Maya McFadden Photo
Math teacher Charity Ann Chambers helps students "embrace mistakes."
As her ninth-grade students puzzled through box and dot plots, Achievement First Amistad High School math teacher Charity Ann Chambers urged them not to be discouraged. Sometimes, she said, “trying is more exemplary to me than accuracy.”
That was the scene in Chambers’ classroom at the 580 Dixwell Ave. charter school last Wednesday morning.
At around 10:30 a.m., the school bell rang to kick off the start of Chambers’ Algebra 1 class.
Her class, full of about 30 ninth graders, began outside in the hall as students formed a line outside of the classroom.
Chambers has taught for 11 years in total, five of which have been spent at Achievement First on Dixwell. She previously taught in the Hartford Public Schools district and then in London in 2020, while U.S schools were closed to in-person learning.
Education is Chambers’ second career path, as she spent a decade in business marketing.
In Chambers' math classroom Wednesday.
Chambers aims to greet and check-in with each student as they enter the classroom. To do this she has them line up outside her classroom then enter one by one as she greets them and provides them with the materials of the day. On Wednesday the students picked from three containers each holding a dry erase marker, a white board eraser, and one playing card which determined where’d they sit during class.
“Grab one each because the math is mathing today!” Chambers said as she checked students in for attendance during the usual class entrance system.
She established this system at the start of the school year to provide the students with a routine and to gauge student “feeling before you come in my classroom.”
For many, math is one of the hardest subjects at school, seemingly impenetrable and leading to frustration and dejections. “If I can give them that space that looks comfortable, is fun and safe” then that is the first step to getting students engaged, she said.
Sometimes Chambers allows students to connect their music to her speakers and play appropriate background music during class.
Once all of the students entered the class and took seats at their randomized small groups of three alongside peers who also picked the same playing card, Chambers gave the students “60 seconds to put the tech down. Put it in your bags or pocket,” she said.
As Chambers handed out the work packet for Wednesday, she walked students through where they could get pencils on her desk, where to put their names and the date on the packet, and gave them 30 seconds to introduce themselves to their small groups and put their partners names on their packets.
As students got prepared, Chambers made sure to highlight the positive behaviors of the classroom. “Thank you Lyric for the silent hand,” she said to one student. “Put a plus one on your paper for being organized,” she said to another.
Chambers said she is steering away from having goal-oriented instruction and rather aims to instill operating systems that prepare the students to learn to work with strangers, ask for help, and see differences that can be motivating.
“Put the snacks and AirPods away,” Chambers said in her final call before starting class.
During Wednesday’s two-hour block, students went through a study guide packet to prepare for their upcoming Interim Assessment (IA), which the Achievement First high schoolers take twice a year to track student progress.
Chambers worked with the class to create quality reference notes for them to study with for the IA, which they will take Monday.
The first-floor classroom Chambers worked from Wednesday is a second shared classroom she is assigned to for her Algebra 1 course. She also teaches Algebra 2 to 10th and 11th graders.
The classroom was decorated with LED lights and posters reading: “Math is everywhere.”
“I want my students to feel safe and be open and loud about their strengths and their struggles,” she said.
During Wednesday’s teaching block, Chambers worked with students on creating box plots and dot plots.
Ninth grader RJ read the first problem of the day aloud to the class.
After students shared about the differences between box and dot plots, Chambers instructed them to draw their first dot plots on their desk with the dry erase markers.
“Take the cap off your marker and put it on the back of the marker,” Chambers said, walking the students through each and every classroom step.
“You don’t want to lose the caps to the markers!” said one student to help Chambers instruct the class.
As students began practicing their dot plots Chambers offered encouragements like “I love what I’m seeing” to the students.
Even in times of error, Chambers asked students to share aloud with their peers any mistakes they had made, and celebrated their efforts. “We struggle together and embrace mistakes right!” she said.
Throughout the class Chambers advised students to raise their hands if they were struggling with a problem, and when students did, she thanked them for their bravery.
“When we have mistakes we ain’t yelling at them or calling them crazy, we’re embracing mistakes,” Chambers said.
She worked to accomplish creating a safe class community by thanking students publicly when they share their mistakes or by offering help to their peers while working in small groups.
She thanked the school’s leadership team including principal Simon Obas and Academic STEM Dean AJ Lowe, for giving her the freedom and autonomy to create a safe space for her students and let them have an identity of their own.
“I know a lot of teachers who don’t feel support in their school and that’s not me,” she said.
Halfway through Wednesday’s lesson Chambers checked in with the students by having them walk the class through their answers. As they did, she wrote the student’s answers on a classroom white board.
“Ms. Chambers’ pencil is your pencil,” she called out to advise students to write what she wrote on the board.
As students worked they put together a five-number summary by collecting the minimum, maximum, and median from the problem’s data points.
When several students told Chambers they got 11.75 as the median, ninth-grader Donte raised his hand because he did not get the same number.
“I love your observation,” Chambers told Donte. “I’ll come over and see what you’re seeing.”
As Chambers worked with Donte she instructed the students to work with their small groups to plot their data in a histogram.
The student groups stood up and each worked on their designed classroom whiteboard or in some cases the classroom windows.
Chambers added that she aims to teach her students that not only is math everywhere, but that the lessons she offers them are to prepare them for the next grade level. “Math is going to help them to be the best scholar they can be next year,” she said.
At the end of each school year, Chambers creates student files to provide each of them and their next math teachers with. “The dexterity of your fingers never goes unnoticed,” she recalled telling her students.
After completing the group work around 11:40 a.m., Chambers distributed a new playing card to each student to switch them to new small groups.
Chambers does not have assigned seats in her class to allow students to meet all of their peers and learn to work with everyone in the class.
“When they get up and move around it takes away from the mystery,” she said.
The students were then given 15 minutes to complete the review packet.
As they worked, Chambers cheered them on saying, “Shout out to the 8’s and 5’s for already being on the second page.”
“I hear a lot of math happening,” Chambers also called out.
Fifteen minutes later the students returned to their seats and Chambers went over the students’ answers as a class.
“Thank you all for going quickly and quietly,” Chambers said as students took their seats.
For one problem, ninth-grader Kam got 5 for a median. However, across the room Jayden got 5.5. Others got 4.5 and 6 as well.
One student asked if they should erase their answers if they get the question wrong. Chambers advised they simply cross out their original answer to “embrace your mistake” and then circle the correct one beside it.
Three times a week Chambers allows her students to voluntarily join her for Math Tutor Time (MTT) where she works one on one with students. This allows students who might not yet be ready to speak up in class about mistakes to gain the confidence by learning to be more vocal about needing help.
As the class reached the final question, Donte shared the answer.
“Pause your voices,” Chambers said. “This is an honesty moment, who needs to hear Donte explain how he got there again?”
One student raised their hand.
“Thank you, put plus one on your paper for asking for clarity,” Chambers said.
Donte explained again his answer and how he got it.
Chambers again said, “Donte put plus one on your paper for being a leader.”
In the class’s final five minutes Chambers checked which students completed their homework assignments.
Chambers classroom is guided by the three S’s: safety, student led, and solution oriented.
Once the bell rang Chambers instructed the students to push in their chairs and quietly exit the classroom.
”When we leave, why do we push our chairs in?” Chambers asked.
“So nobody trips,” dozens of students called out in unison.
Students left their Wednesday classroom giving Chambers high fives.
“You crushed it today,” she said. “I’m proud of you.”
One ninth-grader Kam told Chambers about his growing confidence in math with her help. “I surprised myself today” he said.
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Ms. Chambers, if your path for teaching math makes your students enthusiastic about learning and provides them with a skill set that is quantifiably quality, then kudos galore and more power to you. I hope that you and your students have a safe, productive, and fun year.