Unexpected Questions

Imagine you are presenting to a room full of colleagues, experts in their own right, on content that matters deeply to all of you. As the time quickly runs out, an individual raises her hand and asks an unexpected question – one you didn’t anticipate despite hours of planning. In that moment, you feel just as unprepared as you might have in the classroom, when a student proposes a strategy in the last two minutes of class that you have never considered before. Not only is it new, it also stretches the bounds of your understanding of the content you have been presenting. It is the kind of question that will stick with you for a while, that you will later wonder what a better answer could have been.

This exact thing happened to me on Friday at the NCTM annual conference. I was a few minutes from concluding a session on ChangingTeacher Practices with a group of math leaders from all over the world when a single hand raises. She asks, “But what happens when you are mandated to provide professional development as ‘sit-and-get’ even when you know it doesn’t make sense to do so?”

I hadn’t thought of that question. 

Ever.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t spent hours preparing for all the aspects of our learning experience together, and even anticipated questions that would arise. I had. But I hadn’t considered such a situation existed in our field.  Why would educational leaders mandate any one format of professional development for teachers regardless of the intended learning, and especially one that has been shown to have such low effectiveness?

And so I did what teachers do every day when faced with a similar situation with their students– I took a stab at a response, crafting a statement that draws more on the big picture than the specifics I had been asked.  I answered emotionally, and only have recollection of my words because of the evidence on twitter.

 

Hours later I was still thinking about this question. Days later, I still am rethinking my response.

So I’m asking for help… Because that’s what #MTBoS –ers do every day – we take our questions to a digital space and hope there are others who can help us think more about it.

What would you say to this participant? What would you say to the leaders above her making this particular mandate?

In all the hours this question has stuck with me, I’ve made some movement on my thinking. But I need more help. Here are the two questions that are driving my current wonderings:

• When is it appropriate to use ‘sit-n-get’ (also known as direct instruction) with teachers as a form for professional development? 
• What forms of professional development work best in which situations, with which content, or with particular groups of people?

What are your thoughts? Feel free to leave comments here or on twitter. Looking forward to learning from you.

Building Math Love One Day at a Time: DIY, Clothesline & Resolutions

I have to admit, I love a good DIY project, I’m semi-addicted to HGTV, and can be cajoled into looking for ideas on Pinterest just like the rest of you. You know how it goes:

“How did you ever think to make prom dress out of math homework?”

“Oh, I saw it on Pinterest.”

                         

Or perhaps more likely:

“This dessert is amazing! Where did you find the recipe?”

“Oh, I saw it on Pinterest and decided to try it.”

The allure behind Pinterest – the images, the stories – they promise that anyone can DIY. But like most, I love the idea of DIY more than the actual DIYing. Why? Because I’ve learned through my many failures (yes, I learn from mistakes, too!) that what looks easy and simple on TV or on the web is often much more complicated. I know I’m not alone -- our collective failures have their own websites. (Thus the advent of Pinterest Fails)

I’m a skeptic now. I look at the beautiful projects that insist, “You, too, can create this masterpiece!” and think twice before running to the store to buy the materials. My skepticism and reluctance is important to understand, because I’m about to become *THAT* person that says, “No, you really can do this at home, too!”

Here it goes:

I’ve been dabbling with Clothesline Math for about a year now. A few years ago, @DanLuevanos and I were having serious NCTM envy, watching the tweets fly, and we stumbled upon an image of solving equations using ClotheslineMath. We began pushing our own understanding by trying to use the visual representation for just about anything. (He, of course, has done much more with this than I ever could. Check out his blog and twitter-feed for more information). The path has continued with more posts by #MTBoS folks. At the latest #CMCMath conference in Palm Springs, every ClotheslineMath sessions had overflowing rooms, with more participants waiting for seats than there were available.

So when I was forwarded Tamara’s tweet and linked blog post :

…it shone as bright as a sparkling ornament. Genius. And the timing couldn’t have been any better – winter break, or as I like to think of it the great avalanche (you know, when all the knowledge that was loosely piled on in a great attempt to cram things in before break comes tumbling down the mountain destroying everything in its path).

About halfway through my kinder’s winter break, a few days into the rainy spell and cold weather that kept him closed up inside (it was bad...for San Diego), out came two pieces of string and a set of cards printed from Tamara’s blog. I hadn’t really had time for a full lesson plan, hadn’t really thought through my questions, or the order I wanted the cards to be introduced. This was game time, and I hadn’t done enough prep. So I placed 6 of the numbers (0, 3, 7, 10, 15, 20), randomly picked, out of order on the lower line and simply asked, “Can you help me? I think these are out of order.” My son leapt up from his pile of Legos and started to survey the scene. “Hmm. I think so.” And he started to pick up the number tents and move them around. He placed 0 far to the right, and then picked up 3. He placed it on the line, right next to 0. I started to get worried. But then he picked up the 3 and moved it one place further to the left. And then again, one place further to the left. He turned and said, “You know, this would be easier if you had a 2 and a 1 for me. Do you have those, too?” It took me that long to realize he was trying to “place and space” by using the 3-tent to space for the missing numbers 1 and 2.

Interesting? A child, who has had no introduction to number lines (as far as either of us know) immediately had a sense to place and space. Human nature? Foundations of numeracy?

He spent several more minutes placing and spacing each of the cards, in increasing order from right to left. I didn’t “correct” him – I hadn’t specified what “order” meant, and here was a 5 year old making his own sense of the word. (I’m still not sure if what he did was “wrong” at all. I’ll have to think about that more.)

Between his own running commentary:

“I think I’m making sense of this.”

“Oh, what if I did this?”

 and “I wish you gave me all the numbers,”

he ended up placing all of the numeric cards in order on the lower number line.

“What’s next?” he asked, clearly seeing that there was a second clothesline we hadn’t yet touched.  Yikes…I hadn’t thought he would really be asking for more. So, I pulled an audible and followed Andrew Stadel’s (@mr_stadel) advice. I dropped the rest of the cards from Tamara’s blog, which included ten-frames, dice pips and finger representations of the numbers on the floor. And I asked, “What should we do?”

He quickly started placing some of the representations on the top clothesline that matched the numeric representation below. But then something strange happened. He picked up two different representations (a single pip and a tens frame with 4) and placed them on top of each other, and then on the clothesline above the 5. “Wait, that looks like 4 to me.” I said. “No, mommy. That is a four and a 1. See? That’s the same as 5,” he answered as he showed me the card hidden below.

Wow – this just went way further than I imagined, and all because I just backed up and let him play with math.

As he continued to play, he realized he wanted cards he didn’t have. I handed him blank ones and a pen and allowed him to draw the numbers himself. I was surprised that he chose different representations each time. He didn’t have a clear explanation to me on why he drew the representation that he did, other than it was what he was thinking or visualizing in his head.

He continued playing with clothesline for a while, and then went back to Legos. A short while later, his head popped back up and he walked over to the clothesline and started moving the numbers around more.

I know it’s important to read with and to my son every day, so that his literacy and love of reading continues to grow. It’s equally important that I spend time playing with math, problem solving and making sense of numbers so that his numeracy and love of problem solving continues to grow. Clothesline Math has been a great way to start this new year off right.

So, my New Year’s Resolution 2016-1: Find opportunities to play with math daily with my kids.

Are you up for the challenge, too?