math teachers blog

I will be working with you this next semester and I am so delighted to be at Lansing.  I taught in the classroom for 33 years. Yes, I am old.! For at least 20 of those years, I taught mathematics in the only way I knew how to teach:  “Open your book to page ___ and do the 28 problems.  Any that are not done will be homework tonight.”

 I would take the papers home and organize them into piles:  one pile for kids with problems carrying and borrowing, one column of those who did not add or subtract correctly, one pile for those who did not know how to check their work, etc.

In the very first year that CSAP in math was ever tested in Colorado, our 5^th grade received a combined score of 17% proficient.  I was devastated.  I was working as hard and long as I knew how and the scores were unacceptable.

The next August, my principal asked me if I would try a new math program.  I willingly agreed as I wanted to do a better job teaching kids to understand math.  A program being piloted in APS  was called Investigations in Time,Data, and Space.   With no coach, no teacher leader, and no one else in the building teaching this curriculum, I spent countless hours reading the material and working to offer kids more than the traditional algorithum to make math meaningful.   It was a struggle.  By November of that year, I was in the principal’s office in tears asking to supplement Investigations with the traditional textbook—it was just too long a climb to make by myself.

My principal asked me continue to teach Investgations “cleanly”, adding, “How else would the school know if this is the correct approach to use for math?”  Then she said these golden words:  “I give you permission to fail.”  With that, I marched toward CSAP sticking strictly to Investigations ,  in the knowledge that  I might not be doing it perfectly, but that she trusted me and backed my efforts to do the best that I could, being true to the approach.

Scores for 5^th grade in math at my school that year came back with 32% proficient and the following year 43 % proficient.  The rest of the story is predictable.  I became a math teacher leader, then a district math coach.

 If I sometimes sound passionate, it is become I am passionate in the knowledge that for a fact all kids can progress and learn and the mathematical approach we are using in APS is on the right track toward helping kids make meaning in math.

I am excited about working with all of you and look forward to this semester together. Please use this blog to question, share , and learn together.