Math Mondays with Tanner

January 22, 2024

Build Math Minds

"Making Number Talks Matter" - Episode 10

Number talks were all the rage in Rock Hill Schools a few years ago. You may not hear about them as much now that we are shoring up our core instruction, but they are still around! Number talks are a great way to build confidence and make students more flexible thinkers. In this episode of the Build Math Minds podcast, Christina emphasizes one of the key prinicples of number talks.

"While efficiency is a goal, we recognize that whether or not a strategy is efficient lies in the thinking and understanding of each individual learner. No strategy is efficient for a student who does not yet understand it. Number talks are not about getting our students to think like we do, or even to get them to understand a "best" way. Rather, they are about encouraing students to think in ways that make sense to them." - Making Number Talks Matter by Humphreys and Parker (2015)

CLICK HERE to open a curated list of number talk resources. Let me know if you ever want me to come model one of these strategies or plan them with you or your grade level!

AVT Goals for MAP

MAP testing will take place next week. I encourage you to use this week to have goal setting conversations with your students. If you have any questions regarding the AVT process after last week's faculty meeting, send me a message. If you are missing a student's AVT goal for MAP testing, please CLICK HERE. If you have already submitted a student's name, please CLICK HERE.

Q2 Math Benchmark Results

While district benchmarks are just for our upper elementary students and teachers, I want to celebrate their performance. All of our teams met last week to share benchmark celebrations, discuss things we will continue to do in class, make a plan for how we will remediate students, and begin creating a list of things we need to keep on our radar as we move into second semester. While this is more of holistic assessment and something we don't have local control over, think about how you and your grade level can do something similar with any data you collect.

How do I read this chart? Can I break my data apart this way?

Mastery - usually 80% correct or higher
Near Mastery - usually 70% - 79% correct
Remediation - usually 69% correct and below

Where Are My Slides?

I hope you found the district slides to be thought-provoking and useful during first semester. Whether you used them daily or if you just paged through them to find activities and to make sure your instruction was up to par with the level of the standard, these slides continue to be a resource for you to use. As you look ahead on the Quarter 3 pacing documents within Canvas, you may be thinking "where are my slides?" A team of four math instructional coaches (myself included) are in the process of creating these slide decks. Across six grade levels, we are creating slides for 270 days of instruction for just this quarter alone. Our goal is to provide quality material - even if that may take a little bit longer. We are committed to publishing each slide deck by the teaching date on the district calendar. We all appreciate your fleixbility and hope the wait is worth it. Let me know if you have any questions or if your team needs materials while these slides are in progress.

Tanner's Schedule for the Week

As a coach, my schedule is flexible. Please realize that my schedule will change based on what is included below. This gives you a rough idea of when I will be out of the building, in coaching cycles with teachers, or in meetings. If you need anything, reach out and let me know how I can help!