July 2019 “I’M STILL LEARNING.” ~MICHELANGELO _____________________________________________________________________ How to Grow a Learning Mindset in your Team or Faculty: 10 Strategies for the Start of School Teacher mindsets are important! Here’s why: Teachers with learning mindsets continuously refine their craft. They support colleagues as learners, thus helping to build a school-wide learning culture. Teachers who chooseRead On >
elementary math
Coaching to Deepen Teachers’ Content Knowledge, Part 2
“If teachers are not engaging in academic dialogue centered on the content they teach and how people learn, then it is highly unlikely that they are engaging their students in these practices either.” (West & Cameron, 2013, p. 3) Although coaches sometimes facilitate content-focused workshops, most opportunities to build teachers’ mathematics content knowledge occurRead On >
Coaching to Deepen Teachers’ Content Knowledge, Part 1
One of a math coach’s primary responsibilities is to help build teachers’ mathematics content knowledge. To be truly effective as a facilitator of students’ mathematics learning, a teacher must first see herself as a competent and confident mathematician. But what if she doesn’t? Many teachers possess fragile understanding of mathematics as a result of weakRead On >
Creating a Vision of a Good Math Classroom
Well, now that we have seen each other,” said the unicorn, “if you’ll believe in me, I’ll believe in you. Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There Seeing is believing. Teachers’ mental models for mathematics teaching and learning are based in large part on their own experiences as math learners and as mathRead On >
Coaching for Mathematics Instructional Design
Many of us were taught mathematics in elementary and secondary school as rote memorization of mechanical procedures, period. We sat quietly and watched as our teachers demonstrated a new procedure on the chalkboard, overhead projector, whiteboard, document camera, or smart board. Then we attempted to replicate this procedure with problems copied from the board ontoRead On >
Teaching Perseverance
How do you teach students to hang in there when learning gets difficult? We talk about the importance of perseverance all the time these days; it’s akin to growth mindset but not precisely the same thing. The ability to persevere in mathematical work relies on a set of skills that some students have and othersRead On >
Tame your Inner Boa: Reclaim your Learning Mindset
Oh, I’m being eaten by a boa constrictor, A boa constrictor, a boa constrictor, I’m being eaten by a boa constrictor, and I don’t like it–one bit. Well, what do you know? It’s nibblin’ my toe. Oh, gee, It’s up to my knee. Oh my, It’s up to my thigh. Oh, fiddle, It’s up toRead On >