On Monday October 14th, our Algebra Lesson Study group got together for the first time in the Education Studies department at UCSD. The group consists of Collin Reinking from Bonita Vista High School, Kellen Slack from Guajome Park Academy and John Berray from West Hills High School. We were laughing about how our small group of 3 teachers hail from schools that couldn't be much farther apart! Collin teaches in Bonita (south), John is in Santee (east), and Kellen is in Vista (north). This will certainly pose a challenge when we observe the lesson, but I'm sure we can overcome this!
The morning started with some time for all of us to get to know each other a bit. Chris Halter, the esteemed leader of the Noyce Program at UCSD, joined us for a short time in the morning and also generously offered to take us all to lunch! (Thanks, Chris!) The group shared their paths to becoming a teacher and what drew them to study and teach math in the first place. It was interesting to hear the variety of experiences that everyone had that led them to the same place.
We then spent the rest of the morning coming to a shared understanding of the lesson study process. We engaged as teacher-learners and analyzed the experiences of teachers in the "How many seats" lesson and video from the "Lesson Study: Step by Step" by Catherine Lewis and Jacqueline Hurd. Apparently, the "how many seats" problem is a very common example in mathematics, but the lesson study participants had deep discussion about the transformation of teacher thinking in the video.
In the afternoon, the group spent some time discussing 5-year goals for their students. These included
The group will be meeting again at UCSD on November 8th in order to plan their research lesson and focus their observation questions.
Before leaving, one teacher said "this is the first PD I've ever gone to where I didn't wonder at the end of the day why the heck I bothered to go." In terms of professional development, this is the highest complement possible!! I think we're all looking forward to our next session filled with lots of deep discussion about the nature of mathematics, student thinking, and the transition to Common Core State Standards. I can't wait!
The morning started with some time for all of us to get to know each other a bit. Chris Halter, the esteemed leader of the Noyce Program at UCSD, joined us for a short time in the morning and also generously offered to take us all to lunch! (Thanks, Chris!) The group shared their paths to becoming a teacher and what drew them to study and teach math in the first place. It was interesting to hear the variety of experiences that everyone had that led them to the same place.
We then spent the rest of the morning coming to a shared understanding of the lesson study process. We engaged as teacher-learners and analyzed the experiences of teachers in the "How many seats" lesson and video from the "Lesson Study: Step by Step" by Catherine Lewis and Jacqueline Hurd. Apparently, the "how many seats" problem is a very common example in mathematics, but the lesson study participants had deep discussion about the transformation of teacher thinking in the video.
In the afternoon, the group spent some time discussing 5-year goals for their students. These included
- the ability to see structure in the world
- to explore math without algorithms
- to understand the growth mindset
- to focus on development of ideas, not just having an answer
The group will be meeting again at UCSD on November 8th in order to plan their research lesson and focus their observation questions.
Before leaving, one teacher said "this is the first PD I've ever gone to where I didn't wonder at the end of the day why the heck I bothered to go." In terms of professional development, this is the highest complement possible!! I think we're all looking forward to our next session filled with lots of deep discussion about the nature of mathematics, student thinking, and the transition to Common Core State Standards. I can't wait!