Kristie Gibson

Mt. Scopus Memorial College, Melbourne, Australia

Teaching & Learning Leader (Math)

How did you get into teaching?

I had been working as an occupational therapist in various mental health care settings. I think I was always destined to work with people; they fascinate me and always have. The work was challenging and important but I felt mostly ineffective. Small gains were lost quickly. There was joy and laughter in that work too, but I wanted something more productive than reactive. I enrolled in a post-graduate degree in teaching and began my teaching career in a small primary school in Sydney.

I was a teacher - but not a very good one. 

What really got me INTO teaching was landing my first gig in an international school setting in Singapore. At first, the PYP seemed like some sort of hippie teaching cult involving a whole lot of language and terminology and not much else. I was cynical and a bit of an eye-roller. I misunderstood Inquiry to be a fancy word for research. Luckily, I was introduced to a school leader who became my mentor and friend. This teacher and many more just like her provided me with new ways of thinking about teaching and learning. Now I was INTO teaching. I began thinking of teaching as both a scientific and an artistic pursuit. Observing the magical phenomenon of learning and the small part I played in it became an obsession.

Who was the K-12 teacher who made the greatest (positive) impact on your own life? 

High school was mostly terrible. I was bored and disengaged and had no idea who I was - like many sixteen-year-olds, I suspect. There was one teacher who remains memorable. Freddy Leung. He taught Geography and I’m not sure that even he was that interested in the subject. I don’t remember him ever really getting excited about desert ecosystems or arable farming practices. I do remember that one day he started drawing a small, sketchy cartoon cat on the board (he was quite open about his love of cats). Once he had finished drawing the cat he walked around the room and nodded as he found that more than half the class had also drawn the cat. Somehow it was our fault that we had mindlessly drawn a cat in a lesson centered on alpine climates.

Equally vindicated and frustrated, he spoke to us about the importance of understanding what it is we were learning. The importance of purpose. The importance of critical thinking. Looking back now, I reflect that his teaching rarely provided opportunities for bringing to life his values about learning. It was chalk and talk city. But he spoke to us that day as almost-adults. As people. In that one instant of Freddy’s, I find mirrored both the best and the worst of myself as an educator. I have had moments where I may as well have drawn a cat. And I have had moments my students might just think about 30 years later.

What is a professional inquiry you are currently pursuing?

How might we create a culture of positivity, creativity, and joy for the teaching and learning of mathematics?

So many of us as teachers have residual math anxieties. Largely we experience this as a hangover from our own childhood years of drill and skill type mathematics lessons. Conceptual understanding never prioritized, speed too often overvalued, over-testing, one-right-way solutions, procedure valued over puzzling...the list goes on. Now, as teachers, we are expected to counter the maths anxiety we see in our students when we ourselves are still hesitant to approach this area with playful curiosity and creativity. Somehow these dispositions we value in every other aspect of learning get pushed to the side for the VERY SERIOUS WORK of mathematics (cue the Imperial March theme from Star Wars).

How are you pursuing this inquiry?

My goal is for the teachers I work with to DO THE MATH. Teachers need to be learners as well as teachers. They need to puzzle and to find the joy in it. They need to be amazed by the diversity and creativity in the ways they and their teams solve problems. They need to experience the productive struggle that feels like frustration and at the same time, flow, and to know that their students need that too. They need to feel the sudden snap or the slowly broadening dawn of clarity that comes after the frustration. They need to do the math to see its potential. What can be revealed about mathematics during this puzzle? What can be revealed about the learner as they do this puzzle?

Twitter has opened a world-wide network to me of teachers who take an inquiry stance on Mathematics. I am constantly engaged in conversations about the joy, beauty, and wonder that is to be found in this area of learning. I have found the work of Mark Chubb , Marilyn Burns, and Simon Gregg to be constant sources of inspiration. A professional mentor, Prof. Peter Sullivan, inspired significant changes in my practice by encouraging me to consider my students highly capable thinkers worthy of challenge. Obviously this is true of learners in all areas of learning. Too often, as teachers, we have a deficit view of the learner and focus on what they don’t know. It is a powerful flip to start from what learners DO know.

What is a personal inquiry you are currently pursuing? 

Who is my partner’s daughter and how can I connect with her?

I have been with my partner for just over two years and his daughter stays with us every second weekend. She is possibly the quietest, shyest person I have ever met and I suspect I might be the loudest extrovert she has ever encountered. She is sixteen years old and we have, on the surface, nothing in common. She rarely shares her thoughts and opinions with me although she smiles often and when she laughs out loud at something ridiculous I’ve said, I feel like I have cracked some sort of code! I’m always aware that I am trying just that little bit too hard...

I grew up with a stepmother who loathed the word stepmother. Like a cantankerous cow, I always refused to introduce her as anything else. But what I have never really appreciated, and am starting to now, is that the job is thankless and awkward. You can’t really win at stepmothering. You just have to be as dignified as possible whilst waiting for approval that may never come. I love my stepmother to death. She was right; the word ‘stepmother’ is laden with unflattering connotations and needs a reinvention or better yet, a replacement. 

In the meantime, my partner’s daughter and I have cards and Scrabble and a mutual love of Hamilton. Games and musicals provide us with threads of conversations that are very fragile seeds of a relationship. That and our love for her dad who we both agree can be a bit of a dork.

How are you pursuing this inquiry?

I am a talker and an over-analyser. Much of my learning about life and work happens through the sacred ritual of a glass of wine and long chats with friends. I’m constantly awed by the knowledge and wisdom of the women in my life. Sure, I read books. (Recently, the Glennon Doyle book Untamed gave me a shakeup and made me think about how arrogant it is to expect introverts to somehow overcome their own needs to meet mine.) But the best learning in my personal life seems to come from the insights and observations of my close friends and mentors.

To improve teaching as a profession, what three things would you advocate for and why?

Be vulnerable

One of the most powerful things I did as a teacher was to stop pretending I was faultless. Who was I kidding anyway? As a grade six teacher, I could see my inauthenticity reflected back in their set jaws. Who was I to be giving advice? We need to stop telling kids it’s ok to make mistakes if we aren’t prepared to share ours. Sometimes, those mistakes are small (spelling and timetabling errors) and sometimes they are huge (incorrectly attributing blame, being open about our mistrust). Last year I got into the habit of starting conversations aimed at bringing about change in classroom culture in this way: “One thing I’ve noticed about myself is that…” And then I get REAL about what it is that I do that is imperfect. And I explain why I think I do it. And how it impacts others. And why and how I want to change. Then I ask for THEIR advice. 

I have found this to be a game-changer in terms of culture building. It starts conversations. It creates safe spaces for not yet knowing the answers. It builds trust. It challenges the ideals of young people who see adulthood as something akin to perfection. It models and values the constant cycle of reflection and change we are in as people, in life, forever. 

Learning needs to be at the core of EVERYTHING in a school

Teacher time is precious, so we don’t need to be in meetings talking about things we could read in emails. Teaching and learning is our core business and every second we get to learn something more about how to make it happen, is valuable time. Leadership teams need to make sure that teachers are learning about learning at every opportunity. This is valued at the school of which I am now a part and it means that when meetings happen, teachers know they are going to be talking about teaching and learning, not administration (for the most part). What we have seen is that teachers will come enthusiastically and voluntarily to meetings where they will learn something about their craft. Leadership meetings also need to look like spaces of learning because leaders are learners too and every initiative, every practice, every routine should reflect the belief that learning IS EVERYTHING that is important to schools.

Creativity and Innovation happen when people feel they belong

Relationship building is everything. This is true for adults and children alike. When I think about the times in my life where I have been the most creative and innovative, it has always been a function of having formed productive, positive relationships with others. I have felt safe and supported to try new things. This is really the essence of agency. The magical ‘What if’ that happens when trust exists. Anything else is tokenistic. As a leader, it is my responsibility to build authentic connections with every team member. I’m not there yet. I need to work on showing vulnerability with my colleagues. Having never been blessed with stunning looks or athletic abilities, I have always over-valued my need to be the ‘knowledgeable’ one. I am working very hard at learning to say, “I don’t know”.

You gotta see this! It feels bandwagony to mention My Octopus Teacher here because you’ve already all heard about it and of course it IS as beautiful as everyone says - not to mention the best narrative of an inquiry I have ever seen documented. So instead, I will recommend this Ted Talk by Dan Finkel (who is the author of the website MathforLove which is full of mathematical gold). During the talk, Dan shares his thinking about mathematical ‘miseducation’ and the importance of play in mathematics.

Thank you, Kristie! Who’s next?