This session will provide a broad overview of the NGSS, discussing the frameworks that inform the standards, instructional practices that support the NGSS in the classroom, and high-quality instructional resources that are available that can support NGSS implementation. We will also discuss tools you can use to become a critical consumer of resources to use in your classroom.
Instructional coaching is a way to build reflective practices in teachers to drive instructional change. The relational nature of coaching techniques allows the coach to provide specific, context-based suggestions that could be used to address inequitable structures in classrooms. Individuals who work with teachers can make specific and intentional moves to help teachers reflect on and challenge structures of power, narratives, and values of science, and what science participation looks like from within specific classroom structures.
Cultural relevance promotes inclusive environments that expand perspectives of meaningful participation to include all students. This session will consist of two parts, with part 1 focusing on: (1) What is cultural relevance? (2) How has cultural relevance been applied? and (3) How can we make actionable steps in our own classrooms to affirm the diverse cultures and perspectives of our students?
Cultural relevance promotes inclusive environments that expand perspectives of meaningful participation to include all students. The second session will be a time for participants to workshop applications of cultural relevance for their classroom context in collaboration with the presenter and other participants in similar subjects/grade bands.
The traditional algorithms are amazing historic achievements, but they are terrible teaching tools. If mathematics teaching is not about mimicking algorithms, then what? Join me for small steps that shift the focus from memorizing and mimicking to reasoning and mathematizing. And get big results. Walk away with the best strategies, models, and tasks to make it happen. Math is Figure-out-able!
Talking in math class sounds like a good idea, but is talk for the sake of talking a strong enough rationale? If math is a disconnected set of facts to memorize with rules to mimic, what is there to talk about? If, on the other hand, math is figure-out-able, then talking becomes a crucial part of the learning. And creating that discourse is not a trivial task. But we can do it! And it’s so worth it. Come learn why, when, and what to talk about.
The powerful teaching tool, Problem Strings, is a purposeful sequence of related problems designed to help students mentally construct mathematical relationships. It is an intriguing lesson structure during which teachers and students interact to construct important mathematical strategies, models, and concepts. The power of a problem string lies in the carefully crafted conversation as students solve problems, one at a time, and the teacher makes student thinking visible and draws out important connections and relationships. Finally a way to teach math that is not just showing and memorizing steps–and gets results.
As we reimagine mathematics classrooms, many innovative teaching practices have emerged. In this session we’ll parse out why some of these fail and how to support teachers in making the shift to focus on students. Understanding the ways teachers are misunderstanding key instructional practices can help you leverage them to result in greater student outcomes.
