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<\/a><\/p>\nSo as students realize they can’t get the angle from their calculator nor can they get it exactly from the measurement on their protractor (students had values ranging from 35 to 38 degrees when we compared), one of the students in my class says, “Ms. Schettino, wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to undo the tangent?” and the other kids are kind of interested in what she said. She continues, “Yeah, like if the calculator could just give us the angle if we put in the slope. \u00a0That’s what we want.” \u00a0I stood there in amazement because that was exactly what I wanted someone to crave or see the need for. \u00a0It was one of those “holy crap, this is working<\/em>” moments where you can see that the kids are taking over the learning. \u00a0I turned to the kids and just said, “yeah, that would be awesome, wouldn’t it? \u00a0Why don’t you keep working on the next problem?” and that had them try to figure out what the inverse tangent button did on their calculator. \u00a0They ended up pressing this magical button and taking inverse tangent of 0.75 (without telling them why they were using 0.75 from the previous problem) to see if they could recognize the connection between what they had just done and what they were doing.<\/p>\n At the end of the class, the colleague who was observing came up to me and said, “How did you do that?” and I said, “What do you mean?” and he said, “How did you get the kids to want to learn about inverse tangent? I mean they just fell right into the thing you wanted them to learn about. \u00a0That was crazy.” \u00a0I really had to think about that. \u00a0I didn’t feel like I did anything honestly, the kids did it all. \u00a0I mean what made them all of a sudden care about getting the angle? \u00a0Why were they invested? \u00a0 It doesn’t always happen in my classroom that’s for sure. \u00a0This is not a perfect science – there’s no recipe for it to work – take a great curriculum, interested kids, an open, respectful learning environment and mix well?<\/p>\n I do think however that a huge part of it\u00a0is the culture that has been created throughout the year and the investment that they have made<\/span> in their ownership and authorship in their own learning. We\u00a0have valued their ideas so much that they have come to realize that it is their ideas and not mine that can end up driving the learning – and yes, I do end up feeling a little guilty because I do have a plan. \u00a0I do have something that I want them to learn, but somehow have created enough interest, excitement and curiosity that they feel like they did it. \u00a0It is pretty crazy.<\/p>\n\n