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Hello from Kentucky!
My name is Katrina, and I am a special education teacher co-teaching math at the high school level. I have been teaching special education for 34 years at the same high school; however, no two years have ever been the same. I have been co-teaching math exclusively at my high school for the past 8 years and will be again this coming year. I have been teaching Algebra II, Algebra III, and geometry; however, I am not sure exactly what subjects I will be teaching this year due to some curriculum changes at our school.
I saw Jon and Kyle’s presentation at the Beyond Math virtual conference and wanted to dig deeper into what they were talking about. I have been increasingly unhappy with how instruction in my co-taught classes has been going. Kids aren’t really making progress and they only seem to want help on test day. There has to be a better way. This summer I am reading through Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, and I really want to be a catalyst for change in our mathematics department. I want my students doing more thinking!
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4 Replies
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Welcome @katrina.lowe what would you say is your current pebble in your shoe going into next year?
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Jon, I would say my biggest pebble would be student engagement. I have also been struggling lately with the sit and get approach to teaching math. As a special education math co-teacher, I would really like to see students up and “productively struggling” in math. My district has put a big emphasis on math this coming school year, which is good in some respects, but a lot of decisions are being made from our central office level without including teachers. The end of the 20/21 school year was a bit stressful. I’m hoping that by working through some of your work will help as school starts back August 5th.
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Thanks for sharing! We would recommend jumping into our PD Pathway on building Resilient Problem Solvers. You’ll find what you’re looking for over there: https://learn.makemathmoments.com/make-math-moments-courses/
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Thank you for the feedback. I started with the Equitable Practices in Math Class Pathway. I have almost completed that one, so I’ll have to start the Building Resilient Problem Solvers Pathway next. Combined with some other reading I have been doing this summer, your courses have provided invaluable information. Now, if I can just take some of what I’m learning back to the teachers with whom I co-teach and to my administration, maybe we can start to affect some positive change. 🙂
