#IMMOOC & Math - Relationships and what I've changed - Part 3 of Many

It's been a great journey of self reflection and moving forward at the same time over the past few weeks. I guess one of the biggest things that I've started understanding again was that MANY OF THE THINGS I hold dear and true in terms of education and learning is actually shared by many people all over the world. It wasn't this notion that no one else was grasping these ideals, bur rather, being in a self-imposed silo with just me, my team, and my students all working towards great things. One of the first things I figured out as an educator was the importance of relationships. When I started this blog last year, it was one of the main points that I tried to address in a few of my rants and methods of expressing my thoughts. At the start of my journey as a Math teacher, I quickly saw how important it was to have the TRUST OF YOUR LEARNERS in all that you do. That trust has led to amazing things happening in my classroom, where students that I would work with for years and years started to really unwrap their troubles in Mathematics, and together we explored ways in which they can change their mindset (see what I did there?) to really improve. To me, the Trust of our Learners is the linchpin in our ability to create and foster excellent relationships. In particular, I think of a group of about 15 students I taught from Grade 10 - Grade 12, the same group of students somehow followed me throughout all of the different levels of Math (and I taught the "higher ability" and "lower ability" classes). They went from a place of not appreciating what Math can do, from a place where my own expectations of them changed, to more of a genuine appreciation of the subject and for what I was hoping they can accomplish.

I guess what I am getting at here is that what I've changed in my practice has all been related to the cultivating of trust between myself and my students. That has had the most impact on me as an educator, and will most likely be the biggest lesson I've learned. I've taken that and it has built up my confidence as a leader, as a collaborator with others in where I see so many things that impact the learning of our students that perhaps others don't see, or at least get confirmation that together with my colleagues we can help move forward together, to partner with our administration and outside organizations to continue to cultivate that sense of trust.

I've become more confident in all other "areas" of my job. I saw a fantastic quote earlier this week from Jose Popoff which to me aligns with what we do: