Professional Development - 10/1/14

Thank you for your participation in our professional development today.  We learned about the importance of teaching academic vocabulary (Tier II words), and the impact it will have on student achievement in all content areas.  We discovered today that math and science problems contain many Tier II words.  If students do not know these words, it may prevent them from understanding many problems.  We also talked about how often these words are used in directions provided to students.

Reminder:  A new word will be introduced each A Day by the homeroom teacher (beginning October 6th). Brief activities (1-2 minutes) will also be facilitated by the homeroom teacher on days B-H.

We are all a critical piece of Academic Vocabulary Instruction.

Computer Lab Rotation-DreamBox Lesson

Paine Intermediate's technology teachers will begin a rotation on August 28th where students will learn more about DreamBox.  
Students will learn how to select units/lessons to work on, what various icons mean, and what to do if lessons become challenging. The following is a summary of what they will learn.

(Information in this post was obtained from Dreambox.com).

You can access DreamBox from a computer or an IPAD (once your download the DreamBox app).  

IPAD School Code is:
3nz9/paineis





When a student logs in to DreamBox, the "Choose a Unit" screen appears.  Students should look for units that have a gold coin by the unit label.  These are units DreamBox recommends for that particular student.  The units have labels on them (as indicated by the red arrows). 

 The following is a list of the Unit Labels and descriptions of each.

Watch - Units labeled Watch contain videos that will introduce students to new concepts they will see in upcoming lessons.

Practice - These units were automatically skipped by the student, because DreamBox determined the student was already proficient.  They give the student an opportunity for more practice, if needed.

Open - An open unit is one where the student opened it, but did not complete a lesson or watch a concept video.  Once the student watches a concept video or completes a lesson, this will change to "In Progress".

In Progress - This label will appear if a student has completed one or more of the lessons, but not all of them.  If the unit contains one or more "locked" lessons, the unit will remain "In Progress".  To unlock the remaining lessons, the student will need to complete gold coin lessons in other units.

Complete - The student has completed all lessons within the unit.

Exemplary - This indicates mastery of the unit, because the student completed lessons multiple times.  Our goal is to complete gold coin lessons, not to earn exemplary status.

When the student opens a unit, the Lesson Grid shows which lessons are available for play. The red "you are here" arrow points to the exact lesson DreamBox suggests the student play next. 

If the student clicks on any other lesson, the lesson icon box (below) will appear.

Recommended (gold coin) - These are lessons recommended by DreamBox for the student. DreamBox gathers information regarding student understanding through gold coin lessons. That is how they suggest additional lessons. Students earn more gold coins by completing these lessons.

Locked lesson - Lessons that the student is not yet ready to pursue.  DreamBox will unlock these lessons once the student has completed gold coin lessons in the unit, and/or other units.

Locked Placement - This is a placement lesson, but it will remain locked until the student has completed other recommended lessons.

Placement - DreamBox is using this lesson to assess the student, and determine subsequent lessons the student will need.

Tutorial - This shows the student how to use some of the tools that will appear in the unit lessons.

Placement Passed - DreamBox has determined the student is already proficient with this lesson. Students may select these lessons for additional practice, but they will not move the student forward.

Open for Play - These lesson are ready for play.  If they also have a gold coin and red arrow, the student should work on these lessons first.

In Progress - Between "Open for Play" and "Complete"; color gradually changes from yellow to green as progress is made.

Complete - The student has completed the lesson.

Exemplary - The student repeated the lesson until mastery was obtained.

Meet Stella!!!

Remind students to always wear their headphones at school, or turn the volume up at home, when playing DreamBox.  Stella will provide them with directions and hints when needed.  When lessons become challenging for students, Stella will help them if they simply use the following tools.  

A special "thank you" to Lauren Long, Elizabeth Wilson, and Jill Christopher for training our students on how to effectively utilize DreamBox.

DreamBox - Optional Math Teacher Meeting

Math teachers were invited to attend an optional DreamBox meeting this week.  The objective was to make important decisions regarding the utilization and implementation of DreamBox this school year.  Thank you to those who participated.  They shared valuable insights from our experiences last year.  The following decisions were made:




Time on DreamBox at School

• Third graders will complete 30 minutes of DreamBox at school each week.  Thirty minute slots will be designated in the computer labs.  Once IPADs are ready for use, they should be utilized for DreamBox.
• Fourth and fifth graders will complete one hour of DreamBox at school each week.  We will schedule 1-hour slots in the computer labs.  These slots will also be used for unit assessments to be completed on Achievement Series.

Homework

• All students will be asked to complete 30 minutes of DreamBox for homework each week.  This should be listed in the Husky Pad and parents should sign off to indicate completion.

DreamBox Goals

• Third grade teachers will not set goals initially.  They will focus on engaging the students to spend time on DreamBox.  If an issue arises where the time is not productive (there is a flag by the student's name on DreamBox), the teacher will meet with that student individually and provide guidance.
• Fourth and fifth grade teachers will meet with students and set goals for lessons completed (not unique lessons).  Achievement of these goals will not be included in math grades.  Teachers may provide affirmation/recognition, through small rewards, for achievement of goals.

DreamBox Preferences

• During school hours, preferences will be set where time is spent on lesson completion.
• After school hours, the preferences will be set where students can visit all areas of DreamBox.

Assemblies

• We will continue to recognize students for significant achievements (outside of the norm) for time on DreamBox and/or lessons completed.  The math coach will run a monthly report to identify these students.

Parent Communication

• Teachers will be provided with a math PowerPoint to be used for Parent Chat Night.  It will include an overview of DreamBox, as well as a link to access DreamBox as a "hypothetical" student.  Parents will be able to use this link to "play" with DreamBox at home.  Teachers should model how use the link to access DreamBox during Chat Night.
• Soon, a parent letter will be emailed to you for distribution to your parents.

Teacher Training

• All teachers will attend training (through a webinar) on Monday, August 18th in the media center.  Please bring your laptops to this training.

Thank you for your valuable input, and well-thought out decisions regarding the utilization of DreamBox.  It is such a powerful supplement to our classroom math instruction.  We have a great plan!  Of course, we will continue to assess throughout the year and make and necessary adjustments.

Summer Flex Days - 5th Grade

Fifth grade math teachers met on July 15th & 16th.  It was a great two days!  They selected their Professional Learning Teams for the year.  They participated in training on how to facilitate a 4-2-1 free write after Math Congress, in order to deepen student understanding.  They condensed their Problem Solving Unit down to five days, and revised the curriculum guide.  They created a rigorous assessment and located appropriate homework.  They also created an assessment for the Place Value/Powers of Ten Unit and made necessary revisions.  Their division and algebra unit assessments are almost complete, and their division PowerPoint was revised.

Thank you to our wonderful 5th grade math teachers!  It is going to be a great year of learning!

Summer Flex Days - 4th Grade Math

Fourth grade math teachers met July 9th & 10th for professional learning and curriculum design.  We identified important considerations for writing problems that promote critical thinking.  We discussed the characteristics of focused mini-lessons.  We also learned about a writing strategy that can be used following math congress to guide student reflection on the big math ideas.

We worked on the Problem Solving and Number Sense units, beginning with redesigning the common assessments to make them more rigorous.  This was followed by assessing the effectiveness of component parts of the unit, and redesigning portions to increase rigor, engagement, and overall effectiveness.

We had two GREAT days of learning and collaboration!

NCTM Regional Conference

Five Paine Intermediate math teachers attended the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Regional Conference in November 2013.  We plan to bring all PI Math Teachers some of the great things we learning in future professional development.  Until then, we will bring you our top three takeaways from the conference.

Nancy

1. Using the number line more effectively.

2. Understanding the development of conceptual foundation for teaching fractions.

3. Using reinforcement strategies for basic facts fluency.

Laura

1. Number lines are the central representational tool in teaching numbers.

2. Teaching strategies for mental math and reinforcing with lots of practice and games (exposure) will help students become proficient with numbers.

3. Kim Sutton taught us to be enthusiastic with teaching and use music and dance to help kids understand vocabulary which are the “tools” they will need in their “toolbox”. 

Jana

1. Students should invent their own strategies which will allow them to progress toward more efficient strategies. Students who invent their own strategies progress much more efficiently to number sense/place value. From intuitive numbers to one-to-one correspondence, as long as they are able to invent ways on their own that make sense to them, they will progress to more efficient addition & subtraction. Why should we not teach the algorithm directly? Someone had clearly shown a little girl from a video the algorithm & base ten blocks. When someone forces an algorithm on a child, they lose confidence in their own thinking. The algorithm becomes precedent. This is why the Common Core uses the phrase “develop, discuss and use.”  Algorithms are beautiful inventions if used correctly. (Note: Algorithms were invented by someone at some point in time. It is actually the result of centuries of study by mathematicians).

2. We should not be limited by the Common Core. The mathematicians who influenced the common core said negative numbers don't need to be in there until middle school, but students think in terms of negative numbers. Let them!  Here is how a student solved 61-43:  1-3= (-2).  I took 40 away from 60 and that is 20 then I had to take away 2. So I had to take away 2 from 20 which is 18! <-- This was amazing!!!

3. Precision, reasoning and thinking is at the core of mathematics. Kids would be better off not to come to school than to do ridiculous worksheets about geometry. Must move beyond basic shape recognition. Less is more- focus on the building blocks. Go in depth rather than exposure.

Karen

1. It was so great to see that we are already doing such great things here at PI, especially when the NCTM president spoke about the way to teach math – pose a problem/task, allow students to investigate, then allow the children to discuss their work.  This is what we do every day!

2. I loved the session on fractions, especially all of the free manipulatives!  I hope to use the number line to help build conceptual understanding when we start working with fractions this year.

3. The pre-algebra session was also great!  I can’t wait to start using some of the problems in my classroom.  They were so engaging, and I can see our students becoming much better problem solvers!

Lisa

1. We were in one session with the NCTM President called “It’s Raining Rich Problems!”  She said to never “pull the pencil out of the child’s hand by showing them”.  Rather, question them to further their thinking.   She said productive struggle is a good thing; that is how kids really learn.

2.  She mentioned the 5 practices for orchestrating mathematical discussions:  1) Anticipate (work the problems yourself and have an idea of the strategies that may be used by children), 2) Monitor (while students are working, converse with them and decide which questions will further their thinking), 3) Select (select strategies that will be presented for class discussion), 4) Sequencing (decide which order these strategies should be discussed to scaffold learning), and 5) Connecting (help kids connect the ideas).  All of this sounds just like our constructing tasks and congress.

3.  Regarding constructing conceptual knowledge first, one instructor stated, “Once you teach a procedure first, it is nearly impossible for students to go back and understand the reasons why behind it”; they block that out once the quick procedure is revealed.

Sorry that it took me so long to post this information.  We will be incorporating what we learned into CAD discussions and future PD sessions.

Family Math Nights - October 2013

Thank you so much to everyone that contributed to the success of our family math nights.  Fifth grade was held on October 21, 4th grade on October 22, and 3rd grade on October 28th.  We had a total of 388 families participate! Third grade had 140 families attend, fourth grade had 123 families, and fifth grade had 125 families.  We are so blessed to serve in this community. 

We shared information on how math instruction looks different in the 21st century.  We provided an overview of the common core standards, including the math practice standards.  We communicated our blueprint for building mathematical minds in our school.

Fifth grade teachers conducted a mini-investigation on designing a locker room for the new stadium, fourth grade explored a design of a concession building, and the third grade investigated ways to arrange the bricks purchased in the Buy a Brick initiative.  We conducted number talks, explored various                                                               strategies, and/or introduced math games.

Sincere thanks to every math teacher for your hard work and dedication; math night was a success because of you.  A huge thank you to Kelly and all the literacy and science/language teachers who volunteered to help!  Finally, we are so fortunate to have administrators who have a clear vision of what math instruction should look like in today’s world, and also worked relentlessly to ensure the success of our family math nights!