“Are you coming back tomorrow?”

It was an early Wednesday morning, about 7:30 am, and Caiden*, one strand of messy brown hair sticking straight up, was in math class. I was sitting in the row behind, waiting to take a small group of students for intervention.

“Seven times seven,” the teacher said.

Caiden raised his hand.

“Caiden,” the teacher said.

“Forty-six, because I did 7x6, and got 39, then I added 7, and I got forty-six.”

“No, that’s not right. Someone else- Trace, you got it?”

“Forty-nine.”

“Correct.”

Caiden slid down in his seat. I leaned towards him and whispered, “Hey, I like your thought process. You started at 7x6, then you added 7 to get 7x7. Your thought process was correct- it’s just that 7x6 is 42, not 39.”

He put his head down a little. “No, I suck at math. I’m not good at it. I messed up.”

Caiden is not yet ten.

“No,” I said again. “Really. Your thought process was cool — you started at what you thought you knew, and went from there.”

Caiden looked a little less sad, but still a little unconvinced. Picking up his pencil, he wrote down the next problem on the board.

Five minutes later, I was ready to take my students and leave. But before I left, Caiden asked, “Hey, are you coming back tomorrow?”

I smiled behind my mask. “Yes, I’ll be here. Why?”

“Oh, I like your company.”

Today, I’m thankful for Caiden and his reminder to me about the importance of honoring our students’ thought processes.

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Towards high expectations and more moments of student brilliance,

Ms. Cecilia

*Caiden’s name/identifying details have been changed