Over the past few weeks, I have been leading each grade levels planning meeting during their planning time. Each hour brings a new grade level and new challenges. This is my first time leading a PLC, and I wrote the proposal and presented it to my administrators. Although I had originally envisioned my trainings as a series of after-school meetings, my administrators offered me three professional days to take to train teachers instead. I spend all day, presenting to K-4. This has allowed me to individualize trainings based on the needs of the different grade levels. It has also allowed me to grow as a teacher and as a presenter.

This experience has been a great way for me to step out of the classroom without stepping out of the classroom. I won’t have enough teaching experience to enter coaching for another few years, but I am interested to see what coaching would look and feel like for me. If this is something I want to pursue, I would ideally have more experience across the grade levels. It is hard for me to reconcile this with my passionate love for kindergarten kids, curriculum, and difference-making. I am still wondering how I will bring these things I am passionate about together in my career. But I have a whole master’s to finish and several years to teach before I need to make any decisions!

The goal of the training was to expose teachers to the mathematics planning cycle in task-based learning, provide support in planning a task with assessing and advancing questions, and discuss formative assessment practices in the classroom.

Over the next few weeks on the blog, I will be elaborating on the training I provided the teachers at my school, and providing some key resources here. If you are interested in task-based learning for mathematics, I hope you will join me along the journey!

Session one: What is the task cycle?

Session two: How do I plan a worthwhile mathematics task?

Session three: Where and how do I assess students?

Yours,

Ms. M