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.