The author always felt that her classroom was missing something. Although she was incorporating the NCTM Standards in her math classroom, she longed to use other teaching strategies to deepen students' understanding of the "how"as well as the "why." The author wanted "and needed" to implement cooperative learning into her classroom. The biggest reason for not doing so was her lack of knowledge and understanding of how. Changing an educator's teaching style is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges in educational reform. The significant point at which her classroom became a more student-centered atmosphere occurred when she moved to a different school district and started using College Preparatory Mathematics and Connected Mathematics. Both curricula incorporate cooperative learning techniques. As she began to put cooperative learning into practice, she quickly realized that her students needed to break free of traditional expectations and be taught what it meant to learn in a cooperative group. (Contains 4 figures.)