Core Group Meeting 

September 13, 2013 Merritt Hall Room 115

McDaniel College Campus 

8:30 a.m.     Continental Breakfast

9:00 a.m.     Greetings, introductions

9:15 a.m.     MCTM Updates - Sue Vohrer

                    NCTM Updates - Jon Wray

• New Position Statements
• Formative Assessment 
• Common Core State Standards  

9:30 a.m.     CCSS Implementation Updates (By district)

• HCPS - Full implementation 2013-14, resources stored on wiki are being used internationally 
• FCPS - Full implementation (in years 2/3) 
• CCPS - Full implementation PreK-8
• BCPS - Year 2 (PreK-1), PD provided during day for all teachers; Year 1 for 3-6; grappling with GT pathway issues; concerned with current program resources; hosting sessions on Publisher's Criteria
• Supporting Parents and Families with the CCSS and Assessments – NOTE: Bring items/examples of what you do or plan to do and be prepared to discuss.
• HCPS - Back to school resources; CC Nights; general resources; resources created for trainings in Title I schools; SMART web pages - https://smart.wikispaces.hcpss.org/SMART+Pages
• In schools:
• Title I schools - parent trainings while students working with teachers and then back together (3 nights - 1: entire community, 2: K-2 students, 3: )
• Grade level team parent nights w/invitations to families by classroom teachers; emphasis on teachers doing the facilitation vs. MSTers at these sessions--which is somewhat controversial (a confidence issue re: selling the CC to parents/families)...; heavy emphasis on computational fluency in grade 3 (last year) 
• FCPS - CCSS opponents (Tea Party members) visited the district this past week; less than 100 attendees; message did not resonate with the community; general website with links and resources; current spotlight is on middle/high (first year of implementation)
• In schools:
• PTA night for active parents; GT parents; rationale and timeline for PARCC; focus of each grade levels; Q&A; traditional problems > rich performance-based tasks
• Resources delivered through school website; educating parents and keeping them informed ("What your child will learn this month..."); weekly Math Night at community center; Dreambox licenses for each student in a specific community
• Extended Learning Opportunity (ELO) funds used to pay teachers to work with parents and student (strategies to help children at home); CCSS information resources 
• CCPS - CCSS Resources for Parents on general website; within elem. curr. are parent brochures, given out at Back to School Nights; CC video clips with classroom snippets;
• School level:
• weekly Family (reading/math) Nights at school (Title I funded) with homework help and tutoring, teachers talk w/parents about what's happening in math classes; manipulatives are provided for attendees (tangrams, cards, rulers);
• focus on strategies used to support critical concepts; weekly news clip involving videos (How to use a double number line to support multiplication)
• creative scheduling used to support in person opportunities to share uses of tools
• using HW to communicate strategies/practices used by students (and their parents) 
• BCPS -  Focus has been on providing resources for administrators and teachers; in front of community advisory groups; general district website resources have been enhanced; short-term vision is to deliver resources to the public through math office website; a lot of attention on ELA in BCPS right now
• In schools:
• Back to School Night's, Math Parent Night (focus on book Old Dogs, New Math); little or no negative comments from parents; bimonthly parent meetings

10:35 a.m.     BREAK

10:50 a.m.     Part A - Examining the ems&tl annual Project Evaluation Report - Skip

•  How do we define – administrative duties, other – and more?

11:20 a.m.      Part B - Creating a Model and Vision for Mathematics Specialists in Your District – visual [the model]/vision; Beth 

12:00 p.m.     LUNCH

12:45 p.m.     PARCC Update - New Items Grades 3-6 (Examining content, practices and misconceptions in student work) – Skip, Beth, Jon; SMARTER Balanced adds grades 3-8, 11 mathematics performance based tests

1. What are your concerns related to PARCC?
2. New PARCC items - New Items Grades 3-6
3. Computer lab > SMARTER Balanced performance based tests
4. Additional concerns?
5. How would you use particular items with kids? What would you want children to do before tackling this/these item(s)?
6. How is this a different form of "test prep"?
   

1:45 pm.        BREAK

2:00 p.m.      Selecting and Using Materials to Support the CCSS (Jason Zimba's simple tool)

• As you begin to look for and/or purchase materials, what elements of this tool are most important to you?
• How would you use with for materials that you might develop? 
• How are the materials (that you currently use) helping 'teachers with workable strategies for assisting students who have special needs' (e.g., disabilities, ELL, gifted students)? 

2:40 p.m.     Getting Ready for Baltimore's NCTM Regional Conference (October 16-18) 

2:50 p.m.     Response to Intervention: Preparing for Karen Karp and Amy Lingo's  visit on November 15

• How does the classroom teacher provide interventions for students of all levels in her/his classroom?
• What's the balance between scaffolding and productive struggle?
• What help can you provide us with finding and using (research-based) universal screening tool(s)?
• How do you balance grade level expectations with where students really are? What are realistic goals for students who are performing far below their grade level? What's a realistic amount of growth for such students?
  
• How do you help students with specific non-mathematics learning disabilities?
• Are there any quality commercial programs that you recommend? After school programs? Summer programs?
  

Homework For November Meeting
• This Worked!
• Weekly Log – we will send the format
• Job Description –
Using the vision statement as your starting point.  List the job responsibilities you believe defines your work? What would you change?

Important Dates:

• October 16-18, 2013 - NCTM Baltimore Regional Conference
• October 17, 2013 @ 4 PM - ems&tl Gathering @ Frank and Nicks 511 West Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21201
• November 15, 2013 - ems&tl Core Group Meeting - Karen Karp and Amy Lingo (University of Louisville)
• January 10, 2014 - ems&tl Core Group Meeting
• February 6-8, 2014 - AMTE Conference, Irvine, CA
• March 21, 2014 - ems&tl Core Group Meeting
• April 7-12, 2014 - NCSM/NCTM Conference
• May 23, 2014 - Summer Institute Day 1
• May 30, 2014 - Summer Institute Day 2 (This date has been changed)