I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people say “I am not good at math”. This is from students, parents, friends, and colleagues, many if not all, I believe to have normal to well above average intelligence. On the flip side, no one really freely admits, “ I can’t read, or comprehend text well.” Why is that? Why is it so easy to admit we don’t understand or like math? Don’t get me wrong, there are many people out there that love math and are making great strides in mathematical thinking. But for many of us, something went wrong and math is not our “thing”.  

We have a name for this propensity for not liking math, it is called, "Math Phobia” and it is at epidemic proportions. Math phobia is actually defined in a medical dictionary as a feeling of tension, apprehension or fear about one’s ability to do math, which subsequently interferes with the performance thereof.

This phobia is present everywhere in our society and has prompted an entire industry of memes and graphic T-shirts that promote the idea that math is hard and scary. (Underlying message, so it’s ok not to be good at it or to even try.) When we believe something to be too difficult to master, this attitude stops us from focusing on the problem we are trying to solve.

So what went wrong, why do so many lack confidence in our math skills? 
Research suggests that for many of us it was the way we were taught. Math was taught to most strictly through the study of arithmetic and computation. We were led to believe math was a list of rules and specific algorithms that could only be memorized and procedures done specific ways to get to the one correct answer. You were considered smart if you could compute quickly. Thinking about math this way is boring, stressful and/or unproductive.  In his article, Why Do Students Fear Math, Pradeep Kumar states;

Another reason that many people feel they are not good at math is that they were lead to believe you are either born to be good at math or you were not. The truth is that we are not predestined to be good or bad at math, although the attitude that you are a math person or you are not continues to prevail. Stanford University Professor Jo Boaler says, 

How does our own attitude about math affect how we teach math and more importantly, how does it impact our student's success rates?
Research suggests that parents and teachers with anxiety about algebra and equations transmit those feelings to their children and students, who then perform worse on math. Math anxiety has been recognized as an impediment to math achievement. As teachers, our attitude and confidence with math skills have a direct impact on our student's achievement rates in math.

In a recent study, Boaler and her fellow researchers recruited 40 5th-grade teachers from the Central Valley to take a 12-hour online math course she and her team created. The course, “How to Learn Math for Teachers,” covers perceptions about math, how anyone — with enough practice — can develop the brain skills to understand complex math problems, and how math is used in everyday life. The course also covers basic math concepts, such as number patterns and reasoning, and offers tips for teaching those concepts.

When commenting about the impact of the Stanford study, published in the journal Education Sciences, Jo Boaler said,

For our students to do well in math, many of us need to change our own attitudes and understanding of mathematical concepts and ideas.
Changing perceptions and skill sets is difficult. Where do we begin? The first step is to adopt a growth mindset. A growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. If you have not read it already, I highly recommend you read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.d. This philosophy has been a game changer for many. (This one, in my opinion, is also worth a second look even if you have already read it).

About a decade later, Dweck’s Stanford University colleague Jo Boaler piggy-backed off these ideas and applied it to mathematics.  Mathematical Mindsets was published in 2016 applying advanced neurological research to how students best learn mathematical concepts. This book sparked an international resurgence in mathematical best practices. This is a must read for any teacher of mathematics. In it, Jo Boaler explores the power of mistakes and struggle, the concept that there are creativity and beauty in mathematics, (A concept I did not get at any time during my math education), the importance of developing flexibility with numbers and how mathematics is a path to equity.

When I first read Mathematical Mindsets,  the greatest take away for me was there are creativity and beauty in math. What?!?!  As a recovering mathophob myself, I was led to believe math was all about speed and (this one is from my dad who would sit with me as I cried through my math homework) you only get the right answer if you have a sharp pencil. In the book, you are introduced to Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to win the Fields Medal (equivalent to the Nobel Prize for Mathematics). If you have not heard of her before, her amazing and tragic story is worth looking up. Born in Iran, Maryam was a mathematician at Stanford who studied hyperbolic surfaces and who had in 2016 produced what has been called the “theory of the decade”.  Surprisingly, ​Mirzakhani described herself as a "slow" mathematician, saying that "you have to spend some energy and effort to see the beauty of math." To solve problems, Mirzakhani would draw doodles on sheets of paper and write mathematical formulas around the drawings. Her daughter described her mother's work as "painting". In Mathematical Mindsets Maryam is quoted as saying:​

For many of us, math was taught strictly through the study of arithmetic and computation. The reality is that mathematics is so much more than that. We need to make the study of mathematics more meaningful and engaging for the next generation.  We need to take that leap of faith and believe that even as adults we have the ability to learn more about math concepts and with a growth mindset promote positive attitudes towards the discovery of math for ourselves and the future generations we serve. Be the teacher that promotes this T-shirt.

This post brought to you by Julie Ace, Elementary Implementation Associate

Resources:
Best Way to Change Scores is to Change Teachers Attitudes
Challenging Myths About Learning​ 
Jo Boaler Ted Talk:  How you can be good at math and other surprising facts about learning.​
(2008) Foundations for Success: The Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, National Mathematics Advisory Panel (U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC).
St.Myers, Andrew; Carey, Bjorn (15 July 2017). "Maryam Mirzakhani, Stanford mathematician and Fields Medal winner, dies". Stanford News. Retrieved 17 July 2017
Jacobson, Howard (29 July 2017). "The world has lost a great artist in mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 October 2017.

The Llama Llama books are favorites in our house.  I’m fairly certain we own every one ever written and have read each of them no less than a dozen times each.  The other night my daughter and I were reading Llama Llama Mad At Mama.  In case you aren’t familiar with the story, let me bring you up to speed.  Llama and mama have to spend the day running a bunch of errands and Llama is not pleased with the plan.  One of their errands is a trip to the grocery store. As mama is shopping, Llama is getting increasingly agitated until he escalates to the point where he totally loses control; Llama throws things, knocks things over, kicks his feet, yells and eventually begins to cry. When we reached this point in the book, I turned to my daughter and asked her how she thought Llama was feeling.  She answered me then turned to me and said, “Mom, how do you think MAMA LLAMA was feeling here? I know Llama is very upset but mama must be too! I bet she is embarrassed by his choices. I think she also might be worried that something is really wrong with Llama. But I also know she is mad because look at her face! Poor Mama Llama!” WOW! This mama was incredibly proud! Like I said before, we have read this book at least a dozen times and this was the first time she keyed into how Mama Llama was feeling.  Her reflection that night got me thinking about the power of using characters in literature to teach social-emotional learning.

Social-emotional learning is such a big topic in education right now that this month's entire edition of Educational Leadership is dedicated to this topic.  Everyone is talking about the importance of teaching these kinds of lessons in school.  Yet I know that as a classroom teacher, I would have been hard-pressed to add one more thing into the learning day! With so many expectations already on our proverbial plates, how can we do even one more thing? However, teaching social-emotional learning through literature doesn’t add a new expectation to teachers’ already jam-packed curriculum - it can easily be incorporated into reading routines already in place.  Here are some ways to begin building in this type of learning with the system you already have set up.

Read It & Reap

When reading a book with students, take the time to make connections between what students read, their personal values, and the world around them.   In the last decade or so there has been a shift away from doing this with kids. This happened greatly in part because of the increase in the weight being placed on standardized tests.  Our goals for student learning became much more academic focused. “If a question wasn’t text dependent, then it wasn’t a good/necessary question. We stopped asking anything (or nearly anything) where the inference couldn’t be drawn directly from the text.” (N. Boyles) Certainly we need to dig deeply into the texts we read for academic reasons, however, go back to those same books you have previously read and revisit them.  “This time, ask questions related to social-emotional problem solving to begin discussions that raise students awareness and encourage them to rethink their own responses to challenging situations.” (N. Boyles) Having these types of discussions may actually take you into the Common Core’s comprehension standards that are sometimes overlooked (author’s craft, purpose & point of view, use of illustrations) and deeper levels of Webb’s depth of knowledge system.

Target Practice

There are numerous aspects to social-emotional learning.  Instead of trying to hit them all, be selective and target 4-5 over the course of the year.  Here are 5 that have been identified by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning because each competency can be addressed through several related focus areas:

1. Self-awareness: identifying emotions, accurate self-perception, recognizing strengths, self-confidence, self-efficacy
2. Self-management: impulse control, stress management, self-discipline, self-motivation, goal-setting, organizational skills
3. Social awareness: perspective taking, empathy, appreciating diversity, respect for others
4. Relationship skill: communication, social engagement, relationship-building, teamwork
5. Responsible decision making: identifying problems, analyzing situations, solving problems, evaluating, reflecting, ethical responsibility

​
Notice the first two are centered on the individual and the final three address interaction among individuals.  This progression makes complete sense; how can a student manage their relationships with others until they are able to identify and manage their own feelings and self-perceptions?

Use A New Lens

Many of the books we choose to read with students could target a multitude of the skills listed above all in one text.  However, discussing all of them will likely overwhelm students (and likely you as well) and you may miss your intended target.  Instead of using a text to discuss various SEL categories, select one skill so students are able to think deeply about specific issues.  This can be done with many books - even books that weren’t specifically written with teaching SEL in mind. However, there are many authors out there who have written books around the different areas of SEL learning.  Here are some lists that may help guide additional book selections:

25 Best Kids Books to Teach Social-Emotional Skills

50 Must Have Picture Books to Teach Social-Emotional Skills

Hearts and Minds: Picture Books That Strengthen Social-Emotional Learning
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Social-Emotional Learning Diverse Book List for Grade PreK-8

As I reflect back on reading with my daughter the other night and her reaction to the text, it reaffirms for me how much children learn through books and the characters they meet there.  Though Llama Llama is a favorite in our house (and my daughter has obviously connected with the characters and is learning a great deal about emotions) I recognize that it may not be the best fit for you and your students.  Hopefully, though, you will be able to find other texts that you are already using, or perhaps a new one from a list, to try your hand at incorporating some intentional social-emotional learning within your classroom.

This post brought to you by Rebecca Mecikalski, Elementary Implementation Associate

Still on the fence? Here is some of the feedback from past participants:

• Flexible, positive, and encouraging.
• I found it validating to have the work I do supported by another professional who was interested in what I was learning and willing to support me and give feedback.
• Relevant, focused, and timely.
• I was actually surprised to hear the phrases ‘What do you need from me?’ and ‘How can I help you?’ Wow!

​If you’re interested in this opportunity, sign up by December 7, 2018 via the link above. Know that you can enroll as an individual, as a partnership, as a PLC, or as department.
 
If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to connect with your site staff development chair, an instructional coach, or an implementation associate. We'd love to help you get started. 

This year, after 13 years out of the classroom, I jumped back in with two feet - but I was nervous.  Back when my third child was born (Kyler, born January 15, 2005), I loved everything about my job; my amazing team, my Franklin community, the sweetest kindergarten students, a supportive administration team.  However, I needed my job to be “culturally responsive” to my world and me.  My culture was motherhood of three boys, ages 3, 1 and 0. My nights were short and always interrupted. I struggled to get to work on time as I could not get my three boys and myself ready in the morning without a fight when leaving daycare. I didn’t have a prep time or schedule that was conducive to a nursing mother.  When one of my boys was up with a fever due to what felt like a never-ending cold, ear infection or strep, my husband and I would argue about which of us would have to go make sub plans in the middle of the night. Detailed lessons needed to be switched or scripted if I couldn’t be there to manage the lesson. Teaching is difficult as a working mom. I left my full-time classroom job with a leave of absence, to do part-time kindergarten. From there, my classroom-teaching job changed to any part-time role where I could continue to have affordable benefits for my family and stay sane as a mom. Over the course of the next 7 years, I was fortunate to find part-time roles as an Associate Administrator, a Title technology researcher, an After School Academy Teacher, an Interventionist, and a Reading support teacher. I puzzled together pieces of a job that were more responsive to my needs as a mom.

When I think about what we have learned from Dr. Sharroky Hollie (and others) about being culturally responsive, the first thing that comes to mind are the things that directly affect me. When is the world going to be responsive to my needs as a professional teacher, and fund schools the way we all know would be better? I cannot teach 32 fifth graders as well as I could reach and impact 20… can the legislators be responsive to my need to create relationships with each kid? I don’t want to collect milk caps and host a garage sale to replace a playground structure that is not accessible to a portion of our population… can the legislators be responsive to my students with special needs?  I spend way more than the $200 that I can claim on taxes on my classroom supplies. How can I close the opportunity gap with so few supplies? The barriers that are put in place that are beyond my control are impacting my success as a teacher – the frustrations rise…can’t those in leadership see this through my lens? 

But today, I reflect on the barriers that are in place that are affecting the learners in my classroom. Those barriers that no one mentions, because what 5-9 year old is going to be honest about his understanding of unfairness as it relates to basic needs.  One Sudanese boy comes back to the breakfast cart a second time and says someone took his breakfast, only to learn that he has been to both carts two times each, and he is stashing breakfast in his backpack for later where there is no food. He is written up for lying and stealing. One Somali boy comes strutting into the classroom with a gait that is seen as “an attitude” by the substitute.  He is immediately kicked out of class. One Hispanic girl is reprimanded daily for walking her sister to her kindergarten class and getting to her class late every single day. In her eyes, she is caretaking as required in her family, but in her teacher’s eyes, she is dawdling and wasting time.

​Last week, I barked at one of my fifth graders for having his head down during our CIA reading lesson when I was reading Earthquake Terror.  He wasn’t following along. After a conversation during lunch, I learned that he was at the laundromat until 11:30 because they had no clean clothes.  My heart was broken. Never did I think about how tough it must be to be a single mom of three who works until 10, with no washing machine readily available.  My own situation seems trivial. I’m trying to be thankful for the times I leave a load in the washer and it gets stinky because I haven’t taken it out in 3 days… 

Just the other day, I was visibly frustrated that one of my students kept “forgetting” his planner. How can I teach this kid organization, when he can’t keep track of his organization tool?! During his conference, I learned that he is juggled between three caregivers each night; his mom’s home after school, his grandma’s home when mom heads to work, and then his dad’s until school the next morning. The planner is not the most important piece in his life.  Suddenly, my own situation of juggling grocery shopping and a few football games throughout the week seems insignificant.  

My path to learning about teaching with cultural responsiveness continues to give me opportunities to learn every single day. When I look back at 13 years out of the classroom, I think about the amazing gift I had to be able to work part-time so that I could be the kind of mom I wanted to be.  I realize that this is not an opportunity that every family can manage, nor is it a goal for others but maybe because my own mother was a stay-at-home mom, I valued that opportunity. If I were dealt a different hand, been a single mom, or not had the leave of absence in my contract, all would have been different.  I also think about all those administrators who were flexible with me, when I performed less than expected. I remember leaving Diane Trisko hanging last minute, crying because I couldn’t present for her staff because I had tested positive for strep. Or the time that Jean Murphy worked with me because I was completely out of sick time and two of my kids had tested positive for Influenza A.  These (and many others) have shown empathy for my situations, and me, could understand the situation I was in and were able to relate to my experiences… but what about these learners who come to us and we can’t even begin to have walked in their shoes, lived in their homes, celebrated their important events and lived their experiences?  It sure would be life changing for them if we could try. 

My experiences out of the classroom supporting different elementary schools in Rochester has given me multiple occasions to learn from others, most of whom I watched first hand with struggling students.  The most memorable experiences were supporting those teachers who worked in EBD classrooms, Special Education settings, Newcomer Centers and behavior rooms. Those people show empathy every single minute of every single day. Each of these educators and paras found a path, a success route, for each of these children, without lowering the bar.  Each of them proved to me that I am not at all unique with my passion for educating kids and doing whatever it takes to advocate for students, especially those that don’t fit into our system.  That’s how we roll here in Rochester.  With six years of instructional coaching, I have witnessed my Franklin and Montessori colleagues work passionately to help each other through diligent PLCs and build a strong supportive community among all grade levels because all of us have all of those kinds of kids in our classrooms. Never are these educators willing to accept the data as it is, but always willing to pave the way with a new idea or new strategy, question their practices, or wonder what a child needs in order to be successful.

Culturally responsive teaching, in a nutshell, is having empathy for every situation and uplifting the individual’s life experiences. It is not excusing any behavior, but understanding the reason behind the behavior. Every single day we can choose how we respond to each and every one of the learners in our classroom.  Whether or not we agree with another family’s choice to practice hockey from 4am-6am, or whether we think that if a student would read half the time they spend playing Fortnite, that he or she could pass the MCAs - that is not our job as an educator.  Our job is educating each kind of kid that walks in our doorway.

This post brought to you by Stephanie Lamb, Grade 5 teacher for the Rochester Public Schools 
Feel free to contact Stephanie via email

Have you ever been asked by a supervisor to complete a project or task and although at the time it seems simple you find yourself stuck and lacking ideas? I often find myself sitting at my desk with a problem that needs to be solved but struggling with a solution because I am limited to my own ideas. I might get up, walk my office floor, knock on some doors, gather ideas and go back to my office to further strategize alone on how I might fix the problem. More times than not, I will come up with a decent solution but nothing necessarily new or earth-shattering. On the flip side, I also know that if I could steal 30 minutes of time from a colleague or two and truly collaborate around a table on an issue, the outcome will be so much richer and better than anything I could do on my own. The solution would be a thoughtful collection of perspectives and the entire team would benefit from the ideas just shared. True collaboration is a beautiful thing. Of course in order to effectively collaborate I need to possess certain skills so that my colleagues want to continue to work with me. I need to be willing to listen, be open to new ideas and I need to understand that I can be stronger by what I gain from others.

I want to encourage you as you think about your day and your instruction to question how you have created an environment that gives students a chance to learn how to collaborate. Do your students know that they are stronger when they work together? Do they know that their classmates have ideas and thoughts that are worth listening to? Do they have the skills to work together to the greater benefit of the group and school community? If not, here are some ways that you can encourage and explicitly teach your students how to be skilled collaborators.

- Everyone has an important role -

A challenge of designing good collaborative activities is ensuring that all students play a role. True collaboration should not just strengthen a students’ existing skills but should ensure that the peer interactions stretch their own knowledge and expand one another’s ideas. If, for example, a student is much stronger in one skill than her peers in her group, there is nothing wrong with asking them to teach others. When designing collaborative activities, ensure that students don’t just occupy the same physical space but that they share an intellectual space. Think about your role as a teacher as a coach, not an instructor. Makes rounds in the room promoting student voice, check in on your quieter students and step into coach students on working together as they get frustrated. Remind them that they all have a common goal and they each have skills that help them to reach the goal! ​

- Group Work -

Often times we think we are creating collaborators when we put students into group projects. However, typically what happens with most group projects is that students will divide the labor and then just complete tasks independently. When thinking about group work think of it rather as a discussion that connects students through conversation. Require students to share their personal experiences and challenge them to come to a consensus around a problem. Through group discussion, students will learn to defend their ideas with evidence. Keep in mind though that an important part of group discussion is respecting ideas! You will want to start group discussions by laying out clear norms. Let the students create the norms though so that they have ownership and agreement on what they need from their peers. Here are some ideas:
​

• I will listen fully to my peer's ideas.
• I will respect their ideas even if I have a different perspective.
• I will not make personal attacks on ideas on do not agree with.
• ​I will include evidence or facts when sharing an idea.

- Assigning Duties -

A common frustration among students when they are “forced” to work together is that one or two students can frequently “freeload” off the work of others. This occurs when some teammates let the others in a group do all of the work. Here are some ways you can deter or eliminate this from happening:
​
1.  Ensure that your groups are small. When groups are smaller it is hard for a student to hide or get away with not participating.

2.  Clearly define for students how you will hold them accountable for the work. Decide before the work begins how you plan on individually assessing the student's work (i.e. one on one conference, short exit slip, a reflection sheet, journal entry)

3.  Ask students to assign team roles as it relates to the activity. Just like we assign roles within a PLC consider having students assign roles to keep everyone on task: timekeeper, facilitator, monitor, recorder.

4.  At the end of a group activity, consider having your students self-evaluation their own participation and effort level. This can be filling out a slip of paper or sharing their scale of participation with a classroom on a scale of 1-5.

Effective collaboration is a skill that our students will need when they form friendships, enter the workforce, college and beyond. I want to encourage you to think about the type of communicators that you are inspiring in your classroom. Are your students being encouraged to collaborate? Are your students getting the opportunity to debate? Are they being taught the importance of learning from each other and do they know that they are stronger when they work together? Are you explicitly teaching the skills necessary to work in a team? Our students will need these skills as they grow older. Let’s remind them of the importance of being skilled collaborators! ​

This post brought to you by Kate Palmquist, POSA overseeing Elementary Curriculum and Instructional Coaching

When we share stories with one another we become bound together in powerful ways. Stories provide hope: they have the potential to shine a light into the darkness and challenge us to change our thinking. Stories matter. Stories are powerful. Each month, the Department of Curriculum and Instruction partners with the RPS equity specialists and American Indian Liaison to share the stories of those in our own backyard who are often silenced.

​Cante' waste' nape ciyuzapi ksto! (I greet you with a warm heart and handshake).
 
Recently, I had a conversation with a student who was feeling lonely. He wanted to go back to the school he attended last year, which is out of state. He missed his friends, he missed being part of a community, and he missed a sense of belonging. He said, "I don't really talk to anybody but my dog."
 
I knew this student was seeking an authentic connection. I told him, "I talk to my dog too, in fact, I dress her up. Would you like to see her in a Wonder Woman costume?" I then showed him a picture of my dog in her costume.

His eyes sparkled and the corners of his mouth turned upward into a smile. He looked directly at me. We connected.
 
October 8th marks Indigenous Peoples’ Day, recognized by Rochester Public Schools, the City of Rochester, and several other school districts and cities across the United States. So, Why is this day important?
 
This simple act of acknowledgment of the Indigenous Peoples of this land and the contributions they have made can and will be the catalyst for Indigenous Peoples’ sense of belonging, existence, and self-worth. This is imperative; otherwise, it can be easy for American Indian students to feel like they don't belong. Others often question our identity and existence (I say ‘our’ because I am an Indigenous person) because many history books refer to us as being figures of the past: a people who did not exist before 1492. Acknowledging Indigenous Peoples’ Day will begin to dispel the myths of American Indians being nothing but relics of the past.
 
The Indigenous Peoples’ history, culture, and way of life were targeted for assimilation through the boarding schools and foster care system before the passing of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978 and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978. Very few American Indian families have not been directly impacted by the forced boarding school and adoption era.
 
My Mother was sent to St. Francis Boarding School and eventually ended up aging out of the foster care system. She was separated from her three older brothers, one older sister, and one younger sister. While in foster care, she repeatedly asked about her younger sister. A few days after her 18th birthday, she was contacted by the state of South Dakota and notified that her sister was living in a town 45 minutes away and she had been there for 13 years.

Most of us have an inherent human desire to belong and to be part of a community. Our ancestors existed so we can exist. Our existence is current. Our existence is our future.
 
If one does not understand the past and is told things about history that are inaccurate, one begins to internalize all of that information: one may begin to believe inaccuracies about one’s self. We must recognize how the past affects us today, how it will affect us tomorrow, and how it will affect our future generations.
 
Our American Indian students are the epitome of strength and resilience.

If you have a question about resources available for students or staff, or if you wish to discuss any of these ideas further, please consider reaching out to me.

​Pilamaya. (Thank you.)

This post brought to you by Dawn Bjoraker, American Indian Liaison for the Rochester Public Schools 
Feel free to contact Bjoraker at 507.328.4236 or to connect with her via email

When thinking about working out at the gym, for the optimal work out it's important to work on cardio for a time, work on flexibility for a time, & work on strengthening our arms, legs and core for a time. One may even engage in interval training where one does very short shots of each of these, with rest in between. Interval training is defined as: 
​
noun

1. training in which an athlete alternates between two activities, typically requiring different rates of speed, degrees of effort, etc.

Why interval training is effective? Interval training is a great way to hammer out a quick workout, and it's extremely effective for transforming your physique. By incorporating intense periods of work with short recovery segments, interval training helps you give maximum intensity while still maintaining your exercise form.

By now you are probably wondering what all of this has to do with the teaching of mathematics? The same thing that happens to our bodies with distributed practice (exercise) happens to our brains when we space the learning over time. Each time we are exposed to an idea or concept, we are able to build upon our previous learning.  In education, this is referred to as spaced learning, distributed practice or spiraled curriculum. There is an overwhelming body of research that supports the benefits of spiraling the learning versus massed learning. 

When I was last a math student in the Rochester Public Schools, and in my early career of being a teacher of math in the Rochester Public Schools, the common and accepted practice for teaching was called “massing”. We would teach a mathematical concept or algorithm for an entire unit, take an assessment, record a score and move on to the next concept. This practice may be difficult for some teachers to let go of because they felt they gained some level of success.  Sometimes as teachers, we feel if we teach something really well until the students in our class “know it”, then we have ensured that our students have achieved success. The concern lies in that they may “know it” for the moment, but research tell us they may not retain it for the long run. 

 One way to think about it in our lives is this. How many passwords does a person need to keep track of these days?  Which passwords are easiest to remember? The passwords that have a personal connection and/or are used most frequently. Think of a password that was assigned and/or one that may only use a couple of times a year. How hard is it to retrieve that password? It can be frustrating when one struggles to remember it because it was known at one time, but hasn’t been accessed enough times or recently enough. Spiraling helps learners make connections over time, which creates more robust pathways for recalling information (CEMSE)

The positive effect of spaced learning (spiraling curriculum) has been documented in the literature since 1885. John Hattie listed it as having  the 12th most positive effect on learning on a list of over 100 strategies in his book Visible Learning  (Sticky learning). We now know that distributed practice in our core instruction is the way that most students will learn, retain and apply learning to new situations. Spiraling leads to better long-term mastery of facts, skills and concepts (Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education).

So how does this connect back to the gym workout? If an individual worked on one part of their training for 3 weeks, moved to another part of training for 3 weeks and yet another part of  training for another week, their whole physique would transform at different rates-gaining in one area, losing in another. If the desire is to transform the whole physique, as mentioned at the beginning of this blog, it would be important to work on all parts simultaneously to ensure that the whole body is in better shape. That’s what we are trying to achieve with students. It's important to work on all areas of mathematics and continuously build upon prior learning.

This post brought to you by Ann Miller, K-8 Math Specialist

Recently on a trip to Colorado, my family and I went on a white water rafting trip down the Arkansas River. The trip through Rocky Mountain White Water Rafters was advertised as a class lll-IV stating, “consistent rapids will keep your attention the entire time”.  The reality was that this was a fairly safe trip to take a family of novices down a river in ridiculous looking wetsuits (which I chose to believe had been washed since being worn by the previous rafter) in a rubber raft.  As we got to the spot where we were going to put the raft into the river, the lead guide gave us the mandatory safety talk.  He proceeded to give us tips on how to sit in the boat, how to row the boat, what to expect, etc. Then he said something rather unexpected, “In the unlikely event that you fall out of the raft, you need to actively participate in your own rescue.”

This struck me as, “Well duh!” Why would I not try to help in my own rescue - this goes without saying. However, later when talking to the guide, I learned this is generally not the case.  In his experience, most of the time people expect to be rescued by the guide’s efforts alone, or they simply have no idea how to help themselves. Agency is what these tourist lack.

What is agency and what does it have to do with education? Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.  Ultimately this is what we want for all our students. If students have developed agency, they are meeting all the criteria listed under the ‘Student Achievement’ section of the RPS Graduate Profile. These criteria include the following: Critical thinkers, ethical contributors, skilled communicators, effective collaborators, resilient learners and success ready. In other words, they are independent thinkers and are actively participating in achieving their own success.

So what does agency mean for us as educators? Teacher agency is the capacity of teachers to act purposefully and constructively to direct their professional growth and contribute to the growth of their colleagues. Rather than responding passively to learning opportunities, teachers who have agency are aware of their part in their professional growth and make learning choices to achieve their goals.

If we are to attain the universal goals set forth in the RPS Graduate Profile - to make educational equity a reality by ensuring every student experiences high-quality teaching and learning in a culturally responsive environment - educators need to take the challenge to move from compliance to agency. We need to actively pursue professional learning experiences that continually improve the quality of our teaching skills.

The National Commission on Teaching and Americas Future published a comprehensive paper, “Moving from Compliance to Agency”, in 2016. In it, they outline the conditions that do and do not support teacher agency and how district and school leaders can improve educational agency.
 
The bottom line is that we as teachers, just like our students, learn best when we are intrinsically motivated.  We need to collaborate with our administrators and staff developers in designing sustainable professional growth opportunities that meet our needs as well as aligning to district and site goals. 

In an effort to encourage teacher agency, the Secondary C&I team developed some options for teachers to pursue growth opportunities that our Elementary C&I team is also excited to offer. Pages on the Patio and Bundle-up with Books is a PD opportunity that allows educators to read professional books, listen to podcasts and share their learning at a fun, off-campus site.  Watch for the next round of Bundle-up with Books coming this winter.

Independent Study for Individualized Learning is the second framework that allows teachers to personalize and facilitate their own learning.  Participants choose their focus area, control their own learning schedule and collaborate with a member of the C&I team to advance their own professional development. Information regarding the next round Independent Study will be coming soon.

In summary, let’s not wait to be rescued, if we are going to survive and better yet thrive, we need to become active participants in our own personal and professional growth. 

This post brought to you by Julie Ace, Elementary Implementation Associate

Getting Attention 
​When getting a student’s attention, remember to use The Above strategy. Find your freeze body spot, low breathe while listening to the wave. Smile. Do your Above, Pause and Whisper. All three must be done together in order for it to be most effective.