Elementary Mathematics Specialists & Teacher Leaders Project

Project Meeting & Professional Development Opportunity

January 13, 2012
Academic Hall, Room 115

8:30 a.m.     Welcome and Continental Breakfast

9:00 a.m.     Introductions and Project Update – Beth, Jon, Skip

• Brookhill proposal update
• Doing What Works - Fractions
• NCSM Leadership Journal – We Need Elementary Mathematics Specialists Now, More Than Ever: A Historical Perspective and Call to Action
• ems&tl website update – Jon Wray

9:30 a.m.    Discussion – Phoenix Rising by Hung-Hsi Wu

• Implications
• Content/Pedagogy - teacher weaknesses and/or reservations exist; instructional time is a challenge; specialization exists in some CCPS; emphasis has been on reading; FCPS leadership - EMS in each building is critical; TSM - mathematical reasoning not evident; a focus on content needs to increase during PD.
  
• Curriculum Materials and Resources - What will we use?! BCPS - Investigations in primary grades; collaboration is critical--and very difficult to do within some districts; CCPS - textbooks as a reference--not main reference (K-1 implementing CC this year).
  
• Preservice to Inservice Teacher Education and Professional Development - departmentalization to deliver more focused PD; how and where will we break the "cycle?"; develop more  mathematics-focused courses for teachers; need to change higher education paradigm - certification needs to involve more mathematics training; conversations about content are needed.
  

11:00 a.m.  Developing and Empowering Teacher Leaders – Teaching Children Mathematics - Call for Manuscripts 

• A plan for ems&tl…
• Working groups on issues of importance
• Report back to the full group (Download report)
  

12:00 noon  Lunch and picture - Ravens Purple Pride Fan Photo-Fest

12:45 p.m.  The CCL4s updates – Jon Wray

1:00 p.m.  Resistant Teacher Challenges – Skip and Beth

1:45 p.m.    CCSS – A Dialogue and Sharing

• Where are you? By county? by school?
• BCPS - K in '11-12, 1-5 hybrids in '12-13, full implementation ('13-14)
• CCPSS - K-1 full implementation, add'l cluster for grade 2 ('11-12) 2-3 w/transition for 4-5 ('12-13)
• FCPSS - PreK-2 (11-12), full implementation next year
• HCPSS - K (11-12), 1-3 with transition in grade 5 (12-13), 3-5 (13-14)
• What are you doing re: above-grade level students?
• BCPS - begins in grade 3 GT (3rd and 4th grade math); parent requests for acceleration in grades 1 and 2; focusing on grade level courses now; pressures to discuss acceleration
• CCPSS - in conversations with CC Curriculum Council on district transition plan; progression documents in K-1 (and 2). Above grade level curr. beginning in grade 3. Current advanced grade 5 will be proficient in grade 6 CC prior to next year. Rewritten primary assessments and using rubrics to assess levels of understanding (formative, end of cluster, benchmarks).
• FCPSS - CCSS should prepare students to be college ready; need to communicate this to parents; use data sources (results from Global Scholar Performance Series computer adaptive assessment in grades 2-5) and teacher identification for student placement.
• HCPSS - struggling; culture of school system is to offer above grade level (all grades); acceleration and enrichment model
• What are you doing re: RtI and special education students?
• HCPSS - Dreambox subscriptions in grades 1-2 (ESOL population)
• FCPSS - mathematics intervention (2 for math and "24" for ELA); have interventionists; FASTT Math
• When are students beginning to work with standard algorithms?
• PARCC Item Development - Content Specifications
• SMARTER Balanced - Content Specifications for the Summative assessment of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (Dec. 9, 2011)
• Other issues?

2:15 p.m.    Updating ems&tl Mini-Grant Projects – Be prepared to provide a (2 minute) capsule summary of YOUR project’s status

2:30 p.m.    Survey – Your work and parents/community impact and involvement

2:45 p.m.    Announcements – Jon, Beth, Skip

3:00 p.m.    Closing - Skip

Upcoming Events:

Feb. 9-11, 2012               AMTE Conference - Fort Worth, TX

Mar. 2, 2012                    ems&tl Project Meeting (moved from March 16)

April 22-28, 2012           NCSM/NCTM Annual Conferences - Philadelphia, PA

Thurs., May 24, 2012      Summer Institute (Proposed)

Friday, June 1, 2012        Summer Institute (Proposed)

Thurs., June 7, 2012        Summer Institute (Proposed)

Friday, June 8, 2012        Summer Institute (Proposed)