Online Professional Development Sessions

Things to Check Out

Teaching Problems & the Problems of Teaching

If getting Dan Meyer’s pot stirrer award wasn’t good enough to get you reading Dylan Kane’s blog then maybe this will be. Dylan has begun to unpack Magdalene Lampert’s Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching in a series of posts on his blog. Dylan is going chapter by chapter to dig into the type of ambitious mathematics teaching that Lampert writes about in her book. Dylan starts here, so you might as well, where he describes his background and his goals for reading the book.  

Michael Pershan also investigates Lampert’s book from another angle, that of the teacher/writer.

If you want to know more about Lampert’s ambitious math teaching go to TEDD.org developed by the University of Washington, where Lampert’s ideas are at the forefront of their work.  

All of this has inspired me to do my own investigation of Lampert’s book and look what just came in the mail!

Other Classrooms

Have you ever been in a colleague’s classroom, for whatever reason, even if it was for only 30 seconds? Were you able to notice anything?

Two years ago, my colleague and I made it a habit to visit each other’s classrooms during our prep periods. Besides the #MTBoS, it was the BEST professional development available to me each day. I was able to steal ideas and immediately use them with my students. I share this experience with teachers at conferences and trainings, but never have anything to point them to that might guide, encourage, and support them in this wonderful opportunity. Enter Steve Wyborney.

Steve Wyborney has posted a practical (and concise) series of posts on his blog titled Stepping Into Each Other’s Classrooms.

Steve says it best:

There may be teachers just a few moments down the hallway who are using highly effective strategies that could quickly empower our own instruction and positively impact our students.

I offer 4 challenges and several practical suggestions to turn that nearby opportunity into a powerful possibility.

In addition to the posts, Steve has included “The Animated Learning Walks Series” of videos for you and colleagues to refer to. Check them out and watch how you will take your teaching to a new level of awesome. My favorite is The Teaming Exchange.