It's National Pie Day! Yes, the desert, not the number... Joel and Misty discuss some pie trivia and their favorite selections.
Then Joel has a conversation with Cheryl Tucker about the Academy of Best Practices which will be held in Seattle in late July. Applications are open now!
https://cpm.org/abp/
Then Joel and Misty are joined by Amanda Huffman-Hayes CPM's Outstanding Dissertation Award recipient to talk about her research on sharing math authority.
You can find Amanda at Twitter: @Huffmanda or Instagram: @huffmanda28.
Finally, we have another installment of Join Them on Their Journey from Maggie and Grahame.
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
It's National Pie Day! Yes, the desert, not the number... Joel and Misty discuss some pie trivia and their favorite selections.
Then Joel has a conversation with Cheryl Tucker about the Academy of Best Practices which will be held in Seattle in late July. Applications are open now!
https://cpm.org/abp/
Then Joel and Misty are joined by Amanda Huffman-Hayes CPM's Outstanding Dissertation Award recipient to talk about her research on sharing math authority.
You can find Amanda at Twitter: @Huffmanda or Instagram: @huffmanda28.
Finally, we have another installment of Join Them on Their Journey from Maggie and Grahame.
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
Well, here we are. It is January 23, 2024, and this is episode 19 of season 3 of the More Math for More People podcast. Cheers.
Speaker 2:Hello, there, I'm. Joel.
Speaker 1:And I'm Misty.
Speaker 2:And you're listening to the More Math for More People podcast, an outreach of CPM educational program.
Speaker 1:We have a lot of conversations about math and math education on this podcast. We're passionate about continually improving the way math is taught and we hope that you learn something in every episode that helps you become better at what you do.
Speaker 2:And we hope that you have some fun and laugh as well. That always makes things a little more interesting.
Speaker 1:Yep, we're pretty passionate about having fun Joel.
Speaker 2:So please have a listen and we think it'll be well worth it. Boom.
Speaker 1:So before we get started with our national day, of which I know is your favorite segment on the podcast, I have a reminder for those of you who have not yet signed up for the 2024 CPM teacher conference. You still have a little bit of time. We are running late registration until February 2nd. That is the final day you can register for the pre-conference or for the main conference and for the reception. So if you want to register and come join us in Los Angeles, go to shopcpmorg and you can register up until February 2nd. That's your last day. Hope to see you there. Alright, here we are, our next national day for today. So, joel, do you know that the date today is 0123. 0123.
Speaker 2:0123. 0123.
Speaker 1:I like that, so it's the 23rd of January.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when's the next?
Speaker 1:thing that will happen yeah, 0123. Yeah, next year, so it will be 012325.
Speaker 2:Got you.
Speaker 1:It would be cool when it's 012345, but that is, you know, not very far away. You and I could probably live that long.
Speaker 2:I think so for sure. I wonder how we'll be distributing the podcast at that time.
Speaker 1:We probably won't be doing the podcast at that time.
Speaker 2:I think there's some longevity.
Speaker 1:Maybe the podcast will still exist.
Speaker 2:It won't be.
Speaker 1:That's true. Alright, so it is the 23rd of January, and what? Is the actual national day of that.
Speaker 2:It's national Pi Day.
Speaker 1:Pi Day. I thought that was on 314.
Speaker 2:Exactly you mathematician. Oh my, it's not Pi Pi Day. It's actual Pi, which means, I guess the other Pi is actual Pi too. But this is Pi as in, like a Pi that you eat.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's food Pi Day, food Pi Day.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:So it's national Pi Day, which I mean. I was going to say national, eat your Pi Day, but it's not really that. You could just have a Pi and not eat it.
Speaker 2:That's true. That's why you would do that. I don't know. Or you could give it away, I guess.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, you could share it with other people Celebrate. So it's national Pi Day. What's your favorite kind of Pi?
Speaker 2:That's a tricky one for me. I do love a fruit Pi, I think. My favorite kind of Pi, though, is a custard Pi. I think that's delicious.
Speaker 1:Custard Pi.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like that's not like a cream Pi, like a banana cream.
Speaker 2:Pi or a coconut cream Pi, totally different.
Speaker 1:Custard Pi, custard Pi.
Speaker 2:It's like flan Pi A flan-ish.
Speaker 1:Flan is a custard right.
Speaker 2:True, okay, just checking, the dessert of flan is different than a custard Pi. Yeah, no, I understand that. Yeah.
Speaker 1:A Pi, exactly. How about you? What's?
Speaker 2:your favorite.
Speaker 1:What's my favorite? Pi. Yeah, I'm not a big Pi person, since it would have to have a gluten-free crust for me to eat it, but if I weren't concerned about that and I just wanted to eat. Pi. I think, actually I would like like a. I think I like like a chocolate cream Pi. Okay, that's delicious because it has chocolate-ness and like whipped cream. But I you know what I just I kind of Pies are good.
Speaker 2:Pies are good.
Speaker 1:I like fruit Pies? I do like. Do you like pumpkin Pi? I do like pumpkin Pi, I don't like. I don't like store-bought Pies. No, I think if I'm going to eat a Pi, somebody needed somebody. Clearly somebody made it, even with a store-bought, but somebody I know needed to make it.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Like only in small batch. I like small batch Pies, yes.
Speaker 2:I make a good pumpkin Pi I'll have to share with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what do you think? So I have some statistics here.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Of those polled, what do you think was the best? What do you think was the favorite of the Thanksgiving Pies? Apple Pi, oh, there's pumpkin, oh.
Speaker 1:I figured I was going for the, you know, non-obvious answer.
Speaker 2:I got you. I got you. What do you think, year round was the most popular Pi?
Speaker 1:Um pecan pie.
Speaker 2:Pecan. Pecan, pecan, pecan pie, pecan, pecan pie.
Speaker 1:Pecan or pecan.
Speaker 2:No, it's apple. I thought I was showing you how that's done. If you were to buy a store-bought pie, so not a small batch pie, at least I'm more statistics. Is there a particular brand you think would be most popular?
Speaker 1:Wow, could I even name more than one brand? I don't know if you're good or not.
Speaker 2:I could give you some choices.
Speaker 1:Can I even name one brand of pie? That's the question. I don't know what kinds of.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's say this Out of Mrs Smith's, Sarah Lee or Marie Callender's, who sells the most pies.
Speaker 1:Sarah.
Speaker 2:Lee yes, you are correct.
Speaker 1:I won a third chance, Peter.
Speaker 2:And then I'll give you three choices here.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I'll see if you agree with the majority of the statistics, but what is your preferred way to make a pie? Is it you buy it from the store, you buy the crust and make the filling, or you make it all from scratch?
Speaker 1:I personally am going to buy the crust and make the filling, because making pie crust is really hard, in my opinion.
Speaker 2:I think it's, yeah, an unneeded step. Almost I'd rather just have somebody else make the crust for me, although I have made crust, which I think sounds like you have to.
Speaker 1:It's just hard to get it the right moisture, and then roll it out and it doesn't break or get too thin. What was the popular?
Speaker 2:Was it the answer? No, those who are surveyed. I buy it from the store was number one. What do you think the earliest date that pie is traced back to? What do you think that is?
Speaker 1:12 BC.
Speaker 2:Closer than I thought 6000 BC.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is pretty close You're right, that's really good.
Speaker 2:How many pies are sold in stores each year in America alone?
Speaker 1:10 million 186 million. Look how close I am to all these numbers.
Speaker 2:Let's see here.
Speaker 1:I'm really good at estimating.
Speaker 2:One more what is the price of the world's most expensive pie?
Speaker 1:$3,000.
Speaker 2:9,500.
Speaker 1:9,500. 9,500.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What kind of pie was it?
Speaker 2:I didn't say it just has the price.
Speaker 1:It's not very satisfying.
Speaker 2:No, it's not very satisfying. What?
Speaker 1:What are you going to do for National Pie Day? Yeah, that's the question.
Speaker 2:I'm going to eat some pie. How about you?
Speaker 1:Are you?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I might try to find a pie that I can eat. Yes, I'm going to. Yeah, between pie and cake, it just depends on how well they are made.
Speaker 2:I'm not like one or the other person. Yeah, yeah For sure. I got you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think eating some pie would be a good thing.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:Hopefully you all enjoy your pie.
Speaker 2:Enjoy. Okay, so today here having a conversation with Cheryl Tucker and Cheryl, if you'd like to introduce yourself real quick to our listeners.
Speaker 3:I would love to Joel. I happen to live in Minnesota. I taught at Bloomington Kennedy and it was exciting in Minnesota to bring CPM to our classrooms at our school district way back when when we were doing the first edition. I have taught mostly high school ninth and tenth graders and I have been a math coach for middle school and now working with CPM as an implementation support specialist.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to have you here. If I could ask, what is way back when? When did the first edition come out?
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness, we were looking at it, I think, in the nineties and I know for certain, in 2000,. It's fun to see the growth and the strengths and the things that have been added to the curriculum over the years.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. One thing that CPM offers during the summer we have so many professional development opportunities is the Academy of Best Practice, and I understand that you know some things about the Academy of Best Practice and I wonder if you could give us an overview to get our discussion started here.
Speaker 3:I would love to share what the Academy of Best Practices is. The Academy of Best Practices has started out as an opportunity for teachers all over the United States who attend for a week and meet and grow with people out of their own state or their own location in their best practices and their teaching art. So there's two parts to it. The first part is the Academy of Best Practice for new teachers, and this is for teachers that are just beginning with CPM and teachers that are just beginning their career and not using CPM. They go through looking at the three pillars, go through algebra tiles and so many fun things to think about. What is their art of teaching going to look like and how are they going to get all students to learn and it doesn't matter the curriculum at this point with them. They're just new to the whole profession and we're trying to engage them and keep them excited about it.
Speaker 3:The Academy of Best Practice for the veteran teachers you have to have been teaching CPM for five years or more in order to be eligible for this and the vision of it was to bring in teachers that maybe they have not had a lot of professional learning. They want to take a look at what they're doing and just grow. Grow with where they are not become stagnant but realize that there's a lot of things to think about in their own craft. So we're looking at teachers that have had five or more years of teaching CPM. They're seeking those supportive opportunities that foster the best practices and also that they're willing to examine their own pedagogy critically in five areas. The five areas that we look at are the impact of questioning how does that impact your students? We're looking at the rigor, the accessibility and the progressions of the CPM lessons. We get into something that we like to talk about, which is storyline.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:The third thing that we look at is effective study teams. We have that in there and so many times we go back to the way we used to learn and we want to maybe take a little boost and reexamine what are we doing with our study teams and how are they effective for the learning? Fourth area we look at is equity, meaning equitable practices. What does that look like? How do we implement it? And the fifth area is all those struggling learners. How do we hit seven and tens on that bowling scheme and engage all of them? So those are the areas that we dive into, and a major goal of the Academy is really just to enhance the participants' pedagogical skills and to provide the motivation and support to foster that productive change that they want to have through educational leadership.
Speaker 2:Very cool. It's not an individual process either. It sounds like teachers will be able to collaborate and start a support system amongst themselves.
Speaker 3:Exactly. What's really cool is that we've got teachers from all across the United States and we've got middle school teachers, high school teachers, some with a lot of experience and some with just that five years of experience, and the bonding that happens is phenomenal. We've gone to the teacher conference and some teachers have come up and said we were part of that first group of APVV. This will be our fifth grouping. They are still getting together and collaborating and they have a network that they call each other up and say, hey, I've got a question, or hey, what do you do with? And so that's been really fun for us as the facilitators to see how the group moves forward in the friendships, the networks that they make.
Speaker 2:You had mentioned that you get together for a week. Where do you get together?
Speaker 3:We are getting together in Seattle, okay, and, oh my goodness, the participants. They explore Seattle after they are done with our full day of activities. That's where they get to know each other. Seattle has a lot of things to see. We stayed at a college dorm and our week is spent on a campus. We're at a new location this year versus the ones we've been at, so we're excited to see what that's like. We go to lunch together in the cafeteria, we have breakfast and dinners, all the meals and then all the accommodations are provided, and those that are accepted into the Academy of Best Practice for Veteran Teachers program have all their expenses paid, so they just need to fill out an application, and we have 32 participants that we are able to provide this opportunity for.
Speaker 2:That's amazing that we provide that for Tia. Where could one apply?
Speaker 3:Okay, so that's going to be coming out as you get your CPM Mailchimp's. You're going to have the opportunity to go tocpmorg and you'll find the application. You'll find some information about it. You will fill out the application. We're going to ask several questions. They will be asked to provide two references. Okay, and so the references will fill out a form. I believe our deadline is May 1 and the participants will know of the acceptance on May 15.
Speaker 2:Wow, so they'll know soon. So what week of the summer is the Academy of Best Practice going to take place?
Speaker 3:The Academy of Best Practice takes place the last week of July. First week in August, which is July 20, on a Sunday, participants fly in. You know we have our professional learning event on that month, july 29 through Friday, august 2, and participants will either fly home later that evening or early Saturday, depending upon logistics.
Speaker 2:Right, that's so cool.
Speaker 3:You know, one thing I haven't mentioned is that we bring in some really, really good speakers to help assist with our thinking and our learning, and so that's been a lot of fun. We bring in Aaron Brekinecki. He worked with Leslie Dieteker, who is our overall author. Sure yeah sure, and we talk a lot about storyline with him. Now, an important part of our teaching also is the professionalism aspect, and so we have John Staley coming in. He's a former NCTM president.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And he's going to speak to us a little bit about our professionalism and our goals and what we do for all of our learners. We work on a Tom's problem. We have our participants go back and participate as students, as learners, and what does it mean to go through? And that feeling is something we don't often get when we hit that teaching side. Sure.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That's so cool. Those are some great speakers and we've had some opportunity to talk to some of those on the podcast as well, so I think them coming to the academy will be really amazing. Well, thanks for joining today at the podcast giving us some information. I hope that those veteran teachers, if they know of newer teachers, will encourage them to apply and apply themselves.
Speaker 3:Or math for more people Thanks. Cheryl. Thanks, joel, or math for more people.
Speaker 1:All right. So we are here today with Amanda Huffman Hayes. She is a doctoral candidate at Purdue University and CPM's Outstanding Dissertation Award recipient, so we're really excited to have her here today and talk about her research work, which was related to CPM and shared math authority, as I understand it. So welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, welcome. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 5:So why don't you start and tell us a little bit about what your research question is and how you came to that question, maybe even so my research question that I started with and is continuing to evolve as I'm looking at the analysis part of my work, but it started as an a problem-based algebra classroom how do the curriculum teacher moves contribute to developing a class community where students share in mathematical authority? This question originated and I'd probably take it all the way back to when I was a classroom teacher. I taught for nine years in an urban high school in Indianapolis and in that experience there were times when I did some problem-based instruction and then there were other times where teacher-centered instruction was the norm of our building, I think, and so that happened as well. And as I evolved as a teacher, I tried to incorporate more of the students that I practiced as and tried to give my students more voice in the classroom and in discussions and in justifying answers or talking through the mathematical concept. And then, when I started my PhD, I started teaching the methods classes. Those were really the things that we were focusing on. We were how do we help the undergrads become teachers, maybe not as the teachers they had themselves, but as teachers who have those student-centered practices in their classroom and are incorporating discussions and small group work that you find in the CPM curriculum. And so in that process a lot of students were having the question of well, how do you make it happen Like I'm in this classroom, very teacher-centered the students don't want to work in groups, they just want answers, they just want problems to do.
Speaker 5:So how do I get those students interested or involved and engaged in working in groups? And so those specific strategies were ones that I necessarily didn't think I had myself. I had some from my own experience, but I thought really, going back into a classroom and observing a teacher who was doing student-centered practices, having students work in groups, the problem-based curriculum structure I could really see how does a teacher make this happen? And then I could take those strategies back and share with the pre-service teachers, but also in-service teachers for those who are trying to make a more student-centered classroom. So that's really where the question came from. And then I was fortunate to find a teacher who let me come in on the first day of the school year and I was able to be in there and observe and collect data, and I'm working on answering that question right now.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's awesome. So what kind of data are you collecting and what kinds of things are you finding out from that?
Speaker 5:So for the data collection, I collected a lot more data than I'm actually looking at right now. But the teachers I worked with in the school I worked with two different teachers and I was able to observe two co-talk pre-algebra and ninth grade classes one algebra, one class, and then two algebra, two classes and so I actually went into the school on the first day and I started observing. While I was observing, I was taking notes and then I was also recording the whole class. I had a camera that was moving and following the teacher, and then I also had cameras on the small groups, since they were working in small groups, and so I have all the audio and video footage to analyze, in addition to my notes For the work that I'm working on right now. I'm actually narrowing that and just focusing on one of the co-talk pre-algebra classes.
Speaker 2:Do you think in a co-talk class affects the question at all?
Speaker 5:I think in a way it impacts the question as I'm looking at prior research that's been done in co-talk classes. In this particular co-talk class there were 24 students, 15 of them had IEPs, and there was also a co-teacher, and so I think that adds to the dynamic and actually with the co-teacher helping in the classroom, it made it a little bit easier to have students working in groups of three and collaborating, as there were two adults to work to float around the classroom and help out those groups as needed, and so I think that does change the dynamic a little bit and I also think a lot of the research out there is not necessarily happening in the co-talk classes and I think there is somewhat of misdigma.
Speaker 5:Where it's like these are co-talk classes, the students need even extra support, and often I think that extra support means well, we need more teacher instruction and less of letting the students actually do the discovery of learning and have the math authority. So I think it does change the question that way a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting how extra support becomes the teacher taking control. So I know you're still well in the midst of this and down in the muck of the data and everything else probably. What kinds of things are you finding so far or thinking that are going to come out as far as like? Oh, here are some of the key teacher moves or things that are helpful.
Speaker 5:So I think right now I'm focusing on the first seven days of instruction in this particular class.
Speaker 5:And the reason I'm focusing on the first seven is those are the days where there were some mathematical tasks, some non-mathematical tasks, but different tasks the teacher implemented to help establish the class culture and then after that is when she really started diving into the curriculum. So in those seven days some specific moves I noticed and I'm still looking at are just different strategies that she had. So from day one the students were working in random groups of three and so they didn't get like this is your seat for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 5:No this is your seat for today. And when they came back day two, they had a brand new seat they were working with. Unless the odds were in their favor that they got to work with one of the same students, they were working with a whole completely different group. So that happened all seven of these days to help establish that, yeah, we're all going to switch groups every day, you're going to work with everyone in this class and we're going to learn to work with everybody in this class. And then, in addition, I noticed quickly that every question wasn't about mathematics, and so she asked questions. I guess on the second or third day she put up a picture of dice on the board and she's asked the students looking at this image, what do you notice, what do you wonder, and how many? So there was no exact mathematical answer. It wasn't how many dice are in the image or how many were blue or yellow, it was just how many.
Speaker 5:So students, could answer that open-ended question in multiple ways, and so I think they really helped. Having this question is the what do you notice? What do you wonder, even If you ignore the how many question? It allowed every student to contribute to a conversation, and so it just provided an avenue where there's something you're noticing up there, and I mean, one of the students even said it's a blurry image. Well, they were looking at it and they noticed something and they had something to add to the conversation.
Speaker 5:And so those strategies really just help the students, I think, get more comfortable talking in the class and talking with each other, because there wasn't one correct answer.
Speaker 5:There were all sorts of correct answers, because it was literally what are they noticing, what are they wondering about? And then even the how many question. Some of the groups were like how many, what? It just says how many, so how many you pick? How many, what? And so I think that allowed the students to see that, okay, we're in a math class.
Speaker 5:Typically, you might think that, yes, there's one right answer, and sometimes there is one right answer, but there are also times when there's more than one right answer, and so it's important to value all those answers. And then, adding to that same task, there were groups that weren't necessarily fully engaged in conversation, and there were some of the groups where one student in particular would say I noticed that there's 25 dice or five groups of five, and then the other two students would be silent, they would just go along. Okay, that's the answer, there's 25 dice. And so the teacher actually sat down in one of the groups where one of the students was absent, and so she sat down and she had a mock conversation with those two students of like.
Speaker 5:So, looking at one of the students, what do you notice? And that student responded. And so then her response was oh interesting, I noticed this. And so showing students how we can agree with the classmate, but we can also share our own opinion, and so I think little moves like that are not something, maybe necessarily, that teachers might take the time for, but I think those were really powerful and just modeling. Okay, this is how we're going to work in groups of three. This is how you can interact in that group and it's not just one person has the right answer for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what would happen after the seven days? Did that process continue then?
Speaker 5:Why I'm focusing on the first seven days first, but in looking at furthering my data analysis and going beyond that, and it's these strategies continued. So if students maybe are getting quiet again or forgot how to work in groups, she would reiterate or remind, or she had a mock conversation again about this is how we're working in groups. Like this is an expectation. You don't get to not talk in this class. You have these opportunities to talk in your groups of three before you talk front of the whole class, and so those strategies would continue. And then the strategy of students when they say it's how many? And it was 25, 25, what? And so they have to describe a little bit more about their answer. And so that continued into the mathematics where the students were giving more input and not just saying an answer but justifying their answer, where this is how I got there.
Speaker 1:Well, and there's so many pieces to that right, having them begin to talk about things that have a pretty low risk, right as far as being quote, unquote, right or wrong, and they're being really you know, well, if I said there were 25 dots and maybe I miscounted and there's 26, well then, that's still a low risk. Oh, yeah, okay, I see that, but here's what I'm looking at, here's what I'm paying attention to, and there's lots of different things to pay attention to before they move into things that feel riskier for kids, particularly right the more mathy, thick stuff. And then I also like that, what you're describing about the teacher modeling, because I think those are things that not only students don't necessarily have modeled for them in their a lot of their experiences, but teachers don't, right? My school experience does not include the teacher sitting down and having this conversation like that with me, right, and so pre-service and in-service teachers having those kinds of models and having those kinds of experiences and then being able to carry them into their own classroom is a really important piece of this right. How do we then expand that so that other teachers know how to make these talk moves right?
Speaker 1:No-transcript. Yeah, are you continuing to collect data throughout this school year. Is this the year that you're collecting or did you collect? You've already collected it all and you're in your data analysis.
Speaker 5:So I've already collected it all. I stayed in the classroom through the first unit and then after the first unit. That's when I stopped collecting data, partly because I have so much data, and that also gave me a taste of what are the ways that this teacher, in the use of the curriculum materials, impacting the student authority.
Speaker 1:And do you anticipate when you will or when you have to have?
Speaker 5:this done, so my goal is to have it all complete this summer and to defend, hopefully, june of this summer, nice.
Speaker 2:Are there plans in the defending to go back into that classroom at all and see how the years go?
Speaker 5:Not at the moment but that would be interesting. I did go back, actually in November, for a couple of days to see how things were going and that was just kind of a check in and I got to see that the teacher was still using the same strategy as students were still working at groups of three. There were still some of the same, I think, challenges in working with some of the students who were a little more resistant. I think we're still potentially a little resistant, but also the students knew the routine, you could tell. I think they became more comfortable with the sitting in random groups of three, because in talking to some of the other adult and talking to the co-teachers, I wouldn't have wanted to sit with a random group of three every day of class.
Speaker 5:That could be a little anxiety from that walking and who do my work with today. But I think the students were becoming more accepting of that or just got used to the fact that this is the routine. This is going to keep happening. She's not changing.
Speaker 2:And speaking of the routine, I'm curious, as your role as a data collector, do the students interact with you, or did you stay separate, or how did that work?
Speaker 5:So the intent was to stay separate. But when you're walking around in a classroom and trying to eavesdrop on their conversations, it was really easy for them to turn to you and try to ask a question. So there were times that I didn't step in as the role of the co-teacher with the teacher's permission. She's like you could answer their question, and so I tried to replicate the answers that she was giving them or guide them in that way. And then I did notice some of the students, because they knew I was observing and seeing what was going on. If they couldn't get the teacher's attention, they would look to me like what's next? Do you know what's happening?
Speaker 3:next.
Speaker 5:And so I think I did become more of a person in the classroom. In that sense I wasn't actively trying to have that role, but it's if that role really ended on itself. I didn't just ignore the students.
Speaker 5:I acknowledged them and that also helped because I was interviewing them. I did some random interviews based on things I saw, if I had questions, and so by ignoring them if they were trying to acknowledge me or get my attention, I think helped and made it easier when I then tried to get their attention and ask them questions.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Thanks.
Speaker 1:So how are you hoping that this end result of a research will play out or impact? You were saying you have some courses with pre-service teachers. How are you hoping it will impact that work?
Speaker 5:I'm hoping that it impacts that in a sense that I now have a way to tell students this is something I saw a teacher do and these were strategies that she was using that worked. Now they might not work for every teacher, they may not work for every group of students, but these are different, small things, like the modeling of conversation. I think those are things we think about. Think about we put students in groups and we expect them to work together.
Speaker 5:We don't necessarily think well, maybe they've never had a work in a group. Well, they probably have had a work in a group before, but maybe they've never been told that you need to work in a group in this way. We have different roles in a group, potentially, and everyone can engage and everyone should be engaging. And so I think, pointing out little things like that of we're not just teaching math, we need to teach our students how to work in a group, how to communicate, how to question or critique respectful manner of their peers, I think those are little takeaways. And then I'm also hoping, from seeing now, seven days might be a lot of time to spend before you can dive into the curriculum, but by spending a little extra time there are benefits of that, because then, when she was ready to dive into the curriculum, students already knew how to work in a group of three. They already knew where to go in the room to work If they were captain, they knew what their role was that day, or recorder, or reporter if she had the roles and so they knew those things. So it took less time to facilitate that.
Speaker 5:So by building those norms, I think that really set the students up for success when they moved into the mathematical knowledge and I think also by not jumping straight into the math, the students who may not have been as comfortable with math. They could answer that what do you notice? What do you wonder? A question. There were other questions. She asked as well like they're compared to pictures one day and students could give answers to that. So they were like getting more comfortable with talking without the pressure of I don't know the math. That's happening and so I think seeing how we can emphasize those pieces can really play out in other teachers' classrooms. So I hope that has a ripple effect through people reading my work, presentations of my work, or teaching pre-service or in-service teachers doing professional development. I think those are opportunities where I think it can go beyond just a written article.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, that is some great stuff. So thank you, amanda, for coming on the podcast and telling us about your research, and we wish you all the best with completing it and your defense of your dissertation. That's a big deal, so hopefully that all goes well for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Thanks. We'd love to check back in with you see how it goes.
Speaker 5:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:Here's another installment of Join them on their Journey. Just listen in and see how the journey is going.
Speaker 6:Hello Joel and Misty Graham here, back from winter break feeling refreshed and ready for a new term, we just finished our second term. That marks halfway through the year. I can't believe it, the years flown by and really trying to focus on some good things that I see students doing. I recently stopped with the class and recognize that they've come a long way in working together and being open to working on difficult problems and embracing that productive struggle that it's not always easy to measure, but I have to admit this class has really come a long way and that's worth noting. Another thing that I've noted is that I really appreciate the mixed space practice idea that CPM and Foley dives into. I think it really keeps the curriculum fresh for students. It doesn't get stale where we're stuck doing the same thing. At the same time, students do get practice with concepts as the year's gone on. That was something that I really was skeptical about at first this year and it's been a relief, I think, to see how students respond to different types of mathematics varied throughout the year. One thing that's come up for me recently is working with scatter plots and lines of best fit.
Speaker 6:With my ninth grade integrated one students, there's been a struggle to keep students working on their own with the problems and I've been thinking about how to get students to buy into the problems and to think more deeply about the problems and how they would solve these problems. One thought that I've had that I think I'll try out for the rest of the year is to find places in CPM where I can get students riding on vertical surfaces with their teams. When I've had students do that, I think it breaks up the class, it gets students moving and they have a new energy, and I think it's something I would like to incorporate in as many lessons as I can to get students used to riding on vertical surfaces with their team talking about math at those spaces, and I also think that that might help them be more comfortable in presenting ideas. They're there together, they've written their work and students can see and explain their ideas from those spaces. So I've been thinking about why presenting can be so intimidating for students. Even when they get it, they don't want to present and I think if everybody's up riding, it helps create that space where it's a normal part of our class.
Speaker 6:The last thing that I have been thinking about is to have patients with our students and with ourselves. These things take time and when things are difficult, that's a great thing and to embrace that. I think remembering patients can go a long way and I think then we can see that we are doing good things. After time has passed, like I saw with my class that has improved with their teamwork and their perseverance. Thanks for listening. Hope you have a good one. Take care.
Speaker 4:It's Maggie, and this is where I am on my journey and thinking about how to build grit and resilience in my class, while ensuring that all of them feel supported, and I'm meeting the needs of the students who may have taken longer to understand a concept. In our classes, we have the group collaboration, so I'm trying to avoid individual questions and really think about what is the group question, so having one person ask a question but what I'm noticing is that now that we're going through a concept where they have not seen it before yes, it builds off of prior knowledge, but they haven't seen it and I have a few students who are just taking a little bit longer to understand it. Totally fine, we have mixed levels, and so it would make sense that there are some students that are just taking a little bit longer to grasp it, and what they really want is to meet with me individually, by all means. I have office hours during lunch, after school, and I'm happy to provide that, so I don't think it's a matter of me not wanting to provide it, but what I also know is that what they really want is for me to just sit there and walk them through how to do it, and I don't think that actually leads to their deep conceptual understanding. And so how are we meeting our students in the middle, where I want them to use those resources? I have videos online posted of me that they could walk through and come to our session where we are meeting one on one for them asking questions, and so, specifically about the video that they may have watched.
Speaker 4:And so how are we building, how am I building that? It's just like when we're in the middle of class. It is so easy to walk around, maybe with a whiteboard marker and just oh, you made this mistake and just correct it, and that's easy, it is. It's way faster, way faster. We move on.
Speaker 4:But what happens if I don't walk around with a marker in my hand and I guide them? Well, let's check back over, let's redo it, and it does take longer, it requires more thinking from the students, but I think that leads to building that grit, that perseverance through challenges. And so what I'm really trying to figure out is that balance, especially with a middle school group, is that I want you to be building that resilience and having the knowledge of where are my resources. I can use my teammates, I can use the online, I can use the e-book and that I can still meet with my teacher and feel supported in that, and so something that I'm trying to really figure out is what is that balance? How am I going to support all of the students while also building their tool set, their repertoire of being able to overcome challenges when we're working on something that is completely new? So I will check back in and hopefully we've built the resilience in our students. Music.
Speaker 1:So that's all we have time for on this episode of the More Math for More People Podcast.
Speaker 2:For more information and to stay connected, find CPM on Twitter and Facebook. You can find our handles in the podcast description.
Speaker 1:The music for the podcast was created by Julius H and can be found on pixivaycom. Thanks, Julius. Join us in two weeks for the next episode of More Math for More People. What day will that be, Joel?
Speaker 2:It'll be February 6th, national Frozen Yogurt Day, so yogurt, that was invented like 4,000 years ago. But I've had some experience with yogurt when I worked at the dairy and I remember we'd have to add in the bacteria and things like that to create the yogurt. But this is a tasty treat frozen yogurt that I think it's a genius thing they sell it usually by weight that you go into a store and it's genius by weight because it's all those good toppings that you can put on. Sometimes your eyes are bigger than your stomach. You pump it yourself. So it's always a fun experience, tastes great and it usually just leaves people in a good mood. So we'll look forward to seeing you on February 6th, national Frozen Yogurt Day, thank you.