Professional Learning Goals

We have certainly seen the light, so to speak, in regard to the way children learn math. Hattie states that “Experts and experienced teachers do not differ in the amount of knowledge they have about curriculum matters or knowledge about teaching strategies. But experts do differ in how they organize and use this content knowledge.” (Hattie, 2003) This project provided us the time to build on our existing knowledge base and begin to create an easily accessible bank of Three-Act Math resources that are accessible to all. This is the section that we don’t feel as much success in. The document proved to take a backseat to our relentless search for the best possible use of Three-Act Math and technology in the elementary classroom. Professional dialogue was the central focus of our journey.

There has been significant work done in the area of mathematical mindsets by leaders like Jo Boaler (2015), who explains how our beliefs are strongly tied to our behaviour. From our brief experiences with Three-Act Math in our classrooms, we have found that beliefs towards math were becoming more positive in general, thus increasing an overall interest toward mathematics. Our students were also displaying a more productive disposition, which is vital to our success while teaching our compensatory student population. The learning continues.

Goals for next year:

• Continue to develop the online bank
• Attend Jo Boaler’s online summer course
• Assemblies – add a Math Growth Mindset Minute to our monthly assemblies
• Lead our school book talk – Number Talks: Whole Number Computation, Grades K-5: A Multimedia Professional Learning Resource
  by Sherry Parrish or Visible Learning by John Hattie
• School-wide problem-solving model based on Singapore Math – Part, Part, Whole
• FreshGrade – an online support that we have interest in pursuing
• No marking versus descriptive feedback study

Activities and Resources

Kyle’s YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/user/kylepearce3/

Curious Math: Foundations of Math – www.kylep.ca/curiousmath1p or download on iTunesU under the name “Curious Math”

Links to Kyle Pearce Playlist – https://youtu.be/FMMZk9reas8?list=PLDe-CvW870TEBFHf4Ku4QfhjnSP98-ZlC … Go in and look for “geo”

Kyle Pearce YouTube Playlist – https://www.youtube.com/user/kylepearce3/playlists

Estimation 180 – http://www.estimation180.com

Dan Meyer’s Three-Act Math – Tasks List

John Orr – Resources List Tap into Teen Minds – Teen Minds Visual Patterns – Resource Support

Which One Doesn’t Belong – wodb.ca

The Learning Exchange – http://thelearningexchange.ca

Jo Boaler – Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students’ Potential through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching

John Hattie – Visible Learning

And many, many more…

Unexpected Challenges

As we began our journey, we realized that there was an overwhelming wealth of material online and within other teachers. The challenge was that we felt the need to streamline our vision to a more focused and specific set of instructional strategies to enhance student learning. We found ourselves checking in with our original proposal to ensure that we were sticking to our intended learning goals. Inevitably, as our level of understanding increased, the learning goal evolved and became something slightly different to our initial plan.

Teaching split-grade levels was also challenging in that time seemed to be compromised by having to teach two curriculums, but many of the activities had multiple points of entry and were therefore used with both grade levels with slightly different expectations.

Enhancing Student Learning and Development

Three-Act Math – The Use of and the Creation of…

We learned that by using engaging introductory activities, student motivation increased. Not all intro activities had to be technology-based, but the majority seemed to be, and student engagement definitely increased as a result of this. Throughout our journey, we were able to create a Three-Act Math Template which was used for the students to show their thinking on paper. We also had the opportunity to sit down with Kyle Pearce for an afternoon and create our own Three-Act Math lesson on a camp experience from Tim Horton’s camp which our students had attended the year before.

Student Surveys – Pre and Post

In order to gauge student engagement and motivation, we used surveys generated on surveymonkey.com. As shown below, results indicate that there was a general increase in overall student enjoyment in the area of mathematics. Regardless of the survey results, we noticed an increase in students participation, homework completion and increased results on math assessments.

(Note: we are unable to post results table.)

Student Learning – Definite Increase!

Three-Act Math has finally brought math learning to life for the students. The days that Three-Act Math were used were by far the most engaged students were in their learning. Students never gave up!  They supported each other and were honest in their struggles and celebrated each other’s successes. We noticed their perseverance grow within the classroom, and especially our former “non-math” students.

Student quotes from survey:

“This kind of math really challenges me and makes my brain grow.”

“It’s stressful, but I like it a lot.”

“It’s more fun when we do math this way. It’s not really math!”

“The lessons are more fun and we even get to watch videos sometimes!”

“We get to do math with our friends and talk about normal things, like building a deck.”

Technology

The use of technology in math class has changed significantly. Using a Minds-On with Estimation 180, for example, opens up the day of learning with visual stimulation and engagement. Math consultant, David Gomes visited our rooms and set students up with homeworkhelp.com, a free online tutoring site offered by the Ontario Ministry of Education. Sharing student recordings of work on Edsby validated student voices in math and offered parents a glimpse into math. Explain Everything was a daily fixture of math in our classrooms which has helped students’ conceptual understanding.

Sharing

Monthly Staff Meetings

We shared ideas during our journey that teachers could take back to their classrooms on a monthly basis at staff meetings. Which One Doesn’t Belong was especially well-received as it can be used at all grade levels to stimulate math talk. All staff was receptive to the new ideas to generate more student interest in the area of math.

Carousel Sharing – Professional Development Day

We presented the project journey at a professional development session in a carousel format to groups of teachers throughout the day. Teachers were eager to hear about the grant, our learning, student learning and our success. Many had questions regarding the process and how to work with the TLC. It has certainly sparked interest in the TLC grant!

School-Wide Book Talk – Jo Boaler’s Mathematical Mindsets

With a focus on math, our administration, Kyle Pearce and one of our team members, Nicole Palazzi, chose Jo Boaler’s book, Mathematical Mindsets to use for our book talk this year. We were able to meet three times throughout the year with 10 teachers on staff including the SERR consultant and school psychologist. This book talk enabled teachers to discuss and share new learning in the area of math instruction.

Jo Boaler’s Mathematical Mindset course – Summer 2017

Our team leader, Nicole Palazzi has signed up for Jo Boaler’s course this summer, and intends on sharing with the rest of the team in the fall.

Kyle Pearce – “Mathlete” and Consultant

The application for this grant was a followup to our board’s MYCI (Middle Years Collaborative Inquiry) program during the 2015-2016 school year. Since the learning was so rich, we decided to continue our learning and apply for the grant. Kyle, who was leading the MYCI project was on-board with us. The program superintendent then aligned Kyle to our school for the year. He has attended the majority of our staff meetings to share lessons on math, focusing on conceptual understanding, and has made himself available to all teachers in the building. Having him present has certainly added to the richness of staff professional development.  He is an innovative thinker and easily inspires with his genuine love of the subject and interactions with people in general.

School Visits/Collaboration with Colleagues

The grant helped us meet our goals with teacher collaboration. We have been able to meet with at least four to five teachers in a variety of schools to formally and informally talk math. School visits have allowed us to discuss math with other teachers, students and administration. The flexibility of the release days has been instrumental in the TLC goal of collaboration. It was especially interesting to see schools from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. The differences in student performance and motivation were eye-opening.

Schools visited:

Southwood Elementary, Windsor, ON

Northwood Elementary, Windsor, ON

Roseville Elementary, Windsor, ON

Herman Secondary, Windsor, ON

McGregor Secondary, Chatham, ON

Jon Orr – Secondary School Math Teacher and Math Consultant

Visiting the “real math geek” was an enlightening experience. The grant allowed us to visit his Grade 9 applied classroom in Chatham, ON. Implementing his and others three-act approach to math has tremendously increased his class’ Grade 9 EQAO scores. This real-world approach to learning has changed students’ views toward math. Mr. Orr was more than willing to share his experiences and his own personal math journey. Upon our return, we tapped into mrorrisageek.com to use more of his lessons with our students.

Jody Wells-Caversan – Grade 6 Homeroom Teacher and AQ Math Specialist Teacher

We were able to meet with a colleague from Barrie, ON, for a day of informal learning in Windsor. Sharing her knowledge as an intermediate teacher, former math coach and AQ math specialist instructor led to new construction of knowledge. It was great to receive feedback from “an outsider” to our project, and led us in the same direction, but with some tweaks.

Project Evaluation

Were we successful? Yes or no?

We believe so. And our belief stems not from the completion of an online document, but through a new approach to teaching math in our classrooms.

We have certainly seen the light, so to speak, in regard to the way children learn math. Hattie states that “Experts and experienced teachers do not differ in the amount of knowledge they have about curriculum matters or knowledge about teaching strategies. But experts do differ in how they organize and use this content knowledge.” (Hattie, 2003) This project provided us the time to build on our existing knowledge base and begin to create an easily accessible bank of Three-Act Math resources that are accessible to all. This is the section that we don’t feel as much success in. The document proved to take a backseat to our relentless search for the best possible use of Three-Act Math and technology in the elementary classroom. Professional dialogue was the central focus of our journey.

There has been significant work done in the area of mathematical mindsets by leaders like Jo Boaler (2015), who explains how our beliefs are strongly tied to our behaviour. From our brief experiences with Three-Act Math in our classrooms, we have found that beliefs towards math were becoming more positive in general, thus increasing an overall interest toward mathematics. Our students were also displaying a more productive disposition, which is vital to our success while teaching our compensatory student population. The learning continues.