Growing exponentially as an educator.

Leaving the classroom and becoming an instruction math coach was a difficult decision and one that took me years to finally accept.  One experience in particular convinced me to take this plunge and brought me to where I sit today.  A few years ago I was an intervention specialist and was allowed to go into classrooms and work with struggling students.  One teacher in particular was as hungry as I am for new ideas and approaches to teaching math.  What we discovered and developed was a wonderfully symbiotic relationship.  I would often take advantage of her enthusiasm and present an idea, her calm presence as a 2nd grade teacher and her delivery of the concept would improve upon it more than either of us could have predicted.  Last, but certainly not least, the children would take this idea, beautifully molded by the teacher, and put it into practice that would surpass everyone's expectations.  Here is an example, we once had a student named Maddie, who like most 2nd graders had a lot of difficulty subtracting.  We spent some time trying to use base ten blocks to show how we could regroup and solve subtraction problems, we tried writing numbers in expanded form and we tried subtracting on a number line, all with limited success.  On the day we attempted the number line she asked for the base ten blocks but she used them in an unexpected way.  She made a line of tens and ones with the larger number and then did the same with the smaller number below it.  Pointing enthusiastically, she smiled and said, "if I fill in this space I will have my answer!"

Whether or not this scenario mathematically makes sense is less important than the lesson learned. The point is all three of us, two teachers and a student, grew that day.  I realized the potential of being a lead teacher.  We provide ideas, teachers improve upon them, and students are allowed to take it to a whole other level.  At that point the teacher student relationship is broken down and we are all learning from one another!  Little Maddie instantly transformed us into what Paulo Freire called "teacher-student"  He wrote: 

“through dialogue, the teacher of the students and the students of the teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with students-teachers. The teacher is no longer merely the one who teachers, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in their turn while being taught also teach”

When the traditional student relationship is dismantled an entirely different culture begins to take root in the classroom.  Anyone who enters the classroom can feel it, there is something to be learned there, it is in the air we breath.  Math is a perfect vehicle for transforming classrooms and creating this climate because it is a subject that can be self taught through discovery.  There are infinite ways to go about this discovery, which is both exciting and terrifying to many educators.  Nonetheless, if teachers can empower their students through mathematical exploration and facilitate reasoning and dialogue, then soon we are learning just as much from the students as they are from us.  The classroom is non-compulsory, highly motivated and autonomous.  Its a mathematical equality on a whole other level.