"When we hear students' voices and we hear their ideas, and acknowledge the way they think about the world, that's when learning happens."

For Robyn Moss, teaching is an exercise in relationship building with and among the students at Presidio Hill School. Her classroom is a place where first graders are encouraged to express their unique voices and to respect those of their classmates as they learn the foundational skills of the curriculum.

Robyn's passion for all aspects of literacy—reading, writing, listening, and speaking—is evident in her enthusiasm for the role self-expression plays in the development of young learners. "Especially in first grade, we’re working on how to listen, how to be an audience, how to really give people what they need to learn or to express themselves," she says.  

That enthusiasm for self-expression plays out in the math curriculum as well. Robyn's approach includes students "having experiences with math that make it so that it’s not this abstract concept that they can memorize and spew, but that they can really emphasize not only understanding, but critically thinking about math and then making connections."

An essential element of this type of learning, according to Robyn, is that those connections are driven by the students rather than the teacher. "So I love the ability to sometimes explicitly teach, of course, but then sometimes, in fact daily, giving them the opportunity to share what they know, what they’ve experienced, share what they’ve noticed, and that’s when the most delicious learning happens."