I Can Say I'm Sorry

Most times when you're on the outside looking in, you have visions of how things should be on the "inside". As a coach, I always had this vision of how things should be within the classroom. I secretly frowned upon those who were not implementing county initiatives or best practices properly. I hadn't been long out of the classroom so I used that as my stripes to say, "I know what I'm talking about, I know how this is supposed to work. 

Now I find myself on the inside. I'm on the inside trying to make my out of box thoughts about teaching and learning fit. Well I'll be darn! Those ideals in which on the outside looked like it would fit within the round hole carved out for the round peg have now become square. 

So yes, while I struggle to make what's best fit best for my students, I say sorry to myself. Sorry to each teacher I secretly judged even if for a second. Sorry for each teacher who was in the midst of their productive struggle and I didn't stop to ask how they were managing it all. 

I can say sorry...

The Power of Leading By Example

A good friend of mine passed on "Daring Greatly" by Brene Brown.  It's a book about vulnerability and whole-hearted living.  I'm currently on the chapter in which she is discussing how to dare greatly in parenting.  The statement that is resonating with me is "Be the adult you want your child to be when they grow up".  This is huge because it calls you out as a parent to lead by example.

Now as I look to relate this to being a teacher leader, I still hear the same call to lead by example.  Be the teacher you want your colleagues to be, be the leader you want your colleagues to be.  It's not about enforcing non-negotiables or hoarding your ideas and resources.  It's first doing what is best for kids, then telling others about what the students were able to do as a result.  This isn't done in a "I'm the bomb.com and this is what I'm doing with my student" fashion.  It's a "the kids were really engaged today when we did this..." fashion.  This is when you share student work, student experiences and provide the opportunity for others to use your resources.  You approach this humbly, so not to bring glory to yourself, but to shed a light on the goodness that is happening with student engagement and performance.

When you do things like that, you have the opportunity to get excited when a teammate decides the textbook isn't engaging enough for their students.  So they come to you asking for the very thing you wanted them to use from the beginning, rich and engaging math tasks :-).

It is my belief that when a teacher switches from the textbook to GA state math frameworks, a math angel gets its wings!

SMPs According to 7th Graders

These 7th graders were asked to analyze and interpret the Standards for Mathematical Practice. Here are a few:

#Meaningful

Being a Teacher Leader

Just a quick thought on being a teacher leader. 

A teacher leader is anyone who can lead by example. Someone who shares their thinking without making others feel inferior. It's being innovative and not being afraid to fail because you know you are carving out a trail for others to follow. 

Our schools are filled with teacher leaders, many of whom don't think they are. They're the ones who are being secretly watched by their peers to see what great things are happening. 

I salute those teacher leaders who aren't in it for the recognition or praise but are simply doing what's best for the greater good!

We're Talking About Practice

When it comes to practice I kind of feel like Allen Iverson during his practice rant http://youtu.be/eGDBR2L5kzI. It is my belief that rich and meaningful task should be the emphasis. However many around me feel that the importance should be placed on practice. 

During a workshop this past year, @ddmeyer described practice using a basketball context. He said, "math practice is like practicing your free throws", it isn't something that you spend the entire time doing but it is something that's beneficial during the game. My thinking about practice began to shift at that moment. So my shift was from no practice to meaningful practice. 

Meaningful practice as defined by @turtletoms is the application of the mathematics once the concept it is understood and explicitly connected to understanding. @mikewiernicki says meaningful practice meets student where they are as it relates to their understanding. A great way to incorporate meaningful practice in your math routine is through games such as those found nzmaths website http://www.nzmaths.co.nz/number-knowledge-activities. These games are leveled based on strategy and number knowledge. 

The cutisie activities are okay, but you have to be careful that the practice activity does not undermine the strategy and concept development which took place prior to practice. I've come across a few resources for practice activities:

GA Frameworks have practice tasks

https://www.georgiastandards.org/Common-Core/Pages/Math-K-5.aspx

Choice Menus

https://sites.google.com/site/sensiblemathematics/ 

Symbaloo

http://www.symbaloo.com/startLogin.do 

I know there are tons more, so feel free to share. 

The Beauty in Being Less Helpful

   I'm a controller at heart. I have to know what's next, determine how to handle the next steps and internalize the success and/or failure of my decision. This is simply because I must be in control. But I promise you, if you ever saw me teach,children or adults, you would never know it. How could such contradictory happen within one person?  I've learned the art of being less helpful or the art of losing control. 

   If you're anything like me, a controller, the thought of losing control is a hilarious and ridiculous one. Until you find yourself feeling beat down from doing, thinking and saying it all. You find your students looking at you with closed mouths and empty stares waiting for you to tell them what to do, how to do it and if they've done it right. You own all the knowledge and all the control. You haven't made impact on anyone's life but your own. 

   Well, what do you do?  You slowly stop telling answers but answer questions with questions. Students ask, "What am I supposed to do?"  Your response is, "What are you trying to do," followed by "What information do you have?"  And then you simply walk away. Your student is left with the very information they need to approach a task, problem or equation without you telling them a thing. So the next time they run into that same issue, they rely on this experience to help them solve another problem. 

   Don't look at it as not helping the student because you are, you're helping them make sense of problems and persevere (SMP 1), you're leading them to reason with quantities (SMP 2), you're guiding them to model with mathematics, look for patterns, use math language and more. You are creating mathematical thinkers all while losing control. You aren't  saying, "I can't tell you that," rather you're asking the student what they think (remember that metacognition phrase from your education college classes?). 

    In a recent workshop I facilitated, participants were working on a task. I overheard a lady inquire about a strategy she was planning to implement. The lady sitting next to her replied, "Well don't ask Jenise because she won't tell you."  As a controller, I had two options after listening to her question 1. Tell her exactly what she needed to move forward or 2. Ask her and her group members what they thought. I chose the latter. They were able to confer, own their understanding and continue on with the task. 

     I encourage you to try your hand at being less helpful. In each grade level overview of the K-5 math units for Georgia are lists of questions you can use to allow your students to own their understanding and control their math world https://www.georgiastandards.org/Common-Core/Common%20Core%20Frameworks/CCGPS_Math_4_GradeLevelOverview.pdf. Once you do, post a comment to tell me all about it. 

Beyond the Test

As Georgia's standardized test scores have been released, the recurring question that flows through the air is, "How did your school do?"  I think there are two ways to respond to that question. 

The first way is from the perspective of stakeholders, administrators, policy makers and many teachers. They look solely at the snapshot of the test scores to say this school is a high performing school or this system is a high performing system. 

For those tests, on those days they make a superficial determination about the work of the teacher, the knowledge of the students and the effectiveness of the school's instructional practices. 

So this means, a school with disengaging practices, procedural mathematics teaching and learning, and textbooks with superficial understanding for the teachers and students can be praised for the work they've done based on their test scores. Conversely, a school with highly engaging problem based tasks, conceptual mathematics teaching and learning, and standards-based practices may be frowned upon for low test scores. 

This brings me to the second perspective. This perspective sees the whole picture which includes student growth and "out of our control" factors. For example, a 3rd grader can enter the year reading on a kindergarten level and with intensive work end the year on a 2nd grade reading level. That same student struggles with counting one to one coming in but by the end of the year they can use simple part whole strategies to solve addition/subtraction and multiplication/division problems. This student made tremendous gains throughout the year, but will not meet grade level expectations on the state test. That teacher's and student's hard work is now overshadowed by a "does not meet" on the state test. 

The second perspective also tells the tale of two worlds. On one end you have the population that has high parental involvement, funding for tutoring and a healthy overall home life. On the other side there's very little parental involvement, which leads to no additional tutoring outside of what the school offers, a high population of homeless and/or foster children, not to mention a spike in child abuse cases. The students on both side can receive the exact same highly effective instruction in school, but due to the factors outside of our control, the students begin in two different starting places. 

This is why I believe it's so important to look closely at the student growth versus the snapshot test score. I found myself making comparisons based on that snapshot score and I'm sure others of you have as well. It wasn't until @Math_HCS pointed out the perspectives mentioned above. It helped me widen my view again to see the student growth pieces that were being overshadowed. So I encourage you to do the same. Widen your view, analyze your student growth data and create your own celebrations and goals based on those. Don't write a biography on a student based on one moment of his/her life.