Ellen Duffy
Janet Bryson
http://taselm.fullerton.edu/
Math Coaching, Gateway to Success
The One Thing You Need to Know
TASEL-M: Teachers Assisting
Students to Excel in
Learning Mathematics
NSF funded grant to Cal State Fullerton and Orange County Dept. of
Education to 4 underperforming high schools and their feeder middle and
continuation high schools.

Paradigm: Focus on Learning as informed by Data
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Model:

Cognitive Coaching on Best Practice

Teacher Collaboration (PLC)

Improved Pedagogical Content
The One Thing You
Need To Know
T. R. U. S. T.
Time
Relationships
Unity of Purpose
Support
Team: Accountable PLC
Honor the TIME it takes
to implement change.
Time: Trust the Process
Teacher Buy-in: Administration Clarity
 Start with the Singers
 Go Slow to Go Fast
 Focus on one element
 10% change/year
 Start where they are: survey, identify
& build choices

Time: Share & Reflect
"We must not, in trying to think about how we
can make a big difference, ignore the small
daily differences we can make which, over
time, add up to big differences that we
often cannot foresee."
– Marian Wright Edelman
1.
2.
3.
Where will you start?
How will you strengthen your trust in the
process so that you can persevere with
patience?
How will you measure the long-term change?
Relationships begin and
develop through Trust
“Teachers need to
know you care
before they care
what you know.”
Build relationships for collaboration and growth.
We Trust the Known
“The best teacher is the one who suggests, rather than dogmatizes, and
inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.”
Remember Who You Are
–
Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Teacher’s Coach  fix-it person  evaluator

Define your sandbox. Who decides what?

Beware the precedent:
establish a role you can live with

You wear two hats: coach and PLC facilitator. Neither is sufficient.
What do you need to do to make your role clearer to yourself
and those you work with?
Getting to Know You
Name: _________________ School: ___________________
Ph. #: (
)____________
email: ____________________
I teach:
My teaching strengths are:
I need the most help with:
I’d be willing to share my expertise on:
The best time for you to talk to or work with me is:
My favorite snack is: ____________ beverage is:___________
Besides teaching, my other passion(s) is (are):
Getting to Know Your School
I. In order to get a clearer picture of the Orange cluster, please answer the
following questions as you reflect on your experience in your school:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
List 4 things that are important to know about your students.
What would be helpful for Marty and Janet to know about your school?
What are you excited about at your school?
What would be helpful for you to know about data and collaborative inquiry?
What data do you want to look at to assess your students’ progress?
What are you already doing or have you planned to do to improve the
mathematics in your room? School? Cluster?
What are the next steps we should take?
II. Please rank the following training needs in order of personal priorities:
1 represents most urgent; 7 least urgent
Increase student participation______
Group work training ________
Technology training in _____________ ______
Writing in mathematics ______
Manipulatives
______
Lesson planning in a Block schedule ______
Other:_____________
Getting to Know Your School
III. Please mark the following in terms of meeting time availability and preference:
P: preferred A: available
N: possible, but not preferable X: No can do
After school: Monday
______
After
After
After
After
school:
school:
school:
school:
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
______
______
______
______
Saturday morning
______
During school pull-out
______
Saturday afternoon
Saturday full day
______
______
What things should every math classroom include? Every math student do? Every
math teacher do?
By the end of the first semester, what chapter have you completed? ________ By
the end of the year, what chapter have you completed? ___________
What projects or other unique assessments/ experiences do your students do?
I would like help designing a lesson on the following topics:
Build the team with Trust
“Few things help an individual more than to place
responsibility on him, and let him know that you
trust him.”
-Booker T. Washington
Identify the leaders and your future
replacement; begin by building a deep
foundation with a few.
 Develop relationships with district, school
administration and support staff.

Relationships:
Trust develops Respect
"Leadership is getting someone to do what they
don't want to do, to achieve what they want
to achieve."
– Tom Landry
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
Protocols must be taught: Norms
Safety in Structure
The Seven Norms of
Collaboration
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Pausing
Paraphrasing
Probing for specificity
Putting ideas on the table
Paying attention to self and others
Presuming positive intentions
Pursuing a balance between advocacy and
inquiry
How will the team choose a norm to focus on?
Unity of Purpose
In essentials, Unity;
in non-essentials, Diversity;
in all things, Charity.
Trust Unity of Purpose to
Deliver Results
“Where there is unity there is always victory.”
-Publilius Syrus


1.
2.
Vision/Mission– Who do we want to be and what’s
our purpose?
Implementation-- Common Agreement built over
time.
On a scale of 1 to 5, how unified is your team about its
purpose?
How might you build unity?
Orange High School
Common Agreement 2005
During our summer trainings, we met to find even better ways to teach your student mathematics and to improve our learning community. One of our goals is to be
consistent within our department in our classroom tests and expectations. A second goal is to better communicate with the parents of our students. We are
looking forward to meeting you at our Back to School Night, Wednesday, October 5th. We hope the following information will be useful for you and your
student as we—teachers, parents and students—partner together for excellence in learning mathematics!
Required Materials
All math students are required to bring to class, every day, the following:1 notebook with lined paper, Pencil(s) and eraser, Textbook
Grading Scale
Semester Grades are Cumulative
Your child’s letter grade will be given according to the following percentages:
Algebra (1, 1A, 1B),
Honors classes
Geometry,
and Calculus
Algebra II, and
Pre-Calculus
98 – 100
A+
92 – 97
A
92 – 100
90 – 91
A90 – 91
Your child’s grades will be determined by the
88 – 89
B+
88 – 89
following grading categories:
82 – 87
B
82 – 87
80 – 81
B80 – 81
Algebra (1, 1A, 1B) Geometry and higher
78 – 79
C+
78 – 79
Homework:
20%
20%
70 – 77
C
72 – 77
Quizzes:
15%
10%
68 – 69
C70 – 71
Tests:
40%
45%
66 – 67
D+
68 – 69
58 – 65
D
62 – 67
Class work:
25%
25%
56 – 57
D60 –61
55 and below
F
59 and below
Grade Weights
Homework Policy
All students should expect to receive homework on most days. All necessary work must be shown, and all assignments are expected to be done on time.
Testing Policy
Each course offered at Orange will use similar assessments and grading procedures. All tests will require work to be shown to receive credit. Teachers will allow
calculators to be used based on the content and standards being tested. Each teacher will have their own policy for low-test scores. The classroom teacher
will decide on one of the following policies: to replace a score, drop a score, retake the test, or rewrite/rework the problems missed for partial credit.
Classwork Policy
All students are expected to actively engage in all classroom activities. Classwork may include content area reading assignments, content area writing assignments,
warm-ups, notebook checks, groupwork, participation and other in-class activities.
Unity of Lesson Design Goal:
Diversity of Style
Lesson Design Goal
The lesson will implement strategies to:
1.
2.
3.
engage students within the lesson
check for understanding within the lesson
ask effective questions to engage and monitor
student learning.
Does your team have a common vision of an
effective lesson?
Unity of Coaching Goal:
Diversity of Model
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Pre-conference, observation, postconference coaching model
Facilitating peer observations
Co-teaching model
Support: Who Ya Gonna Call?
Support: We’re better together.
"We could all use a little coaching. When
you're playing the game, it's hard to
think of everything."
-Jim Rohn
Support: Trust your Partners
Build your support team:
Brainstorm Buddy
 Resource Guru
 Substitute Sage
 Empathetic Ear / Safe place to vent Friend
 Communication Coach
 Publishing Partner
 Laugh Lender

Next to each role, put the name of
someone you trust to support you.
Team: Trust the PLC
No one of us alone is as smart as
all of us together.
Teachers and coaches team together to
incorporate daily high quality teaching
through lesson design and pedagogical
content knowledge conversations. They hold
each other accountable with goals that
focus on and measure student learning.
Team: Trust & Build
“Build for your team a feeling of oneness, of dependence on
one another and of strength to be derived by unity.”
-Vince Lombardy
How Cohesive Teams Behave:
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They TRUST one another
They ENGAGE IN UNFILTERED CONFLICT around ideas.
They COMMIT to decisions and plans of action.
They HOLD ONE ANOTHER ACCOUNTABLE for delivering
against the plans.
They FOCUS on the achievement of the collective goals.

From The Five Dysfunctions of Team by Patrick Lencioni
Teams Trust the Data
“Human beings, who are almost unique in
having the ability to learn from the
experience of others, are also remarkable
for their apparent disinclination to do so.”
-Douglas Adams

Let the data speak

Team accountability motivates professional
growth
The One Thing You Need To
Know
T. R. U. S. T.
Time
Relationships
Unity of Purpose
Support
Team: Accountable PLC