Services
It's Time to Start Your Math Journey
Flexible services to fit the needs of districts, schools, and organizations
On-Site Professional Development
Navigating today’s math classroom can be difficult. New standards, new curricula, new methods of pedagogy – it can all feel overwhelming. Whether you need support in understanding vertical alignment, fostering discussion-based classrooms, or unpacking the standards for math practice, I’m here to help.
Instructional Routines are specific and repeatable designs for learning that support both the teacher and students in the classroom. Each routine provides a familiar, accessible structure that supports the automaticity of mathematical thinking and problem solving, enabling all students to engage more fully in learning opportunities while building crucial mathematical thinking habits. These routines are very flexible and can be utilized in the classroom at the beginning of class as a warm-up, or they can also be used as the entire lesson for that day. In these workshops, we will explore specific routines in-depth by experiencing the routine, unpacking the phases of it, and planning for classroom implementation.
Workshops offered:
● Building Community Through Math Routines
● Instructional Routines: General Introduction Session
● Instructional Routines: Number Talks
● Instructional Routines: Notice and Wonder
● Instructional Routines: How is Each Unique? (Which One Doesn’t Belong? Which Three Go
Together?)
● Math Language Routines: General Introduction Session
● Math Language Routine 1: Stronger and Clearer
● Math Language Routine 2: Collect & Display
● Math Language Routine 3: Clarify, Critique, Correct
● Math Language Routine 4: Information Gap
● Math Language Routine 5: Co-Craft Questions
● Math Language Routine 6: Three Reads
● Math Language Routine 7: Compare and Connect
● Math Language Routine 8: Discussion Supports
Mathematics classrooms are evolving, and our roles as educators are evolving as well. These workshops are all about learning how to transition from a “sage on the stage” to a facilitator of discourse. We will share strategies for fostering an environment that centers student discussion, why it matters for our students, and even do some math along the way! Participants will leave these workshops knowing how the Standards for Math Practice (particularly SMP 1, 3, and 6) are supported by regular classroom discourse amongst students.
Ensuring that students go beyond rote memorization and learn to reason mathematically is a critical challenge for math teachers. A key component to success is creating a classroom that encourages discourse that moves past “show and tell” to true understanding. We explore effective discussion techniques to create a classroom community conducive to student-centered talk. Participants will have the opportunity to master practices, apply them to their own content, enact them with colleagues and students, reflect on their outcomes, and troubleshoot with peers.
Workshops offered:
● Facilitating Meaningful Discourse
● Improving the Quality of Partner Talk in Math Class
● Posing Purposeful Questions
● 5 Practices for Orchestrating Purposeful Discussions in Math
● Leveraging Student Thinking to Facilitate the Lesson Synthesis
● Communicating Like Mathematicians
Teachers often do not have the opportunity to critically examine what students are learning outside of their grade band. In these sessions, we follow the progression of a concept, skill, or representation from the foundations in kindergarten through high school.
Workshops offered:
● Arithmetic for Every Age
● Equality for Every Age
● Algebraic Thinking for Every Age
● Landscapes for Learning: Tracing the Threads through the Grades
■ Addition and Subtraction
■ Multiplication and Division
■ Fractions, Decimals & Percents
■ Proportional Reasoning
● Modeling Matters! Examining the Progression of Representations and Manipulatives
Instructional Coaching
One-on-one coaching has been shown to improve instructional practice and student achievement by offering teachers a partner in pedagogy. By strengthening our own mathematical confidence and resilience, we learn how to pass these strengths on to our students.
It’s nice to hear the “in theory” advice, but classrooms are complex spaces where one small shift can have a large effect on whether students leave class with confidence and understanding. To help, we come into classrooms to offer high-quality in-the-moment content coaching with the goal of improving the teaching and learning of mathematics.
Content coaching is an immediate way to grow math content knowledge and pedagogical strategies, and improve student learning. Content coaching is not evaluative, isolated, observations, or “another pair of hands in the room”. Content coaching is a time for thought partners to collaboratively plan, teach, and reflect on evidence of student learning and its implications on teacher practice.
In addition to coaching your teachers in the moment, I can also provide “coach the coaches” services, in which your school-based or district-based math coaches and I work together to enhance their coaching practice.
Professional Learning Communities
During PLC time, we specifically focus on student learning, teaching, and the relationship between the two. All members of the team are committed to improving their teaching through experimenting with practices learned from each other. In the PLC setting, we cultivate an equitable environment of sharing, valuing multiple sources of expertise, including both the experiences of the teachers involved as well as our own experiences as former classroom teachers. In our sessions, we make teaching practices visible so that we can discuss, question, and consider implementing them. During the meetings (virtual or in-person), educators are empowered to learn from each others’ practices, highlighting and elevating effective pedagogy.