Suzanne at the Math Forum

Almost two years passed between Annie, Max, and Steve’s Ignite! debuts in Indianapolis at NCTM in April, 2011, before I made my debut. I watched their preparation, anxiety and performances.

I was learning.

In December, 2011, I watched the CMC-North Ignite! talks in Asilomar. I continued to watch, listen, and learn. In April, 2012 Annie, Max and Steve again performed at Ignite! in Philadelphia at NCSM.

I was still learning.

On October 29, 2012 I received an email from Karen Cowe and she wrote,

“You knew that one of these days I’d come knocking.” … “This will be the last Ignite! for me, so it would be great to finally get you up there!”

I decided this was my opportunity to use what I had been learning from watching. One way to cope with the pressure was not to tell anyone at the Math Forum what I was planning to do!

On Saturday, December 1, mission accomplished!

The next day I emailed:

“My Ignite! talk was successful according to several accounts. I was in good company. I was #5 out of 9 [Avery, Jennifer, Harold, Bill, me, Lew, Ruth, Scott, and Mike. There were about 400 in Merrill Hall where it’s held in Asilomar. Even the balcony seating was full. The good news is that I didn’t even think about that. I can’t really say it was fun but I told Karen Cowe I was honored that she asked me and satisfied that I managed to do it without getting too stressed. As Ruth Parker said to me, she can’t remember putting that much prep time into something that only lasts 5 minutes! I agreed!”

“Well, we’ll see what the video looks like first since I have absolutely no memory now of what I said! It really is an amazing experience. You’re sitting there watching the four that are presenting in front of you and each of their 5 minutes “feels” like a real 5 minutes (or maybe even longer). Then it’s your turn and the fourth speaker comes over, hands over the mikes, you get them clipped on, you walk over to the spot, and suddenly you go into time warp and it all speeds up so quickly — it’s really, really weird — it all seemed over in about 5 seconds.”

Now that I have proof that I actually did it: Suzanne Alejandre at CMC-North Ignite I know that I really belong to the Math Forum Ignite! Club.

And, as often happens, I am thinking of connections between my experience of watching and learning and how that might play out in a mathematics classroom. There are students who may take time before being ready to perform. Are they watching? Are they learning? When they’re ready, will they perform? I believe there are and they definitely will. And, as I talk about in my own performance, if we create classroom environments to help unsilence their voices, there is even more of a chance that they will perform!

When I decided to write an article with the title Unsilence Students’ Voices I thought long and hard about using “Unsilence”! Every time I typed that word the text editor underlined it in red reminding me that it was not a “real” word. Was I rebelling against that red underlining? Maybe! I decided that it expressed what I wanted to communicate and so I went with it. I’ve now had the article published in the journal of the California Mathematics Council, the CMC ComMuniCator:

Unsilence Students’ Voices, September 2012, CMC ComMuniCator

I’ve presented these sessions with the title, Unsilence Students’ Voices:

As you read the ComMuniCator article and/or view the resources linked from the sessions, please comment here. How are you helping your students make their mathematical voices heard?

A post on Fawn Nguyen’s site reminded me that in one of my other lives I was just a middle school computer teacher! And then following those few years when I only taught computers, I taught math in a computer lab. Even though it’s pretty much ancient history, I thought it might be fun to share some of the ideas — if you are a math teacher with access to a lab (portable or another room you can use) or if you are a computer lab teacher who wants to support math teachers maybe you can adapt some of these ideas to 2012!

For as long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed having thoughts and tasks and projects overlap and connect. One overlap that happened recently was because of the work Annie and I were doing at Universal Bluford Charter School. The videotapes we made connected with work I was doing to support the Mathlanding project (a grant with Maryland Public Television) and, in turn, connected with having examples of work that we’re doing in classrooms to show to potential publishers of a book we’re drafting about problem solving and communication. Having those connections encourages reflection and deepened purpose. I think one reason I’ve always enjoyed recognizing connections and taking advantage of them is that whatever I’m working on seems to get better each step of the way — it lengthens into a process instead of an isolated event or task.

In 1995 when I first connected to the Math Forum, Steve Weimar introduced me to Connections. It was how we started each morning of the Summer Institute. I had a feeling that there might be residue from one of the institutes and I just found Steve Means description online:

Do you use some idea of Connections in your work? How might a teacher use the idea? How might a school use the idea?

On Friday, March 16, I had the opportunity to hear John Ewing’s keynote “Who Owns the Common Core Standards?” at this year’s Long Island Mathematics Conference, Limaçon 2012.

His message resonated with me for several points that he made:

• describing the standards as having a focus on the practices as well as understanding mathematics
• there are dangers if we only focus on data driven education because student achievement cannot only be measured in test score data
• education is complicated with many goals intertwined (facts and skills, understanding, creativity, attitude, curiosity, lifelong learning) and it is that broad view of education that is important to us as teachers/students

He ended on a positive note:

“This is your opportunity to show…
…that teaching is a profession
…and that teachers are in charge of that profession.”

He encouraged us not to miss this opportunity.

On the blog The Opportunity Equation, you can read a post by John Ewing on this topic: The Common Core Math Standards: Implications for Teacher Preparation.

If you agree with Dr. Ewing and you are looking for opportunities — I offer you this one if you are a Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade teacher or if you work with teachers working with students at that level. Visit the Math Forum’s new blog:

Elementary Mathematics Practices

What do you notice? (leave a comment) What do you wonder? (leave a comment with a question). Don’t miss the opportunity!

Last weekend I attended and presented at CMC-North in Asilomar. This is the third year that I’ve been able to go to that conference and I just love it! It’s so different from many conferences because it is in a unique location and because of that the atmosphere lends itself to relaxed conversations. Asilomar is a California state beach and has conference grounds. The California Mathematics Council (CMC) reserves space and each conference participant who stays “on grounds” is lodged in one of the blocks of rooms. It’s like Math Camp for a weekend!

Here was the view from our room:

And we encountered this “Santa Claus” deer munching on breakfast early Sunday morning as we were walking from our room to the car to load our suitcases before heading to breakfast:

Marie Hogan and I presented Getting Your Students Hooked on Noticing and Wondering on Saturday. Sunday morning we listened to Alan Schoenfeld speak on Teaching Mathematical Sense Making: Assessment and the Common Core Standards:

My friend Elizabeth DeCarli included some details about Schoenfeld’s talk in her blog post, Musings from the Beach | Sine of the Times.

Before leaving the conference, Marie and I walked along the boardwalk and a passer-by took this photo for us:

Hope to see you next year in Asilomar!

While we were visiting our older son and his wife during our Thanksgiving holiday we noticed that their across-the-street neighbor turned his Christmas lights on Friday at dusk.

We first noticed them at around 4:00 pm as he was checking everything (quite a lot to check!) and adjusting here and there. By 5:00 pm or so it was dark enough for the lights to really stand out and sparkle. I found myself thinking:

* the effect of the holiday lights is more dramatic when it’s truly dark
* a full moon could lessen the contrast
* a timer could be quite handy because you could have it automatically set and not have to remember when the sun has fully set

And as I had these details running through my mind, I stopped myself and thought, “What does it matter?” When is timing really important? Does it matter that the holiday lights are on at dusk and they are still competing with the light in the sky? If Friday was an unusual day because he was just setting up, perhaps, all of the days after (when I wouldn’t be there to watch!) could be timed perfectly to take full advantage of the contrast of the dark sky.

I found my mind shifting to the classroom – how is timing important?

What makes for good timing? Is “perfect timing” achievable? How do we find the right time during a class period to present concepts or activities to maximize the effect? Is contrast important? Is set-up important? How do we know when we’ve hit our perfect stride? Is our (the teacher’s) perfect stride also our students’ perfect stride? Do they ever happen at the same time?

I often reflect on how a class may have seemed to me (since, after all, the teacher is a learner just as the students are — I should reflect on what happened to me during the class period). I try to reflect on how a class may have seemed to the students but how can I really know unless I ask them. Is there time? There should be.

Recently I had the opportunity to introduce the online Problems of the Week routine to four classes of sixth-graders. I prepared ahead of time by:

* setting up all of their logins
* creating a handout sheet with step-by-step instructions — individualized for each student (I used the “merge” function with MS Word and Excel — very handy!)
* selecting a problem with their teacher – we chose “A Cranberry Craving” — seemed fun since it has a Thanksgiving theme

My goals for the class period were to have the students:

* comfortable logging on to the Problems of the Week with their individual username/password
* be introduced to this system with a “step one” approach rather than a “final” approach to their problem solving

By setting up the training session (going over the technical aspects of the PoWs) in this way, I was attempting to influence their learning. I want them ultimately to be comfortable with the problem solving process. I want them to think of problem solving as something you do over time:

The goal is not to be over and done. The goal is to think, express, reflect, and revise.

Although I included that sentiment on their login instruction sheet, I didn’t dwell on it during the training. If the training is structured well, however, and the students practice each of the steps. I think with time they may understand the process I am hoping they adopt for problem solving.

What are your training routines? How do they support your teaching/your students’ learning?

In my role at the Math Forum I work with math teachers in their classrooms and from that vantage point I often view these “players” interacting with each other:

students <-> students
students <-> teachers
teachers <-> teachers
teachers <-> other professional development providers (other than me)
teachers <-> school administrators
teachers <-> district administrators
school administrators <-> district administrators

I find myself thinking of two common themes.

The first theme is from parenting — “Do as I say!” The TV show Mad Men comes to mind where the parents are drinking and smoking and it comes as a surprise to them when the young daughter tries to sneak a smoke in the bathroom. She’s just modeling the behavior of the parents, right? Is she completely to blame for an action that has been modeled by her parents?

As I think of that phrase “Do as I say” the implication is “and not as I do.” In many of the interactions that I view, the person of authority in any of the pairings is trying to improve the behavior of the other. I’m using “behavior” to include “instructional behavior” or, in other words, how the classroom is managed or functions. The classic example is when you find yourself being lectured to when the theme of the professional development is student-led instruction or something that is the opposite of lecturing!

The second theme is valuing — this has always been an underlying theme of my interactions with the Math Forum from my very first encounter in July, 1995. Each individual has value and the way that we acknowledge their value is to listen to them before suggesting any action or change. An example of how this works is our Noticing/Wondering activity and it turns out that it is extremely powerful!

If I pose a math context (without any question to distract us) and I ask students “What do you notice?” I am immediately valuing their input. As I listen and/or record their noticings, I am continuing to value their thoughts. And, when used well, I value and make use of those thoughts as we move forward with our mathematical thinking.

This first step of valuing could go a long way in working with teachers. Instead of imposing the next round of professional development “on” them, I wonder what might happen if we were to pose a classroom situation and ask them what they notice. It might take a little extra preparation but it would provide the valuing that is so needed. Teachers, just like their students, are not blank slates!

Think of a professional development session you have recently experienced. Was your initial state of mind valued? How successful was the experience for you?

This morning I attended a meeting at the School District of Philadelphia. The presenter included in his remarks references to “making learning fun.” I wondered how he might respond if I asked him to tell me more about what he means by “fun.” For students to have fun, does that imply entertainment? Does it imply games or video games or other media that we think will capture their attention? Do we connect games to fun? Might something be fun if we’re feeling successful at doing it? If we “get” something and we’re smiling and talking and engaged, does that show that we’re having fun? Can we be having fun if we look serious? How do we define “fun” and, in particular, how do we define “fun” in an educational setting?

I find myself thinking of math software that is designed for students to answer a certain number of questions and then they are rewarded with a short time of some sort of “fun” game. I wonder if they think the fun part rests the student’s mind or is such a reward that the student will work hard to be able to have fun. I also wonder at what point the student is more engaged — the question/answer part or the fun game part.

I’ve known teachers who feel that if only they could entertain their students (like someone who’ve they’ve watched at a conference or, perhaps, a colleague at their school) then learning would be fun and their students would do well.

I have developed a different idea of what “fun” is in a classroom. For me learning is fun when students are given access to the subject. Students who are able to make sense of what they’re being asked to do, make it be their own learning, have facilitators to help them engage, are encouraged to persist and re-engage — I’ve seen those students have smiles on their faces and excitement as they learn. There is a lot of fun to be had when a student feels they’re in control of their own learning.

I would claim that Max and Steve are having fun here even though they’re not smiling!

What is “fun” in your classroom?