Tag: Teaching

West Ada Math Symposium

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Oh, hey there!  It’s been a minute since I last wrote and figured it was time to dust off this old blog and bring it back to life.  The last couple of years have been a whirlwind of new adventures, challenges and successes.  I’m excited to share the highlights with you!

You guys…I landed my dream job.  I’m the Coordinator for Math Curriculum & Instruction in the largest district in Idaho:  West Ada School District.  I oversee all the math curriculum, resources, and instruction that takes place in kindergarten through 12th grade classrooms.  

We serve just about 40,000 students and 2,100 teachers across 58 schools.  The next largest district in our state is half our size.  And because I know you’re numbers people, this equates to about 750 elementary teachers and 200 secondary math teachers that I have the honor of supporting.

As you can imagine, moving a system this large, instructionally, is a challenge.  We often describe it as sailing a ship. We literally can’t change course quickly; it takes time, courage, patience, and a plan.

Thankfully, the captain of our ship is an inspirational instructional leader.  Our superintendent, Dr. Derek Bub, is a visionary that is experienced, knowledgeable, and compassionate.  His compass always points towards kids. He’s the same leader I wrote about in this blog many, many years ago.  So, when I say I would follow him to the moon, I mean it.  I admire that Dr. Bub listens with intention, draws his power from relationships, and encourages the people around him to dream big. 

The Big Math Project

Within days of starting my new job Dr. Bub called me into his office and asked, “What if…” and began the conversation that would become our beloved West Ada Math Symposium.  What I hope to share with you now is how we strengthened a culture of learning among the math teachers in our district through the Math Symposium.

We wanted to turn the ship.  We wanted to provide consistent and impactful professional learning that would have a greater return on investment than, say, sending a few teachers to a conference.  And we wanted to use our ESSER funds to invest in our teachers, not in things.

Then, we started to *dream*.  We started to brainstorm the names of the most influential math educators that we have learned from over the years.  Dr. Bub and I both came from Southern California where we were surrounded by brilliant math minds that would flock to Southern California for conferences such as NCTM and CMC-South. 

Robert Kaplinsky and Fawn Nguyen immediately came to mind. Dan Meyer, Sara Van der Werf, Howie Hua, Chris Luzniak, Geoff Krall, Mike Flynn, Graham Fletcher, Matt Vaudrey… Our list was not short. And for once, neither was our budget. It was the perfect storm to create something amazing: We had the vision, I had the connections, and we had the funding! We got to work and built the West Ada Math Symposium.

The Math Symposium

Our Math Symposium was a series of 10 full-day workshops, held on one Saturday per month, each featuring a different math educator. We initially invited only one teacher from each of our 58 schools to participate in the Math Symposium.  Our original budget would only allow for this many but through the generosity of our Superintendent and our school board we were able to accept everyone who applied (96 teachers).  We asked these teachers to commit to attending at least 9 out of the 10 Saturdays and we would honor their time with a $5,000 stipend, paid through ESSER funds, at the end of the series.

In addition to attendance, teachers also complete a reflection assignment that we called a, “TIY” or “Try it Yourself” for each Math Symposium they attended.  We asked teachers to take what they learned and try something with their students.  Their assignment included an opportunity to reflect on what went well and what they would do differently next time.  We also asked teachers to submit evidence like student work samples, pictures or video of their classrooms, or their detailed lesson plans.

The TIY Assignment

There really were 3 reasons why we asked teachers to complete a TIY assignment:

First, we wanted teachers to take what they learned and try something in hopes that maybe 1 or 2 things “stick.”  We were very realistic, from the beginning, that everything a teacher learns over the course of 10 Saturday’s won’t stick

…but if we could get at least 1 thing to stick it would have been worth it.  Almost 100 teachers shifting their practice in at least one way–that’s a win in our book.

Second, we needed to hold teachers accountable for the stipend they would be earning.  It was an easy way to assess their attendance, what they learned, and how they put it into practice.  

Third, having those completed reflections made it real easy to provide evidence of impact to our district leaders and board members—we had teacher written reflections and pictures to share every month!

The Lineup of Speakers

At the start, we asked teachers what they wanted to learn more about and who they wanted to learn from.  We got a few suggestions but for the most part we knew we wanted to change hearts and minds around math education in our district so that influenced who we invited.  We were so fortunate to have a powerhouse line up of speakers.  And honestly, there were so many more that we wanted to invite but we ran out of Saturdays!  Trust us, we’re already dreaming about Math Symposium 2.0. 

There was definitely a bit of celebrity involved.  I mean, our teachers were using Dan Meyer’s Google Sheet of 3-Act Tasks for a while but to have the man himself come work with our teachers was a once in a lifetime experience for some…and the first time some teachers learned about a little thing called Desmos. 

Chris Luzniak came to work with our teachers and as a result invited one of our math coaches to be on his Debate Math podcast!  Not only did we get to learn from Chris but now we’re building capacity and expanding horizons for a teacher that might have gone her whole career not learning about Debate Math. 

It was so cool when Fawn Nguyen was with us working on visual patterns and learning about rich math tasks.  Our teachers have seen Graham Fletcher’s progression videos and know of him.  When Fawn mentioned his name, there was an audible gasp in the room when I said, “Graham’s coming in October”! 

The most beautiful part of the line up is that each speaker reinforced what previous speakers taught and often alluded to learning that would happen in a future Math Symposium.  Teachers are making powerful connections because of consistent and continued opportunities to learn. 

Top: Robert Kaplinsky and Graham Fletcher
Bottom: Chris Luzniak, Dan Meyer, Fawn Nguyen

The Outcomes

When we take a step back and reflect on the impact our Symposium has had on our teachers, we can narrow it down to 3 powerful elements.  And don’t worry, a big budget isn’t one of them.  We believe, whether you have a big budget or no budget, if Professional Learning contains these 3 elements it will be impactful learning that shifts hearts and minds in the right direction.

First, Professional Learning should have a “Learn-Try-Reflect” structure. It was so powerful that our Symposium was structured so that teachers learned something, then tried it out, and then reflected.  We encouraged teachers to be brave and take a risk.  In the words of Matt Vaudrey, we made failure cheap.

Second, Professional Learning is more impactful when teachers are inspired to transfer the knowledge to others. We created this excitement around learning that made it feel a little exclusive. Remember how we originally said we only wanted 1 per building? The exclusive feeling has led to teachers wanting to share what they learned because they know they were the “only one” from their building that could come. A highlight for Dr. Bub has been walking into buildings and seeing an entire PLC incorporating the same instructional strategies that one teacher learned from Math Symposium.

Moreover, teachers often only work with teachers in their building (or within their own PLCs) and this created the opportunity to collaborate with teachers from different schools.

Third, create focused and frequent Professional Learning opportunities. Districts are often accused of having too many initiatives which cause teachers to feel pulled in different directions.  All the ideas are great ideas but it feels unfocused and overwhelming.  Revisiting learning regularly throughout the year and adding on keeps the learning alive and can create a lasting impact.  It’s not a new initiative or one more thing.  It’s spiraled and scaffolded.  

We realized we had built something special when teachers returned, month after month, not only learning more but reinforcing what they had already learned.  This focus allowed teachers to make powerful connections with their learning each month.  

The Impact

We have seen a difference in our teachers as a result of our Math Symposium and the support of our Superintendent, district leaders, and school board.  We used to think of school as reading, writing, spelling…and math.  Math is now included.  Math is a priority for the whole district and that’s helped the culture to shift.  And everyone is talking about it–teachers, building leaders, district leaders. 

West Ada Math Teachers at the Math Symposium

How can you build a culture of learning?

We were so blessed with the opportunity to create the West Ada Math Symposium and my hope is to encourage you to build something that builds a culture of learning among math teachers around you.  

Lead a book study that includes a schedule with follow up meetings and discussions.  Create opportunities for teachers to apply their learning, share with others, and reflect on their practice.

Send teachers to a math conference and create an opportunity to share, apply, and reflect.  Encourage teachers to be brave and take a risk in their classrooms!  Make failure cheap!

Invite one keynote speaker to work with your teachers.  They’re more affordable than you probably think and you can never duplicate the inspiration and excitement that naturally comes from a guest speaker!  Then, ask that speaker to connect with teachers a few times during the school year to extend the learning.  Every speaker we have invited to our Math Symposium were more than willing to connect and extend the learning.

We reflect back on why teachers initially signed up and what things they asked to learn about.  Teachers really didn’t know what they didn’t know.  That conversation has changed.  Teachers are now equipped with promising practices in math education, finding ways to incorporate them in their teaching, and inspiring others!

The ship is moving.

Stay tuned for Math Symposium 2.0!

-PV

PS–None of this could have been possible without my amazing team of Math Coaches. We’ve been told by many that West Ada is the gold standard in hospitality, logistics, and efficiency. And it’s all because of them. Thank you Amanda, Kip, Sarah, and Tricia.

PSS–To all of our speakers that flew to Idaho to work with our teachers. Your time and talent has made a huge impact on learning in our district and we are forever grateful for the hearts and minds you changed. We hope you’ll consider working with us again. Stay tuned for your invite to Math Symposium 2.0!

Teaching Students with Higher Needs…Remotely

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When you look out at your classroom I know that you know what your students know and what they don’t know they know…you know? But now, we’re looking at a computer screen into the vast internets and I don’t know about you…but I don’t know anymore.

Last fall I wrote this blog post after a keynote with John Stevens, and shared how important it is that we give all students the math they deserve. Well, now we are here during the COVID-19 Pandemic and many teachers are looking for ways to effectively facilitate remote learning for their students. Issues with access and equity immediately come to mind, especially when it comes to students with higher needs.

This tweet from John Stevens prompted me to reach out to one of the best in the business when it comes to serving students with higher needs, my colleague Mike Mann. He’s a high school educational specialist that has been teaching students with higher needs for over 14 years, he’s credentialed in both mild/moderate and moderate/severe disabilities, holds a Master’s in Education…oh, and people seem to like him since he was voted Teacher of the Year a few years back. I reached out to Mike and asked him what his thoughts were on how math teachers could best support students with higher needs and Mike definitely had some wisdom to share.

So, my hope is as you read this, like me, you’ll consider the perspective of a teacher that’s been in the special education classroom for over a decade and that some of the strategies we share here are helpful to you and your students.

Here are a few things to consider: 

How would you help your student if he/she were sitting right next to you in your classroom? 

If the answer generally falls under the practice of: ¨I address their questions on an as needed basis and work through problems together step by step until they demonstrate understanding,¨ then you are probably finding it hard to provide them instruction remotely. After all, in the classroom setting you know exactly what is going on as the teacher. There is nobody better to break down quadratic equations because you’ve been brushing up for weeks making sure you have Unit 5 ready to go. The issue with this approach is that the student becomes over reliant on YOU. So, now with this virus shutting down our schools, you are not right next to them and their parents become the new you. In a healthy way, this exposes some great opportunities for growth as teachers for when we return back to the classrooms. Providing students help in the classroom will always be an important role for us as educators, but for students with higher needs, help isn’t enough… they need strategies! 

To keep it simple, let’s categorize strategies into two departments: Teacher Strategies and Student Strategies.

Teacher Strategies

Break up Steps – breaking up a big problem into smaller mini-problems allows students to find success earlier in the lesson.  For example, if we are asking students to solve a quadratic, maybe our students would find success practicing some of the prerequisite skills prior to the task of solving a quadratic: solving linear equations, finding factors of numbers, factoring quadratics. Let’s give them something accessible to start with so that they can build to the big tasks.

Keep it Short/Brief – You probably have an awesome lesson planned out. After about the first 12-15 minutes, you have now lost the attention of the majority of your higher needs students. What are the most important items your students need to know for today? That should be what we deliver to them. You know when you pick up a Cheesecake Factory menu and can’t decide what to order? Yeah, too much information can be overwhelming and overloading to the student. 

Use Real-life Examples – Connections that students can make within their working memory are more easily accessible when they can visualize themselves or someone else in a problem. If there is a real-life example to be shared… SHARE it!  You know, like all the numbers and graphs that are coming from this pandemic. There are some awesome stats problems, exponential function problems, area under the curve problems, or something about toilet paper that can become the real-life example we are literally living.

Incentivize – Do we not all work for something? I mean, would you come to work if your principal told you all teaching jobs were now volunteer based? Maybe you’re “that teacher” and would show up for a couple of weeks. However, after you realize your own children at home have nothing to eat and the debt collectors keep calling every hour, you will probably stop coming. We need to position students with higher needs in a place that gives them a reason for achievement. If you are sitting there thinking, “what about their grades, isn’t that a good enough reason?” Well, I don’t know. You tell me. Has it been?

The incentives need to target their interests. Remotely, how cool would it be for a student to receive a message from their teacher that said, “Hi Sally, I hope you and your family are safe and healthy during this school dismissal. I know math must be more difficult for you at home without my direct help, which is why I’m excited to have a surprise for you when you get back for completing the work I’ve been assigning through Google Classroom. Will you please give me your top three favorite places to eat? Thanks!”

Student Strategies

Organization – Workbooks, worksheets, etc. need to be clutter free. If students learn to organize their notes, classwork, and homework then they are able to keep the focus on learning objectives with less attention on other executive functioning stressors. If they’ve mastered this in the classroom, great! At home, they should be able to have structure in their tasks, even if provided online. If you knowingly have students that struggle with organization, LABELING will be a huge benefit for students while they’re not in the classroom. Over label if you have to, it’s okay. This is a simple way that will not take teachers a lot of time while making all the difference in the world for students that need assistance keeping up with WHAT they are expected to do. Ultimately, this is a student based strategy because they will need to be able to apply these practices with or without a teacher present, but it is helpful to guide students until they can fully take ownership of being organized.

Color System – This could easily go into the organization category. However, it is too special to be generalized. It needs a category by itself. Pretty simple here. Students learn to use black to write down the problem, blue for step one, green for step two, blue for step three, green for step four, and red to record the answer. The colors chosen are up to the student, but ultimately this also makes it much easier for the teacher to see where in the problem the student “went wrong.” And even if you’re running all your assignments online right now, students can snap a picture and upload their hand-written work.

Utilizing Technology – Students love being on their phones and electronic devices that have video. There are so many good resources available to them. You want to hear something crazy that might give math teachers a mild heart-attack? What if we introduced a completely new section in our math books and our first communication to them was something like:

Okay students, we are going to learn about inverse functions. Here’s the deal, you’re going to do some research on it. I want you to Google and/or YouTube the snot out of this stuff.

Ultimately, you will use class time at home to execute TWO TASKS. One, DEFINE an inverse function. Two, determine how to FIND and VERIFY an inverse function. Rules: Make up any type of problem you’d like relating to inverse functions. Feel free to even use the same problem you found on a YouTube video. Oh, and one more thing, I almost forgot. You will be demonstrating these two tasks in front of the class, so come prepared.”

Do we believe students with higher needs can accomplish such a task? Why not? They might have to watch more videos, use more resources, and practice more problems, but instead of trying to memorize their notes or work within the box they’ve been provided, you just unlocked a scavenger hunt for them and set them free to discover math for themselves, while eventually being able to get guidance and correction from you as the teacher later. 

My collaboration with Mike Mann on this topic has improved my teaching pedagogy and changed my perspective on my students in amazing ways. What I appreciate most about Mike is that not only is he well versed in the law surrounding special education but also in the students he serves and the strategies that best support them. His heart is in the right place, his students are blessed to have him as their advocate, and we are so fortunate to have Mike on our campus.

Let’s continue this conversation!

I truly believe that this teaching thing is better when we work together. What has worked well for you? What are some things you are trying? What would you add to this list of strategies to adequately serve students with higher needs? Drop your suggestions in the comments below.

~PV