Professional Learning
Jaime Parse, Ben Rubin and Polly Wagner go to Antioch University to work with graduate students to think about the importance of early childhood mathematics and how to research students' ideas.
Friday May 3, 2019
Elizabeth DeSorgher presents at NCTM,
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in San Diego, CA! April 6, 2019
Teachers and Administrators from Mohawk School District
Visit Erving's Math Classrooms
October 30, 2018
What's happening here at Erving that is worth sharing? What can visitors learn from our educators and students? Here's what they saw and what they said they learned:
"Lots of student engagement"
"Students were risk-takers - they took chances in their learning"
"Lots of math vocabulary"
"Teachers were curious about students' thinking"
"Students collaborated around higher level of thinking"
"Saw continuity between grade levels"
Visit 1st grade "Quick Images" and "The Hiding Game"
Visit 4th grade "Math Workshop" with Multiple Turn Over and Close to 1,000
Visit 6th grade "Number Talk" and a lesson on Ratios
Visit 5th grade - First lesson in Volume
Visit 2nd grade - Working on Number Relationships
Math Classroom Visits
June 11, 2018
Mr. Trill and Polly Wagner visit math classrooms for the whole day! We collect notes, take videos and pictures, and then invite teachers to a digital program, much like Class Dojo. This allowed everyone to virtually "visit", see and comment on what they noticed throughout each grade's math lesson.
Below are a few pictures from the day!
6th grade
5th Grade
Pre-Kindergarten Math
Erving Teachers Improve Learning and Teaching of Mathematics
Below are pictures of collegial visits and discussions from 2016 - 2018
Middle School Professional Learning Community
5th, 6th, and 7th grade math teachers meet approximately once a month to think more about middle school mathematics. We have visited each other's classrooms, looked at student work, and consider best teaching practices.
2017-2018
Kindergarten & 1st grade collegial visits
Watch a short video of first graders thinking about how many cubes they see in a 10-frame. Notice how Mr. Rubin gives plenty of wait-time and at the end of the clip asks a student to explain another student's idea. In what way might this help all students learn more? (Unfortunately I cut the video off too early but you'll get a sense of how students talk in math class.)
UMASS students visit
Collegial Visit with professors from Antioch & teachers from Shutesbury
At Erving we try to visit at least one other colleague's math classroom a year - sometimes more! Here are pictures from two 1st grade collegial visits in which Shutesbury teachers, along with two professors from Antioch also joined. After the visit the professors, Heidi Watts and Ellen Doris, wanted to share some of our math classroom videos with pre-service teachers as examples of excemplary teaching!
"Equity and Access for All" Course taught at Erving
Teachers read Strength In Numbers, did math together, analyzed videos of mathematics classrooms, and discussed how to improve our own practice so we can reach more students. We learned specific teaching practices that strengthen student learning and understanding of mathematics.
Teachers planning lessons and doing math together
Here we are learning about implementing the, at the time, new curriculum, Investigations. We worked on math problems together, studied whole units, navigated the online aspect of the curriculum, played math games and created posters. Below is a picture of teachers and student teacher planning for upcoming math class. Notice they do the math of the lesson themselves so they can anticipate the range of student ideas.
Investigations Summer Workshop outside of Boston
Some teachers went to an Investigations workshop during the summer of 2017 to learn more about the importance of the practice standards. These standards help us build a mathematics culture of inquiry and perseverance while also supporting students to construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
