WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:01.580 --> 00:00:08.040 Hi. Welcome. Thank you for joining me as I share my thinking and ideas around this 00:00:08.040 --> 00:00:14.790 idea of having a math club for teachers. So my name is Angela and I've been 00:00:14.790 --> 00:00:18.690 working with our board as the numeracy special assignment teacher the past 00:00:18.690 --> 00:00:23.519 couple years and before that as the math learning partner. And in my role I work 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:30.119 with program team, teachers, teacher teams, schools, administrators around building 00:00:30.119 --> 00:00:35.550 capacity, around everything related to math and mathematics. There is numeracy programming. 00:00:35.550 --> 00:00:39.809 We might look at pedagogy. We might look at different strategies for 00:00:39.809 --> 00:00:43.710 teaching.We might look at programming. We can work in small groups and large 00:00:43.710 --> 00:00:48.360 groups. So we put together a variety of different professional development 00:00:48.360 --> 00:00:54.180 opportunities including PLC's and working groups and book studies. And 00:00:54.180 --> 00:00:59.670 these are all wonderful and amazing ways to work with our teachers and 00:00:59.670 --> 00:01:06.180 build capacity. We came across this idea, we wanted to present professional 00:01:06.180 --> 00:01:12.000 development for our teachers where it could come with the intention of 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:18.060 learning more about math. Learning more about how we learn math and how we teach math 00:01:18.060 --> 00:01:23.340 and this idea that we needed a place, a safe place for teachers to say, I just 00:01:23.340 --> 00:01:29.880 don't know. I'm just not familiar with it. I just don't know how to do this. So we 00:01:29.880 --> 00:01:34.680 came up with this idea of having a math club. So for the past two years we have 00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:42.060 math club. So we meet once a month and we do everything math. So yeah, so for the 00:01:42.060 --> 00:01:47.820 next half an hour so I just want to share with you some of the ideas and the 00:01:47.820 --> 00:01:56.280 things that we do the math club. So we want to start with doing the math. So we 00:01:56.280 --> 00:02:01.649 always start our math club with a math question. So I just want you to take a 00:02:01.649 --> 00:02:09.330 moment and work through this campfire camaraderie math problem. So five friends, Bear, 00:02:09.330 --> 00:02:12.490 Squirrel, Rabbit, Deer, and Owl are going to have themselves a bonfire 00:02:12.490 --> 00:02:17.650 and they are gonna roast some marshmallows. However they need to sit 00:02:17.650 --> 00:02:22.090 together carefully. The have a particular order they need to sit in. So I just want you to 00:02:22.090 --> 00:02:25.630 read through the rest of the problem on your own and figure out whose going to sit where 00:02:25.630 --> 00:02:31.870 around this campfire. Who can't sit beside who? And go from there. 00:02:31.870 --> 00:02:38.950 So start with bear's favorite snack is rabbit. I'll just give you a moment. 00:02:38.950 --> 00:02:41.490 We won't take too long. 00:02:45.060 --> 00:02:49.140 So we can see when we first get into the problem that we have to start thinking 00:02:49.140 --> 00:02:55.330 logically through this. So you may want to think about what tools you might use. 00:02:55.330 --> 00:02:59.230 Maybe you're going to use some drawing. Maybe you're going to get different 00:02:59.230 --> 00:03:02.770 colored cubes to represent the different animals. Maybe you're going to use 00:03:02.770 --> 00:03:08.890 letters. Maybe you are going to actually draw the animals. So whatever your 00:03:08.890 --> 00:03:12.280 strategy's gonna be once you have one and you think about what you're gonna 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:16.030 do. I want you just start with one of the animals. Who are you going tostart with first? 00:03:16.030 --> 00:03:23.740 Who are you gonna sit first? And then next. And how is that going to affect your 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:28.030 next placement of animal. And then I'm gonna stop you there. We're not gonna work through 00:03:28.030 --> 00:03:32.350 the rest of the problem together but I'm going to thank you for indulging in that 00:03:32.350 --> 00:03:36.790 little bit of math and a little bit of play and it's just to get us thinking 00:03:36.790 --> 00:03:43.840 and started on this idea that through our experiences with the math we can 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:49.630 grow our own understanding and our own learning and we can then have a deeper 00:03:49.630 --> 00:03:53.770 appreciation for the types of opportunities and learning experiences 00:03:53.770 --> 00:03:59.920 our children and our students are going to be experiencing in our own math 00:03:59.920 --> 00:04:04.510 programs. So we'll start with this idea of like, why do you want to start a math 00:04:04.510 --> 00:04:09.010 club and what are some of the different ways to promote learning within the math 00:04:09.010 --> 00:04:13.000 club. So I'm going to share three different things that, ways that we 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:19.750 have approached the math and approached the learning throughout the throughout 00:04:19.750 --> 00:04:23.290 the three years that we've had math club. So we're starting with this question of 00:04:23.290 --> 00:04:29.110 why do you want to start a math club? Well there seems to be this understanding and 00:04:29.110 --> 00:04:32.020 then we all agreed on this I think that there's a growing need to improve 00:04:32.020 --> 00:04:36.400 student achievement in math. We see it in our math scores on EQAO. Year after 00:04:36.400 --> 00:04:41.949 year, our scores keep getting are just active reminders that our students are 00:04:41.949 --> 00:04:48.849 not working to a capacity that we think they should be or that the potential 00:04:48.849 --> 00:04:55.000 that's there. We see it in our in our classrooms themselves. We see them 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:59.680 when we're working with teachers. We see that we are in the elementary program we 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:04.030 notice there's gaps to be filled. Starting early on we know that our 00:05:04.030 --> 00:05:07.719 students are coming to school with a little bit of a deficit to begin with 00:05:07.719 --> 00:05:12.340 and we're backfilling starting from the primary grades. We know sometimes by the 00:05:12.340 --> 00:05:15.909 times our students get to grade 7 and 8, they withdrawn themselves from the 00:05:15.909 --> 00:05:20.020 program. They're there. They're in the math but they're not doing the math. They're 00:05:20.020 --> 00:05:25.060 just going through the motions a bit. It's confusing. It's scary and they don't 00:05:25.060 --> 00:05:31.270 know how to make sense of it. So we see that yeah there's really a concern there 00:05:31.270 --> 00:05:36.240 not just in our own particular classrooms but as a as a larger 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:42.520 environment in larger school. Just the other day even in these times when 00:05:42.520 --> 00:05:49.000 nothing is as it was yesterday, then this headline shows up that even 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:55.990 though we're in these times of COVID, our teachers candidates for next year that 00:05:55.990 --> 00:05:59.770 graduate teachers college, they need to pass this math test. That's how much emphasis 00:05:59.770 --> 00:06:04.509 we've decided to put on math and math teaching and the skills we want our 00:06:04.509 --> 00:06:11.770 teachers to have. But we know that the math programs that we 00:06:11.770 --> 00:06:14.800 want our children to experience, that we want our teachers to be able to 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:19.000 facilitate and put together, go beyond just knowing how to pass 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:24.279 a math test. They go beyond the basics and just procedures of math. We want them 00:06:24.279 --> 00:06:29.969 to understand what's happening. So we need to help our teachers build programs 00:06:29.969 --> 00:06:34.630 where math goes beyond procedural understanding. Where our students can 00:06:34.630 --> 00:06:38.690 start thinking about math in flexible ways. And that 00:06:38.690 --> 00:06:42.800 the teacher themselves have a strong enough understanding of the math that 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:47.150 they can respond to their student needs. They understand where their students are 00:06:47.150 --> 00:06:53.750 and they know what they need to help them move forward. At the centre of good 00:06:53.750 --> 00:06:59.270 teaching is this idea of teacher efficacy. And it's it's so important that 00:06:59.270 --> 00:07:04.190 our teachers truly see themselves and the teaching and the learning, that they feel 00:07:04.190 --> 00:07:11.230 confident enough in their ability that they can teach an amazing math program. 00:07:11.230 --> 00:07:16.700 So that brings us to kind of like a like a starting point with ourselves like, 00:07:16.700 --> 00:07:22.280 what are your specific math qualifications? Maybe you have honors in 00:07:22.280 --> 00:07:26.000 math. Maybe you teach senior math so you have your senior 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:31.760 qualifications or intermediate potentially. Do you have your AQ? Part one? 00:07:31.760 --> 00:07:36.170 Two? Your specialty? Did you take other courses? Did you do some online 00:07:36.170 --> 00:07:40.760 learning or maybe some book studies or maybe you have no math 00:07:40.760 --> 00:07:45.980 qualifications at all which wouldn't be surprising because our elementary 00:07:45.980 --> 00:07:50.360 teachers don't necessarily have to have a background in math to become qualified 00:07:50.360 --> 00:07:56.420 teachers in Ontario. That being sad doesn't mean they can't teach it. It just 00:07:56.420 --> 00:08:03.590 means they don't have a background in it. So the question that that brings up is 00:08:03.590 --> 00:08:08.810 how confident are you with teaching your course, your grade, just random math that 00:08:08.810 --> 00:08:13.160 you're working on. How confident do you think the teachers that you support are 00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:18.580 with their skills. A higher level of confidence you know it is going to 00:08:18.580 --> 00:08:23.810 reflect in a higher level of comfort which is going to have that high teacher 00:08:23.810 --> 00:08:28.070 efficacy that we want right. At a lower comfort level is gonna have, the teachers 00:08:28.070 --> 00:08:32.270 are gonna have less confidence. This is not surprising that a lot of our 00:08:32.270 --> 00:08:36.770 elementary teachers do not feel this confidence in mathematics. I work with a 00:08:36.770 --> 00:08:41.210 lot of teachers who when they are approached with the idea of teaching 00:08:41.210 --> 00:08:46.370 grade six math, they take a step back. Intermediate grade 7 and 8, 00:08:46.370 --> 00:08:51.680 forget it. They don't even want to walk into the room. So as we even move through the 00:08:51.680 --> 00:08:55.910 grades, grade one, two, and three, they are like yeah I'm comfortable enough to teach it and 00:08:55.910 --> 00:09:04.100 then as we move up, it becomes a little less of a comfort from a lot of our 00:09:04.100 --> 00:09:10.520 teachers. And in the elementary program, the early years programs, we see that they're 00:09:10.520 --> 00:09:16.430 depends on what strands their teaching. It depends on the teacher themselves. It depends on the school. 00:09:16.430 --> 00:09:21.080 So we do see that there is definitely room for capacity building in the 00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:28.580 elementary program. So how do we support this growth? Well my suggestion is that 00:09:28.580 --> 00:09:36.050 we build on this idea of teacher efficacy. And we know that through math 00:09:36.050 --> 00:09:41.660 club we can do that. So if we can create a safe place for our teachers to come, to 00:09:41.660 --> 00:09:47.930 make mistakes, to not have to know, and to be able to ask questions, then I think 00:09:47.930 --> 00:09:53.870 that we can help them see themselves as stronger math students, stronger math 00:09:53.870 --> 00:10:00.370 learners and then that comes back into the classroom as stronger math teachers. 00:10:00.730 --> 00:10:09.260 At this, one of the things that we do a lot of in math club is math. We actually 00:10:09.260 --> 00:10:14.180 get our hands dirty and get right into the math. One of the principles that we 00:10:14.180 --> 00:10:19.640 work with is that one of the ways to learn math is to do math. So I'm gonna 00:10:19.640 --> 00:10:25.880 have you do some math right now. So grab a pencil and we'll go ahead and get 00:10:25.880 --> 00:10:30.650 started. I'm going to present you this question on cereal. So this question on 00:10:30.650 --> 00:10:33.860 cereal, it won't necessarily work for everybody. 00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:41.660 But when I'm presenting math problems to teachers in the math club, I try to 00:10:41.660 --> 00:10:47.510 find questions that I think will offer them a little bit of challenge. Not that 00:10:47.510 --> 00:10:51.020 all of us are gonna be challenged by this question and maybe none of you will 00:10:51.020 --> 00:10:55.310 be. But think about while you're working it through. think about what do you have to 00:10:55.310 --> 00:10:58.730 do to solve the problem. So we're not gonna spend too much time. 00:10:58.730 --> 00:11:03.380 I'm going to give you about two minutes to work through the cereal problem. Lily and her 00:11:03.380 --> 00:11:07.410 little brother, they love to eat breakfast together and they both eat 00:11:07.410 --> 00:11:12.540 cereal for breakfast. But Lilly eats four times as much cereal as her little 00:11:12.540 --> 00:11:19.110 brother does. Lily is much older. Also they eat from different cereal boxes 00:11:19.110 --> 00:11:25.110 because they have the different kinds of cereal. So one week something happened. 00:11:25.110 --> 00:11:30.480 Interesting. They started on a Monday with a full box and a half a box. Lily's 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:35.400 box was full. Mikey's box is only half full. But later in the week they both had 00:11:35.400 --> 00:11:39.390 the same amount of cereal left in the boxes. How did that happen? What deal was that? 00:11:39.390 --> 00:11:46.380 What fraction of the box did each child have left? So think 00:11:46.380 --> 00:11:50.190 about where do you want to start with that. What do you want to do with that? And 00:11:50.190 --> 00:11:54.420 we'll go from there. So I'll give you two minutes to work that through and then we 00:11:54.420 --> 00:11:59.340 will come back together. So I'm actually just going to play some music so you 00:11:59.340 --> 00:12:02.600 know you're not alone and I'll let you know when your two minutes is up. 00:13:29.350 --> 00:13:35.270 I'm gonna stop us there. So again you may not have the problem solved 00:13:35.270 --> 00:13:41.690 and again thank you for indulging in the question, in the work. And think about did 00:13:41.690 --> 00:13:47.960 you set yourself a conjecture first? Did you did you um pick a strategy that you 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:51.770 were gonna try? And did that strategy work? And what did you do when that strategy 00:13:51.770 --> 00:13:56.780 didn't work? The reason that I'm asking those questions and the reason that I 00:13:56.780 --> 00:14:01.270 presented this question for you is I wanted you to play a little bit in this 00:14:01.270 --> 00:14:06.980 realm or idea of productive struggle. We talk about it a lot with our students. We 00:14:06.980 --> 00:14:11.270 want them to be involved in productive struggle but I often see teachers come 00:14:11.270 --> 00:14:14.810 and rescue their students from this struggle. As soon as you get started they 00:14:14.810 --> 00:14:18.440 and the kids start to feel a little uncomfortable, I see teachers scoop in, 00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:25.390 swoop in. and scoop up their kids and offer them a number or a strategy or 00:14:25.390 --> 00:14:33.470 even even the answer. So I decided that if it might be something that's missing 00:14:33.470 --> 00:14:37.220 with our teachers. We're not used to working with productive struggle and we 00:14:37.220 --> 00:14:41.780 don't really know how to let our students do that. So at math club we try 00:14:41.780 --> 00:14:45.470 I try to pick problems that are challenging enough that there's some 00:14:45.470 --> 00:14:50.810 prodcutive struggle so that our teachers can experience these that the process 00:14:50.810 --> 00:14:54.440 of math: the problem-solving; the setting conjectures; the reasoning; 00:14:54.440 --> 00:14:58.880 the connecting; the trying the strategies when it doesn't work what do you do? 00:14:58.880 --> 00:15:02.210 Did you even think to give yourself two strategies? Is selecting the tools? Those 00:15:02.210 --> 00:15:06.940 kinds of things. So by getting our teachers involved in the process of 00:15:06.940 --> 00:15:13.910 problem solving with productive struggle I think they're more likely than to from 00:15:13.910 --> 00:15:18.079 that experience and at the wonderment that comes out of 00:15:18.079 --> 00:15:21.139 solving something that you struggled with and the and the excitement that you 00:15:21.139 --> 00:15:25.639 have when you when you're like, "Oh I got it!" We want to give that opportunity to 00:15:25.639 --> 00:15:30.560 our students when we can truly appreciate the struggle behind 00:15:30.560 --> 00:15:36.470 behind the productive struggle. So again it doesn't have to be the cereal question but as a 00:15:36.470 --> 00:15:43.160 question or a problem that you think would present some type of struggle for 00:15:43.160 --> 00:15:51.440 you for your teachers so that they too can enjoy the joy of solving a problem. 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:56.509 With the intent that now then they're going to say I'm gonna give this, when 00:15:56.509 --> 00:16:00.199 I see my students struggle, I'm gonna give them the opportunity to to stay 00:16:00.199 --> 00:16:07.209 with it, to play with it and work that through. All right so there we go. 00:16:08.649 --> 00:16:14.180 Always with anything we do and especially with mathematics it has to 00:16:14.180 --> 00:16:19.639 make sense. It has to be about understanding. We don't care we want kids 00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:23.120 to get the correct answer but it's more important that they understand what 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:26.060 they're doing. Why do you want the correct answer in the first place? What's that 00:16:26.060 --> 00:16:30.110 answer going to tell you? And if you've lost meaning in the problem you probably 00:16:30.110 --> 00:16:34.130 no longer know what it is you're trying to solve. So just really holding on to the 00:16:34.130 --> 00:16:38.839 idea that mathematics needs to make sense and that mathematics is about 00:16:38.839 --> 00:16:43.910 understanding. And again for a lot of our teachers this is a new idea. When we were 00:16:43.910 --> 00:16:48.470 being taught mathematics in school we were taught through through 00:16:48.470 --> 00:16:55.600 algorithms, through procedure, through drills, and we got really really good at 00:16:55.600 --> 00:17:04.400 working memory. In my role I see a lot of teachers presenting activities to our 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:10.159 students even today that really truly rely on process and procedure over 00:17:10.159 --> 00:17:14.270 understanding. So I do feel that perhaps we need to spend a little more 00:17:14.270 --> 00:17:18.490 time developing the understanding of the need for 00:17:18.490 --> 00:17:25.360 productive struggle and reasoning. All right so another question for you to share, 00:17:25.360 --> 00:17:30.549 something else we can do with mathematics is we can we yeah in our 00:17:30.549 --> 00:17:35.350 classrooms with math is encourage discourse and talk. So I'm gonna 00:17:35.350 --> 00:17:39.070 present you this question. This comes from Marilyn Burns. 00:17:39.070 --> 00:17:44.200 She has a blog and I just borrowed it from there. So the shaded part of this grid is 00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:51.210 13/20. So what do you think? 13/20. Agree or disagree? 00:17:51.210 --> 00:17:56.200 So just quickly like we're not gonna work this one through either because we 00:17:56.200 --> 00:17:58.870 won't have an opportunity to talk about it. But think about like do you agree? Like what 00:17:58.870 --> 00:18:03.580 your first instinct is to say I agree or I don't. What is it? And then take a 00:18:03.580 --> 00:18:14.049 pause for a moment and think about why you agree or disagree. Okay so like I 00:18:14.049 --> 00:18:16.720 said we're not gonna work it out. But what I would have you do now if we were 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:21.789 working in a face-to-face, I would have you if you agree go sit with all the 00:18:21.789 --> 00:18:24.909 people who agree and if you disagree go stay with all people who disagree with. 00:18:24.909 --> 00:18:30.580 And in your like groups you're going to talk about the why. Why do you agree with 00:18:30.580 --> 00:18:35.140 this? What do you see that's telling you that this is 13/20? And if 00:18:35.140 --> 00:18:38.500 you disagree, why do you think why are you disagreeing? What is it about those 00:18:38.500 --> 00:18:42.580 numbers and about this grid that is telling you no that can't be right? 00:18:42.580 --> 00:18:48.370 So you have that opportunity to defend your thinking with like-minded people. 00:18:48.370 --> 00:18:52.450 So you're just you're not going to have to be challenged without having an 00:18:52.450 --> 00:18:57.669 opportunity to think about it. Then once you guys have talked about that, you're 00:18:57.669 --> 00:19:04.330 going to have a spokesperson share out through the group your findings. Why do 00:19:04.330 --> 00:19:08.590 you guys agree? Here's why: A, B, C, and D. And why do we disagree? Here's why: A, B, 00:19:08.590 --> 00:19:14.679 C and D. then you have the whole, you have an opportunity now to change. Based 00:19:14.679 --> 00:19:18.340 on what you've just heard, do you want to change your initial answer? And if you do 00:19:18.340 --> 00:19:23.470 go ahead, sit with the people who agree, sit with who disagree and you get the picture. 00:19:23.470 --> 00:19:29.860 So we're moving around. What's important about this opportunity, it is the talk. It is 00:19:29.860 --> 00:19:38.860 the idea that our students need a chance to think about, to reason, to hammer it 00:19:38.860 --> 00:19:45.190 out, to rumble with it. And then talk about it. When they talk and they share 00:19:45.190 --> 00:19:48.580 ideas, they're going to be able to challenge each other and challenge 00:19:48.580 --> 00:19:53.620 themselves, challenge their thinking processes. This is another area in our 00:19:53.620 --> 00:19:58.960 classrooms where the teacher tends to do a lot of talking not the student. So in 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:03.910 math club again by presenting these opportunities for our teachers they get 00:20:03.910 --> 00:20:08.340 to feel that. They get to live that mathematics. They get to live in that 00:20:08.340 --> 00:20:14.380 discourse and see and really truly appreciate the value of it. We love how 00:20:14.380 --> 00:20:19.540 much rich conversation comes from a problem like this and how much deeper 00:20:19.540 --> 00:20:24.010 understanding can bubble up from having these kinds of conversations. And if we 00:20:24.010 --> 00:20:27.940 are in the habit of using them with their students then I think our students 00:20:27.940 --> 00:20:33.630 are going to be that much more benefited for it later. So again it's something, 00:20:33.630 --> 00:20:38.080 it's a practice that we want to see in our classroom, so we take it into math 00:20:38.080 --> 00:20:46.510 club and we and we explore with that. So by sharing our strategies and 00:20:46.510 --> 00:20:53.290 sharing our thinking, we are doing, we're learning the math but we're also 00:20:53.290 --> 00:20:58.020 doing a lot more for our practice. We're able to anticipate that student response. 00:20:58.020 --> 00:21:02.440 We often say to our teachers, do the math before you give it to the kids. So you 00:21:02.440 --> 00:21:06.220 can understand. You can anticipate where are they gonna struggle. Where do you 00:21:06.220 --> 00:21:09.850 need to push them? Where are you what - what strategies are you gonna have to 00:21:09.850 --> 00:21:15.309 maybe help them through? Or what things are they going to need? What prior knowledge is it 00:21:15.309 --> 00:21:18.340 going you have to learn? What extensions are you gonna give them? So by 00:21:18.340 --> 00:21:22.900 anticipating the student responses through doing the math, you get a better 00:21:22.900 --> 00:21:27.400 understanding of the math. You have a better handle on your classroom when you 00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:31.210 get to that point when you're working on these things and you can say to them AHA 00:21:31.210 --> 00:21:34.690 you know what, I see you're stuck here. I knew you were kind of gonna be so I've 00:21:34.690 --> 00:21:38.530 prepared you know this little piece over here. So anticipating this student 00:21:38.530 --> 00:21:42.820 response comes out of learning or sharing strategies and sharing thinking. 00:21:42.820 --> 00:21:46.659 This understanding of learning pathways better. We make call them pathways or 00:21:46.659 --> 00:21:54.220 trajectories or landscapes but we are starting to understand that there's a 00:21:54.220 --> 00:22:01.720 lot of work that has to go into when we first introduce a topic or an idea 00:22:01.720 --> 00:22:05.649 in mathematics to our final polished product, right to the final 00:22:05.649 --> 00:22:10.000 understanding. And there's all kinds of of ideas that children are gonna weave 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.590 in and out of. Tools and strategies and models they're gonna use and if we can 00:22:14.590 --> 00:22:18.519 understand, we as teachers can understand that pathway, to understand those 00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:22.960 trajectories a little bit more, than we are better prepared when we get into our 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:26.830 classrooms in front of our students working alongside our students, we're 00:22:26.830 --> 00:22:33.730 better prepared to help them through that. We'll have better materials. We'll 00:22:33.730 --> 00:22:38.799 have better questions. We'll have better tasks that support their learning where 00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:43.019 they are within the learning trajectory and and we'll be able to see that 00:22:43.019 --> 00:22:47.289 landscape for ourselves. And that makes us better able to respond to student 00:22:47.289 --> 00:22:55.419 needs. So we know that we want to have these rich rich beautiful conversations 00:22:55.419 --> 00:22:59.019 going on. We want these big tasks that our kids can work through. We want our 00:22:59.019 --> 00:23:04.120 kids to come up with strategies and grab different tools. We want them to have this 00:23:04.120 --> 00:23:10.179 discourse and this talk. But if we don't understand what that looks and sounds 00:23:10.179 --> 00:23:14.350 feels like for ourselves, then we will have a more difficult time presenting it 00:23:14.350 --> 00:23:19.149 to our students. So I'm suggesting that by presenting these experiences to our 00:23:19.149 --> 00:23:22.990 teachers in math club again they'll be able to bring them back to their 00:23:22.990 --> 00:23:28.000 classrooms have that experience of having lived it and be able to respond 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:34.000 to their students appropriately. So another thing that we can do in math 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:40.600 class is challenge ideas that that lead to a shift in practice. There is a lot 00:23:40.600 --> 00:23:47.830 of conversation around automaticity and facts and having them memorized and the 00:23:47.830 --> 00:23:56.110 debate between the two. I work with staff and teachers who sit in these two sides, 00:23:56.110 --> 00:24:02.640 these two camps. Either I've got facts memorized or you know automaticity and 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:08.230 there's no there's no, doesn't seem to be any bridge in the middle. So they're either for, I see lots 00:24:08.230 --> 00:24:12.010 of, I still see mad minutes. I still see postcards around the world games. 00:24:12.010 --> 00:24:17.620 I still see like stars beside kids names who know all of their facts up to seven. Not 00:24:17.620 --> 00:24:20.830 that we're not gonna be excited and happy for them but what about the kids 00:24:20.830 --> 00:24:28.179 that don't. And it's hard to convince somebody who's been teaching for a while 00:24:28.179 --> 00:24:35.980 who's been using these memorization and rote learning strategies and techniques, 00:24:35.980 --> 00:24:40.269 it's hard to convince them that they need to say maybe consider a shift in 00:24:40.269 --> 00:24:46.539 practice. So one thing that we have tried in math class is to give teachers a timed 00:24:46.539 --> 00:24:50.799 drill. So I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna present you short little drill. You have 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:57.610 15 seconds to answer the question. So that would imply that if you can answer 00:24:57.610 --> 00:25:02.230 them in the 15 seconds, then that would imply that you have these facts mastered. 00:25:02.230 --> 00:25:05.370 Here they are. 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:26.500 Okay time is up. You're done. Alright so I imagine you probably all did amazingly 00:25:26.500 --> 00:25:30.340 well with that. Some of you might even answered all five questions. Like great. 00:25:30.340 --> 00:25:35.650 Good for you. Perfect. Now let's try something a little more challenging. Okay 00:25:35.650 --> 00:25:52.600 go ahead and work this through. I'm gonna give you the same 15 seconds. 00:25:52.600 --> 00:25:59.950 You're almost at a time. Okay you're done. Time is up. So what did you notice and 00:25:59.950 --> 00:26:04.740 how did you feel when you were given those times test, the timed test. Okay. 00:26:04.740 --> 00:26:09.670 You probably, I imagine, the first one you found quite easy and quite simple, maybe 00:26:09.670 --> 00:26:12.820 you knew all those answers. I would even not given too much thought to them. 00:26:12.820 --> 00:26:16.270 When I gave you this second one, the one you see right here. Maybe we had to 00:26:16.270 --> 00:26:22.090 think about them a little bit more. Maybe we had to think about making tens or 00:26:22.090 --> 00:26:27.220 place value or the relationship to the questions I gave first. 00:26:27.220 --> 00:26:33.540 Maybe we broke things into friendly numbers. Maybe doubles. Maybe near doubles. 00:26:33.540 --> 00:26:39.430 So my experience has been that when I show the two tests together. Now 00:26:39.430 --> 00:26:46.750 here we see them together. And you see these two timed tests now. Side-by-side. 00:26:46.750 --> 00:26:53.710 Is this maybe make you think about the importance of strategy? And so if it does 00:26:53.710 --> 00:26:59.730 then could this be a way into those classrooms with our teachers who are 00:26:59.730 --> 00:27:08.850 reluctant to let go of their tried and true, tried and used strategies of 00:27:08.850 --> 00:27:14.650 memorization and rote learning and maybe shift them towards this idea of 00:27:14.650 --> 00:27:22.210 automaticity built upon strategy. And yeah so we so potential it's a 00:27:22.210 --> 00:27:27.850 potential. It may or may not happen. But allowing them or providing these 00:27:27.850 --> 00:27:32.799 opportunities for our teachers to experience these learning opportunities 00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:41.470 may lead to that shift in practice that we're hopeful to see. So how does math 00:27:41.470 --> 00:27:44.769 club support growth? That was why we were here in the first place. This is 00:27:44.769 --> 00:27:49.600 what we were curious about. In my opinion I think that it provides opportunities 00:27:49.600 --> 00:27:55.809 for teachers to develop an understanding. We weren't necessarily taught with the 00:27:55.809 --> 00:28:00.070 same intentionality that we are looking at mathematics now. We weren't taught 00:28:00.070 --> 00:28:07.510 with the same intention to begin with. We were we were, it was okay to just know 00:28:07.510 --> 00:28:12.519 process and procedure and rely on memory. Through these experiences I think we get 00:28:12.519 --> 00:28:16.750 better. I think we understand the math better. I think we understand the reasons 00:28:16.750 --> 00:28:21.970 behind the pedagogy, the pedagogical practices that we want to promote. 00:28:21.970 --> 00:28:26.799 I think that we have a better understanding of what discourse is when 00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:30.250 we experience it. What productive struggle is when we play with it. 00:28:30.250 --> 00:28:34.690 What's the importance of studying a conjecture in the first place. And if we 00:28:34.690 --> 00:28:39.519 can we can provide our teachers these opportunities to experience them for 00:28:39.519 --> 00:28:45.549 themselves and they will then more than more likely be more willing to try it 00:28:45.549 --> 00:28:50.649 for their students. We always keep math at the center of math club. It doesn't have to 00:28:50.649 --> 00:28:54.399 be the questions that I presented today. It could be a problem that as teachers 00:28:54.399 --> 00:28:57.789 working on in their classroom. They could come to the math club and say look at, 00:28:57.789 --> 00:29:01.149 here's a problem I want to give my kids tomorrow. What do you guys think? And we 00:29:01.149 --> 00:29:06.909 can work it through. It can be that easy, not easy as in the easy math, but I 00:29:06.909 --> 00:29:11.529 mean easy as in that relaxed and that comfortable where we can come and go and 00:29:11.529 --> 00:29:17.950 say this is what I'm working on. We want to share our strategies always. We know 00:29:17.950 --> 00:29:21.789 that we're gonna, that our students are going to benefit when they talk about 00:29:21.789 --> 00:29:26.470 their learning strategies and and we as teachers are also going to benefit 00:29:26.470 --> 00:29:31.130 when we share our learning strategies and talk about it. Talk about what we're 00:29:31.130 --> 00:29:34.910 doing that's working. Talk about what we're doing that's not working. Talk about what 00:29:34.910 --> 00:29:39.140 we want to see more of. Talk about the wonderful and exciting things that are 00:29:39.140 --> 00:29:44.960 happening in and around our classrooms. So I think that math club 00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:50.560 can do all those things for you and your staff. For you and teachers you support. 00:29:50.560 --> 00:29:55.970 And I really enjoy it. The math the time that I spend in math club. And in the 00:29:55.970 --> 00:30:00.260 past two years, over the past two years, we have held on to a core group of 00:30:00.260 --> 00:30:08.090 teachers. So I think that they enjoy it too. So like I said I just believe that 00:30:08.090 --> 00:30:13.880 as we become more comfortable, this increased comfort leads to leads to 00:30:13.880 --> 00:30:21.440 increased confidence which in turn leads to increased teacher efficacy which we 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:34.870 know is an important element of classroom practice. So why might you want to start a math club? 00:30:35.080 --> 00:30:40.880 I think for two reasons. Teachers that wonder create classrooms 00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:53.240 that wonder. And yeah that's about it. So thank you. I appreciate you taking the 00:30:53.240 --> 00:31:03.890 time to sit through this with me, work through this with me. If you have 00:31:03.890 --> 00:31:09.710 any questions or any interesting ideas you want to share with me or you want 00:31:09.710 --> 00:31:13.160 start your own math club, you don't know where to start, you can always contact me. 00:31:13.160 --> 00:31:24.670 My email is aplaunt@icloud.com and it's on the landing page of the presentation. 00:31:24.670 --> 00:31:28.480 Thanks. I hope you enjoyed it