Reply To: Shifting Teacher Practice

[Denise Currie]

This is a probably THE most important part of changing how we teach math. As a district installs a “math leader”,  I think it needs to be loud and clear that the teachers need teaching first. Reach out to the teachers to help clarify the pedagogy around “stand-up math” and math talks, number talks, dot talks. Reach out to the teachers to emphasize that the assessment of “learning” should not be “ how quickly an algorithm is finished accurately.” Yes, we want fluency but predominately we want comprehension and curiosity and an enjoyment of the subject material especially at the elementary grade levels, where foundations are built. I have a feeling that most teachers will find this “new” approach to be very intuitive and that it makes perfect sense to encourage true engagement in math class. Mostly they will want some support in how to set the class up and get things happening differently. Once that journey is begun we will all be on our way to being better math teachers and better math learners. This will take understanding and leadership at the admin level and a buy-in from all of us to “give it a go!”