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Leadership in Mathematics Education

NCSM is an organization for math teacher leaders, math coaches, and anyone who supports math teaching and learning at the national, state, regional, district, or school level.  See https://www.mathedleadership.org for more information about what they offer including workshops, a journal, and other publications.

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Youcubed Online Teacher Courses (Grades K-12)

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The Youcubed website developed by Jo Boaler at Stanford University is currently offering two online teacher courses.  The first, Mathematical Mindsets, covers strategies that raise students' achievement "by giving the students new knowledge of the brain, mindset and mathematics learning" and by teaching "through open, creative mathematics."  The course is self-paced and totals approximately 30 hours of professional development time.  The second course, How to Learn for Math Teachers, is an updated version of Jo Boaler's original course including new brain learning and research, teaching strategies to increase math motivation, interviews with experts, and more.  This course is also self-paced and totals approximately 30 hours of professional development time.

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When Math Happens: 3 Act Math PD Session (Grade 3 – Calculus)

Start with this Ted Talk by Dan Meyer about helping students learn how to formulate and solve rich problems instead of just applying memorized procedures.  Then look through his website, When Math Happens, to learn about the three acts of a mathematical story that can support rich problem solving opportunities.

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Boston Math Teacher Circle

The Boston Math Teacher Circle meets one Saturday a month on the Harvard University campus to do math together and discuss math teaching.  It is open to anyone who teaches mathematics including university faculty as well as public, private, and charter school math teachers.  Lunch is provided and PDPs are available.  A lovely way to spend a Saturday!!

See https://bostonmathteacherscircle.com for more information.

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Robert Kaplinsky Online Workshop (Grades K-12)

These online workshops, offered through Robert Kaplinsky's website, provide strategies to help students become better problem solvers.  Although this course is accessible to all K-12 teachers, most examples used are for upper elementary school, middle school, and high school grade levels.

Instructions for Administrating Illuminate Assessments

Please refer to this guide to help you administer the Investigations EOU assessments on the Illuminate website.

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2017 Massachusetts Mathematics Curriculum Framework

The 2017 Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics represents some minor revisions to reflect refinement of our content standards including changes in content standards at some grade levels (e.g., integers are introduced in Grade 6 rather than in Grade 5).  These revisions are reflected in our scope and sequence documents and can be found in full here. 

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Conceptual Understanding, Procedural Fluency, and Application

The 2017 MCF for Mathematics addresses the balance of conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application in Grades PreK-12.  Here are some important points:  

"When students are first introduced to a mathematical concept they explore and investigate the concept by using concrete objects, visual models, drawings, or representations to build their understanding... They learn a variety of strategies to solve problems ... [S]tudents are expected to be able to use the most efficient and accurate way to solve a problem based on their understanding and knowledge... Students reach fluency by building understanding of mathematical concepts – this lays a strong foundation that prepares students for more advanced math work."  

To access the full text for this section of the 2017 MCF for Mathematics, click here.

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Our transition FROM a traditional high school math pathway 

(Alg I, Geometry, Alg II) 

TO an INTEGRATED HIGH SCHOOL MATH PATHWAY

(Math 1, Math 2, Math 3)

The district has transitioning from a traditional pathway to an integrated pathway and now supports Math 1, Math 2. and Math 3 in Grades 9, 10, and 11.  Please be sure your school is using the correct high school math course codes and course descriptions for these courses.  To reference information in our 2017 MCF for Mathematics about these pathways, click here.  For more reading on the value of an integrated high school math pathway see the value of an integrated high school math pathway.

High schools have adopted one of the following three high school math curriculum programs: CME Integrated Math, College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM) Integrated Math, and the Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP) Integrated Math for Math 1, Math 2, and Math 3.  Some schools have also begun using the Mathematics Vision Project (MVP), an open source program available at https://www.mathematicsvisionproject.org/.  Please be sure you choose their integrated pathway. 

For information about the clusters of standards assessed by the Next-Generation Grade 10 Math MCAS, click here.  For item types on the Next-Generation Grade 10 Math MCAS, click here.  For the Grade 10 Math MCAS 2.0 practice test see http://mcas.pearsonsupport.com/student/practice-tests-math/.  Please be aware that students can use the following tools when they take the assessment:

• Scratch paper

• Graph paper

• Patty paper that students can hold up to the screen when they need to examine transformations (e.g, Session 1 #6)

• Dry erase markers and erasers that students can use to tick off numbers on the screen when they need to be sure all are accounted for in their response (e.g., Session 1 #12) and which then can be erased from the screen

Of course it is also helpful if students have opportunities to learn to use these tools during math class.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

We know professional development support is important if we are to reach math proficiency goals for all our students, including closing our opportunity and achievement gaps.  Our professional development offerings will be posted to Vector.  We will be also be highlighting offerings here as they become available. Please go to Vector to register and get more information.