Our vision for professional development is to build a solid foundation of content knowledge for teaching mathematics and to extend that knowledge to students. A sample of services are as follows:
Shared Vision for Mathematics Teaching and Learning
Explore how to make important instructional shifts in mathematics teaching and learning with a focus on growing mindsets, making sense of mathematics for teaching, effective mathematical teaching practices, and vertical articulation. These presentations explore the TQE Process, building student-centered learning environments, and building common understanding of effective mathematics instruction.
Content Institutes by Grade Band
Content institutes for teachers (1-8 days offered as a summer institute and/or distributed over the school year) focus on making sense of mathematics for teaching. The institutes prioritize content, student engagement, classroom norms, student discourse, and applying the instructional shifts and the TQE Process with sessions offered by grade band or course (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, Algebra 1, and high school). Administrators are strongly encouraged to participate.
Specific Content Workshops by Topic
– Word Problems
– Early Number
– Whole Number Place Value, Concepts, and Operations
– Fraction Concepts and Operations
– Decimal Place Value, Concepts, and Operations
– Proportional Reasoning
– Algebra and Algebraic Reasoning
– Geometry and Measurement
– Statistics and Probability
– Estimation
Focusing on Fact Fluency for Basic Multiplication Facts
Support students to achieve a deep understanding of multiplication that allows them to develop fluency with their basic facts for multiplication that goes beyond recall to explain and justify their thinking. Explore the six fluency “tactics” as strategies for engaging in the Fact Tactics™ Fluency Program designed to shift from drill-and-kill instruction to an approach that helps students make sense of multiplication while developing automaticity and procedural fluency.
With this service, it is expected that a book will be purchased for each participant for their use during the implementation of the Fact Tactics Fluency Program.
Experience #FactTactics in one to three sessions:
– Make Sense of Multiplicative Reasoning
– Explore the Six Fluency Tactics
– Engage in the Fact Tactics™ Fluency Program
TQE Planning
The TQE Planning session supports teachers to plan current content and lessons using the instructional shifts and the TQE Process with their own curriculum resources and pacing guides.
TQE Learning Lab
The TQE Learning Lab session facilitates the development of a task in a “laboratory environment” using the TQE Process. Grade or course-alike participants plan, teach, and reflect on the implementation of common tasks and may involve model teaching as applicable/desired.
Supporting Mathematics Interventionists
These sessions focus on helping teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators make sense of how best to support students who are significantly far behind. Sessions offer clear expectations for improving mathematics achievement at the classroom, school, and district level by creating a shared image of quality remediation/intervention strategies and effective mathematics teaching. Support is provided to prioritize student needs, and support collaborative team planning.
TQE Lesson Study
The TQE Lesson Study session is designed for teachers to explore instruction using the TQE Process. Participants engage in a planning-teaching-reflecting-revising cycle. This experience connects the work of the TQE Planning session with the TQE Learning Lab session and may involve model teaching as applicable/desired.
Supporting Administrators
Teacher observations, school walk-throughs, and one-on-one and collaborative coaching sessions provide opportunities for administrators to explore effective leadership practices in their environment. Stressing the TQE Process as a planning tool and focusing on key and transformative instructional practices, strategies are shared to use data-driven decision making to improve school- and district-wide mathematics achievement.
Instructional Quality: Task Potential
The Instructional Quality: Task Potential session focuses on examining tasks prior to implementation with respect to the cognitive demand they encourage. Strategies are shared to adapt tasks to provide opportunities for students to do the sense making.
Instructional Quality: Task Implementation
The Instructional Quality: Task Implementation session provides opportunities for participants to explore factors in the implementation of high-quality tasks. Examination of classroom video and student work support teachers to reflect on their own practice.
Instructional Quality: Questioning
The Instructional Quality: Task Implementation session provides opportunities for participants to examine the questions they use and the role of questions in supporting students’ understanding of and engagement with mathematics.