We are at it again. 20 teachers in D204 K-12 have began the exciting exploration of Number Talks. New this year we differentiated and allowed each teacher to choose which book to read. Number Talks: Whole Numbers, Number Talks: Fractions Decimals and Percents, or Making Number Talks Matter. The best news is they will all be hearing from and interacting with each other every week as they explore and learn. Thanks to Flip Grid and Google docs some great conversations will ensue. Looking forward to hearing from all these wonderful teachers.
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@NORTH CENTRAL COLLEGE (my alma mater '89) I had the opportunity to share number talks with middle school math and science teachers along side one of my favorite friends and colleagues sueellen.I was energized by the entire event. I was back at my undergraduate college which holds so many memories and I was sharing one of my favorite math teaching techniques with one of my favorite math friends. SueEllen and I began the day with a team building activity, CUPs, challenging the participants to problems solve, communicate and persevere in a way they hope their own students would. After setting the stage about communication and collaboration we began to share our Number Talks story. How we have used the number talks to build a classroom culture of risk taking and respect. How Number Talks have unveiled student misconceptions about procedures they have memorized. Even how number talks have drawn in the most reluctant students to have mathematical conversations and discourse with their peers. So many 'Side-Benefits' it really is hard to know them all until you are engaging in them yourself with your own students.
(I am going to tell how it all began, if you know this... skip down) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My son MJ has down syndrome, this implies to many people that his is less than capable of many thing and mostly learning.....this couldn't be more untrue. My husband and I are both teachers we fully understand that kids will live out the expectations of their peers, teachers and parents. From the moment he was diagnosed, our expectations for MJ were parallel to those of our daughter Madeline. Simple really, work hard, do your best, keep trying when things aren't easy and all the while have fun. In short, "Win them All" (as opposed to you win some you lose some). MJ's therapists and teachers were exceptional at living out those expectations, I would say they pushed him even more than his parents did. and one day...in third grade... (this is where the Number Talks story begins) MJ's teacher walked him out of the back of the school for pick up. Instead of letting go of his hand for him to run and jump into my arms like he always does, she walked him over with a proud smile on her face. "I just have to share with you what happened in math today" and she went on to describe how MJ verbally shared a number strategy for grouping that was so well said the entire class paused for a moment to digest. MJ, who at this point was not skip counting, had not memorized his facts, who had trouble manipulating his pencil enough to make a 5 look different than an S had communicated verbally a cognitive strategy that had not yet been described by the teacher. He has always been a good listener and loves to participate and share his thoughts, but this day he was able to shine in math class because the teacher had students, without paper and pencil, with their hands on their chest, gave everyone a respected voice, and listened. Listened carefully enough to hear mathematical thinking in a little boy who works so hard everyday to just BE like everyone else. This is how I first learned of the idea of Number Talks. This launched my research and professional development of this idea. How can I get this into my High School Classrooms, how can I get all students to have their thinking heard, respected and digested.... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- back to our Saturday morning smile group. Math and science teachers together what a great crew. We did some number talks, we introduced them to Sherry Parrish, Ruth Parker, Cathy Humphreys and their great resources and many more. We were able to light a fire and hope that they too will be able to use Number talks in their classrooms to give voice to all students mathematical thinking and open up the world of thinking mathematically for many who believe they are 'not' a math person. I had the privilege to work with a group of teacher leaders in Bangor Maine earlier this week at the NCSM Summer Leadership Academy. @mathedleaders #ncsmla
An opportunity arose to share number talks with this group. Connie Schrock, NCSM President, and I did the above Number Talks with our teacher leader group. Connie played the elementary teacher digging deep into understanding number construction and deconstruction as well as doubling and halving techniques. I followed, extending middle school concepts into HS using WODB problem and one of my favorite statistic discussion starters from Sendhil Revulari. (see Number Talk Resources Page for where to find these). Sharing the power of number talks has become serious passion of mine. Number Talks starts as this cool math thing developing number sense and sharing multiple ways to approach a problem, helping students construct knowledge rather than memorize math facts and what happens is so so much more. The side benefits of Number Talks in a classroom are unlimited. Give it I try... I promise you that you will be pleased with the results. I have been thrilled to both read and watch responses to end of chapter guiding questions. Our group of teachers range from Pre K to HS and everyone has been thoughtful engaging with the contents of the text. Many have been testing out the number talks on friends and family members. The peer to peer feedback has added another layer of interaction with the concepts in each chapter. I am so pleased with this first round of book study and I am so excited to see everyone in class next week as we share our implementation plans and watch a number talk in our summer bridge math class.
Thank you to all of our participants. Jackie and Jessica I am so excited to be doing a Summer Book Study with IPSD 204 Academy. We have 20 teachers signed up and ready to roll tomorrow morning. We begin our journey with a face to face meeting and then we go online with reading and activities and videos.(#ilovegoogle) . I am excited to work with Jessica Bogie @algebrainiac (follow her on twitter), my friend and 204 middle school math guru as we adventure into the land of blended learning with one of our favorite classroom strategies Number Talks.
Tomorrow we will join our Google Classroom as a team of teachers ready to learn more during our short summer break so we can impact student learning in the fall. #FLIPGRID #Padlet and of course G Suite will be our platform for sharing and learning together. I can't wait. Looking forward to sharing at DVC 2017 tomorrow. Don't forget to check out our new RESOURCES Page there are so many great ideas, Number Talks or Math Talks have taken flight all over and the resources are abundant.
Thank you to a great room of teacher participants today, we loved your participation, comments and questions. Here is a link to the SHARE of our Google Slide Presentation http://tinyurl.com/jgzq89r . Our contact information is on the slides. We hope to here success stories and struggles either here or via email as you embark on your Number Talk Journey.
I never expected an answer to my number talk question to come in the form of CHINESE, I never expected one of my teachers would introduce compound inequalities by asking how tall she is in STARBURST candies, I never expected to watch one of my teachers rendered speechless by a students creative answer to finding 5 numbers whose mean is 8.
Can not wait to share this and so much more at ICTM 2016 - Peoria this Friday September 7 @ 2:00. We are so excited to continue sharing our journey with Number Talks at Metea Valley HS, we are learning so much about and with our students using Number Talks. @numbertalks @meteamath #ictm2016 School year 2016-17 is four weeks old and Number Talks are becoming a natural part of what we do.... Students thinking mathematically, sharing mathematically and growing mathematically happening simultaneously with the foundation building of a classroom culture and climate of acceptance, respect and teamwork.
We are capturing a variety of Number Talks on film and preparing for our ICTM presentation in Peoria. Special prize to anyone who reads our blog and attends our session. :) Here are some resources we have stumbled. A plethora of number talk ideas. Mathtalks.net GoogleSheetofMathTalks Hope these are useful. Math Talk On. |
NCSM Summer Leadership Academy Crew. This is what Math Leaders look like. !
AuthorI am just an excited math teacher/leader trying out Number Talks for the first time because I believe in the transformative power of understanding students thinking. Archives
June 2018
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