My Discovery-Based Math Elective: Impact on My Teaching (Part 15, final)

This is part 15, of a 15-part series of posts detailing how I developed and piloted a discovery-based high school math elective. The first, introductory, blog post for this series can be found here [Introductions]. The goal of this post is to discuss how teaching this elective course impacted parts of my development as a teacher. It also re-identifies some of the biggest contributors to the development of this curriculum.

• This past year was my first time teaching this course in its entirety (modulo distance learning due to a pandemic). As I started to think about the structure of the class, I think I was so ready and excited about it, and I had laid so much conceptual groundwork in my own head, that it kind of just exploded and built itself. It really felt like the last five or six years of math, teaching, life, and professional development all kind of converged on this experiment of a course. It has been one of the most interesting and validating things I've done in my short career so far.
• To be clear, the opportunity to design and teach this course was an uncommon privilege to have as a public school teacher. I had an evaluator, math team, and school environment that was ready and willing to give me the chance to be a experimental and radical with this class. Especially as an early-career teacher, that trust, and the opportunity to try and make good on it, was an enormous investment that my school and professional learning community made in me, as a professional.
• And teaching this course, while also teaching my traditional CPM Integrated Math 1 class, has yielded very interesting comparisons. Even though it was still offered for graduation-worthy math credit, this class didn't need to be the class that prepped students for AP classes, or the state standardized tests. So I was freed a little bit to try things out. And I can say, unequivocally that it has developed me professionally. So by teaching this class, I am better able to teach my 9th graders Math 1, a class that is very much preparing students for for state standardized tests, and AP classes as well, hopefully.
• I would again like to direct my appreciation to those whose work in mathematics and teaching have done so much to make accessible a tremendous amount of math. James Tanton's Exploding Dots and Without Words I and II, PROMYS for Teachers, PCMI, PlayWithYourMath.com, Joey Kelly, Numberphile, my own school's math department, the #MTBoS, and a million other educators and resources.
• Joey Kelly in particular, as my mentor teacher and continued colleague/friend, has done an enormous amount of precedent setting, resource gathering, and modelling. I can't overstate how much he has contributed to the existence of this course, and how very much I appreciate his guidance, support, and collaboration.