructor and as a lifelong math student Something about these math centered approaches, which I really do like most or sometimes But they've always raised a red flag for me I mean think about it. If you have a student who is sweaty and having a tapping foot Why do we just keep throwing more math more math more math at them almost like some type of shock therapy? Just repeatedly exposing them to a trigger to an already stressful situation More than 50% of Americans have been affected by some type of math induced anxiety I know I have all the way down from going to a restaurant is trying to write a tip on a receipt Even to do your taxes, but don't forget those are coming out real fast But there are people out here who are having fear and apprehension whenever they see numbers and symbols To really hear what I'm saying. I want y'all to think about your commute this morning Or maybe on a day where you may have a foggy windshield If you were to keep driving at that very moment and do nothing else to that windshield Not very likely you'll make it anywhere safe But there are some tools you can use to make it just a little bit easier the frosted back of your hands cleared off real quick Now I want y'all to think about this same foggy windshield as the mind of a student stressed out in a math course How could they possibly focus on those polynomials derivatives or theorems with all of that stress and anxiety fogging their minds Then there are other students where they will always have more than just fog They may have added layers of racism bias Stereotypes all on top of their mind in the math class didn't have to put extra labor in just to clear The fog just to even get a peek at the math Our colleges and universities mimic the racial tension of our society I Do a lot of research on black students experiences and undergraduate math courses and y'all from the articles I've read from the scholars and professionals. I've taught to and even my own experience as a black college student There's a lot of misplaced self-blame whenever something goes wrong in a math classroom at a university Students are being constantly reminded about some deficit-based measures black-white achievement gap not enough black students in STEM Every time they walk into a math classroom thinking when something goes wrong that they're the problem But not the decades of institutional racism Not the mathematics that has been a gatekeeper in our community where those who are considered good at math are given more social economic opportunities They're thinking that the problem is them. I promise you all No matter how much math we keep throwing at students how many K through 12 reforms new YouTube videos are catchphrases if we keep Putting the math before the students well-being an accident is bound to happen The mathematics classroom instantly becomes a dangerous place for everyone inside and Outside the classroom just like driving your car with a foggy windshield is a dangerous situation for everyone on and off the road And now we're at a very important junction here for students because they have some decisions to make after all these experiences They can either just stay in math do what they have to do the way it is right now and stick it through They could Maybe choose a different method to get to it. It might take longer. It might be a higher cost, but what else can I do? or another option one of my favorites is Choosing their selves and their sanity and Something that's not not going to make them have to choose between their well-being and math in order to identify the sources of an equity We have to apply the appropriate solutions the math center approaches are amazing And I mean those are the approaches I grew up with and how I'm here before you now as a mathematician But they're not enough on their own. We have to offer something else for students Because we're putting the math above their well-being when in mathematics being successful It's just as much about your ability to problem-solve and get a right answer as it is to be and feel recognized as a capable math doer So I want you all to consider something math is objective one plus one usually two Won't get into but it's objective But the culture around it is not We have to be careful in blurring the lines between the objectivity of mathematics and the culture around it that guides How we teach and learn it because that's where I'm seeing a lot of problems So dream with me for a second If the math center approaches are causing the stress anxiety and we keep throwing the math like shock therapy And it's not working out There has to be another solution out there that we compare with it that can work for more than just a select few in math courses and What if that solution is within? Student-centered approaches now these are approaches I'm talking about that recognize and normalize one's humanity within the classroom This is a classroom where if a student is having a hard time You don't belittle them for not knowing something you've been studying for decades These are the classrooms where We're not using the chapters of a book to guide the pace of a course But we're actually putting the students learning back on the forefront And that's what guides the learning in the flow of the course because at the end of the day That's who really matters and when I talk about math-centered approaches I am kind of including teacher-centered approaches But I only do that because at the end of the day the student is always the focal point And if anything is getting in their way to learn then that problem has to be moved and When we can give students that push to start key So that they can walk into a math classroom and not have to worry about the stress and anxiety in all the worlds and equities Only then can they safely get to their math destination Like MLK. I have huge dreams for mathematics So I just want to show y'all some recommendations if you would like to learn more about these approaches Or you could talk to me afterwards, but here's this a snippet The mathematics classroom that I dream of is Written within the pages and the stories of abolitionist teaching in Dr. Bettina Love's book. We want to do more than survive The max mathematics classroom that I dream of is Within the inspiring messages and activities within the black girl magic box that goes out to thousands of black girls across the country every month The mathematics classroom that I dream of is Within the voices and the stories that are being healed through the math therapy podcast When I think about college mathematics I think about Professors being able to notice when a student has the weight of the world and equities on their shoulders Or just have simply having a bad day and can tap into their humanity to connect to that student and Understand that their presence in that classroom is their commitment to learning From all the years I've been with math and I really have loved it. I Still have always dreamed of a mathematics where Everyone has the opportunity to explore it see the beauty of it or not But that decision is not based off of a false sense of ability that decision has something more to do with the top of their foot and The beat of their heart That for as long as you are breathing We can do anything you can do anything Even math thank you