Why Good Teaching Matters

By Kathie Marshall

As we move on in our quest to improve teacher performance by adopting national standards and national assessments, I urge us all to promote a broader view of what it means to be an effective teacher. With enough informed will, we can find a means to identify, assess, and reward all the qualities a great teacher must possess. That would be a fitting tribute to the influence of Polly McDowell and other exceptional teachers like her. Please, click here to read the full article.

New Tack on Math Promoted: Problem-Solving is Focus of High School Guide

By Sean Cavanagh

Reasoning and sense-making are at the heart of mathematics from early childhood through adulthood,” NCTM President Henry S. Kepner Jr. says in an introduction to the document. Cultivating those skills, he writes, “will prepare students for higher learning, the workplace, and productive citizenship.” Click here to read the full article.

Deputy Secretary of Education Tony Miller Recognizes the Importance of Parents at Maryland School

On September 22, Deputy Secretary of Education Tony Miller visited Viers Mill Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md., to recognize and celebrate the importance of parental involvement in education. Miller joined representatives from the Montgomery County Public Schools for a tour of classrooms and spoke to more than 300 local parents and children who gathered for the school’s first "Family Learning Night" of the academic year. Please, click here to read the article.
This "Family Learning Night" is similar to the parents' Math workshops that I conduct every year for our students' parents. The parents' Math workshops help parents to experience how their student learn in the school. They also refresh their Math concepts and skills to enable them to assist their child with their homework assignment.
Last year, I conducted a series of Math workshops for parents, together with their child. I received very appreciative comments from the participants. They recommend that more Math parents' workshops be conducted to help students achieve more academic success.

Panel Wants Engineering Integrated into Curriculum

by Sean Cabanagh

Engineering studies, or lessons on how products are designed and built, have the potential to bolster student engagement and understanding in math and science, despite the topic’s relatively modest and undefined presence in the nation’s schools. Please, click here to read the article.

1st Advisory: Progress Report

Students have been in the school for a month now. They have proven and shown progress in their studies. They have done warm-up exercise everyday, practice exercises, daily quiz, class participation, group collaboration and reporting, and two short cycle assessments. Students will receive their progress report card on October 1, 2009, the same date with "Back-to-School-Night". They will know how they progress and will do something to improve more.

To all my students and other students, I have updated your students' corner on this weblog. Please, take the opportunity to enhance your math concepts and skills by using all the resources that I prepared for you here specially the Classzone and the Jefferson Lab. Remember, we aim for advanced rating!

To all our parents, I know, as a parent of three DCPS students, that my weblog is what you need to assist your child at home. You will benefit from the Parents' Corner in this site. I will do my best to update it with whatever lesson number that we are working on.
Please, do not hesitate to send me an email at elsa.domingo@dc.gov.

NOT JUST ANY PRIME

Mersenne primes are a special
class of prime, and they have a particular formula.

2^n - 1
The number n is a prime, and the result is prime. And what makes the Mersenne primes so interesting is how rare they are. And their gargantuan size.

Ancient Greek mathematicians were the first to describe Mersenne primes, and, up until now, only 46 had been discovered. This most recent one — though not the largest — is a whopper at nearly 13 million digits long. Please, click here to read the whole article.

The Opportunity Equation: Transforming Mathematics and Science Education for Citizenship and the Global Economy

Mathematics and science are essential components of a liberal education, the backbone of logic and analytic thinking from early childhood through the most advanced levels of learning across the academic disciplines. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics enable us to understand the natural world, the built environment, systems of society, and the interactions among them that will determine the future of our nation and planet. Like literacy, math and science embody habits of mind and methods for discerning meaning that enable students to learn deeply and critically in all areas. Just as adults need math and science to understand the world and function within it, students need math and science to understand and master subjects such as history, geography, music, and art.
Please, click here to view the full report of Carnegie Corporation of New York –– Institute for Advanced Study Commission on Mathematics and Science Education.

Math Content Knowledge and Connected Math Program Workshop

Last Saturday, May 9, 2009, we had our last day on the series of workshops. My partner, Marlo Thigpen talked about "Identifying vertical, adjacent, complementary, and supplementary angles" and "Determining congruence by motions". Then I discussed with them "Identifying Solids from Nets, Surface Area of Prisms, and Volume of Prisms. We also gave graphing calculator activities to the teachers.

Our conversation focused on student learning, misconceptions, and a question “What could “I” do [as the teacher] to help this student make his/her work better?”
We provided the participants with this reflection and asked them to think through and respond to this.

o What is different about my pedagogical practices today than it was in January?
o Do I feel more apt to teach this grade level (or within this grade level band next year)?
o What key learning or big ideas did I gather from this course?
o How have student work and my own mathematical understanding change over the five month period?
o What will I do different next year as it relates to instruction (Think back on the planning component)?
o If the Department of Mathematics provided the same course over an 8-month period, what would you like to see more of? Less of? Differently?

§ If mathematics content or the lack thereof should surface as a concern, we asked the following questions to the participants.
***What can you do as a learner to learn the mathematics content that you are lacking?
*** When speaking of content, are you referring to teaching the content (pedagogy) or knowing the content for myself (I just don’t understand ratios, different number systems, etc.)

More than anything, we would like the participants to walk away knowing that they didn’t do anything extra this year in terms of the focus strategies. It’s what they have been (or should have been) doing all along.

ALL ABOUT ODD DAY:05/07/09 by THE INQUISITR

It is ODD Day today! 05/07/09

As Odd as it is, the day will be fine,
You see, it’s the numbers 5,7, and 9.
Three odds in a row to tell you the date,
We’ve only three more, then a 90-year wait.

Click here to view.

Collaborative Planning Meeting

We had a Math Dept. Collaborative Planning Meeting today at 8:05-8:40am
in room 118.

Our agenda was: " Math Anchor Assignment Project"

I. Welcome
II. Teachers' report on Math Anchor Assignment 3-day implementation
III. Successes/Challenges
IV. Discussion
V. Collaborative Scoring Schedule
VI. Other Matters
VII. Closing

After the greetings, Mr. Phelps led the report on the 3-day implementation of the
Math Anchor Assignment Project. He said the following:
1. The students were engaged.
2. It would have been better if we would have the actual book so that the students would know
the real story.
3. He made up another worksheet to help the students in the scaffolding.
4. Providing more hands-on activities for the students makes the lesson more effective..
5. He showed us a student's work, an organized chart related to the anchor.

Some of the successes were:

1. Students were engaged.
2. Students did their best to construct their own knowledge.
3. Students expressed their own interpretation and prediction based on the given data.

Some of the challenges were:

1. Some students wanted to know the whole story from the book but no available book.
2. Some students needed more guidance/scaffolding to understand the concept of the lessson.
3. Teachers need common time schedule to grade the students' works collaboratively.

I received an email from the Professional Development Office that I will be receiving one book this week.
I will give it to the teachers and we will figure out how we can share that one book.

Each student in the classroom has his own individual needs. We have to differentiate our lessons.

We agreed to request the principal, Ms. Patton to help us find common periods for collaborative
scoring of the students' works.

Proposed Collaborative Scoring Schedule:

1st: May 14 Thursday collaborative meeting time
2nd: May 18 Monday 1st and 2nd bell
3rd: May 19 Tuesday 1st and 2nd bell

Mathematics Anchor Assignment Project

Right after the DCCAS preparation, I sent the Math anchors to the Math teachers for their initial readings. I also gave them the proposed time line for the project.

April 27- May 1, 2009 -------- Collaborative Meetings on Anchor Assignment
--------------- Thursday 8:05 - 8:45
--------------- Teachers' Planning Periods


May 4-15, 2009-----------------Lesson Implementation and Gathering of Students' Works


May 14, 18-19, 2009 ----------Collaborative Scoring of Students' Works

May 20, 2009-------------------Inputting the scores of all students to the data bank

Older Students Less Successful on Math NAEP

By Mary Ann Zehr

The proportion of 13-year-olds taking algebra has grown steadily for at least two decades, but the increase in the number of students taking harder mathematics classes is not translating into higher average math scores by 17-year-olds on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, according to long-term trend data released today.
Average scores for 9- and 13-year-olds in math on NAEP have risen since 2004, but scores in that subject for 17-year-olds have not budged significantly since then. Please,click here to read the whole article.

A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation of Teacher Collaboration for School Improvement and Student Achievement in Public Elementary Schools

by Yvonne L. Goddard, Roger D. Goddard & Megan Tschannen-Moran — 2007

When teachers collaborate, they share experiences and knowledge that can promote learning for instructional improvement. From the perspective of organizational theory, collaboration is a form of lateral coordination that can improve organizational performance by fostering “creativity and integration around specific problems” (Bolman & Deal, 2003, p. 55). Such learning can help teachers solve educational problems, which in turn has the potential to benefit students academically. “Of the many resources required by schools, the most vital are the contributions—of effort, commitment, and involvement—from teachers” (Rosenholtz, 1989b, p. 421). It is important to note that the results of this study indicate that teacher collaboration is associated with increased levels of student achievement. After controlling for the effects of student characteristics (race, gender, SES, and prior achievement) and school context, we found that teacher collaboration for school improvement was positively related to differences among schools in both mathematics and reading achievement. These results are important given that most prior research on teacher collaboration has considered results for the teachers involved, rather than student-level outcomes. This study thus offers original evidence of a statistically significant relationship between teacher collaboration and student achievement. Please click here to read the full article from TCRecord.

Learning Cycle Spins Individuals Into a Team by Valerie von Frank

In the article, Valerie von Frank, the writer talked about how the teachers in McConnell Middle School in Georgia developed a good rapport with each other through the schoolwide collaboration on curriculum planning which includes studying content , creating mini-lessons, observing each other's teaching, and developing common assessments.

This is the kind of environment that we have been establishing in Jefferson Middle School. We have been creating a sense of mutual accountability not only on our own doings but also on our school as a whole.

Valerie von Frank also cited Ed Tobia for saying that when teachers have opportunities to create, lead, and learn in teams, both teachers and students can benefit if the teams understand the purpose and how to focus their work. She also mentioned that the SEDL outlines a professional learning team cycle (PLTC) that is structured process involving specific phases in an ongoing cycle of learning.

Please, click here to read the whole article and other interesting items from the NSDC Journal Vol 4 No.7 April 2009.

"LIVE Online Session" TI-84+ WebEx Training

It was a great experience! It was my first time to attend a live Online Session on Calculator training tonight, March 30, 2009, at 6:00 to 7:30pm. The topics were middle school-probability, mean/median/mode, histograms, box-and-whisker plots using TI-84+ graphing calculator.

At first, I was a little bit nervous, but when I got Stan Semones, the facilitator on the phone conference, I felt at ease. I joined the group by greeting the participants and by introducing myself which they also did. I was one of the four participants from the DCPS system. I was in front of my computer while had my phone on speaker. I could see a generated image of TI-84+ graphing calculator from a TI-SmartView Emulator Software on my screen that was functionable.

Stan showed us how to use the probability simulation application including the tossing coins and rolling dice. He got the data from the simulation and stored in the calculator. After that, Stan used the data to show it on box-and-whisker plot and on a histogram. Then he asked me to repeat the procedure while the rest of the group used their calculators. He also helped us to compare a box-and-whisker plot and a histogram of the same data. He guided us on how to use the random integer function, as well as the median, mean, lcm, and gcd using the catalog and the number functions.

In my case, it was a refresher course that could help me train others effectively. Using this live online training would help more teachers in the comforts of their home, thus learning more to help boost up their students' academic achievement.

For Administrators/Professional Developers: Creating Teacher Professional Development in Tough Economic Times

Free Live Webinar:
From edweek.org

Creating Effective Teacher Professional Development in Tough Economic TimesWhen: Thursday, March 26, 4 p.m., Eastern time.Free registration is now open at:

http://edweek.org/go/profDev

Teaching experts don't necessarily see the current financial crunch in schools as all bad when it comes to teacher professional development. Many believe it could bring focus and innovative thinking to practices that are too often fragmented and hidebound by convention. This webinar will look at how schools and districts can rethink staff development programs in order both to control costs and improve effectiveness. Tune in at 4 p.m. Eastern time on March 26 for ways to better monitor and target spending, improve the strategic focus of offerings, and utilize new, often low-cost ideas and resources.

Related Story:"Reinventing Professional Development in Tough Times," from the Spring 2009 issue of the Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook

About the Guests:

Stephanie Hirsh, executive director of the National Staff Development Council
Regis A. Shields, director of Education Resource Strategies
This webinar will be moderated by Anthony Rebora, managing editor of teachermagazine.org and Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook.

Letter to the DCPS Educators: From Chancellor Rhee

In the letter that Chancellor Rhee addressed to the teachers last March 13, 2009, she mentioned about her contract negotiations with George Parker, WTU president and Randi Weingarten, AFT president. She said that she had high hopes that the contract would be respectful of teachers, good for children, and supportive of our reform efforts that reflects the ideas of resources, professional development, student discipline, evaluation, and compensation.

I was delighted when she mentioned about her highlights which included differentiating professional development trainings. I remembered the email that I sent to the Jefferson staff during the first advisory of the school year where I was informing them of my differentiated professional development trainings. I decided to differentiate my trainings because I noticed that our teachers had different needs in terms of trainings. I saw that some of them had expertise in some trainings that I offered and some were still learning. I had to send them a list of twenty topics that I thought I could confidently use to train them. I offered to stay after school every Thursday and Friday. I could say that differentiated professional development trainings really worked because teachers started coming to me and asked for assistance in the area that they needed.

Chancellor Rhee's idea of differentiated professional development trainings would make a difference in the way how teachers work for students' high achievement.
Let us maximize the opportunity when it comes.

Connected Math Workshop on Saturday (March 7, 2009)

Teachers are now experts in teaching middle school Math. As I was watching and listening to our participants' group presentations last Saturday, I confirmed to myself that professional development of teachers is really an important key to students' achievement. I saw how our participants improved their instruction from our day one to day three workshop.

During each day of our workshops, we include content knowledge, pedagogy of teaching, and the use of technology in our agenda. Our morning sessions focus on the content knowledge depending on the current Math standards. Then our afternoon sessions have pedagogy, brief constructed response and Accelerated Math activity.

On the third day, teachers did a very good job in their presentation. They showed expertise in the topics that they presented, including the Math content knowledge, pedagogy, and the use of calculator. They shared how they implemented their learning in their classroom instructions. These teachers have become experts in teaching middle school Math.
I encourage that more teachers take the great opportunities of professional development, especially in Math content knowledge and pedagogy.

Day 1: Agenda (January 24, 2009)
............I. Overview of Connected Math Program
............II. Lesson Modelling
............III. Group Collaboration/CMP Investigations
............IV. Group Presentation
.............V. Closing/Reflective Summary

Day 2: Agenda (February 7, 2009)
............I. Content Knowledge with Calculator Activities
................A. Using Intercepts
................B. Investigating Slope
................C. The Slope of a Line
................D. Writing Linear Equations
.............II. Math Stations (Group Collaboration)
.............III. Group Presentations
.............IV. CMP Games
.............V. BCR Activity/ Bell Work
.............VI. CMP Investigations/Math Stations
.............V. Group Presentations
.............VI. Accelerated Math/Exit Pass
.............VII. Closing/Reflective Summary

Day 3: Agenda (March 7, 2009)
.............I. Math Content Knowledge with Calculator Activities
.................A. Stem and Leaf Plot
.................B. Line Plot
.................C. Bar Graph
.................D. Scatter Plot
............II. CMP Investigations/Math Stations
............III. Group Presentations with Calculator Activities
............IV. BCR Workshop
.................A. Scoring Ground Rules
.................B. Bias in Scoring
.................C. Group Collaboration
.................D. Group Presentations/ DCBAS C BCR items
.............V. Closing/Reflective Summary

From the Director: MATH DEPARTMENT

To all,

If you missed the last “LIVE” WebEX Training, you missed a great session. However, it is back again. Join the Department of Mathematics and Texas Instruments “LIVE” from any location with internet access and receive additional training and support on integrating graphing technology in your classroom. We’d love to have you join us on the following days:

****Audience*************************Date**********Time***********Session
Middle School Math---March 17, 2009--6:00 P.M. – 7:30 P.M.-Middle School
---------------------------------------------------------------- with Cabri Jr.

High School Math-----March 19, 2009--6:00 P.M. – 7:30 P.M.--High School with
-------------------------------------------Inequality Graphing on the TI-84 Plus

Middle School Math---March 30, 2009--6:00 P.M. – 7:30 P.M.--Middle School
–--------- Probability, Mean/Median/Mode, Histograms, Box-and-Whisker Plots

High School Math-----April 1, 2009-----6:00 P.M. – 7:30 P.M.--High School
-----Trig – Triangle Relationships between the Unit Circle and Sine/Cosine Waves


Click Here To Register!!!
Upon registration, you will receive the required documents to ensure your computer has the proper settings.


Sincerely,

Simeon Sanders
Director of Mathematics
District of Columbia Public Schools
825 N. Capitol Street NE, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20002
Office: (202) 442-5599/Fax: (202) 442-5602

DCPS Core Belief #1
We believe that all children, regardless of background or circumstance, can achieve at the highest levels.

Accelerated Math

Embedding technology in the classroom instruction is really powerful. The Accelerated Math Program is a technology software that our teachers have been embedding in their classroom teaching. It is an academic intervention targeting the instructional needs of striving students. It goes with a scanner that provides instant result for students' work. It makes the students more engaged and eager to accomplish their work. It gives students a sense of ownership of their work which makes them feel accountable for their task performance and learning.
We conducted series of Accelerated Math Trainings for DCPS teachers last November 10th, 12th, and 13th of 2008 at McKinley Technology SHS.

Connected Math Workshop on Saturday

This coming Saturday, March 7, 2009, I am going to co-facilitate a Connected Math Program (CMP) workshop for DCPS middle school Math teachers. This workshop is just one of the series that the DCPS Math Department has been sponsoring. There will be CMP investigations and calculator activities which will be interactively performed by teachers participants. In the afternoon session, teachers will have a BCR collaboration using the DC BAS C BCR items.

BCR Collaboration

The learning is more effective when there is a collaboration among the learners. This morning, our Math Department had a collaborative planning meeting. Our main task was to create anchors for our brief constructed response (BCR) grading.
The teachers grouped themselves by grade level, answered the DC BAS C BCR items, compared their answers, collaborated, and agreed on the requirements of a score 3, basing on the district wide scoring guide. They copied their anchors on the chart papers as a preparation for their grading on Monday.
This process of collaboration helped our teachers a lot because they could express their own thinking and could share their expertise with each other, as well as learned from each other's ideas.
I saw how the teachers brainstormed and taught each other which reminded me of my BCR class students. I could really say how collaboration was very powerful not only among students but also among teachers. I even took their pictures which I will upload later.
I am sure that the learning takes place more effectively in every collaborative learning.

For Professional Developers and Teachers: Values and Clarity Build Classroom Language

In the article by V a l e r i e V o n F r a n k, I agree with the qoutation by Robert Quinn(in Sparks, 2001), " What we teach kids is not just subjects, but how to live." I believe that being an intelligent teacher does not necessarilly mean being an effective teacher. A teacher could have all the credentials but if he does not know how to manage his class, learning will be hard to achieve.
In the email-publication of NSDC , we can read Values and Clarity Build Classroom Language plus a lot of interesting ideas for us to grab for our students' achievement.

DCBAS- March 3 and 4

The DCBAS Test C, another benchmark for the DCCAS 2009, will be administered on the 3rd and the 4th of March. There have been a lot of preparations in our school.
On February 26, Thursday, we had a collaborative planning meeting of the Math Department. Our Math teachers and I revisited our school data. We showed that every Math teacher knows how to compute for the safe harbor target and the number of our students that we need to move up to proficiency in every Math class. Although, we are aware of the Jefferson Middle School Mission which is every student in the building will be advanced or proficient in Reading and Math, it is still good to know our school safe harbor target. We also revisited our students' growth in DCBAS test 2 and test 3, as well as their strands grouping.
I created a brief constructed response (BCR) samples display on the 2nd floor for our teachers and students to see. This is a part of our BCR initiative for DCCAS preparation, aside from having a daily BCR lesson with the 8E class. In addition, on Thursday next week, during our Math Collaborative Planning Meeting, our Math teachers will collaborate on BCR grading. All 6th grade teachers will answer the 6th grade DCBAS C-BCR items and will decide on the requirements for a grade of 3, 2, 1, or 0, basing on our district scoring guide. Our 7th and 8th grade Math teachers will do the same collaboration. With all the BCR activities in all subject areas everyday, we are expecting a great improvement in the test results.

For Parents: DCBAS Preparation

Dear Parents,

On March 03, 2009, Jefferson's staff of excellence will administer the DC BAS (DC Benchmark Assessment System). Your child is scheduled to participate in the District wide assessment. Please assist jefferson's staff of excellence by ensuring that your child is here on time (8:30am).

• Get a good night sleep.
• Eat a good nutritious breakfast.
• Be on task.
• Be motivated.
• Have a positive attitude.

If you have any additional questions regarding the DC BAS (DC Benchmark Assessment System) or your child's results, please feel free to contact Jefferson Middle School's main office at (202) 729 - 3270. If you need detailed information, regarding your child's results, you can also contact 6th and 7th grade counselor, Ms. Nedra Jones as well as 7th and 8th grade counselor Mr. Benjamin Scott.

Cordially,

Stephanie Patton

Jefferson Middle School Principal

DCPS Initiatives

As we prepare for the DCCAS, the DCPS System has launched two initiatives for middle school which are Brief Contructed Response Practice everyday and Calculator Activities. I would like to talk about these two iniatives which I find very important to focus on.

The BCR Initiative states that all teachers in all areas should give a BCR item to their students in their subject area. For example, a Music teacher should give a BCR practice on Music. All teachers should also follow the district wide scoring guide.

The Calculator Activities initiative prepares the students for the use of a calculator during the DCCAS and to prepare them also for high school and college.

Letter to Parents Re: Parents' Math Workshop

Dear Jefferson Parents/Guardians

Greetings!

The Jefferson Middle School Math Department conducted a diagnostic test recently. This test, the Star Math Assessment, is a computer-adaptive, norm reference, Mathematics assessment program. It gives the Math levels of your students for grades 1-12 in about 15 minutes. In Star Math Assessment, the student works through a short, assisted response (multiple choice) test. If a student misses a question, the difficulty level of the next question is reduced. This is an excellent system which lessens frustration and gives more accurate scores for both high-and low-performing students.

Our school focuses on interventions, and as a result of this recent diagnostic test we are offering Math workshops to parents/guardians. This workshop aims to help you to recall and update your Mathematics contents and skills knowledge so that you could assist your child when they need your assistance at home.

As part of our Jefferson family, we strongly encourage you to be involved in this endeavor. We are sending you, through your child, the result of the test. Please, have a heart- to- heart talk with your child and set up some guidelines in the house to help him/her reach, at least, his/her grade placement.

Please fill out the survey below. We can accommodate only 20 parent-and-child partners in each session.

We are hoping for your positive response. Rest assured that, we always value your child’s education.

For further questions, please call telephone number (202)729-3270.

Educationally yours,


The Math Department
Jefferson Middle School