We didn’t come close to resolving the problem
that day, but we did start to seek help. It took
us almost the rest of the school year to help
him catch up with his work and to retake
assessments, but Dylan did catch up. He not
only caught up, but passed the Advanced
Placement calculus test in May.
I am so proud of Dylan. It took courage to
share, strength to persevere, and inner strength
not to give up.
Teachers help students through rough
times.
“...and for helping me see how tenacious
I can be...”
“Sarah, tell me why you think the graph of the
derivative looks like what Isaac sketched on the
board.”
“Alyssa, do you agree or disagree?”
“Alex, tell me how you would approach solving
this problem. Not sure? OK, let’s see if we can
figure it out together. Talk with your elbow
partner either about why it is confusing or
where you get stuck. When you are ready, see if
you can come up with a possible strategy.”
I know when asking these questions that
it would be so much easier to tell them the
answer, but that doesn’t help develop one of the
attributes I value most in a learner: The ability
to persevere.
One of the best gifts we can give our students
is the ability to begin thinking about how
they learn, and that sometimes learning is
filled with challenges. It’s always my hope
that students learn the content, but I also try
to underscore that learning is a product of
perseverance, teamwork, and giving best effort.
More importantly, learning isn’t about being
right or wrong. Learning is about starting from
wherever you are and moving forward.
14
When I started teaching, I would briefly
address the idea of being tenacious or the
importance of teamwork, but was always left
feeling that I wanted to see more growth.
Finally, I figured out that in order for students
to learn tenacity, perseverance, and teamwork,
they had to see these attributes as being just as
important as the mathematical content. So now
I often name the attribute we are addressing
right along with the content target at the
beginning of a lesson. The result now is more
buy-in and more growth throughout a year.
Below is an excerpt from an English paper a
student wrote a year after she was in my class.
She captures the essence of what I’m trying to
accomplish:
By giving her students types of problems
that they had never seen before and had
no clue how to attempt, she was able to
teach us how to think for ourselves and
learn our own way. When we got into
groups, she would tell us to think of every
possible solution until we could all agree
on one answer. There were many times
when the people in the group would get
different answers, which we all thought
were right. We would turn to her to see
who was right, and she would tell us to
“debate and have a discussion until you
can prove why each of you think you
are right.” The method that Mrs. Carney
used made me think harder than I ever
had to think in a class before. At first, I
hated how she taught, and I was upset
that she was doing this to us. Now that
I look back at my senior year of high
school, I am thankful that she did.”
—Krista
Teachers help students discover how to
learn.
2015 Washington State Teacher of the Year • From Seed to Apple