As a new middle school math teacher, the beginning of the school year felt like a whirlwind of trying to manage everything at once. Between lesson planning, grading, and just getting to know my students, it was easy to get caught up in the day-to-day urgencies. However, I knew I needed a “north star” to guide me through the year, a goal that would truly transform my classroom rather than just manage it. After a lot of reflection, I landed on my focus: empowering my students by fostering a continuous feedback loop, with a little help from AI, to build their agency and ownership over their own learning journey.
I’m sure many of you can relate to that feeling of the “Important but Not Urgent” tasks getting pushed to the side. For me, that’s where the magic of creative lesson prep lives. It’s in those moments of thoughtful planning that we can design experiences that spark genuine curiosity and deep understanding. My goal this year is to protect that creative space. I believe that by focusing on student agency, I’m not just teaching math; I’m teaching students how to be learners. It’s about creating a classroom where students are active participants in their education, not just passive recipients of information.
Of course, this is easier said than done. One of the biggest hurdles I’ve already encountered is the question of student readiness. For years, my students have been told what to learn, when to learn it, and how to prove they’ve learned it. Suddenly asking them to identify their own gaps and set their own goals is like asking them to use a muscle they never knew they had. It’s a significant shift, and it requires creating a classroom culture where students feel safe enough to be honest about what they don’t know and brave enough to take risks.
This is where I’m getting strategic and leaning into technology. My plan is to leverage AI to help create richer, more continuous feedback experiences for my students, allowing them to see their growth in real-time and take ownership of their next steps. On the flip side, I’m also using AI to streamline some of my more time-consuming administrative tasks, like drafting our weekly parent newsletter. By finding efficiencies in my own workflow, I’m freeing up more of my time and mental energy to focus on what truly matters: designing those magical learning moments and working directly with my students.
Ultimately, this year-long focus is about seeing the incredible potential in my students. I believe they are ready for this kind of ownership, even if our traditional systems of assessment and reporting aren’t quite there yet. My hope is that by the end of this year, my students won’t just be better mathematicians; they’ll be more confident, self-directed learners who are empowered to take on any challenge that comes their way. It’s a big goal, but I’m excited to see where this journey takes us.
Susan,
Thank you for sharing this. The way you described the start of the year as a whirlwind, and then intentionally naming a clear focus, really resonates. I love that your north star at HTS is about student agency and a continuous feedback loop, rather than just keeping up with the pace of middle school math. It feels like such a powerful way to bring your many years of experience in TDSB into this new context.
I really appreciate how honestly you named the tension around student readiness. Asking students to identify their own gaps and set their own goals is a big shift when they are used to being told what to do and when to do it. Your emphasis on classroom culture, safety, and risk taking feels exactly right. You are not only teaching math content. You are teaching learners how to understand themselves and their next steps.
I also really like how thoughtfully you are using AI, both to enrich feedback for students in real time and to streamline your own workload so you can spend more time on the creative, important work. That balance feels very intentional. I would be very interested to hear as the year unfolds what this looks like in practice, and what your students begin to say about their own learning as they get more used to this kind of ownership. It is exciting to think about the confidence this could build in them, not just as mathematicians, but as learners overall.
Gareth Jones
Susan – I really love your goal “protect that creative space” – it is SO challenging, but so worthwhile!!
I think it will be really interesting for your to continue exploring the place where student ownership meets traditional assessments – who knows if it will lead you toward less traditional assessments of student-owned assessments, or something that isn’t as connected to assessments as it is ownership. Regardless, I agree with you – it’s going to be a great journey!!
I am also excited to hear how leveraging AI for your own efficiencies is going? I think this could be particularly interesting if it is able to free up space for the creative lesson planning pieces and it is something I have not delved into as of yet myself.
I also think you might enjoy connecting with a couple of other C21ers – let’s chat at the next F2F – as the idea of a shift in approach is common to a few of us, especially as it relates to building foundational pillars of trust, community, and safety in our classrooms. (I’m thinking of @ehenderson from our group for starters!)