Supporting Teachers of Mathematics

Common Core Standards for Mathematics

1. Make sense of the problems and persevered in solving them:
H- Because the student in this vignette looked for entry points and and thought about what he already knew about the topic.
B, C & E- in these examples the students worked hard to apply strategies that would help them tackle hard situations. They made sense of them by apply real world information and persevered to finish them.

2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively:
B- in this vignette the students were able to reason abstractly that this addition problem could be represented on a number line and that the first fraction is equivalent to 6/8.

3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others:
A- In this example the student stated his understanding and then the other students built on what he said and constructed an argument

4. Model with mathematics:
E- In this vignette the student uses a real world situation and applies it to what she knows about equations. She then solves this problem by solving the equation

5. Use appropriate tools strategically:
D- In this example the student uses her pencil to create partitions in the garden so that she is able to solve the problem.

6. Attend to precision:
F- In this vignette these students explicitly discussed the qualifications of a rhombus and together clarified any weaknesses in their original definition.

7. Look for and make use of the structure:
A, G, H- In these examples the students uses a pattern or structure they knew to help them approach the problem.

8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning:
C- in this example the student realizes that either way she solves the problem she will get the same answer.


Accessibility Strategies:

      I would love to see my teachers use accessibility strategies when planning lessons. I can see this occurring during their PLC's each week. In order to begin facilitating this type of planning in my school, I would start by asking teachers to bring with them an upcoming lesson that they will be teaching in a few weeks. Then, together we will discuss potential pit falls to the lesson, areas where students may need additional support or areas where many students have struggled in the past. Then, I would have teachers discuss how they have combated these issues successfully. We would record the best responses as a plan of action. So in a math class, where a teacher is teaching decimals, she may already know that typically students struggle with understanding that .5 is greater than .05. To help with this issue, I would suggest teaching students decimals through the use of money and actually have them shop for things.

Professional Development:

     I have presented so much PD in my time as an educator and I really enjoy doing so. Every year, I present at the NC Reading Conference as well as several other conferences. I also present locally, and regionally. I was glad to see that we would be learning about how to present great PD, because my research shows that this is a large issue for teachers. I currently really believe that the best form of PD is Co-teaching and this comes from my own personal research interest. When reading the assigned articles, I evaluated myself on how my sessions are. Overall, I felt like I was doing a great job. I tried to not give one- shot sessions, I liked them to the standards and the interests of teachers. I do not require that all teachers attend my session and have meaningful follow up (Steiner, 2004).

     One area that I have not helped others use is action research. I use this all the time in my own classroom, but have never helped another teacher do this in her classroom. I know the power of action research and am surprised I have never used it to help me help others.

     In many of my classes, we are talking about the power of active learning and this something that I feel I am good at but will continue to work harder to ensure in my classroom. Active learning is wonderful because it is meaningful and helps students feel like they are having fun but really they are learning as well. So teachers struggle with this and then their students become bored.