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How do we encourage playful, productive struggle in Math Menu?
Our goal in Math Menu is for students to feel both relaxed and curious. Let’s use a recess analogy to help visualize our menu practice. At recess, students are independent and engaged in an activity of their choosing. They are motivated, playful and happy. Some students are working hard at various games and challenges all across the playground space. Others are focused on independent play and exploration. Some students are working to master a particular skill or apparatus. Most students are relaxed during recess. Their curiosity, interest, and preferences drive their choices.
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What is Specialized Math Instruction?
Specialized Math Instruction (SMI) focuses on improving instructional techniques–or pedagogy– of all educators for teaching mathematics for all students.
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Establishing a Feedback Culture
Use Student Work as Feedback We are in the business of being responsive. As educators we strive to establish a thriving feedback culture in our classrooms enriched by constantly looking at formative assessment data and responding. When armed with evidence of student thinking, we can approach teaching like a constant rapid cycle of inquiry. What worked? What didn’t? How can I respond next to push my students’ thinking? The more our systems support us in being responsive and in driving our instructional decisions with evidence from student thinking, the more learning and growth for all!
Perseverance and Growth Mindset
No matter how many years of experience we’ve logged as educators, we all have to put in the work at the beginning of a new school year to build our classroom culture. This always starts with student relationships.
Systems Matter
I began my career in education because I believed it was a broken system that we could mend. My senior year I read Jonathon Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation and became convinced that the way to solve poverty in our country was to fix the savage inequalities of our education system. I thought if we can make schools great for all children, then we can change everything. I vigorously adopted Teach for America’s rallying call that one day all children will have access to an excellent education, and I moved to New Orleans on a mission. I truly believed that by becoming a teacher warrior I could help …
Why Math Menu Matters Even More Right Now
Published: Fall 2020 This school year has so many of us feeling like our first year teacher-selves, struggling with the work and effort that is required when you’re learning how to do something new. It feels like we are facing more obstacles than solutions and more don’ts than do’s. It has brought us face to face with so many gaps, struggles, emotions, hardships, and inequities. As teachers who are on a mission to ensure all means all in our school buildings, we confront these struggles on a daily basis as we dive into the complex work of building trusting relationships with our students to he …
From “Hey guys!” to “Hey y’all!”
I’m working on breaking a deeply ingrained habit of addressing groups of people as “guys”. I’ve played on sports teams my entire life and “guys” is just part of the sports lingo. I’ve used the word so often that now I use it without even thinking about it. In fact, I often begin workshops with a greeting and a direction that sounds something like, “Hey guys, welcome. Please sign the attendance sheet and fill out your name tag.” I don’t intend to be offensive so I’m unaware that I may have just excluded some participants from entering our learning space. I’m lucky enough to have a colleague who …
