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.