I’m attending the  National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics  2017 conference in San Antonio.  Here are my notes from Wednesday along with the session descriptions from the presenters.

Conferring with Young Mathematicians at Work:
The Process of Teacher Change
Cathy Fosnot

If children are to engage in problem solving with tenacity and confidence, good questioning on the part of teachers during conferrals is critical. Questioning must engender learner excitement and ownership of ideas, while simultaneously be challenging enough to support further development. Video of conferrals in action will be used for analysis, and a Landscape of Learning on the process of teacher change is shared as a lens for coaching.

Leading to Support Procedural Fluency for All Students
Jennifer Bay-Williams

Principles to Actions describes effective teaching practices that best support student learning. In this session we will focus on one of those teaching practices: “build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding.” Ensuring that every child develops procedural fluency requires understanding what fluency means, knowing research related to developing procedural fluency and conceptual understanding, and being able to translate these ideas into effective classroom practices. That is the focus of this session! We will take a look at research, connections to K–12 classroom practice, and implications for us as coaches and teacher leaders.

This lecture is a guide for thinking brilliantly and creatively in mathematics designed for K–12 educators and supervisors, students, and all those seeking joyful mathematics doing. How do we model and practice uncluttered thinking and joyous doing in the classroom, pursue deep understanding over rote practice and memorization, and promote the art of successful ailing? Our complex society demands of its next generation not only mastery of quantitative skills, but also the confidence to ask new questions, explore, wonder, fail, persevere, succeed in solving problems and to innovate. Let’s not only send humans to Mars, let’s also foster in our next generation the might to get those humans back if something goes wrong! In this talk, I will explore five natural principles of mathematical thinking. We will all have fun seeing how school mathematics content is a vehicle for masterful ingenuity and joy.

Deep Practice:
Building Conceptual Understanding in the Middle Grades
Jill Gough, Jennifer Wilson

How might we attend to comprehension, accuracy, flexibility, and then efficiency? What if we leverage technology to enhance our learners’ visual literacy and make connections between words, pictures, and numbers? We will look at new ways of using technology to help learners visualize, think about, connect and discuss mathematics. Let’s explore how we might help young learners productively struggle instead of thrashing around blindly.

When Steve Leinwand asked if I was going to sketch our talk, I jokingly said that I needed someone to do it for me. We are honored to have this gift from Sharon Benson. You can see additional details on my previous post.