Math Mondays with Tanner

January 15, 2024

Build Math Minds

"Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say" - Episode 11

Y'all know I hate a meeting. As teachers, how often do we find ourselves in a meeting where the presenter is speaking at us? Whether they're reading off of slide decks, reading from a page of notes, or just so excited about the topic that the words are flowing out of their mouths - do you think they think we're learning? As a meeting attendee, how many times have you thought "I knew that before I spent 30 minutes sitting in here" as you doodled on your paper or checked emails?

Now apply this to your classroom. Who does the talking in your math classroom? Do your students have a voice? Do your students have the opportunity to share their thinking? Do your students have the chance to practice what you are telling them is true? Do your students get to try a strategy on their own? Do you provide your class with intentional questions that require them to think and arrive at the answer on their own? Are your students motivated to participate and remain engaged? Do you allow your students to reflect on their learning and share during a daily math debrief?

Steven Reinhart is a former teacher who shared his thoughts on how questioning can quiet you as a teacher and allow your kids to be the ones who are talking. Here's his top five tips on questioning:

Never say anything a kid can say!
Ask good questions.
Use more process questions that product questions.
Replace lectures with sets of questions.
Be patient!

Here's a link to the original article from Steven Reinhart! If you've only got 2 minutes, read the first sentence of every numbered list on page 4. He has some good ideas!

Q2 Math Benchmarks

A huge shoutout to our third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers for completing the district-wide benchmark last week! We had incredible participation. At a quick glance, our students did very well. I will be pulling data reports this week and will be sharing them with teams.

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.

Incorporating Read Alouds in Math

When you use the copier in the teacher's lounge, you spend a few seconds staring at a shelf of books. They're not up there because they were dropped off in a donation bin or because they are free to a good home. In fact - they are part of the math read aloud library. If you ever need a read aloud to pair with a math concept, check out this area! One of my goals this month is to catalog and organize these books. More information (as well as a way to request titles) will be shared soon!

New Year, Even Better You?

As we head into 2024, you may find yourself setting a professional resolution. If any of these resolutions involves math, let me know how I can help! If you would like to work together to plan, look through resources, try out a new instructional strategy, or completely revamp your math block - that's my job. Whether it's through tiny check-ins or a full-blown coaching cycle, I'd love to help!

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!