Bailey Birman has been a member of our Math Medic community since 2022. She teaches at an alternative high school in Michigan where she is the sole math and science teacher. Bailey has gone ALL IN on the EFFL model and uses Math Medic lessons and assessments for her Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry courses. Bailey is a thoughtful and passionate educator that is skilled at reaching diverse populations and identifying what they need to thrive. Her commitment to changing her students’ perceptions about math has greatly shaped her professional journey.
I teach at an alternative high school in rural mid-Michigan (Clare) where I am the sole math and science teacher for our 54 9th-12th grade students. This means that I have a LOT of preps and content to cover! For my in-person classes, I use the Math Medic curriculum for my Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry classes.
For many of my students, they were sent to our alternative school for credit recovery or behavioral concerns. And when it comes to credit recovery, nearly all of my students have failed at least one full year of math and have lots of catching up to do if they want to graduate on time. The mainstream high school in our district utilizes a more traditional way of teaching math with daily lectures, textbooks, and nightly homework problems. For the students I get, it's clear that this way of learning math doesn't work for them given their lack of success in their math courses.
Overcoming Challenges
When students first come to my class, they usually have a strong dislike for math and have endured years of learning math that is so far removed from context it has no meaning. In my classroom, we begin the year by talking about how math is a language, and like all languages, we need to use it to communicate important ideas WITHIN context, not without it. This is something I really appreciate about the Math Medic curriculum. So much of the work we do is connected to real-world applications and written as word problems with lots of graphs, data tables, and context.
Many of my students struggle with truancy, so I knew I needed a solution for what to do when students missed class. What I like about the Math Medic content is that it is written in the EFFL format, so many of my students can still do a majority of the lesson even if they missed class that day, since the activity is designed to be accessible and completed without a teacher. When I debrief the lesson in class, I record the work using my document camera so I can post it to my Google Classroom and students can access that day’s notes to fill in what they may have missed.
The EFFL Impact
I have loved seeing my students' confidence with math skyrocket as I have implemented Math Medic in all of my classes. I've heard students say things like "math used to be my least favorite subject, now it's my favorite class of the day", "I was never good at math before I joined your class", and, my personal favorite, "why can't every teacher just teach like you?".
I have noticed my students connecting their learning back to previous lessons and I've even had students from different classes help one another because they remember what they learned from prior years. It's every math teacher's dream!
And because all of the math classes at our school are now using Math Medic, students are already familiar with the EFFL structure from previous math classes. They embrace the active learning aspect of the Activity portion because their way of thinking about math has changed to one that is less about the teacher lecturing and explaining, and more about the students exploring patterns and connecting their learning back to what they already know. They begin to take more initiative when it comes to what they are doing in the classroom, so the typical "I do, we do, you do" model changes to very little "I do" and much more “you do” and "we do".
So when people say "ahhh this is great, but it wouldn't work for my students!", I strongly disagree. I have the students with poor attendance, the ones who struggle academically, have IEPs and 504s, have behavioral concerns, and lack support at home. And if my students can not only be successful but also enjoy the content while they're learning, then all students can! In the past 3 years, I haven't had a single student fail one of my math classes. Now, some of that may be due to a smaller school environment that can offer more one-on-one support, but I am also confident that the way that I am teaching and the way that students are learning has had a huge impact on their success. Overall, the Math Medic curriculum has had a huge positive impact on my students’ ability to understand math concepts and has changed my classroom culture for the better. I am so thankful for all of the support I have received from Math Medic and highly encourage other teachers to embrace the EFFL format. I had no idea what I was missing out on until I tried it out in one of my classes and I’ve never looked back!