In the back of Francesca Aquino’s classroom, sharing a frame with a picture of her as a small child, is her teaching philosophy.
“I, as the teacher, am not the holder of knowledge,” the small, white piece of paper reads. “I will empower students to believe and trust in themselves as the drivers of their learning. I will honor, explore, and extend learning through unique perspectives within the classroom community.”
It’s a philosophy she practices daily in her classroom at Lockeland Design Center, and it’s especially evident while she’s teaching math to first graders.
“People think teaching is an adult telling a student what to do, but really, it’s so much deeper than that,” Aquino, a second-year teacher, said. “It’s a teacher giving the support and resources they need to find that knowledge on their own.”
Student-Led Learning
On a gloomy day in late September, Aquino invites her students at the East Nashville school to join her on the rug. It’s time for Math Captain, a daily math fluency activity she learned while student-teaching at Lockeland.
Math Captain allows a different student every week to come up to the front of the classroom and lead the class through math problems. The students work together to solve problems dealing with greater than and less than, addition and subtraction, counting money, recognizing patterns, and more.
Students think through the questions as the Math Captain reads them to the class. Some students use resources such as a number chart that sits in the front of the room, while others think to themselves or use their fingers to count. As students start to figure out the answers, hands fly in the air, each student hoping they will be the one the Math Captain calls on.
Aquino said the activity allows her students to be in charge of their learning, and she sees the concepts they practice in Math Captain used in math units throughout the school year.
“Students love to learn from their peers, especially when they hear me yap all day,” Aquino said, laughing.
Journey to Education
As a student at the University of California Berkeley, Aquino studied sociology and journalism. Teaching was more of a side gig – she worked with a non-profit organization that helped sophomores and juniors prepare for college, as well as ACT and SAT prep. It wasn’t until after college, while working as a teaching assistant and doing social-emotional learning work in a middle school, that she realized she wanted to be a teacher.
Vanderbilt University, where she earned her master’s degree in elementary education, is what brought Aquino to Nashville, MNPS, and Lockeland, where she student-taught in the same classroom she teaches in today.
“I loved the school so much,” Aquino said. “I feel so supported here. Even as a student-teacher I knew all the kids, I knew all the staff, and I felt like everyone was rooting for me.”
Getting Creative in Math
After Math Captain wraps up, it’s time to work on today’s assignment. Aquino’s students have been learning about Change Unknown word problems. To demonstrate that concept on this day, Aquino has made a video.
Change Unknown involves finding the missing number in an equation. She demonstrates this with everyday examples, like picking up pencils in her classroom. She starts with three pencils in her hand and ends with seven. The kids yell out the answer and giggle as they watch Aquino present more Change Unknown problems she comes across during the day.
Once the video is over, it’s her students’ turn to make up their own Change Unknown stories. She wants her students to get creative and show the strategy they used to solve the problem - and write an equation that matches the story.
“I feel like people see ELA (English Language Arts) and writing as the more creative and exploratory subjects,” Aquino said.
She said most people see math as succinct: one correct way to solve equations, with no creativity needed. She doesn’t see it that way anymore. In fact, she’s constantly seeing her students get more and more creative during their math lessons. They are always trying new strategies and drawings to solve equations. She sees this creativity bleed into other subjects throughout the day as well.
“I completely view math and numbers in a different way because of my students and the way that they think. It’s really amazing.”