I was thrilled when I recently came across the term generative learning, which describes much of what I believe about education. I like the very sound of the word and all of the implications that go with it.

I remember distinctly when I decided to pursue more education. I was working as a fifth grade teacher, teaching 3 sections of math each day - and loving it. I was fortunate to have an uncle as a mentor who had taught the youth of Providence and advocated for higher standards of mathematics for all.

As I presented a visual model of a computation as an illustration of the new 2011 frameworks, there sat Erica. "This does not make sense to me. Why are we using this model?" I acknowledge such questions and answer with a question of my own, "Good questions. Just because the standard says to use a particular visual model, why is this better for students? And, how will you know it is better?" and thus our journey begins.