NOLA Greats

There is a treasure trove of greatness at NCSM New Orleans. See below for conference tweets that will link you to wonderful minds and resources.

Choose a problem and anticipate student responses. T/F: 80/4=(80/2)+(80/2). Kazemi & Hintz

Rethink homework! Purpose is not to give a child a grade, ever. What's your homework protocol? @tkanold tkanold.blogspot.com

Go beyond checking for understanding. Students must get feedback, take action. @tkanold

Working on our practice. Teach the same lesson twice with collaborative reflection in between. Nice! @maxmathforum http://mathforum.org/pps/

Number sense is acquired; you don't teach it, you nurture its development. @SkipFennell mathspecialists.org

Set it up so kids are asking the next question of the teacher, using the lang. of our discipline. @jgough http://jplgough.wordpress.com/

Stop making excuses. Implement what we know works. @steve_leinwand http://steveleinwand.com/

We say all students can learn, now we need to act that way. Cathy Seeley (via @Maryvfitz)

Vermont Math Leadership Council

the view from my porch

Vermont has a new education organization - Vermont Math Leadership Council - thanks to Julie Conrad, Tracy Watterson and others for getting it off the ground. Thanks to me we have a blog with the easy URL vermontmathleadership.org. Thanks to Tim Whiteford, there is a bunch of great posts on the blog! Check it out. We’d like to get more material from more voices on this blog and increase our readership. Anyone can join the organization. Our next meeting is January 29, 2014.

I was about to post something here on my blog about the new Institute of Education Sciences Educator’s Practice Guide called Teaching Math to Young Children. But then I saw that Tim beat me to it by posting about the very same thing on the VMLC blog. So, read his post here.

What I like about this publication is that it helps both rookies and veterans understand how best to work with young children and math. There are clear, specific recommendations that are easy to follow and a selection of easily usable games and ideas that illustrate the concept.

Whereas we often encounter activities or lessons and need to figure out what math we’re really going for, this resource communicates the math goals clearly and first, then hands us the activity to use.

Breathe collaboration

From Dan Meyer's You Pour I Choose Math Task

Steve Leinwand came to Killington, Vermont, on Wednesday night and I made sure I was there to see him. Dinner and the presentation by Steve was hosted by the fledgling local chapter of National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM) called Vermont Math Leadership Council (VMLC). I made them a website at www.vermontmathleadership.org, where you can find resources shared by Steve, including his powerpoint from the dinner.

Here are a few things from the notes I typed on my iPad instead of eating dinner:

Take risks, make mistakes. The stuff we have now is bad. Enter the Common Core. Hope and change have arrived, like the calvary. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to rescue ourselves and our teachers from all the problems we have had.

Effective teachers create language rich classrooms.

Effective teachers take every opportunity to build number sense.

Effective teachers embed math content and connect to the real world.

Effective teachers devote the last 5 minutes to formative assessment.

See Steve’s document called High Leverage Mathematics Instruction Practices for more.

I am not an effective leader if I don't breathe collaboration.