Online Professional Development Sessions

Tonight!

Utilizing Math History to Embrace Equity, Failure, and Authentic Problem Solving

in Leadership Communities

Presented by 

Sunil Singh

In order to move forward in math education with clarity, conviction, and passion for equity, we need to have a broader lens. Specifically, one that looks back at our past and the multitude of interwoven stories from thousands of years of global contributions. The thematic development of mathematics, with all of its historic struggles, human resilience, and collective journeys, must be braided into our equity goals and mandates for the math leaders of today and tomorrow.

To join us at 9:00 PM EST for this webinar click here!

Next Week 

Rich Math Tasks & 5 Practices in Online Teaching

Presented by: 

Theresa Wills

Explore strategies to implement rich mathematical tasks and discussions in your synchronous online classroom. In this webinar, you will engage in interactive slides to complete a task. You will incorporate multiple representations such as using concrete, pictorial, and abstract. Then, all participants will engage in a math talk that utilizes the 5 practices. Register to see how to transition your pedagogical practices into the online environment and keep your math class fun, interactive, collaborative, and rigorous.

Register for the webinar here, and join us next week!

You can always check out past and upcoming Global Math Department webinars. Click here for the archives or get the webinars in podcast form!

From the World of Math Ed

Happy Hunger Games: AP Edition

There have been some amazing responses of how parents, teachers, schools, and businesses have come together across the last couple weeks to solve the problems that have arisen amidst the coronavirus pandemic.  There have also been some pretty poor responses. One such response is that from the College Board in how they are handing AP Exams for students this year, enacting a literal Hunger Games in which the system is heavily exposed, and the people who lose are those who are forced to play. 

With all of the noise pointed at the coronavirus, there is little collective attention or organization from teacher groups to discuss these issues openly and to disrupt the injustices that are occurring. You may not have seen this, but a group of AP teachers came together to write an open letter to the College Board to address the inequities that their current solution presents. The exam, which is normally 2-3 hours, is now only 45 minutes; students without devices are being told to use smartphones, while students with desktops will be able to print questions out. The exam is only open for a small window across the world, meaning some students will take the exam at midnight, while others will take the exam at noon. Why is it that this inequitable injustice is the best solution that College Board has come up with in order to “award” students college credit for courses they take “early” during high school? And what do they think the scores will look like when they return, when students from more affluent communities achieve higher scores, not because of better instruction or more content knowledge, but because they had a printer and a large screen computer? Will students who score 5s feel as though they have accomplished something as compared to their 1 scoring peers?

Students in AP courses are being told that “this is the best we can do for you”, and many are naively going to try to do their best on a test that will measure little but privilege and wealth, believing that not doing so will somehow keep them from succeeding in the colleges to which they’ve already been accepted. 

As others have said about many of the systems we have used in education simply because of tradition, it is time to question whether the system of Advanced Placement seeks to serve students or the system of capitalism so that the for-profit company of College Board can continue to earn a dollar on the backs of teachers and students worldwide. Instead of banding teachers together right now in the name of learning, the have pitted students and teachers against one another in a game they will name as grit and sacrifice for the sake of tradition. 

The system of AP courses has always struggled with inequity as the populations of students in the courses almost never reflect the population of the community around it, making the courses a system of elitism for the dominant population to believe their students are “ahead” of other groups simply by gaining entry to the class (Just go check out your school’s OCR data to see how y’all are doing) . By no means am I here to judge any teacher who is still trying to “make it work” for the students enrolled in their class, trying to make the best of what you have been told you must do to “help your students”. May you come to realize, though, that in doing so, without speaking up about what is occurring, about what we know is wrong, you are just a pawn in the game they are playing. 

In continuing to pretend to go on as normal, you normalize their behavior as acceptable and send the message to your students that “this is just the way things work here.” It is in times when we know an injustice is occurring and we choose to be silent that we continue to let these systems, run on tradition, prevail.

 

To those AP teachers whose students are testing these next few weeks, may you find space to name these injustices and ways to dismantle the system. May you join together to dream a new dream of what these learning spaces could be. Lest we “go back to normal” and pretend to not know what game we are really playing. 

Masked Solidarity,

Lauren Baucom

@LBMathemagician

Online Professional Development Sessions

Tonight!

Creating an Inclusive Environment Using Project Based Learning in Middle School Mathematics

Presented by Rhonda Hewer

Is there a way for students to engage in the mathematics outlined in the curriculum in a relevant, practical way that will improve understanding and retention? Answer: YES! In this webinar the audience will be exposed to the components of a quality project based learning program in math through the narrative of the geodesic dome project. It will be evident how this type of “instruction” supports diverse cultural and learning needs of the classroom while digging into rich mathematical thinking at a level appropriate for all learners. The project involves multiple strands from the mathematics curriculum while developing global competencies of collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking and citizenship. Register now to hear how this group of Grade 8 students developed a strong understanding of math by using their toolbox of strategies to solve practical problems for an authentic audience.

To join us at 9:00 PM EST for this webinar click here!

Next Week 

Utilizing Math History to Embrace Equity, Failure, and Authentic Problem Solving in Leadership Communities

Presented by Sunil Singh

In order to move forward in math education with clarity, conviction, and passion for equity, we need to have a broader lens. Specifically, one that looks back at our past and the multitude of interwoven stories from thousands of years of global contributions. The thematic development of mathematics, with all of its historic struggles, human resilience, and collective journeys, must be braided into our equity goals and mandates for the math leaders of today and tomorrow.

Register ahead of time by clicking here!

You can always check out past and upcoming Global Math Department webinars. Click here for the archives or get the webinars in podcast form!

From the World of Math Ed

Coronavirus by the Numbers

Citing many statistics, Nikole Hannah-Jones (‪@nhannahjones‬) recently wrote a thread about how Black Americans are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and why this is the case.

Nikole ends the thread with the following statement: “Being black in America, a country built and maintained on a system of racial caste, kills. This virus is NOT the great equalizer, it is simply exploiting the grave inequalities that have always existed and hastening an early death that was coming for so many black folks anyway. If it is unacceptable now, it has to be unacceptable when we conquer this virus. And I hope we as journalists, we as society, will stop putting forth notions that a force — good or bad — can be equal in a vastly unequal society.”

To make these inequalities visible, Melvin Peralta (‪@melvinmperalta‬) shared his art on twitter which contrasts COVID-19 cases by race/ethnicity with the population by race/ethnicity in his current home state of Michigan.

Drawing on data from APM Research Lab, Melvin shared images of various U.S. states, comparing the state’s population by race/ethnicity to its COVID-related deaths.

Christelle Rocha (@Maestra_Rocha)

DO, WATCH, READ
 

My colleagues and I have begun using a simple structure during this sudden, pandemic-induced transition to remote learning. I will try to do the same with this newsletter, by suggesting one item to DO, one to WATCH, and one to READ. I have tweeted a longer description of this structure if you’re interested in learning more about it.

DO:

Fawn Nguyen tweeted out this puzzle with a request to avoid spoilers:

WATCH:

Marian Dingle and Jose Vilson are co-leading a webinar for NCTM’s #NCTM100 sessions that I invite you to register for and watch two days from now, on Thursday April 23:

Recordings will be available at a later point if this precise scheduling does not work for you. Check out NCTM’s 100 Days of PD site for more!

READ:

Check out this opinion piece in Forbes from John Ewing, the president of Math for America, who tweeted out a link:

DO, WATCH, and READ whatever you have the bandwidth for, even/especially if it is nothing at all: Remember to be kind to yourself.

Benjamin Dickman [@benjamindickman]

Online Professional Development Sessions

Tonight!

The Power of Words

Presented by Diana McClean & Sam Kaplan

Evaluating our word choice can help change our thinking. Overtime we (educators) have become numb to the powerful student facing descriptors that when used haphazardly can define student identity. This talk will put forward ideas to think deeply about ways we can shift our language to improve student identities.
 

To join us at 9:00 PM EST for this webinar click here!

Next Week 

Creating an Inclusive Environment Using Project Based Learning in Middle School Mathematics

Presented by Rhonda Hewer

Is there a way for students to engage in the mathematics outlined in the curriculum in a relevant, practical way that will improve understanding and retention? Answer: YES! In this webinar the audience will be exposed to the components of a quality project based learning program in math through the narrative of the geodesic dome project. It will be evident how this type of “instruction” supports diverse cultural and learning needs of the classroom while digging into rich mathematical thinking at a level appropriate for all learners. The project involves multiple strands from the mathematics curriculum while developing global competencies of collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking and citizenship. Register now to hear how this group of grade 8 students developed a strong understanding of math by using their toolbox of strategies to solve practical problems for an authentic audience.

Register ahead of time by clicking here!

You can always check out past and upcoming Global Math Department webinars. Click here for the archives or get the webinars in podcast form!

From the World of Math Ed

In mid-March, schools across the country began closing the week before our spring break. On Thursday March 12, my district closed for an extended spring break two days early. By Monday March 16, the closure was pushed to April 3rd. Teachers were told to treat our time like an extended spring break – no lessons, no assignments, no grades – and we were left waiting to hear about any distance learning options. The next week, the governor announced that schools would be closed until April 24th. After this, I knew it was very unlikely that we would return to school this year. I slowly came to grips with the fact that I wouldn’t get to see my students every day. I wouldn’t get to see my seniors walk across the stage; I wouldn’t get to see my kids dressed to the nines at prom; or spend the day with the senior class at the park for the senior picnic – the list of lost milestones is endless. We suddenly went from seeing our kids every day to not knowing when or if we were going to see them again. I felt this weight heavily as I tried to wrap my mind around what my new normal would look like in the weeks ahead. Everything surrounding school felt uncertain – would AP and end-of-course tests happen? What resources would we have to finish content and prepare our students? How will we know if students are eligible for graduation? Will next year’s standards be adjusted to allow for lost time and content? The uncertainty of how to try to move forward and the fear of the unknown was really overwhelming. 
 
Our superintendent told faculty and staff that we would not be doing any formal distance learning. Honestly, I was relieved. I knew there was no way that we could guarantee that all of the students in our district had access to the internet and devices, and I felt wary that distance learning was something that would just perpetuate inequities. The students who are “good at school” would be fine, and the students who lack a strong social network and struggle in school would just continue to slip through the cracks. While I was spared the stress of trying to master a totally new learning platform as I have watched colleagues in other districts try to handle, the lack of structured time with my kids has been a huge struggle. I’m grateful that without specific requirements, we are able to meet kids where they are and give them activities to engage without the pressure of grades and due dates. But I also feel disconnected without any type of consistency in place. 
 
In the midst of the uncertainty and worry and grief, I’ve felt such deep gratitude for new ways of experiencing community and connectedness. Zoom meetings with students and family and Marco Polo (a video chat app) threads have allowed me to talk to and see the many people that I miss so much. The #mtbos Twitter community has been incredible – they are supportive and sharing resources and tools for distance learning. Spending time in isolation has made me so grateful for the relationships I do have. While these virtual communities are somewhat of a facsimile for the socialization and connection that I’m used to, it still helps me to feel a part of something bigger and cared for. I know we are in this for a long time, but it won’t be forever. I hope that our experience through all of this informs a new normal – more space, connection, flexibility, and grace.

Written by Lizi Metts (@LiziMetts)