Meet Spencer Olmsted, 2022 PAEMST State Finalist
Spencer Olmsted teaches 4/5 Highly Capable Math at Roosevelt Elementary in the Olympia School District.
What is the most important thing you learned about teaching because of the pandemic?
The pandemic taught me to slow down. Pacing guides, homework, and content in general used to rule the day. Now I think about the emotional well-being of my students first and foremost. It’s a wonderful revelation that lightens everything I do. I am a much better listener and watcher of my students now. Paying closer attention this year helped bring about one of the more engaging mini-units I have taught in recent years. Two students were fiddling with the Rubik’s Cube a couple of months ago and it struck me that this could be an amazing object of study. I bought about ten cubes and asked students to bring them in the following week, if they had them at home. The goal was for everyone to learn how to solve it given one period a day for a week to pick up the algorithms. Many people did. We researched different algorithms, made posters of our solutions, helped one another, and practiced. It was amazing. Some students put up walls right away and thought the task was impossible. Some plodded along and then put it aside. Still others proceeded steadfastly towards the goal. About a month after the mini-unit I notice that students who were initially reluctant are finding their way. For many who solved the cube, it has been the accomplishment they are most proud of this year. It’s not the most complicated thing to learn, but it is a difficult thing. Facing challenges, persevering, and working hard is the secret to learning anything. I realize now that I’m going to have to revisit this in class soon, because as much as I’ve learned to slow down, I’m probably still moving too fast.
What advice would you give to parents or caregivers who want to incorporate more science and mathematical thinking into their elementary students’ lives?
Pay attention to opportunities to engage with math in everyday life. Be curious. The first thing that scientists and mathematicians do is wonder. Then they look closely and investigate thoroughly. Leaning into situations where math presents itself rather than shying away teaches kids to engage in “mathematizing” the world. It’s not about getting answers, but rather seeing the hidden structure of math behind everyday situations. Another thing I would encourage is for parents and caregivers to embrace the precision and specialized language of science and mathematics. “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.” — Confucius
What is one concept that excites your students and why?
Fourth and fifth grade students are always fascinated by the idea of learning algebra. It’s an amazing gift to be one of the first teachers who really gets to focus on the concept of a variable in mathematics. The idea that some value over n is equal to 2 is a breakthrough moment. They start by protesting, “We don’t know what ’n’ is!” By the end of the year, variables are old friends.
Is there anything that was easier to do in a remote school environment?
I’m not sure if it was easier, but online grading was particularly thorough in a remote environment. Almost everything I did with students was through a learning management system that allowed me to give feedback and kept track of assignments that had been turned in but not graded. There were always opportunities for one-on-one conversations through comments that just aren’t possible in real-time at school. There was also just more time. In remote schooling, the asynchronous nature of our afternoons allowed a deeper dive into planning and assessing student work.
What kinds of problems are your students interested in solving?
I’ve spent a good amount of time working on problem solving with my class this year. Because I teach highly capable students who have often had fewer opportunities to experience struggle in math class, I make a point of providing it. I want to help them learn to see academic struggle as an enjoyable experience. Persistence and resourcefulness can take the spotlight from speed and answer finding. The variety of skills required and beauty of mathematical ideas we have been exposed to have made this aspect of our work highly engaging. Here’s an example of a recent problem we tackled. Take the numbers that can be formed using the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 once each listed in order from least to greatest. What is the hundredth number in that list? Understanding factorial sets and seeing how to count them highlights the importance of structure for students (CCSS MP.7). The beauty of mathematical solutions for me is about grace and efficiency. It’s never about brute force.
How has the pandemic impacted your students’ relationship to math and science?
Most notably, my students missed the opportunities to participate in science labs and field trips during the pandemic. They completely missed hands-on learning in social settings. That being said, collaboration was often dynamic (breakout rooms, chat, screen sharing) and students accessed new tools to solve and communicate their thinking. I think students learned less from one another — content-wise — during the pandemic, but the loss socially was even greater. We’re still sorting through the impacts.
Is there a distance learning lesson that you are continuing to use?
The math tools that I relied on more heavily in distance learning continue to be a part of my instruction. I did more work with students in Desmos last year than I have done in a long time. It was really helpful for students to be able to visualize an algebraic relationship given to them by a particular pattern of inputs and outputs. This year I have gotten back into using GeoGebra with students as we investigated areas of triangles, parallelograms, and other polygons. We have also been using it to help us solve and illustrate some fascinating geometric problems.
Where do you see more opportunity for collaborating with other disciplines to teach math or science?
I would love to see more of a connection between math and science and social studies. There is so much meaningful data that kids could be working with that exposes them to a variety of societal issues past and present. There is obviously a lot available on the internet, but the challenge is capturing relevant and interesting data, formatting and publishing it for student consumption, and then integrating it into a unit of study. This is work teachers could absolutely tackle, but curriculum creation takes time that most teachers just aren’t given during the work day. In the past two years there have been many interesting/important/relevant/scary/thought-provoking data sets concerning COVID infection rates. I have used graphs from the Morning newsletter, published by The New York Times, to frame class discussions on a number of occasions.
Who have you been following or reading from a math and science perspective in the past two years? Any other publications, blogs, etc. that you would recommend?
I am interested to read anything that Michael Pershan writes. He has a lot to say on Twitter, writes thoughtful blog articles, and has a few different websites. He is a serious student of the art and science of teaching. He reads education research and critiques it, and he engages with math teachers from all over the world online. By the way, if anyone would like to do the world of public education a favor it would be to give all K-12 teachers free and full access to education research databases. Michael also recently found the time to write a fantastic book called Teaching Math with Examples. It’s direct instruction in the best way. It’s a little like how we learn to assemble Ikea furniture. “Study at this example. This is correct (with a big check). This is incorrect (with a big X).” Then students engage and make sense of things. It’s more complicated than just this, but the process of learning anything really just comes from thinking deeply about it.
