What is Leadership?

I Am a Math Coach Now What?

I really enjoyed reading this article as it brought me back to my first experiences as a literacy coach at my school. It can be very challenging to get teachers to trust you and to believe that you are knowledgeable. Like the writer, I was only 28 years old when I became a literacy coach at my school. This can be very difficult for older more mature teachers to accept. They often felt that they did not need my helped since they had more experience than I did. It was very hard to build a relationship of mutual respect and support.

As a new leader, many of the teachers at my school did not want to ask me for help. It was very hard for me to even offer advice because they took it as condescending. I felt like I was constantly walking on egg shells. After a rough first year, I came back and the atmosphere had changed. I am not sure what happened or how the changed occurred, but it seemed like being a veteran team member afforded me with new privileges. Now, I was able to offer advice and it was received well. I was able to co teach with teachers and present PD without feeling some sort of tension. I am happy that now teachers feel confident calling on me for help and know that I am not here to evaluate them.


A Tale of Three Teachers

I really enjoyed this article as well. It was interesting to see how the three leaders were connected in some fashion. My favorite part about this article was the concept of the superhub. A superhub is a teacher who leads in her field informally. This teacher is often sought after by the other teachers and is highly respected among her peers. I have worked with many superhub teachers and can attest to the impact that these leaders have. They are so charismatic and others truly do gravitate toward them.

Case Study

What is this person’s first step or steps in getting “organized” for this new role?

• Look at the School's Improvement Plan to get an idea of the overall goals for the school
• Look at the County's Strategic Plan to get an idea of where the county is heading
• Meet with grade levels during their planning time to listen in on their issues and provide assistance
• Offer to present any Back to School PD in the area of math
• Communicate with peers by eating lunch with them, emailing them and offering to help plan lessons with them
• Offering your support with struggling students (remediation strategies)
• Send out surveys to ask teachers what areas they would like help in
• Find the superhub of each grade level and begin infiltrating the grade level by gaining their trust 
• Let the word of mouth do its work, eventually superhub teachers will spread the good word

What supports does she need and how could these be acquired?

A new teacher leader needs support from the administration and from the county leaders. This is very important in assuring that resources needed are available and that she is able to seek guidance from other leads in the county. This can be acquired by attending monthly meetings. For example in my district, we have monthly instructional coaches meetings. This is where these leaders get together to talk about common goals and needs. This would be a great place to start. Also, as mentioned earlier if you can get lead teachers to see the value in you, then do it.

What would you expect from the principal in this situation?

My previous experiences tell me that the principal is very busy and part of being a good leader is being able to assess where there is need and to be self directed. I would expect that the principal would hear your concerns and help you to create a schedule.

Note that the supervisor is barely mentioned, what is the supervisor’s role here?

The supervisor's role is to make sure that the new math coach has all the resources she needs to be successful at her job. If they do not have the resources then the instructor should work with the coach to figure out how to procure funds so that these resources are obtained. Additionally, the supervisor should be responsible for welcoming the math coach into the school and setting an example for how she should be treated. She should introduce the math coach at the first Back to School meeting and should continuously call on her for guidance. If the supervisor supports the coach then the teachers will likely follow her lead.

What should our newly minted MIL do about the across grade level mathematics gaps she may have?

Find leaders in the areas that you may not be experienced in. Observe their classes and ofter to co-teach with them. Part of being a good leader is realizing that other people may be more knowledgeable in certain areas and realizing that you should call on them.

If you are currently serving in a leadership role, discuss What challenges you faced as a new leader. What worked for you? 

As mentioned above, I had my share of issues as a new leader. I think what worked for me was that I built relationships with teachers and met with anyone who would allow me to work with them. Eventually, word spread that I was helpful and other teachers allowed me to enter into their classrooms.

Being a Successful Math Coach: Ten Guiding Principles

When reading this chapter three of the ten principles really stood out.

1.Work alongside teachers as a co-teacher not an evaluator:

This is huge! If you can not learn to do this, teachers will never trust you. You are hired to be a support system not an evaluator. I have been to schools where they have the literacy and math coaches performing walk throughs.  This should not occur. I believe that teachers should know that you are there to help them and that you will never use any of their weaknesses against them. In order to be a good leader, teachers are going to need to be vulnerable with you. If you are evaluating them, they will never open up. Explain that you are there to learn alongside them and to build a better school together as a team.

2. Encourage teachers to share with others what they are learning about mathematics.

This is important for two reasons: one, it makes the teacher feel like they have something to offer the school. Most teachers enjoy sharing what they know and feel empowered when called upon to share their expertise. Secondly, sharing what you have learned can help other teachers learn as well. I always ask my peers to literally show me how they have taught lessons. I have sat on the floor of my own classroom during planning time and asked teachers to reteach me how to teach the lesson. We can all learn from each other and sharing is a big part of a school's success.

3.Remember that parents are an untapped resource

I can't say this enough. Parents are one of the best resources that teachers have. Inviting them into the school is important but asking them to share what they know is even more powerful. This year I am planning on having a parent workshop in math. This way I can help parents understand how to use Singapore math therefore they can help their children learn the concepts more seamlessly. Having parents on your side and opening up a line of communication is powerful. In my school we have a math area for parents. This area has games that parents can bring home and play with their children. Many of the parents actually use this resource and so do I.

Condominium Problem

After viewing the power point, I found that seeing all three methods worked best for me and gave me a complete picture. Method A had me very confused to start with, seeing Method B helped to clarify some of my misconceptions but it wasn't until Method C that I saw all of my mistakes and was able to solve the problem. This is why I think that students need multiple exposures to skills and should be taught to attack problems in many different ways. In my class, I start off with method C (Yikes). I would like to start off with Method A and then move just like the power point did. I think then students with different learning styles will all be able to understand the problem better. For example, my husband is very good at math and he would have preferred Method C. For myself Method C alone would give me a very superficial understanding of the concepts.

Assessing Cognitive Demand Task

Lower Level Tasks: 

Memorization: E, L

Procedures without connections: A, D, G, O

Higher Level Tasks:

Procedures with connections: F , I,  J, K, M

Doing mathematics: B, C, H,N, P

When looking back at my initial work, I had four of the activities marked as lower level when they were actually hirer level activities. 

Task B- I missed Task B, because I thought it was just a calculator activity when it actually asked you to assess the problem and assess whether 375 could be one of the products. 
Task C- When looking at Task C, I understood that it abstract but I was thinking that a student could create a problem and not necessarily understand the problem. I was wrong though after looking closer at the cognitive demands explanations.
Task H & M- At first I thought these tasks were a higher level task but after looking at the problems I thought all the incorrect answers could quickly be eliminated or that the answers were obvious. After looking closer, it does have real world application and requires the student to know how to use a diagram