More Math for More People

Episode 2.24: Where Joel and Misty revere their school librarians, wrap up learning about Inspiring Connections and also learn about CPM coaching

April 04, 2023 Misty Nikula Season 2 Episode 24
More Math for More People
Episode 2.24: Where Joel and Misty revere their school librarians, wrap up learning about Inspiring Connections and also learn about CPM coaching
Show Notes Transcript

It's another fine episode of the More Math for More People podcast.
So many good things this week!

First, Joel and Misty talk honor School Librarians for National School Librarian Day.
Then they conclude their series on the features and aspects of the new Inspiring Connections curriculum with a discussion of some of the delivery features of the program. See links below to get more information.

Then they have a wonderful conversation with two teachers that worked with CPM coaches this school year. Any site can request a quote for CPM coaching! Links for more information and to request a quote below.

You can learn more about Inspiring Connections here:
Contact your Regional Professional Learning Coordinator
CPM's new Digital Platform video

Register for the Residential Institute (Foundations for Coaching and other courses)

Request for Coaching Quote
Coaching Informational Webinar - April 19, 2023 at 9 am PT

The More Math for More People Podcast is produced by CPM Educational Program.
Learn more at CPM.org
Twitter: @cpmmath
Facebook: CPMEducationalProgram
Email: cpmpodcast@cpm.org

Misty:

Here we are on April 4th, 2023. This is episode 24 of Season two of the More Math for More People. Podcast. Cheers.

Hello everyone. I'm Misty. And I'm Joel. And this is the more. For more People. Podcast brought to you by CPM Educational Program. On this podcast, we discuss the CPM curriculum, trends in math education, and share strategies to shift instructional practices to create a more inclusive and student-centered classroom. We also highlight upcoming CPM professional learning opportunities and have conversations with math educators about how they do what they do, and we always try to have a little bit of fun and laughter as well. Indeed we do. So come and find out what shenanigans were up to on this episode. Boom.

Misty:

I think by now the people know what time it is. It is National Day of Time, so yes. And what National Day is it today,

Joel:

It's National School Librarian Day.

Misty:

Wow.

Joel:

Yeah,

Misty:

Okay. School Librarian Day.

Joel:

that's right.

Misty:

I used to love to go to the library when I was a kid.

Joel:

Me too.

Misty:

I would ride my bike. This is when kids could do things like this. I would take my bike and I would ride it. It was like in eighth grade, probably ride it like a couple miles over to my grandma's house because my grandma lived on the bus. Line. then I would take the bus from across the street from my grandma's house all the way to downtown Olympia. And then I'd walk like six or eight blocks up cuz the bus didn't go right by the library. Walk all the way up to the library. And then I would Return a bunch of books, check out a bunch of books, my backpack or whatever I had, I probably didn't have, I dunno if it was, had a backpack or whatever. I had to carry books and then I'd walk all the way back down and catch the bus back to my grandma's house and then ride my bike back home. I did it like multiple times, probably every couple weeks in the summertime

Joel:

that's.

Misty:

Yeah, I used to read a lot of books when I was a kid, I appreciate librarians and they're keeping things organized and so on. People who wanna find books.

Joel:

Me too. One funny story is when I was in high school, and I almost hesitate to say this in a public forum just because there are some implications that happened here, but.

Misty:

Okay.

Joel:

So

Misty:

I'm even

Joel:

yeah, I'm kind of telling the story, but without admitting guilt, but yet I did it, if that makes sense In high school we loved our school librarian so much that we wanted to honor her. And our way of honoring her was there was this beautiful picture of Obiwan Kenobi in the library that a student had made, like a painting. And so we had a friend. In our group do the same mural of OB one Kenobi with the librarian in the mural and so this was very difficult. We had to have somebody hide out under the stairs in the library. We had to have we were talking to each other, but I wanna say walkie-talkies, but we probably had cell phones then. I'm not even sure, but we were giving each other information somehow Stayed after school, got into the library, scaled the wall, replaced the pictures.

Misty:

Oh my goodness.

Joel:

the librarian actually loved it, but we were whoever was guilty said that they were not gonna be able to graduate that year until they replaced the actual picture. But in the end, we replaced it in the, I graduated and librarian loved And so I have a great affinity to school librarians because not only did she help us, get our materials, do all the things, read the books, but there's a good love there for.

Misty:

Well, and I think that being a librarian and doing that kind of thing, and it's like almost, I don't wanna say it's a lost art, but it's it's a thing that is because there's so much more information and things available just online and so on, I think that the, what librarians do has really shifted and changed since certainly. you and I were in school and everything was just books, so we had to go to the reference section where you couldn't check out any of those books,

Joel:

Decimal system, all that

Misty:

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. All right, so it's National school librarian day, today, and

Joel:

we honor you. You, we love you. Thank

Misty:

Great job librarians. Thank you for all your

Joel:

Yeah. So today we're back with Karen Wooten and Krista Holstein. And we're gonna be talking about this is our final episode here about our new curriculum Inspiring Connections. And today we're going to focus on the delivery platform because as I understand, it's very different than what we've seen before. So we're gonna find out about that. So welcome back to the podcast.

Krista:

Thanks so

Karen:

you.

Misty:

Yeah, welcome.

Karen:

Thank you.

Joel:

What is this thing that we're calling the digital platform?

Krista:

What is this thing we're calling the digital platform? So this is our, the way that the curriculum is being delivered. And it's more than just an ebook. It's an interactive experience for both the teachers and the students. it's really, it's a BIM media program for inspiring connections. It's not just a textbook. We're not just an ebook, but students will have a, a mathematician's notebook, and then they'll also have their devices where the rest of the curriculum will be housed in this digital platform. So there's a lot to unpack there. Where do you wanna start?

Misty:

Yeah.

Joel:

sounds like there's a lot of pieces to this puzzle here,

Krista:

Yeah,

Misty:

Well, there's simultaneously a lot of pieces, and then only two pieces,

Joel:

right?

Krista:

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

Karen:

both those pieces are needed. You can't just use one or the other. Both of them are needed.

Misty:

Okay. Okay. Why don't we start with the, do you wanna start with the mathematician's notebook and explain that first, or explain the digital platform.

Krista:

yeah. We can talk about the mathematician notebook first. So we say that the mathematician notebook. is where the students record the messy work of learning. So it's, there's a lot of space available for the students. There's blank space, there's grid space, there's also blank graphs and blank tables and illustrations and things to ground the students into what the problem is, but also provide the space for them to work. It makes sense for them. We want them to be taking notes for themselves or as, like Al says, they're taking notes for their future, for forgetful self. So it should be personalized to the students. It makes sense to them. So we provide the opportunity for that. They can write where, how, and what they.

Misty:

Mm-hmm.

Karen:

and it is a consumable, which, so that's a big difference from our Core Connection series is that this is a consumable book for the students.

Joel:

So it's not just a composition book to record this messy

Krista:

It is not so in terms of what's actually in there, like the launch, the text for the launch and the closure for every single lesson is in there so the students can engage with that. and the reflection and practice, which is the independent work that's done typically outside of class, all of that is in the mathematician's notebook, so they can use that. They don't need to have internet at home if they want to do their reflection and practice. They can do that in their mathematician's notebook, so it's not just blank space and grid space. there's definitely a lot of content in there.

Misty:

Yeah. Yeah. It feels like an enhanced step up structured form of a composition notebook, right? Where they've got that space and things, but then they also have these anchor points and the, in some cases the full problem. But it sounds like a lot of cases, the classwork stuff isn't necessarily all there would have selected pieces that were there. Is that accurate?

Krista:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and it really goes hand in hand with the content that's on the digital platform, which is the rest of it, which is basically everything is in the digital platform. There's some things that are only in the mathematicians notebook, like journal prompts. Are in the mathematician notebook, but for the most part, everything is accessible in the digital platform. And so the students can engage with the problems in the digital platform and then do their work in the mathematician's notebook because we know brain research tells us writing by hand is a lot more powerful than typing. So we try to encourage that instead.

Misty:

Mm-hmm. Okay so I'm trying to picture what this might look like in the classroom, right? So the kids have their mathematician's notebook. We've talked a little bit about how they might sometimes be working in vertical, non-permanent surfaces or with their device. So how might it look in the classroom, right? I've got my little mathematician's notebook. What am I doing as a student? How am I interacting with the curriculum in these various ways?

Karen:

Well, a lot of it will be, it'll still look like the CPM classrooms. We all. kids are in teams. We are recommending not one-to-one, two to one, three to one, even four to one might work for how they're gonna access the content that's on the digital platform, but they are. Each of them have their own mathematicians notebook where they're doing their work and recording their work. So when they're up at the vertical, non-permanent surfaces, we imagine that they have those notebooks right there with them, that they're jotting down notes or making sketches or whatever it is that they need to remember that they're putting on those whiteboards. And it's, it can go back and forth between the two, or there could be times where the teacher will provide in the directions or the instructions verbally. Expect the kids to be going back every few seconds to look at the device, but moving'em along just through verbal instruction.

Krista:

Yeah, so students might be, teams might be working at the vertical, non-permitted surface. They might be working. at their tabletops with algebra tiles or maybe there's an interactive activity on the digital platform where they're working on their devices. So we're incorporating all of these different, sometimes we call'em venues into the lessons very intentionally. So whatever the students, however the students are experiencing the lesson was chosen intentionally to maximize their learning.

Karen:

Correct. We don't do technology just for technology's sake. It has to bring value. If we're gonna take the time to use a technology or some component of it, it has to add value to the student's learning or their experience while learning.

Misty:

So I've heard that there are some pretty cool features in the digital platform to help teachers with structuring and carrying out the lesson. Can you tell us about some of those?

Karen:

Well, the whole, the entire teacher edition is on the digital platform, so that's where the teacher's gonna go to access all of their information that they need to teach the class. And there's space there and it's set up so that teachers could do their planning right in there. So they could type their own notes right into the digital platform at their lessons, just like you used to stick your post-it notes.

Joel:

Mm-hmm.

Karen:

in the binder, it's the same sort of thing. But they have quick access then to the author's vision is what we now call the teacher notes. They're right with the problem. So it isn't like turning to a separate click in a separate tab in the CCE book, or going to a different page in your binder, but it's connected with the part of the lesson that they're working on.

Misty:

Mm-hmm.

Joel:

That's awesome.

Krista:

And the digital platform also gives teachers the opportunities to randomize teams, the student. roster will be, their class roster was included in the digital platform, and the teacher can use visibly random teams every day as recommended in building thinking classrooms. And the thing that I think is most powerful, if I can go ahead and say that is pacing. So the teacher has the opportunity to pace the lesson and make only certain problems visible for the students what the students are seeing on their screens. And this allows for some deeper learning to happen because students won't be worried about, I need to make sure that I complete all five problems in this lesson. If they see only one problem, they can focus on that one problem.

Joel:

Are there suggestions for the pacing or is that left up to the teacher discretion?

Krista:

Yeah. In the author's vision that Karen was just mentioning, which is right next to the problem, it'll say PACE two problem. one dash 21 or paste to the launch or whatever is recommended to help the students to focus their learning. It also helps if there's something that might give something away

Misty:

Mm mm-hmm.

Krista:

This lesson is about histograms, but we don't want you to think about histograms yet, so we're not gonna show you that histograms are coming up later in this lesson.

Misty:

That all sounds really cool. I'm really excited to really see it in classrooms in the next years and see how teachers are pulling this all together. It's a really, very intentional piece of curriculum, so I'm pretty excited about that

Joel:

Yeah.

Krista:

you. So are

Karen:

It is it's cutting edge. It really is. There isn't anything else like

Joel:

no.

Karen:

because there will also be interactive activities built into the digital platform that the students will be engaging with the activity there, not going to some other site but right there with their lesson.

Misty:

Awesome.

Joel:

If teachers wanted to see an example of this, cuz I know we're, this is audio, we're just talking about it. If they wanted to see something about it, where would they go to get some visual?

Karen:

if they go, if they contact their R P L C,

Misty:

Mm-hmm.

Karen:

the R P C could arrange for them to, have a preview of it. or can do a demonstration for them, which is actually better because when you have a preview, you don't have a class set up, so you can't see all of the pacing and other features of it. But the R PLC can walk you through it and demo the pieces cuz they have some fake classes set up that they can manipulate. That's probably the best way.

Misty:

yeah, and I think we have a a quick little demonstration video that kind of shows the features that one of our PLT members put together. And we can, I think we can link that in our description so that, if that's okay with you, Karen so that people could see that also. It's just a little two minute show how some of the features so that people can see it as,

Karen:

Yeah, that'd be.

Misty:

yeah. Awesome. Well, anything else

Krista:

I would say just that the digital platform, it, like Karen said, it's cutting edge. Like it's so exciting what has already been developed and the development team continues to get feedback and improve it and. It's just really exciting to see this all happen and just expect that even more features are gonna be coming out in the future.

Misty:

Yeah. Yeah. It must be really exciting to be at this point of launching. I mean, we've done so, you've done so much work. I don't wanna say we, I haven't done it. You've done so much work over the last several years in developing it and writing it and field testing it and to be at this point of putting it out there to the general public and classrooms must be very exciting. Indeed.

Joel:

Yeah.

Karen:

is and a and a big shout out to our field test teachers and our beta teachers, cuz they are really working hard and giving us all kinds of feedback. That's been so helpful. And they're really shaping not just the curriculum, but this digital platform to make sure that it's run smoothly and it does. We want it to do, which is support students and teachers.

Misty:

Yeah.

Joel:

shout out cuz at the teacher conference we did get to hear from some of those people, so it was really positive and you could tell that they were enjoying being part of the project too.

Karen:

Yeah.

Misty:

thank you so much for coming on and telling us these last little bits about our big Inspiring Connections launch. And again, if people wanna find out more information, they can contact their regional professional learning coordinator and I'll put a link for that in the description as well. And we're gonna see some great things next year as people start using this in their classrooms. So thank you very much.

Karen:

Well, thank you.

Krista:

So much.

Misty:

Okay, so in a minute you're going to hear a conversation that Joel and I are gonna have with two teachers who've worked with CPM coaches this year. And before we launch into that conversation, we just want to do a little bit of talking about what CPM coaching is, right?

Joel:

Yeah,

Misty:

what is the CPM coaching thing right? So, Joel,

Joel:

Well, what is it?

Misty:

you know, or are you gonna ask me questions? Yeah, exactly.

Joel:

yeah. I'm gonna ask you some questions. In a nutshell, what is CPM coaching?

Misty:

Well, in a nutshell, CPM coaching it's an embedded coaching process. So teachers work with a CPM coach over the course of several months to focus in on one instructional practice area, and the teacher works with a coach to pick a goal. That is based on one of the effective math teaching practices from NCT M'S principles to action. So you pick one of those practices, boom, you create a goal and then we, using that goal, you work with a coach to do several rounds of coaching and each. round of coaching is a co-planning session where you look at a lesson you're gonna do and how you're gonna implement that goal in that particular lesson. And then an observation where the coach comes in, collects some data, some evidence while you're doing that lesson and then a reflection conversation afterwards. So you might do that three to five times or more around that particular goal. And that's, that's the whole thing.

Joel:

Okay. And it sounds different than say, an ISV or our support visits that we do during implementation. So can you be in implementation when you get coaching, or is this for veteran teachers

Misty:

Kind of, yes. So we try to, we try to work on coaching with teachers who have completed their first year of CPM implementation primarily because one, you have access to implementation support visits during that first year. And because so much of the first year is. Figuring out what you're teaching every day and the storyline of the course and what the lessons look like, and all of those pieces. Trying to also put on top of that, this more intense work with a CPM coach. We just feel like that's a lot, right? And so we, we would recommend that you take advantage of the complimentary pieces and then come back to CPM coaching in that second or third year or beyond.

Joel:

Okay. And then once teachers have worked on a goal can teachers continue to do coaching? Can they continue to work on the same goal, work on different goals?

Misty:

Yeah. I mean we have had coaches work with teachers for several years in a row. If the school continues to contract with CPM to do that, and so they can work on the same goal, they can work on a different goal. I've worked with some teachers who, I've worked with'em over several years and they've changed the practice. They've gone back to a practice, cuz every time you address any of those effective math teaching practices, You're gonna work on good teaching, right? You're gonna work on some things. I know when I was teaching every year I'd pick a goal and it would be oh, I've haven't been doing this for a while, so I'm gonna really focus in on this year. And then I would get good at it and I'd be like, oh, darn, I forgot to do this work on this other thing anymore. So it's the same kind of thing. You can continue to work on something. there's always more work to do, right? There's always, you're, even if you worked on a goal the next year your students might be different, right? Your classes are different, so you could work on the same goal, but just because it's with a different group of students, you have to kinda step back and come at it a different way or, work on it again. So, yeah,

Joel:

I never received CPM coaching, and I wish I had I think it would've been a really great experience

Misty:

It probably would've. Hey, we're here today with, Holly Postal Wait, and Renee Joden. They are teachers who worked with some of our CPM coaches this year. Holly lives in Ohio, and Renee lives in Wisconsin. And we are here to have a conversation with them today about how their coaching experience went, what they got from it, how they felt about it. So welcome to the podcast Renee and Holly.

Joel:

for being here.

Holly:

thank you.

Renae:

Thank you.

Misty:

So first of all, just tell us a little bit Holly, why don't you start and just tell us a little bit about, you're in Ohio, but where do you teach? What level do you teach? Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Holly:

So I teach high school at Fairless in Ohio. teaching geometry for 10th grade and then I also have,, an honors algebra two for 10th grade. So I've all 10th grade.

Misty:

Nice. And how long have you been teaching?

Holly:

This is actually my 10th year this year,. and it is my sixth year with cpm.

Misty:

Nice, nice And Renee.

Renae:

I am teaching at Little Chute High School and I have been here for 23 years. I've been teaching for 25 years overall. I taught CPM I think for about eight years, and primarily I've been teaching Algebra one. To freshmen and I have had opportunities to teach Algebra two and pre-calc as well. And I taught the calculus class one year using cpm. So it's been a great experience and I just love it.

Misty:

And is this your first year that you've been working with a CPM coach?

Renae:

Well, we had a coach when we originally implemented cpm. I would say early on, pre 2020. But now we are being coached again because we've had some turnover in staff, so we thought we might as well try to get everyone on the same page again. And yeah, we're seeing a lot of benefits from it.

Misty:

And Holly, is this the first time you've worked with a CPM coach?

Holly:

Yeah, this is my first time.

Misty:

Awesome. This is an open-ended question, How did it feel? What was it like having a CPM coach come and work with you this year? Renee, why don't you start for us if you're willing,

Renae:

so I was part of the original group that was coached a long time ago, and we just thought maybe it would be good idea to have, everyone else in our staff be coached as well so, I wasn't necessarily supposed to be coached this year, but I had requested it and I said, I wanna be coached because to me I think it gives you an opportunity to grow and learn some more. So I love being coached, whether it's, through CPM or a district or whatever it is. Obviously CPM I think is more focused on math and so I think it's just a great opportunity. I don't even know how to explain all the benefits that I think can come from it. Is it challenging? Yes. But I think that if you're open to, having people reflect with you and plan with you, then I think it's a great opportunity for you to grow as an educator.

Misty:

So Holly, how was it having a coach this year for you in general? How did that go?

Holly:

So for me, a lot of things that I don't have at a small school is collaboration because we all of teach, there's one Algebra one teacher, there's one geometry teacher, there's one algebra two, there's one pre-Calc, so there's not overlap two plan together. So that was my biggest benefit is I got to experience, working on lessons with someone and. someone giving me ideas and not me just having to come up with everything on my own. So that was super cool experience for me because I don't really get to do that. I really feel my coach did a good job at letting me say, this is what I want to work on. I really wanted to work on strategies because I feel like we have this huge arsenal of strategies in cpm, but I feel like I always stuck with the same three So I'm like, I really want you to push me to try these other strategies that maybe I just haven't had the courage to try by myself. So having my coach in the room and really supporting that or giving me. ideas on what it's gonna look like or even, I think my coach kept saying, even if you don't know what's gonna happen, just do it. And if it works, it works. And so some of those things I did when she wasn't there, I would just say, okay Holly, just try this. If it works, it works. If it's a disaster, at least, you know. And now I think I have, I've added like six new strategies that I actually like better than the three I was using. So tho those are the two big things that I got.

Joel:

Renee was talking about some experience before with coaching and then trying coaching again. This was your first experience, Holly and how did you hear about it, or how did you get invested in it?

Holly:

My, so we're switching over superintendent. So the new superintendent is of like in an assisting role, but he was our curriculum director and he basically was Hey, you're getting CPM coaching Okay.

Misty:

How did that feel for you?

Holly:

He knows me well enough. I am game for whatever. I love learning. I mean, I'm in education. I feel like I'm a lifelong learner. I don't feel like coaching. I know some teachers get oh my gosh, they're sending someone into my room. I must be doing all these things bad. But there's nothing bad gonna come from someone helping you ever. So I think that's one thing teachers need to remember if someone's gonna come in and make things better for you, there's never a negative to that. Even if they're like, Hey, you could be stronger here. Why don't you try this? I think it's always gonna be a positive for you in the

Misty:

end Yeah. I think that is one of the things that's, that is really nice when working with teachers, right? The willingness to examine your own practice and to think about where you could, get better wherever we are in our teaching career. I imagine after 20 plus years, Renee, you have done a lot of things over time and to be in a place where you're still looking at how can I improve? That's, that's pretty amazing.

Renae:

Yeah, absolutely. And I wanna mention. and I guess echo what Holly's saying about when a coach is in there, it's so non-evaluative and non-judgmental. They're just there to help you become a better teacher and it's what you wanna get out of it. And what I've noticed with John is he wants me to reach my goal, but he is never gonna tell me what to do. Just like in cpm, we don't wanna tell the student. how to do things. He's making me figure it out, through his questioning, through his observations. So I echo what Holly is saying? A hundred percent.

Misty:

what were some of the challenging things about having a coach?

Renae:

I would say sometimes for me, the biggest challenge, challenges the scheduling part so that the coach can get to everyone's room based. When they have their classes, when they have their preps, when, different activities are taking place in the school. That was the biggest challenge. But aside from that, which I can't control, I would say you have to be someone who wants to change and who wants to learn and continue to get better. So the challenge for a lot of teachers is to be open to that kind of communication and experience. They're never gonna tell you what to do. You have to kinda, use what they coach you to do and hopefully it makes you a better teacher.

Misty:

Right,

Joel:

And did you come up with your goals or did John or Ashley and Holly's case, did they come in with a goal in mind for you?

Renae:

Well, John, this time, okay, so first of all, I feel like CPM coaching is always evolving. As different practices, different things come out in the education world. I feel like this time John came with his iPad that had, okay, which of these things do you wanna work on out of these three things? And what, what strategies or what teacher actions, what student actions. It was just a whole different. A whole different experience than it was the first time. I thought this was a little bit more direct and focused with choices. And I thought that was helpful. He didn't tell us what to do, but we had, he kind of broke it down and told us different options or different things that he thought might fit, and then we got to make that choice based on what we thought.

Misty:

Yeah. Yeah. Holly what felt challenging for you with CPM coaching?

Holly:

scheduling, with

Misty:

Mm-hmm.

Holly:

schedule and my schedule and the other teacher's schedules like, I know Ashley would have something and have to switch, and then I'm like, okay, well when she comes, let me make sure there's not a c t testing or this or that. You know? So just trying to coordinate, people's schedules is always tricky to coordinate together. So I, I think I can't say anything else negative besides just trying to schedule the times that they were gonna be.

Misty:

So I'm gonna ask each of you to tell us then, what do you think is the thing that would be most beneficial? Not the thing that maybe you got the most out of have working with a CPM coach, but also what do you think others who are thinking about working with a CPM coach? What would they need to know or what would you want them to know in light of those benefits

Holly:

For me, If I were gonna give someone like, oh, should you do the coaching or not? I would always say yes. The one thing that I feel Ashley, when she came in, she observed and gave me feedback, and that's kind of how we made my goals. And I just chose to use that for things that I knew I wasn't gonna push myself to. So that's what I would tell someone. If you're nervous about having someone in your room, Just think about something that you don't wanna do by yourself. I don't wanna do the chicken problem by myself, So when Ashley was there, I was like, I've never done this lesson. I'm too scared to do it by myself. Do it with me. And like now I'm like really excited about it to do it next year by myself. And, and I just kept pulling lessons like that. So I, that was one of the planning things cuz I always wanted her to be around for something that I wanted to come out of my shell and really try, but with the support of someone else. So I would, I would give somebody that advice, like if you're thinking about doing coaching use it to push yourself into some of those lessons that maybe you don't wanna do cuz you're afraid. Have your coach help you through it, and it will turn out so much better than you think.

Misty:

Mm-hmm. That's great. Renee, what would you offer

Renae:

I would probably go back to the same thing I said before, that it's not for to, for someone who's gonna be coaching, it's, they're not judging you. They are just there to help. To make you think, to make you reflect. I think that was the part that I liked the most was the reflective conversations that we had. After the observations or after we planned and then did a lesson, just having someone to talk to who is, who I consider, almost an expert or pretty much an expert at, in the CPM curriculum and. All of the nuances, then all of the strategies and all of the the, everything related to roles. Like there's just so much in CPM that you can, you forget like some months I'll be focused on team roles and I'm like, man, I really should be looking at different study team strategies. There's just so much that you sometimes forget. So it's nice to have that coach to reflect with you on, just things that either you're afraid to do by yourself or maybe you just forgot about, or maybe you come up with something better. So that coaching isn't just when they're there. There's a number of times we've emailed John and we've had ideas of our own and said, Hey, what do you think of this? And he's like, Hey, go with it. Let's try it. Let me know how it goes. And, they don't have to be there to coach you. It's just a ongoing process.

Misty:

Oh, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today and sharing with us about your coaching experience and helping other people hopefully get excited about working with a CPM coach. It sounds like it's a really great growth opportunity,

Joel:

Mm-hmm.

Misty:

thank you so much.

Renae:

Thank you.

Holly:

problem.

Misty:

So in addition to working with a CPM coach, We also offer a foundations for coaching course. Which is a course to help. Admin and instructional coaches, other people who are working with teachers to build their skills. Using some of the CPM coaching model. And that course takes place at the residential Institute. It's three days, you get to learn a bunch of new skills and tools and come away with some really great support to help you become a better coach for your teachers and people at your school. Last year, we had a few of the people record a testimonial to tell us what they thought about foundations for coaching. So here you go. Here's their thoughts on that?

The best part was connecting with a community of like-minded professionals who were really there to grow and learn, and figure out ways to empower new teachers and intern impact students. Another noteworthy aspect of the foundations for coaching is that any coach or teacher from any subject. Can benefit from this training. Personally, I am an English teacher and get anxiety about math and found myself really enjoying learning about teaching math and lesson planning for math, and so I recommend this for any teacher of any subject matter. Why would you recommend someone to come to the Residential Institute? The Residential Institute, specifically the foundations for coaching. Was so methodically planned out and beneficial. My time was not wasted. I can't believe how fast these three days flew by. Like every second I was engaged. It was just such purposeful planning, and I left with so many resources and tools that will help me as a coach. Not just the coaches, but I think administrators, and I also think math teachers, because they work with each other and coach each other. Many different roles would benefit from the foundations for coaching. I wanna mention that John and Ashley were masterful at facilitating the foundations for coaching.

Master Outro Season 2:

So that's a wrap for this episode of The More Math For More People podcast, for more information and to stay connected. You can find CPM on both Twitter and Facebook. The music for the podcast was created by Julius h and can be found on pxa bay.com. Join us for the next episode of More Math for More People. What day will that be, Joel?

Joel:

It'll be April 18th pinata day, and I'm so looking forward to telling some stories and hearing some stories about pinatas. I remember going to some birthday parties in particular where there were pinatas, and I remember feeling really nervous about one being blindfolded, spun around, hit them, and then two, maybe getting hit by somebody who's trying to hit. The pinata. And then three, like what's gonna be inside that pinata? I remember feeling kind of excited, I guess, not nervous about that. And so it'll be fun to reminisce about those stories. I can't wait to hear what Misty's experience with pinatas have been, but it'll be fun to celebrate Pinata day and take a closer look at the celebration around that day. So we'll see you on April 18th for Pinata Day.