Professional Learning Goals

• We improved our personal relationship and growth mindset with mathematics so that as teachers we can foster positive relationships in math for students
• Staff members were invited to participate in an after-school educator math club. This was a one-hour drop-in session each week during first term open to all staff focusing on growth mindset, developing a positive relationship with math, use of manipulatives, number talks and other areas as determined by the group. Educators from all divisions attended and opened our learning across the divisions from Early Primary to Intermediate level.
• Completed moderated marking of student tasks to collaboratively determine areas of need and to develop next steps. We co-planned and co-taught to collaboratively determine methods for making ongoing assessment and descriptive feedback timely and manageable which led to developing “problem-solving achievement walls.”
• We began to implement number talks into our math routines to support learning goals
• We created math tool bins in order to increase teacher knowledge and comfort in exploring the use of manipulatives and how to make them an integral part of the math classroom

Activities and Resources

• We hosted an after-school math club for colleagues where educators engaged in problem-solving tasks making use of a variety of manipulatives. We referred to EduGAINS manipulatives tip sheets to expand our knowledge of the use of manipulatives. During these sessions there was also a strong focus on developing our personal mathematical mindset. We read relevant chapters from the book Mathematical Mindsets and collaboratively worked through Jo Boaler’s online How to Learn Math for Educators Course. This experience was valuable as there was good discussion from the group and the use of low floor, high ceiling activities for educators to explore within their own classrooms. We made use of a variety of resources including Jo Boaler’s YouCubed resources and Marian Small’s open questions resources.
• During our TLC team meetings, we completed professional reading and discussions from Guide to Effective Instruction in Mathematics, Number Talks and Marian Small’s open questions. Part of our commitment to learning that we established during our time together was to focus our learning around number sense and numeration, using manipulatives, the problem-solving process and problem-solving strategies. The learning in our meetings was reflected in the changes that began to occur in our classroom programming.

• We developed an understanding of number talks and began to embed them as a part of our lessons. This began to build our comfort with building a math community of learners in the classroom, listen to student responses, and give quick feedback of misconceptions.

• The team expressed a strong interest with the problem-solving process. We looked closely at student work samples to better understand our strengths and needs in mathematics and created a plan of action around the problem-solving process. We created problem-solving strategy cards (anchor chart) to support student learning of ways to investigate and communicate solutions to solve problems in mathematics. In our classrooms, we work through the problem-solving process using the strategy cards which created consistency. The learning then extended to exploring the achievement chart and exemplars to develop problem-solving success criteria. Using student samples, we co-created Mathematics Achievement Walls with “Bump It Up” strategies to provide students with a clear understanding of what is needed and clear feedback to support their next steps. We then co-created Mathematics Achievement Walls in the classroom with students.

• We also co-planned with our grade partners using resources such as Capacity Building Series: Asking Effective Questions to develop lesson plans around problem-solving in all math strands.

• As a team, we developed a list of math tools that would be most useful for students and created math tool bins to use daily during our math lessons. Each bin contains a variety of manipulatives (i.e., centimetre cubes, colour tiles, fraction/decimal strips, cuisenaire rods, clocks, hundreds charts, etc.) ready and available to use when exploring math concepts. Having a variety of manipulatives supported teacher instruction and extended the students knowledge and understanding of challenging concepts. This helped to build our community of mathematicians within the classroom as the “math tools” were on tables and open for all to use.

Unexpected Challenges

Overall, the activities that we conducted were successful in meeting our goal of building a community of mathematicians. The unexpected challenges were uncontrolled variables.  Over the course of this project, unexpected weather leading to several snow days and bus cancellations on the days we planned meetings led to rescheduling and stretching team member timelines of tasks between our meetings. Another challenge we encountered was the back ordering of some resources that we felt were important to the learning and discussion of our meetings and implementation in the classroom. Finally, our after-school math club for colleagues was a springboard to get our mathematical community started. It assisted in developing our mathematical mindsets and starting discussions. In addition, teachers were motivated and engaged with the open-ended activities we completed during these sessions. However, math club for colleagues was held only during term one of the school year. As the year progressed so did the time commitments of teachers for other extra school activities. Therefore, in future years, we would consider this as a monthly activity rather than weekly in order to continue the interest of fellow colleagues.

Enhancing Student Learning and Development

Students are beginning to develop a growth mindset and positive relationship around mathematics. By implementing number talks, students are communicating their thinking and building a classroom culture where mathematical discourse is respected and supports learning from one another. As educators, by deepening our own understanding of how students develop number sense skills, we are becoming more proficient at scaffolding the learning with precise and intentional instruction.

Developing the math bins with a variety of frequently used manipulatives has allowed for quick accessibility. Students are beginning to utilize them more frequently to support the learning of new concepts, communicate thinking, and demonstrate a variety of solutions when problem-solving.

One of the most valuable experiences during this project that has enhanced student learning is the creation of Mathematics Achievement Walls. Students are able to use these achievement walls to reflect, self-assess and make improvements based on the success criteria. This is providing students an opportunity to further develop a culture of mathematics.

Sharing

We have had many opportunities to share our learning with colleagues in our school during staff meetings, PA day activities, math club and informal conversations. We have demonstrated number talks, engaged teachers with a variety of problem-solving strategies with manipulatives to explore, and shared useful planning resources such as Marian Small’s open questions through co-planning sessions.

Our Performance Wall for Mathematics was shared with other teachers in our school at staff meetings and with grade partners. We shared the process of developing the achievement wall and the need for students to practise the problem-solving process. We also identified the importance of students using the Gradual Release of Responsibility to become more independent in problem-solving. Students have a better understanding of the problem-solving process and are more able to identify how they can improve their work by using the Bump it Up strategies posted on the wall. In addition, we have also posted the process of building our achievement wall in our school’s teacher workroom for teachers to review. We have begun to see the development of our mathematics community as primary and intermediate teams have adopted some of our learning to implement across the grades creating a common flow of learning.

Project Evaluation

Strengths:

• Ongoing assessment supported the learning needs and development of next steps for students (assessment for, as and of learning)
• By deepening our understanding of how students develop number sense skills, we became more proficient at scaffolding the learning with precise and intentional instruction, problems and manipulatives 
• Providing students with descriptive feedback and clear next steps based on the achievement walls helped to focus learning and instruction
• Developing a positive relationship with math and fostering a growth mindset supported student growth, achievement and well-being 
• Students’ ability to communicate their thinking around number concepts (mathematical conversations/discussion, math language or vocabulary) has improved and respectful mathematical discourse is more prevalent 
• We saw evidence of changed/refined instructional and assessment strategies within each classroom
• Our increased knowledge and use of manipulatives has changed student perceptions of the value or significance of using manipulatives as a tool. Students and educators are less apprehensive to select manipulatives to think through a problem.
• Next year, grade assignments for some team members has changed which will allow further mobilization of the learning throughout the school