Take Five (As in Years) My goal as an educator is to get my students to think on a grander scale. As a mathematics educator, this goal is married to thinking logically, on a grander scale. Why, because mathematics is pure logic. Mathematics does not lend itself to subjectivity or emotion. Two plus two will always equal four. It does not matter where you are born, what is your economic status, or what kind of mood you are in. The answer will always be the same. My students’ backgrounds remind me of the story on an elephant being kept in check by a small rope or chain. A man passes by and asks the elephant’s owner why does the elephant stay locked up by the small rope or chain. The owner replies, that the elephant was put in the rope or chain when it was a baby and did not have the power to break it. Now that it is fully grown, it does not know it has the power to break the restraints. My students come from economics backgrounds where they do not know their own power.
My short term goal of exposing my students to the reality that mathematics are intertwined with almost all facets of their lives has been successful this year. They enjoyed starting their own businesses and eventually telling their classmates about their businesses in their presentations. This is a powerful first step in breaking their restratints. I recognize this is only a start. Since my first month as an educator, I have joined many groups at the school, district, and corporate partner levels. Without knowing it l had access to a powerful network but have not fully utilize it. The network consisted of my peers in the mathematical field at the grammar and high school levels. The network consisted of my peers in other subjects like science, social science, art, music, and English. The network consisted of principals, network chiefs, and higher CPS officials. The only question is how good or powerful is a network unless it is fully utilized. I have not fully utilized my network. From now on I will. In conclusion, joining the third cohort has been a perfect marriage for me. I have grown in many ways. This growth will help facilitate my mission of teaching mathematics in order to create higher level thinkers. This mission will not take shape unless I step outside of my comfort zone and model what I intend to create. Thus my five year plan is to learn and grow in the following areas:
Making use of PBL’s
Utilizing and incorporating social media in my instruction
Finding funding or grants to sponsor real world activities for my classes and school
By increasing my capacity, I will be in a better position to increase the capacity of my students. Sounds like a win win situation to me.