Mitigating Math Anxiety

Program Description: A study1 published in 2012 showed that when a person is beset with high level math anxiety, the same regions of the brain are engaged as when we are faced with visceral threats, and even as when we experience pain. Math anxiety isn’t new. “Multiplication is vexation, Division is as bad; The Rule of Three doth puzzle me, And Practice drives me mad” is from 1570. Come to this session to share effective strategies to help our students to find joy in math, and to minimize feelings of stress, anxiety, and fear. (Presenters are math teachers, not experts in anxiety reduction! Please bring your laptop, and be willing to share ideas that have worked for you.)

Resources for attendees:

  1. This file is viewed properly either as a .pdf file, or by clicking the following link to view as a Google Doc: LINK.
  2. Please take this quick 3-question survey:
  3. Time to explore & share.(We’ll get to this in last half [or third] of session, but of course you’re welcome to begin exploring these links while we’re talking if you like.
  4. We’re asking that whether there’s good ideas you already use, or if you find new ones that seem good, please share in this shared document: Also share your experiences as you try things… let’s report how things go in this shared document:

Shared Doc on Mitigating Math Anxiety Resources

  1. We’ve wrangled up about 30 links to videos for constructively dealing with math anxiety, videos that are geared toward teachers, toward parents, and toward students themselves. Some may be meh, some may be very good.
    Please group into pairs or triplets and begin exploring these links. Scan, read, and discuss interesting findings with your group.
    Math Anxiety Links to Scan and consider :
  1. Study showing that writing helps:
  2. Video to post at classroom for students intersted:
  1. Skip this onetoday…. This is the Orly Rubenstein video we watched together during the session::
  2. (encourage grade-school parents to read numerical children books, and this site?)



























  28. Try a google search for this: “#MTBos Math Anxiety” and see if you find any gems.
  29. Other links/resources?… please keep adding to the list if you find more.
  1. Quibblo Anxiety Assessment Tool: Link
    (2 web pages, questions #1-5 on first page, then do NOT hit the large “CONTINUE” button. Instead, just below and to the right of that, hit hte “Next” key for the next 5 questions.)
  2. Link to the slides of this presentation: Mitigating Math Anxiety LOSD NovPD2017