Today is about education

Today is not about math anxiety but about education

20th Century Classroom vs. the 21st Century Classroom 

Time-based	Outcome-based
Focus:  memorization of discrete facts	Focus:  what students Know, Can Do and Are Like after all the details are forgotten.
Lessons focus on the lower level of Bloom’s Taxonomy – knowledge, comprehension and application.	Learning is designed on upper levels of Blooms’ – synthesis, analysis and evaluation (and include lower levels as curriculum is designed down from the top.)
Textbook-driven	Research-driven
Passive learning	Active Learning
Learners work in isolation – classroom within 4 walls	Learners work collaboratively with classmates and others around the world – the Global Classroom
Teacher-centered:  teacher is center of attention and provider of information	Student-centered:  teacher is facilitator/coach
Little to no student freedom	Great deal of student freedom
“Discipline problems" – educators do not trust students and vice versa.  No student motivation.	No “discipline problems” – students and teachers have mutually respectful relationship as co-learners; students are highly motivated.
Fragmented curriculum	Integrated and Interdisciplinary curriculum
Grades averaged	Grades based on what was learned
Low expectations	High expectations – “If it isn’t good it isn’t done.”  We expect, and ensure, that all students succeed in learning at high levels.  Some may go higher – we get out of their way to let them do that.
Teacher is judge.  No one else sees student work.	Self, Peer and Other assessments.  Public audience, authentic assessments.
Curriculum/School is irrelevant and meaningless to the students.	Curriculum is connected to students’ interests, experiences, talents and the real world.
Print is the primary vehicle of learning and assessment.	Performances, projects and multiple forms of media are used for learning and assessment
Diversity in students is ignored.	Curriculum and instruction address student diversity
Literacy is the 3 R’s – reading, writing and math	Multiple literacies of the 21st century – aligned to living and working in a globalized new millennium.
Factory model, based upon the needs of employers for the Industrial Age of the 19th century.  Scientific management.	Global model, based upon the needs of a globalized, high-tech society.
Driven by the NCLB and standardized testing mania.	Standardized testing has its place.  Education is not driven by the NCLB and standardized testing mania.

Test Anxiety

Many students that suffer from math anxiety suffer from test anxiety. Some of them studied hard for a test and when the day of the test comes they seem to forget everything they studied. This can lead them to fail in the exam, leading in turn to more math anxiety and to academic failure.

It is quite normal to be a little nervous and stressed before a test. It is something that happens to everyone. And a certain amount of anticipatory anxiety, in fact, could be useful to put to work and maintain high performance while doing the test. But in some people the anxiety is very intense. They get so nervous before taking the exam that the nervousness interferes with their concentration and performance.

Test anxiety is a type of performance anxiety, if what a person may experience in a situation where performance matters a lot or proper execution of a task is expected or there is great pressure to do things right. For example, a person may experience performance anxiety when going out on stage in a play, sing a solo on stage or getting ready to shoot the basket.

As in any other situation where a person can experience performance anxiety, in a test, anxiety can make you feel a lump in the throat or gastrointestinal discomfort or have a sore head. To some people their hands shake and / or sweat. To others the heart beats faster than usual while waiting for the  test to be hang out by the teacher. A student with a very intense test anxiety may even have diarrhea or vomiting.

What can you do? 

• The test anxiety can become a real problem when a person is so stressed making a test that can not control the nerves in order to focus on the exam and give the best of himself. Anyway, feel prepared to meet the challenge, to deal properly with the anxiety. This can help keep the test anxiety at a manageable level.

• Use a little stress in your favor. Stress is the reporting mechanism of your body-it's a sign that helps you prepare for something important is about to happen. Use it to your advantage: instead of reacting to the stress complaining to your friends about the exam, take an active approach. Let stress remind you that you must prepare well in advance for the test. Chances are that you avoid stress dominate you.
• Reach for help. Although a certain amount of test anxiety can be positive, overdose is another thing. If, when the teacher is handing out the exam you get so nervous that your mind goes blank and you forget the subject, you know you probably need help to control the level of test anxiety. Your teacher, your parents or the school counselor can be important sources of information, you can go to them for help.
• Prepare well for the exam. Some students believe that all they need to do to learn the material and do well on tests is to attend class. But to learn a subject takes a lot more than trying to absorb all the information in class. That's why is so important  to have good study habits and good study skills. Because trying to absorb all the material the night before the test will not make you obtain the deeper level of understanding as the one achieved by studying regularly.
• Many students find that their test anxiety decrease when they begin to study better or more regularly. It makes sense - the better you know the material, the more confident you will feel and you will get better expectations to do better. If you expect to do well, you'll be more relaxed while doing the test after the first moments of nervousness. 
• Control your thoughts. If expecting to do well in a test can help you relax, what happens when you expect it wrong? Notice any negative message that you can be sending yourself,  that kind of messages might contribute to your anxiety.
• If you realize you're having negative thoughts ("I do not perform well on tests" or "It's hard, I can not do it"), replace them with positive thoughts. Do not replace them with no realistic positive messages,  but for practical and real messages like: "I've studied and know the subject, so that I am prepared to do the best I can." (If you have not studied, this message will not help much!)
• Accept your mistakes. Another thing you can do is to try to deal with the mistakes you make - especially if you're a perfectionist and tend to be very critical with yourself. Everyone makes mistakes. These are "learning opportunities." Learning to tolerate minor mistakes is a valuable skill. 
• Take care of yourself. It can also help the fact that you learn ways to calm down and get centered when you're tense or anxious. To some people it might mean learning breathing techniques. If you regularly practice breathing exercises (when you're not stressed out), your body see these exercises as a signal to relax.


The exam day
• Keep a positive attitude throughout the whole test and try to stay relaxed.
• If you start to feel nervous take a few deep breaths to relax.
• Upon receiving  the test, have a quick review of all of it so you know how can you manage time.
• Review the easiest problems first . Do not get stuck on a problem especially when time is a factor.
• Do problems with larger values ​​, which are worth more points.
• Regulate yourself , do not rush so you can not make  mistakes . Read all questions and pay attention to details.
• Ask the teacher to clarify any doubts you have.
• Write legibly. If the teacher can not read what you wrote you will most likely mark it wrong.
• Read all questions carefully . Do not make assumptions about what might be asking the question.
• If you do not know the answer , pass it by. Continue with the rest of the review and return to it later. Other parts of the test may have some information that will help you with that question.
• Do not worry if others finish before you . Concentrate on your exam.
• If you have time, when you're done, look over the exam. Make sure you have answered all questions. 
• Just change that answer that you think you've misread or misinterpreted the question because the first answer that you put is usually the correct one. 
• Watch out for careless mistakes.

Math Autobiography Intervention for Math Anxiety

                                                           

There are some interventions that a school counselor can use to help a student who suffers from Math Anxiety. One of this intervention is the Math Autobiography. The Math Autobiography is a process which involve two steps. The first one is in which the school counselor helps the student to remember the success and failure  in math that the student had over the years. It is extremely important to point out the success that the student had so he can see that he is capable of succeeding in the subject and he has that success experience to prove it. The next step in the intervention is to help the student wonder about the attitude toward mathematics and other significant aspects in his environment. It has to involve parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, teachers and everyone that has an important presence in the student life. This attitudes has to include if someone the student knows have fear or feel pressure towards math. Also, if there had been comparisons between siblings ('You're brother is really good in math" or "You're sister never had any problems with math"). The school counselor has to pay attention to some statements made by teachers, specially if this teacher was a math teacher.
By using this intervention, the school counselor can help the student point out the root of his math anxiety. By doing this, the counselor can help and guide the student to see by himself that it was something external that cause the anxiety and that has nothing to do with his capacity of doing mathematics.
Hope you find this intervention useful.

Books about Math Anxiety

Here are some links to books about Math Anxiety. They are good resources for helping kids  deal with this anxiety.

• http://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Math-Anxiety-Sheila-Tobias/dp/0393313077 - The new edition retains the author's pungent analysis of what makes math "hard" for otherwise successful people and how women, more than men, become victims of a gendered view of math. It has been substantially updated to incorporate new research on what we know and don't know about "sex differences" in brain organization and function, and it has been enlarged to include problems, puzzles, and strategies tried out in hundreds of math anxiety workshops Tobias and her colleagues have sponsored.
• http://www.amazon.com/Math-Attack-Joan-Horton/dp/B0046LUIO2 - Each time her teacher asks, “What’s seven times ten?” a young girl experiences a severe case of arithmetic strain. “Numbers flew out of my head by the score. They stuck to the ceiling; they bounced off the floor!” Soon, exploding numbers are taking over her classroom, her school – then the entire town!
  Ebullient verse and ingenious collage illustrations full of hilarious escalating antics make this kid-centric romp through the dreaded times tables a read-aloud gem. Clever endpapers feature a multiplication table.
• http://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b2196434~S63 - When a teacher tells their class that they can think at almost everything as a math problem, one student acquires a math anxiety that becomes a curse.  

Math

Mathematics, as a field of study, has features that set it apart from almost any other scholastic discipline. On the one hand, correctly manipulating the notation to calculate solutions is a skill, and as with any skill mastery is achieved through practice. On the other hand, such skills are really only the surface of mathematics, for they are only marginally useful without an understanding of the concepts which underlie them. 
Consequently, the contemplation and comprehension of mathematical ideas must be our ultimate goal. Ideally, these two aspects of studying mathematics should be woven together at every point, complementing and enhancing one another, and in this respect studying mathematics is much more like studying, say, music or painting than it is like studying history or biology.
         In view of mathematics’ unique character, the successful student must devise a special set of strategies for accomplishing his or her goals, including strategies for lecture taking, homework, and exams. 

Taken from http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/minitext/anxiety/#strat