Category Archives: Conferences

Conferences, Connecting Ideas, Questions, Sketch Notes

The Science of Early Learning and Adversity: Daily Leadership to Promote Development and Buffer Stress Day 2

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Rhonda Mitchell (@rgmteach) and I are attending The Science of Early Learning and Adversity: Daily Leadership to Promote Development and Buffer Stress at The Saul Zaentz Professional Learning Academy.

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?

Day 2 Agenda (with my notes)

Classroom Strategies to Decrease
and Respond to Disruptive Behaviors
Amanda Williford
Research Associate Professor, University of Virginia, Curry School of Education, Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (CASTL)

Reflection and Application
Amanda Williford and the Zaentz Team

Strategic Planning Session
Nonie Lesaux and Robin Kane

Universal Design for Equity and Strong Early Learning
Thomas Hehir
Silvana and Christopher Pascucci Professor of Practice in Learning Differences, Harvard Graduate School of Education

My list to think about, reflect on, and grapple with from today includes:

  • How might we meet the needs of diverse learners?
  • How might we develop and strengthen strong positive bonds and relationships?
  • How can we shift the dialog to “what does this learner need from me?” How can we embrace the power of positivity to make change?
  • Can we grow into a  5:1 ratio to make change and leverage the power of positivity?
  • Can we strength our norm of no labels so that we describe what a learner can do and the next step?
  • Can we embrace the Theory of Change to gain clarity?
    structures vs. processes; outputs vs. outcomes, etc.
  • How might we improve learning for all and deepen our understanding of differentiation?
Conferences, Connecting Ideas, Learning, Questions, Reflection

The Science of Early Learning and Adversity: Daily Leadership to Promote Development and Buffer Stress Day 1

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Rhonda Mitchell (@rgmteach) and I are attending The Science of Early Learning and Adversity: Daily Leadership to Promote Development and Buffer Stress at The Saul Zaentz Professional Learning Academy. This professional development features keynote speaker Walter Gilliam (@WalterGilliam).

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
Director of The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy and Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology, Yale University Child Study Center

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?
  • How do I and who helps me check my bias?
Conferences, Connecting Ideas, Creativity, Learning, Reflection, Sketch Notes

#NCSM17 #Sketchnotes Wednesday Summary

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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.

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.

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.

#LL2LU, Conferences, Connecting Ideas, Professional Development Plans, Questions, Reading

Deep Practice: Building Conceptual Understanding in the Middle Grades

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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.)

Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. (p. 18-20). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Zager, Tracy. Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You’d Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms. Portland, ME.: Stenhouse Publishers, 2017. (pp. 128-129) Print.

Conferences, Connecting Ideas, Reflection, Sketch Notes

#NCSM17 #Sketchnotes Tuesday Summary

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

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?

Routines for Reasoning:
Ensuring All Students Are Mathematical Thinkers
Amy Lucenta, Grace Kelemanik

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.

Conferences, Connecting Ideas, Reflection, Sketch Notes

#NCSM17 #Sketchnotes Monday Summary

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

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, assuming it’s innate rather than developed through high-quality learning experiences. As a result, students who haven’t yet had opportunities to foster their intuitions are often denied access to 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 connected in 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.

Talk Less and Listen More
Zachary Champagne

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.

Conferences, Connecting Ideas, Presentations, Professional Development Plans

Leading Mathematics Education in the Digital Age

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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.