Support for new ideas?

Seymour Papert, Pioneer of Constructionist Learning 

A long time ago as a new teacher, Seymour Papert, the American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator, who spent most of his career teaching and researching at MIT, invited teachers to join him on an exploration of coding. I was very excited about this opportunity and tried to get a team of teachers from my school system to join me. I could not entice anyone to form a team. I was very disappointed and did not take part in that ground-breaking opportunity, an opportunity at the forefront of coding in schools. 

Just recently the Commissioner of Education in Massachusetts sent out a link inviting teams of teachers to join a new state initiative to deepen education. Similar to how I felt about Papert's initiative about 32 years ago, I know the Commissioner's new initiative, the Kaleidoscope Initiative, is the start of something rich and meaningful for our state with regard to deeper teaching and learning. I want to be apart of that to deepen how we teach mathematics. I've reached out to teachers, but have only heard back from one. I wonder why teachers may not be eager to be apart of something new and exciting like this, an initiative that will be well supported and is cutting edge. This is positive.

I hope four or five teachers and/or administrators will join the initiative as one way to support new ideas and grow the work that we are doing. Papert's work so long ago supported amazing development in many schools, I know that Kaleidoscope will do the same.