How can early education leaders support the design and implementation of strong early learning environments—those that buffer stress, reduce challenging behaviors, and promote development?
Agenda (with my notes)
Today’s Early Education Landscape
with Nonie Lesaux and Stephanie Jones
Understanding Stress and Behavior in the Early Education Environment
with Walter Gilliam
Reflection and Application
with Walter Gilliam and the Zaentz Team
facilitated by Robin Kane
Strategic Planning Session
facilitated by Robin Kane and Emily Bautista
My list to think about, reflect on, and grapple with from today includes:
Micro-stresses pile up.
How might we pay attention to and recognize stress?
(Student stress, teacher stress, family stress, leadership stress.)
Empathy: Who is it given to? From whom is it withheld?
What are we looking for and who are we looking at?
How might we anticipate expected “unexpected” events?
What structures can be put in place to support learners, teachers, families, leaders?
When sharing information about a learner, check intent. Are we sharing knowledge and understanding to support the learner?
Can we offer evidence to show what we know and understand?
Can we share information without adding judgement and labels?
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.
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.
How to Think Brilliantly and Creatively in Mathematics: Some Guiding Thoughts for Teachers, Coaches, Students—Everyone! James Tanton
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.
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.
2017 NCSM Annual Conference 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.
Deep practice is built on a paradox: struggling in certain targeted ways — operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes — makes you smarter. Or to put it a slightly different way, experiences where you’re forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them —as you would if you were walking up an ice-covered hill, slipping and stumbling as you go— end up making you swift and graceful without your realizing it. (Coyle, 18 pag.)
The second reason deep practice is a strange concept is that it takes events that we normally strive to avoid —namely, mistakes— and turns them into skills. (Coyle, 20 pag.)
This term productive struggle captures both elements we’re after: we want students challenged and learning. As long as learners are engaged in productive struggle, even if they are headed toward a dead end, we need to bite our tongues and let students figure it out. Otherwise, we rob them of their well-deserved, satisfying, wonderful feelings of accomplishment when they make sense of problems and persevere. (Zager, 128 pag.)
Tracking, Equity, and the Many Paradoxes of Algebra II Jason Zimba
What is Algebra II good for? For whom is it good? Phil Daro raised these and other questions for the Carnegie-Institute for Advanced Study Commission. Fast forward to now, and the debate about ‘what mathematics and why’ has found its way into the pages of the popular press. Is there anything district leaders can learn from this conversation? How might a district leader who prizes equity think about the question of tracking in school mathematics?
Instructional routines embody research-based best practices for struggling learners, especially when they focus on the Standards for Mathematical Practice and include ‘baked in’ supports for special populations. Participants will explore a universally designed instructional routine, Connecting Representations, and learn how to leverage it to develop teachers’ capacity to ensure development of ALL students’ mathematical practices.
Letting Go: Cultivating Agency and Authority Through Number Talks in the Secondary Mathematics Classroom Cathy Humphreys
In this session I share my dissertation study of two high school teachers as they learned to enact Number Talks. I wanted to know what the teachers found most challenging and how coaching supported their learning. In examining the videos of classroom lessons, I noticed marked differences in how agency and authority emerged in the two classes. I hope what I learned while searching for “Why?” will be useful for teachers and coaches alike.
Winning the Game in Mathematics Leadership Matt Owens
Mathematics leadership is multifaceted in nature as we strive to intentionally impact students and educators in classrooms nationwide. Leadership pathways can be different from leader to leader, but ultimately curriculum/ content, instruction, activism, and assessment (CIAA) are all areas of evaluation for “PRIME” leaders in mathematics education. Discover the top seven practical strategies for overcoming the struggles that may arise in your role as a mathematics leader within your school/university, district, state, and national professional learning communities, while building the capacity of teachers’ leadership among mathematics educators in these respective communities.
Approaching Ten Tough Mathematical Ideas for High School Students Salmon Usiskin
The main purpose of this talk is to provide insights into mathematical content that many mathematics teachers may not have seen. By covering a broad range of content, from aspects of manipulative algebra through proof in geometry and in general, discussing language, applications, and representations, my remarks are designed for leaders to help in decisions they make in the professional development of their teachers.
Knocking Down Barriers with Technology Eli Luberoff
One-to-one. Accessibility. Personalization. Internationalization. Low oor. High ceiling. What do these all have in common? Each is targeted to making mathematics work for every student. Not just the con dent students with engaged parents, not just the struggling students, every student. We will explore the technology and techniques that can open doors, challenge the bored, empower the disempowered, and turn every student into a mathematics student.
Gut Instincts: Developing ALL Students’ Mathematical Intuitions Tracy Zager
We’ve long misunderstood mathematical intuition, assumingit’s innate rather than developed through high-qualitylearning experiences. As a result, students who haven’t yet had opportunities to foster their intuitions are often denied accessto meaningful mathematics. Through analysis of powerful classroom teaching and learning, we’ll explore three instructional strategies you can use to empower ALL students to grasp mathematics intuitively.
Problem Strings to Change Teaching Practice Pam Harris
A problem string is a purposefully designed sequence of related problems that helps students mentally construct mathematical relationships and nudges them toward a major, efficient strategy, model, or big idea. We show how problem strings can be leveraged for changing teachers’ practice. Because it puts students’ ideas at the center, teachers are forced to listen deeply to kids and structure mathematics conversations around their thinking.
Rethinking Expressions and Equations: Implications for Teacher Leaders Michelle Rinehart
How are one- and two-variable expressions, one- and two- variable equations, and the standard form of a line connectedin a powerful way? How might this progression support student learning of these “tough-to-teach/tough-to-learn” ideas? Explore the underlying theme that uni es these seemingly disparate topics using a technology-leveraged approach. Consider research and the role of teacher leaders in developing real understanding of these topics.
It’s a simple, and very complex, idea that great teachers do and do well. Genuinely listening to students can yield incredible opportunities for teachers to not only know and connect with their students, but also increase the quality of teaching and learning that happens in the classroom. Join us as we explore the power of listening to students and using that information to inform our instruction. We’ll also explore strategies to help provide the supportive conditions and frameworks to help leaders support teachers in doing this work. We’ll do this through examining video clips of students sharing their mathematical ideas and consider what listening affords and what questions could be asked to further their mathematical thinking.
Leading Mathematics Education in the Digital Age
2017 NCSM Annual Conference Pre-Conference Sessions
Jennifer Wilson Jill Gough
How can leaders effectively lead mathematics education in the era of the digital age?
There are many ways to contribute in our community and the global community, but we have to be willing to offer our voices. How might we take advantage of instructional tools to purposefully ensure that all students and teachers have voice: voice to share what we know and what we don’t know yet; voice to wonder what if and why; voice to lead and to question.
The 26th Annual KSU Conference on Literature
for Children and Young Adults Cultural and Critical Themes in Young Adult and Children’s Literature
I attended the KSU Conference on Literature for Children and Young Adults. This conference provides teachers, preservice teachers, public and school librarians, media specialists, and school administrators with a two-day experience in which they have the opportunity to listen to and interact with several highly acclaimed children’s and young adult authors as well as attend presentations from master teachers and experts in the field on all facets of literacy instruction. Below are my notes from the keynote speakers.
