Category Archives: Reflection

Connecting Ideas, Creativity, Learning, Questions, Reflection

The self-discipline to wait, watch, coach (revised)

1 Comment

My small extended family, there are just 10 of us, blazed through 12 dozen homemade cookies in three afternoons. Home for the holiday, my mother, my daughter, and I bake for pleasure, to help the house smell good, and to pass on important family traditions.  The cookie baking extravaganza has now extended into day 4. The demand for more cookies might be triggered by the smell of chocolate, peanut butter, and sugar wafting throughout the house, back porch, and driveway. Or, it could be gluttony. It’s a holiday; calories don’t count, right?

In her new red and green pjs, AS wakes up raring to go.  Jumping up and down in the kitchen in her new polka dot apron, she asks “How many cookies will we bake today, Mama? How many? How many?”

I hold back a sigh and try not to drop my head; I am tired. I have turkey, dressing, ham, and several casseroles to prepare to carry on our traditions, and I am experiencing cookie overload. I muster my best smile and say, “We need to bake at least 4 dozen cookies. Uncle Jack is coming today, and you know how much he loves your cookies.”

It is our 4th day of cookie baking. Once again, by popular request, we were making Reese’s peanut butter cup cookies.  We make peanut butter cookie dough, roll it into balls, and cook them in mini muffin pans.  As they come out of the oven, we press mini Reese’s peanut butter cups into the center of the cookies.  Delicious.

It is day 4 of this algorithmic work.  The learner is still excited, curious, and engaged.  Am I? Do I feel the same engagement, or am I bored and ready to move on?

For the first 2 dozen, I make the batter, and three generations work together in concert to roll the cookies into balls. The tins come out of the oven holding peanut butter goodness just waiting to receive the Reese’s peanut butter cup candies.  Together, my mother, AS, and I press the candy into the cookies as they come out of the oven. I can still picture my grandmother’s hands doing this work with my mother and me.

Apprenticeship as learning is so important.

I am struck by the lessons my sweet 6-year old, AS, is teaching me about learning with my students. How often do our students watch us do the work to solve the problem or answer the question and pitch in at the last step?   

Baking the second 2 dozen is a very different story.  Thanks to my mother, AS her very own measuring spoons, spatula, and mini muffin pan that bakes 1 dozen muffins.  Empowered now that she has her own pan, she takes charge. It would have been so much faster for me to roll the cookies.  But, no…her pan; her cookies. Her mantra: “I can do it myself!”

So, I watch, wait, and coach.  I try not to cringe. I hold my comments so that I do not undermine her independence and confidence. Too small, the balls will be difficult to press candy into after baking in the oven.  Too big and they will blob out on the pan during baking. Patiently, I ask, “I wonder, honey, if the peanut butter cup will fit into that ball once baked. What do you think?” She fixes most of these problems with a little coaching from me.

Isn’t this happening in our classrooms?  It is so much faster and more efficient for the teacher to present the material.  We can get so much more done in the short amount of time we have. But, how much does the learner “get done” or learn?  When efficiency trumps learning, does anyone really have success? How do we encourage “I can do it myself!”? How do we find the self-discipline to watch, wait, and coach?

As she demands more independence, her confidence grows.  Can you believe that she would alter my recipe for the first 2 dozen cookies?  As our second dozen bakes, I press the peanut butter cups into my cookies. Miss I-Can-Do-It-Myself decides that Hershey kisses will be just as good or better.  With no prompting (or permission) she creates a new (to her) cookie. She has Hershey Kisses, and she wants to use them.

Worth repeating: “As she demands more independence, her confidence grows.” When we intervene too soon, are we stripping learners of their confidence and independence? Are we promoting productive struggle? Do we let them grapple enough?  

Does it really matter which method a learner uses to solve a problem or answer a question?  Isn’t it okay if they use the distributive property or an area model to multiply? Does it really matter which method is used to find the solution to a system of equations?  Shouldn’t they first find success? Don’t we want our learners to understand more than one way? Is our way always the best way?

Is AS pleased with herself and her creativity?  You bet. Are her cookies just as good as the original recipe?  Sure! How can you go wrong combining chocolate and peanut butter?

We must applaud the process that learners use to solve a problem or respond to a question.  We must praise them when they try something different. We must promote and encourage risk-taking, creativity, and problem-solving.

We must find the self-discipline to be patient while learning is in progress, to watch, wait, and coach.  We must embrace and promote the “I can do it myself!” attitude.

We must.

The self-discipline to wait, watch, coach was originally published on Dec 26, 2010.  This revision is inspired by what we are learning in Embolden Your Inner Writer.

I am grateful for the thoughtful, challenging, advancing feedback from Marsha Harris, Amanda Thomas, Kate Burton, Becky Holden, Cathrine Halliburton, and Lauren Kinnard.

Connecting Ideas, Questions, Reflection

High-purpose environment. Teacher clarity. Touchpoints of praise.

2 Comments

I wait patiently for my turn.

Carrots. Beep. Doritos. Beep. Milk. Beep.

Donned in her green Publix smock, she makes eye contact and small talk with the customer ahead of me as she swipes items across the reader.

Hamburger. Beep. Kale. Beep. Beep. Beep.

She says, “That will be forty-two. twenty-eight” Wincing, she shook her head and said, “No, no wait! It is twenty-eight forty-two.” Smiling sheepishly, she blushes and says “Ugh! I just hate numbers.” The customer, patient and kind, concludes her business at the register and goes on about her way.

I cannot stop myself. Why can’t I stop myself from attempting to put salve on the raw wound that someone else – knowingly or unknowingly – has inflected on this poor young woman? I hear my internal voice say, “You don’t have to fix this. You really can’t fix this. You did not do this.”

I know I should stop myself. I cannot. I softly say, “So I’m a math teacher. It is easy to mix numbers up. Don’t worry.”

And then it happens… again. It breaks my heart a little more every time. Though it is not unexpected, I brace myself for what is coming.

She takes a deep breath. In a painful blurt, she replies, “I did so many posters just so I could pass.  She decided that was never going to ‘do’ math well, so she let me create bulletin boards and cut out letters in order to pass. I just hate it. Math was never my thing. Early, we knew that I could not do it, and we created workarounds so I could pass and graduate.”

So then, as always, I apologize for her terrible experience.

I am so sorry.

I am so sorry that any child is led to believe they cannot be successful at math – the language, art, and communication tool that is my love and passion.

I am so sorry that any child is led to believe they cannot be successful.

I seethe inside that any teacher would “extra credit” a child out of learning.

High-purpose environments are filled with small, vivid signals designed to create a link between the present moment and a future ideal. They provide the two simple locators that every navigation process requires: Here is where we are and Here is where we want to go. The surprising thing, from a scientific point of view, is how responsive we are to this pattern of signaling. (Coyle, 180 pag.)

Teachers need to determine the gap between students’ current level of performance or understanding and the expected level of mastery. (Hattie, 66 pag.)

If someone received just three or more touchpoints, or instances, of praise in a single quarter, their performance score in the next review period significantly increased. If they received four or more touchpoints of praise or recognition in a quarter, the retention rate increased to 96 percent over the next year. (Achor, Kindle Locations 1766-1768.)

How might we create more classrooms that are high-purpose environments where teacher clarity empowers learners to close gaps between what is known and what is needed?  What if we highlight what is going well to create touch points of praise to embolden learners to reach for a next level?

CULTURE: from the Latin cultus, which means care.

Achor, Shawn. Big Potential: How Transforming the Pursuit of Success Raises Our Achievement, Happiness, and Well-Being (Kindle Locations 1766-1768). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Coyle, Daniel. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups (Kindle Locations 2378-2380). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Hattie, John A. (Allan); Fisher, Douglas B.; Frey, Nancy; Gojak, Linda M.; Moore, Sara Delano; Mellman, William L.. Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12: What Works Best to Optimize Student Learning (Corwin Mathematics Series). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.

Connecting Ideas, Grading, Reading, Reflection

I know something!

Leave a comment

A motley band of brothers traveling as a pack ambled in at 7:58 for Pre-Cal. Just in time. From a distance they are handsome and well dressed in coats and ties. Up close, they are a little disheveled, like they stepped out of their clothes last night and into them again this morning.  My favorite part is the peacock-ness of their hair.  They slept hard, and it shows. It helps me remember how young they are when they look so grown up. I wonder how many of them brushed their teeth and decided not to go there.

They live together, play together, and learn together. Boarding school builds family and familiarity and deepens connectedness.  Yesterday’s test results require a preface. I prep them by explaining what I learned about them and what we need to do now.  Learning is our focus, and this moment in time tells us that we need to do more, go deeper, and practice harder. This milestone marker says that we need to back up and try again.

“I made a 42!” he exclaimed with genuine jubilation. It’s what he said next that confirmed his glee.  “I know something!”

“I know something!”

I am in awe of what happens next.  Every man, child, boy learner, in their coats and ties, stands and high-fives him as if he as won a gold medal, sunk the winning shot, made the field goal in the final 30 seconds.

And then, just as quickly as it started, they were all seated as he said “Bring it, Ms. Gough. What do we do now?”

Group culture is one of the most powerful forces on the planet. We sense its presence inside successful businesses, championship teams, and thriving families, and we sense when it’s absent or toxic. (Coyle, xvii pag.)

Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are. It’s something you do. (Coyle, xx pag.)

Live, learn, work, and serve in a community that highlights what is going well. Focus on learning. Build living relationships. Work toward shared goals.

CULTURE: from the Latin cultus, which means care.

Coyle, Daniel. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Connecting Ideas, Questions, Reading, Reflection

Available for learning

Leave a comment

I feel it coming.

Have you seen surfers catch big waves? They paddle out, wait and watch.  Some waves pass by. Others crash over them. Sometimes the surfer gets up, punches through and rides it out.  Other times they wipe out. It is fascinating that they get back up and go back out. They persevere. I wonder how I can do that.

I feel it coming, but I cannot predict how I’m going to handle it. It is different every time. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I turn and fight an internal battle to stand my ground to punch through the wave. Sometimes I can ask for help, but not always.

I am afraid it won’t be perfect.

I am afraid I can’t do it.

I am afraid others will laugh at me.

I am afraid I’ll disappoint my parents.

I am afraid I’m not good enough.

I am afraid I won’t be accepted.

I am afraid I don’t belong.

I am afraid I am not enough.

I am afraid.

I am afraid.

Labels make it easy to attribute student disengagement to a lack of ability or motivation, when disengagement often results from a lack of confidence. (Hassan and Lennard, 70 pag.)

The key to creating psychological safety, as Pentland and Edmondson emphasize, is to recognize how deeply obsessed our unconscious brains are with it. A mere hint of belonging is not enough; one or two signals are not enough. We are built to require lots of signaling, over and over. This is why a sense of belonging is easy to destroy and hard to build. (Coyle, 13 pag.)

How might we learn more about our learners? What actions are needed so that learners know they are psychologically safe?

What conditions must be set so that more learners punch through and rides out the wave?

CULTURE: from the Latin cultus, which means care.

Coyle, Daniel. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Hasson, Julie, and Missy Lennard. Unmapped Potential: an Educator’s Guide to Lasting Change. Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc., 2017.

Algebra, Connecting Ideas, Learning, Learning Progressions, Questions, Reading, Reflection

Notice success, celebrate multiple milestones, level up

2 Comments

Learning intentions are more than just statements to convey to students what the learning is composed of; they are a means for building positive relationships with students. (Hattie, 48 pag.)

It is what I didn’t notice.  The bell rang. As always, I heard a chorus of “Thank you, Ms. Gough. Bye, Ms. Gough.” It was normal practice – and a much appreciated practice – for my students to say thank you and goodbye as they left for their next class.

I thought to myself “what a great class, everything went well, and they are so nice.” I busied myself straightening my desk, organizing paper, and mentally listing off the things I needed to do before my next class rolled in.  Eat lunch was at the top of the list.

Then, I sensed it. I was not alone.  It is what I didn’t notice.  There she sat, so still, except for the river of tears falling out of her beautiful, sad, green eyes. The river ran off the desk and pooled on the floor. “What is wrong?” I asked as I sat down beside her.

As I gently placed my hand on her arm, her shoulders began to shake as she said “I f..f..f..failed!” Whoosh, another flood of tears.

Now, she had not failed from my point of view. Her test score, damp as her test was now, showed a grade of 92 – an A.  And yet, she deeply felt a sense of failure.  As we sat together and looked at her work, we discovered that there was one key essential learning – in fact, a prerequisite skill – that caused her to stubble.

Tears, still streaming down her face, she said “I don’t know where I’m going wrong. I don’t miss this in class, but on the test, I fall apart.”

The point is to get learners ready to learn the new content by giving their brains something to which to connect their new skill or understanding. (Hattie, 44 pag.)

So, of course, the stumbling block for this sweet child is a known pain point for learners who master procedures without conceptual understanding.  Consistently, she expanded a squared binomial by “distributing” the exponent – a known pitfall. #petpeeve

When our learners do not know what to do, how do we respond? What actions can we take – will we take – to deepen learning, empower learners, and to make learning personal?

Kamb’s insight was that, in our lives, we tend to declare goals without intervening levels. We declare that we’re going to “learn to play the guitar.” We take a lesson or two, buy a cheap guitar, futz around with simple chords for a few weeks. Then life gets busy, and seven years later, we find the guitar in the attic and think, I should take up the guitar again. There are no levels. Kamb had always loved Irish music and had fantasized about learning to play the fiddle. So he co-opted gaming strategy and figured out a way to “level up” toward his goal:

Level 1: Commit to one violin lesson per week, and practice 15 minutes per day for six months.

Level 2: Relearn how to read sheet music and complete Celtic Fiddle Tunes by Craig Duncan.

Level 3: Learn to play “Concerning Hobbits” from The Fellowship of the Ring on the violin.

Level 4: Sit and play the fiddle for 30 minutes with other musicians.

Level 5: Learn to play “Promontory” from The Last of the Mohicans on the violin.

BOSS BATTLE: Sit and play the fiddle for 30 minutes in a pub in Ireland.

Isn’t that ingenious? He’s taken an ambiguous goal—learning to play the fiddle—and defined an appealing destination: playing in an Irish pub. Better yet, he invented five milestones en route to the destination, each worthy of celebration. Note that, as with a game, if he stopped the quest after Level 3, he’d still have several moments of pride to remember. (Heath, 163-164 pgs.)

What if I’d made my thinking visible?

What if I’d connected this learning to how 3rd graders are taught multiplication of two digit numbers by decomposing into tens and ones.  What if I’d connected this learning to how 3rd graders are also taught to draw area models to visualize the distributive property?

What if I’d shared my thinking and intentionally connected prior learning in levels?

By using Kamb’s level-up strategy, we multiply the number of motivating milestones we encounter en route to a goal. That’s a forward-looking strategy: We’re anticipating moments of pride ahead. But the opposite is also possible: to surface those milestones you’ve already met but might not have noticed. (Heath, 165 pag.)

How might we help our learners level up, experience success at several motivating milestones, and notice successes that might otherwise go unnoticed?

By multiplying milestones, we transform a long, amorphous race into one with many intermediate “finish lines.” As we push through each one, we experience a burst of pride as well as a jolt of energy to charge toward the next one. (Heath, 176 pag.)

Taken together, these practices make learning visible to students who understand they are under the guidance of a caring and knowledgeable teacher who is invested in their success. (Hattie, 48 pag.)

Hattie, John A. (Allan); Fisher, Douglas B.; Frey, Nancy; Gojak, Linda M.; Moore, Sara Delano; Mellman, William L.. Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12: What Works Best to Optimize Student Learning (Corwin Mathematics Series). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.

Heath, Chip. The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact. Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

Assessment, Connecting Ideas, Learning, Questions, Reading, Reflection

I’ll help you recover…

2 Comments

We will never know our reach unless we stretch. (Heath, 131 pag.)

When students don’t make errors, it’s probably because they already know the content and didn’t really need the lesson. (Hattie, 17 pag.)

Whack! One second everything was fine, then, for a fraction of a second, black. Kah-whop! I could see my phone, which used to be in my back pocket, hit the ice and slide about 8 feet in front of me.  Searing, hot pain surfaced in my left knee. It’s like I have a view from the ceiling. I can see myself face down on the ice. Cold. Wet.

I return to my eye’s view. I am really not sure what to do as I watch a nice soul skate over to my phone and bring it to me. While it was only a few seconds, it felt like 5 minutes of slow motion.  I was upright by then; no longer spread eagle face down on the ice.  

A sweet young thing glided up and laughed at me. “Ouch!” I heard myself say, “Don’t laugh! I’m hurt, and I don’t think I know how I’m gonna get up.” I saw her flinch but not leave me. My eyes confirmed that I was in a crowd and no one seemed to know what to do but stare.  #NotGood

The music teacher—“a woman with a beehive-ish hairdo and a seemingly permanent frown on her face”—led the choir in a familiar song, using a pointer to click the rhythm of the song on a music stand. Then, Sloop remembered, “She started walking over toward me. Listening, leaning in closer. Suddenly she stopped the song and addressed me directly: ‘You there. Your voice sounds . . . different . . . and it’s not blending in with the other girls at all. Just pretend to sing.’ ” The comment crushed her: “The rest of the class snickered, and I wished the floor would open and swallow me up.” For the rest of the year, whenever the choir sang, she mouthed the words. (Heath, 141 pag.)

Whatever momentary lapse in concentration caused me to fall – splat – did not feel good.  And the laugh, while meant to make light of an awkward situation, was crushing.  It was a mistake and a painful one at that.  

We hear it at school. We want our learners to be risk takers, to work on the edge of their ability, to fail faster, fail up, fail forward.  Right?

Get out there! Try something different! Turn over a new leaf! Take a risk! In general, this seems like sound advice, especially for people who feel stuck. But one note of caution: The advice often seems to carry a whispered promise of success. Take a risk and you’ll succeed! Take a risk and you’ll like the New You better!  That’s not quite right. A risk is a risk. (Heath, 131 pag.)

Errors help teachers understand students’ thinking and address it. Errors should be celebrated because they provide an opportunity for instruction, and thus learning. (Hattie, 16 pag.)

And just like that, she arrived.  An angel on the ice.  As she stretched out her hands, palms up, she said “Just take my hands.” I could get one foot square on the ice, though I felt like I was buried in a foot of snow, and then the other. Patiently she said “Now look at me and just press down.” I was up; shaken, but not broken.  Her beautiful brown eyes connected with mine and she smiled warmly as she said firmly “you are up and you are fine.” Just as quickly and elegantly as she arrived, she floated away.  

Then, in the summer after her seventh-grade year, she attended a camp for gifted kids in North Carolina called the Cullowhee Experience. She surprised herself by signing up to participate in chorus. During practice, she mouthed the words, but the teacher noticed what she was doing and asked Sloop to stick around after class. The teacher was short and thin, with hair down to her waist—a “lovely flower child,” said Sloop. She invited Sloop to sit next to her on the piano bench, and they began to sing together in the empty room. Sloop was hesitant at first but eventually lowered her guard. She said, “We sang scale after scale, song after song, harmonizing and improvising, until we were hoarse.” Then the teacher took Sloop’s face in her hands and looked her in the eyes and said: “You have a distinctive, expressive, and beautiful voice. You could have been the love child of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.” As she left the room that day, she felt as if she’d shed a ton of weight. “I was on top of the world,” she said. Then she went to the library to find out who Joan Baez was. “For the rest of that magical summer,” Sloop said, she experienced a metamorphosis, “shedding my cocoon and emerging as a butterfly looking for light.” (Heath, 142 pag.)

My knee still throbbed and most of me was shaking.  I limped over to the edge of the rink until I could steady my nerves.  I’m not sure which hurt worse, my knee or my pride.  In either case, it hurt. But, I was up and I was fine.

The words, tones, facial expression, and body language we use with our learners matters.

Memorizing facts, passing tests, and moving on to the next grade level or course is not the true purpose of school, although sadly, many students think it is. School is a time to apprentice students into the act of becoming their own teachers. We want them to be self-directed, have the dispositions needed to formulate their own questions, and possess the tools to pursue them. (Hattie, 32 pag.)

How might we highlight what is going well for our young learners, accent the positive, and gently guide them to stretch, risk, and reach? What if we craft our feedback so our learners know we believe in their ability and expect great things even when they stumble, fall, and hurt? What if we guide their apprentice work to learn to use needed tools and hone their skills.

Our hopes and dreams for learning don’t include pretending – just stand there and mouth the words. Our learners must emerge as butterflies.

What type of feedback are we practicing? Laughter to make light of a stumble? Calm, “take my hand and push; you are fine?”

The promise of stretching is not success, it’s learning. (Heath, 131 pag.)

What great mentors do is add two more elements: direction and support. I have high expectations for you and I know you can meet them. So try this new challenge and if you fail, I’ll help you recover. (Heath, 123 pag.)

Hattie, John A. (Allan); Fisher, Douglas B.; Frey, Nancy; Gojak, Linda M.; Moore, Sara Delano; Mellman, William L.. Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12: What Works Best to Optimize Student Learning (Corwin Mathematics Series). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.

Heath, Chip. The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact. Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

 

Learning, Professional Development Feedback, Questions, Reflection

Committed to learning #EmboldenYourInnerMathematician

Leave a comment

The alarm clock goes off. It is only 15 minutes earlier than usual, but still.  Could there be enough coffee to get going this early? From my warm, quiet bed, I wonder if it was a good decision to enroll in a math class that runs from 7:15 to 9:30 am every Wednesday. After wrangling all members of my family through breakfast and our morning routine – because 15 minutes early for me means 15 minutes for everyone at my house – I enjoy the drive to Trinity with slightly less traffic.

Arriving at school, ready to learn at 7:15, a small and dedicated cohort of 14 faculty-learners gathered every Wednesday morning to deeply study, learn, and implement NCTM’s Mathematics Teaching Practices. These eight teaching practices provide a framework for strengthening the teaching and learning of mathematics.

Sounds a little boring, huh? Was it worth it?

“Yes! This class has helped me deepen my learning in math, and then in turn, deepen the way I teach math for my students. I loved being able to take the math we did and applying it in my classroom through number talks, number strings, children’s literature, and mathematical practices. I always was thinking deeply about math as soon as I entered the class at 7:15 because of engaging tasks and conversation with colleagues.” Caroline Tritschler, Kindergarten Teacher

“I enjoyed the opportunity to work on math that was applicable to my grade level, but we also had the chance to see where our students have been and where they are going. I also felt as if this class pushed us to strengthen our own number sense, perseverance, and use of strategies – all of which are qualities we strive to empower in our own learners.” Casey Leonard, 2nd Grade Teacher

“This course was a huge asset in recognizing the connections throughout grade levels. I loved seeing how our calculus work could be translated into finding patterns and connections the same way we do with our most fundamental skills in Pre-K.” Katherine Anderson, Pre-K Teacher

What is worth it? What was learned?

“I learned new ways of solving problems and showing my work, different ways of thinking about a problem, and validation for insisting that students have a full understanding of the “why” behind concepts.” Vicki Eyles, 5th Grade Teacher

“I feel like I really understand the importance of showing your work in more than one way and being able to explain your thinking to others. I better understand the importance of laying a foundation for using manipulatives and drawings that will carry far past an early elementary level.” Mary Catherine Gober, 1st Grade Teacher

“I am more thoughtful about the questions I ask students and I feel like I can give parents more detail about our approach to math instruction. Additionally, I have a deeper understanding of the benefit of talking to others while “doing” math, as well as the importance of showing one’s thinking in more than one way and making connections to others’ work.” Hilary Daigre, 1st Grade Teacher

What was learned? How has it helped Trinity students?

“My students seem surprised that I am in a class, learning more math. I like to share my struggles and successes with them, modeling growth through perseverance and sharing of ideas with other teachers. I have been able to share my experiences with them, using them to encourage their growth as students. Learning with others who have different backgrounds, strengths, and perspective has been powerful.” Vicki Eyles, 5th Grade Teacher

“I have seen tremendous growth in our class as they begin to take a risk in showing their work in multiple ways. Even those that “struggle” are at least willing to take a risk in trying to solve a problem. I believe the work we did in writing learning progressions for a specific topic has really helped the students want to reach for a higher level or at least work towards asking questions to better understand the problem before they go off and try to work through the problem.” Mary Catherine Gober, 1st Grade Teacher

“Our work with multiplication and division was mind-blowing! I LOVED learning the various ways to approach multiplication/division, including using manipulatives and drawing models. It made more sense to me than anything I had learned in the past. I have shared stories about this experience with my class, including how I had to make sense of problems and really think about how I could solve them. I may not have had the most efficient method for a particular problem, but by talking with others and connecting to what they did, I was able to persevere and feel successful.” Hilary Daigre, 1st Grade Teacher

“I have a greater appreciation for the number line, the modeling, and the ability to make connections. I think the work we did impacted my students weekly. The activities we did I was able to either take back to my students or reminded me of other activities that I then used with the 6th graders. The visual patterns and connecting representations (work from Fawn Nguyen) was the most recent example. The 6th graders loved it. I also really enjoyed the math in literature as did the students!” Kristi Story, 6th Grade Teacher

But… was it boring? Would you recommend this experience to your colleagues?

“It was so much fun to be able to work with colleagues across EED and UED. I think my favorite part was mathematizing children’s literature.” Caroline Tritschler, Kindergarten Teacher

“It’s not only a great place to learn and grow in your understanding, but it’s also a great place to get to know your colleagues in a smaller setting. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know teachers that I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten to know. I genuinely looked forward to Wednesdays because of this class.” Chandler Balentine, 4th Grade Teacher

“I think it is both valuable and fun to spend time struggling with math problems which help us understand our students’ perspectives.” Jon Frank, 5th Grade Teacher

“I think the whole faculty (those that teach any grade level math) should embolden their inner mathematician. I think it was good to have a broad range of “comfort levels” in these sessions. We all learned from each other.” Kristi Story, 6th Grade Teacher

Without fail, at 9:30 after all was said and done, the time that was spent learning pedagogy and math, in fun, creative ways advanced teaching and learning at Trinity. Each Wednesday was a long day, and it was an important day for learners individually and collectively.