Connections and Actions
Utilizing leadership skills to enhance mathematics instruction
Laura Maly
Bernard Rahming
Kim Malacara
Cynthia Cuellar Rodriguez
Academic Coach-Math Training
October 5, 2012
Goals 2012-2013
• To support the ACM when working with colleagues
to ensure high expectations and access to
meaningful mathematics instruction daily
• To strengthen the ACM ability to serve in a coaching
capacity in order to increase student achievement in
mathematics
• To deepen the ACM understanding of the change
process to implement district initiatives to move
mathematics instruction forward
Learning Intention
Success Criteria
• We are learning to strengthen our ability to
serve in a coaching capacity.
• We will be successful when we access and
implement coaching resources in our daily
interactions with teachers.
Pitfalls and
Potholes
From Vision
to Action
Positively
Uplifting
Refresh My
Memory
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Activity Time
I am so confused! What does an
Academic Coach do?
In your work as a coach, determine
which statements should be a part of
your work. Be able to justify your
reasoning.
What Does an Academic Coach Do?
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Work with teachers to improve math achievement
Run intervention groups
Collaborate at grade level/department meetings
Give feedback to teachers on lessons
Perform morning, lunch, recess, bus, etc. duties
Create CABS or Constructed Response items
Provide teachers with resources
Create math lessons for CLC
Score CABS or Constructed Response items
Gather, analyze and interpret data to inform instruction
An individual who is well versed
in mathematics content and
pedagogy and who works directly
with classroom teachers to
improve student learning in
mathematics
What is a Math Coach
Activity Time
Alert!
The following question may put a
teacher on the defensive and shut
down the conversation.
Work with a partner to improve the
following question:
What Might You Say?
“As you think about the questions you asked
your class, what was the purpose of the
questions and do you think they were good
questions?”
Be prepared to share your revised statement.
One possibility
As you reflect on the questions you asked the
class to move student thinking, how might
you describe the differences in what you
anticipated and what you heard?
Key:
Invitation (underline),
Cognition, topic, positive presupposition
(bold),
Plural forms (circle),
Exploratory language (dashed line)
Personal referencing,
personal curiosity,
and personal certainty.
What are Listening Blocks
I don’t have time to have
lengthy conversations with
teachers.
What are Excuses not to Coach
What are other excuses we use not to
coach?
Ensure timely, accurate
monitoring of student
learning and adjustment of
teacher instruction for
improved student learning.
What is the Assessment Principle
Ensure high expectations
and access to meaningful
mathematics learning for
every student.
What is the Equity Principle
Activity Time
Use the focused reading strategy as you
read The PRIME Leadership Framework,
Teaching and Learning Principle, pg 22-23
Focused Reading....
√ Important idea
! New insight to ponder
? Question
Teaching and Learning Principle
• Effective Math Leaders…
– Are skilled at helping every teacher
– Have a dedication to high-quality professional development
– View student understanding not as a static, but as emerging
from being exposed to interrelated forms of learning
– Ensure that teachers are consistently growing in these
interrelated forms of learning and actively searching for ways
to provide students these experiences
– Plan for instruction including well-articulated goals and
assessment
– Are knowledgeable and promote research-informed teaching
practices and effective instructional strategies
Activity Time
Self-Evaluation Rubric for PRIME
Assessment Leadership
handout
Self Evaluation Rubric
1
Every teacher uses formative assessment
processes to inform teacher practice and
student learning?
2
3
4
Activity Time
As you think of the leadership goals you
have set for yourself this year, share with
a neighbor….
Stages of Leadership Action
Stage 1: Know & Model
Leadership of Self
Stage 3: Advocate
& Systematize
Leadership in the
Extended Community
Stage 2: Collaborate
& Implement
Leadership of Others
NCSM (2008). Principles and Indicators for Mathematics Education Leaders (PRIM
Activity Time
Acknowledging and Clarifying
You’re noticing that…
In other words…
Summarizing and Organizing
For you then, several themes are emerging…
There seem to be two key issues here…
Shifting Levels of Abstraction
A value for you would be…
A specific example for you would be…
Paraphrase
“I’m afraid I will get fired if my students don’t do well
on the state assessment, and this decimal place value
objective will be tested. The other fourth-grade
teachers told me I can’t spend another day on this
topic. I must follow a long-range pacing calendar that
tells me what to teach each day. Subtraction with
decimals is the objective I need to be teaching today,
not place value. What should I do? I really need your
help. Math is a very difficult subject for me to teach.
I am just not very good at math.”
Coaching
Collaborating
Consulting
What are the Coaching Stances?
Create a quick skit of each stance around
a topic of your choice
Activity Time
A teacher who has many years of experience is reluctant
to apply the current district protocols for teaching math.
He claims to be satisfied with the instructional
repertoire he remembers his own teachers using. “After
all”, he says, “it obviously worked for me”. He sees no
reason to spend time on what he calls “the latest fads”.
There are few disciplinary referrals from his classes. To
the casual eye, all is well.
What at some of the issues and possible approaches
that might apply in this situation.
The pace of a conversation affects
both the emotional and intellectual
climate. The fast pace of our world
tends to support the belief that there is
a relationship between speed and
intelligence. However, complex
thinking takes and requires time.
Lipton & Wellman, 2003
What is Wait Time
When having a coaching
conversation with a
teacher, I ask a lot of
questions without any
paraphrases to get to the
heart of the issue.
What is Interrogation
Acting with the intention of
making a positive
difference
in the lives of students.
What is Moral Purpose
Activity Time
As a table group, quickly sketch Michael
Fullan’s Five Components in his
Framework for Leadership.
A Framework for Leadership
Michael Fullan, Leading in a Culture of Change, 2004
Activity Time
As you reflect on your accomplishments
this month with teachers in your
building, list things you have done to
establish relationships that may have
contributed to those accomplishments.
DO’s and Don’ts of Building Relationships
Do’s
Make relationships a priority
Show personal regard
Make daily deposits
Be a committed listener
Keep your promises
Use reflective feedback
Promote thinking rather than advice giving
Articulate expectations and standards
Trust others
Celebrate success
Don’t
Break commitments
Breach confidentiality
Act as a supervisor/evaluator
Work with only those similar to you
Be too quick to offer your suggestions or opinions
“We are more likely to learn something from
people who disagree with us than we are
from people who agree. But we tend to
hang around with and listen to people who
agree with us, and we prefer to avoid and
not listen to those who do not. This may be
a good strategy for getting through the day,
but it is a lousy one for getting through the
implementation dip.”
Leading in a Culture of Change, M. Fullan,
What is Redefining Resistance
Who is the Peanuts Gang
Learning Intention
Success Criteria
• We are learning to strengthen our ability to
serve in a coaching capacity.
• We will be successful when we access and
implement coaching resources in our daily
interactions with teachers.
“The question for educators is not
whether all humans can learn but what
conditions can we devise so that they
will learn.”
Roland Barth, Learning By Heart