Making it my Reality

Making it a reality.

Well, here I am. I have this vast body of knowledge about how math should be taught. I have numerous and various sources that tell me students learn math better through a problem based approach. I have read and studied studies, such as Jo Boaler’s longitudinal study in the U.K, that proved a problem based approach in teaching mathematics does give students a better, deeper understanding of mathematics. So what do I do now? Go back to school and continue teaching like I have always taught math? How can I do this? How can I go into that classroom in a few weeks and face those children and promise I will teach them in the best way I know how? Simply put, I can’t. Where do I go from here?

I start thinking. I think about everything I have read and I make a decision. I decide I need to change. My teaching approach needs to change. Me, as a teacher needs to change. I need to be a better, more effective teacher. One who listens to the research, one who is not afraid to be different, one who is not afraid to be questioned, one who is not afraid to have students understand math.

But thinking and decisions does not always lead to actions. I am afraid, I am nervous, but I am confident that this will work. I need to make it work. I have to believe in myself, believe in the approach and know that it will work. My students are counting on me, on my confidence and on my decisions to act, that I will help them to understand mathematics this year. Their experiences in my math classroom will lead to their own greater confidence in themselves, their beliefs that they can do math, and be good at it. This confidence and self-esteem will lead them to become successful citizens in our world, ones that we, teachers, will depend on in years to come. Do I have a lot at stake by doing something different? Yes, but there is so much more at stake if I don’t. Here I go.