Chapter 8: You Changed my Mind about Triangles!

Engaging in systematic inquiry in the classroom is a powerful experience that can lead to life-changing results for both teachers and students. Designing tasks to bring out mathematical thinking, observing children engaged in mathematical thinking, collecting data on that thinking, and making instructional decisions based on the data is a powerful sequence of events that leads to a true conceptualization of teaching for understanding, a phrase that is otherwise in danger of becoming cliché.

As a first- and then fifth-grade teacher, I had struggled for years trying to figure out what was missing in my mathematics instruction. The children just didn’t seem to “get it.” And truthfully, I didn’t really “get it” either. I was the product of traditional mathematics instruction that emphasized the memorization of procedures and rules. I was never asked to think about the patterns or connections involved with mathematics. Therefore, my content knowledge in mathematics was limited. As I struggled with how to help students become mathematically powerful, an opportunity arose for me to take a “hands-on” mathematics “academy” as part of my school district’s systemic initiative. My enrollment in this academy absolutely changed the direction of my life as a teacher and as a learner. I began a journey at that point to learn everything I could about mathematics instruction that builds understanding.