As a member of Primarily Math Cohort 3 West, Nora Robinson is currently taking TEAC 836B: Leadership and Mathematics Instruction, a course designed to explore what leadership means and strengthen the skills needed to be a teacher leader. Part of the course involves creating a leadership action plan and making a record of the journey as the plan is carried out. Since Nora is a classroom teacher without a formal leadership role, one of Nora's action plans consisted of sharing teaching strategies learned in the Primarily Math program with her colleagues.
In an effort to narrow the focus of the information she intended to share with her colleagues, Nora decided to employ a problem solving approach to instruction with her kindergarteners since, as she said, "Kindergarten is so young and so different that I was not totally convinced that using a problem solving approach would work for these young learners."
Though it made her nervous to teach in a manner that seemed to give her less control of the classroom and her students more control, Nora forged ahead. After the experience she wrote, "The result was so dramatic I was flabbergasted! I immediately talked to my co-workers while I was still so excited that they actually laughed at me. My students – kindergarten, remember – came to the conclusion on their own that, and I quote, 'There's more than one way to do this, Mrs. Robinson!' And then I heard 'I wonder if we can find a different way on the last shape.' They were looking for other problem solving methods on their own."
As a result, rather than try to share everything she has learned, Nora wants to focus her attention on helping her colleagues experience an instructional strategy for themselves, giving them ownership of the strategy and increasing the likelihood of a long-term impact on their practice.
For photos of her students at work and details about their conversations, see Nora's pictures and comments attached or go to this link: http://scimath.unl.edu/files/robinson.pdf.