Activities & Features
PRACTICE-BASED ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHERS
Learning experiences grounded in practice are motivational and meaningful for teachers. Every session of every module includes practice-based activities such as:
- Analyzing video of whole class and individual student engagement in mathematics
- Discussing examples of student work
- Walking through a teaching practice in the company of colleagues
- Analyzing and/or modifying activities, problems, curriculum
CLASSROOM CONNECTION ACTIVITIES
Every professional development session includes “professional homework” that guides teachers in using PD content in their classrooms and bringing back insights and classroom artifacts for use in the next PD session to ground the collaborative work with their colleagues. This could include, collecting examples from their curriculum or sharing samples of student work, video clips, and other records of practice.
TOOLS TO STUDY TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THEIR OWN CLASSROOMS
Each module features a protocol—a clear sequence of action and a set of core questions—that can guide a teachers’ learning and their interactions with colleagues to advance that learning. This set of tools provides teachers with insight into module content and provides a path for them to continue learning from teaching and with colleagues after the completion of the module.
CLASSROOM VIDEOS AND WORK SAMPLES
Classroom videos and work samples are carefully chosen to provoke professionally meaningful conversations and questions. Examples are not treated as exemplars, but rather as common texts to support professional dialog and advance the main goals of each session. The videos and work samples included in the module represent diverse classroom contexts and learners.
PROFESSIONAL READINGS
Insights from research and the wider professional community are available through readings that are connected with the content of module sessions.
SELF-ASSESSMENTS
Each module provides it own form of self assessment. Some modules include criteria teachers repeatedly use to examine videos, photos, and other records of their own teaching. Other modules include routine opportunities to “test yourself” on important module content by examining new examples of student thinking and work.
PD VIDEOS OF LEADING MATH EDUCATORS
The modules incorporate video clips of PD sessions facilitated by leading teacher educators, showing them working with teachers and sharing their insights on topics for which they are well known. Videos place explanations, overviews, frameworks, examples, and questions from these educators at the fingertips of module facilitators. Facilitators can use these videos to engage new participants in those same activities or to simply preview to what the activities might look like and the types of discussions that may arise.
