Administrator Workshops

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If you want to coach teachers and provide meaningful feedback on the implementation of 21st century math instruction, you’ve come to the right place! Throughout this three-part series and subsequent observation and coaching sessions, participants will learn what to look for in a quality math lesson based on the 8 Core Components necessary to create a mathematically rich classroom.

This workshop series is designed to take into account the unique role of the school leader as both coach and evaluator, and equip them to provide support for teachers in both capacities.

Learn how to:

  • Establish mathematics goals to focus learning
  • Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving
  • Use and connect mathematical representations
  • Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse
  • Pose purposeful questions
  • Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding
  • Support productive struggle in learning mathematics
  • Elicit and use evidence of student thinking

Series Workshops

Part 1: Number Sense in a Nutshell

This workshop addresses the conceptual understanding of numbers, place value, and operations through instruction with concrete objects, pictorial models, and abstract equations.

In an effective math lesson, teachers use all three daily models in instruction to concepts such as teach number bonds, part-whole thinking, decomposing and manipulating numbers in different ways in order to make mental computation easier. Participants will develop an understanding of the new strategies teachers implement to help students build foundational number sense and computational understanding, not through memorization of rules, procedures, and facts, but through a clear understanding of numbers, and their relationships with other numbers. Equipped with this knowledge, administrators and principals can visit classrooms with confidence, knowing exactly what students should be doing to apply their learning of number sense to higher-level math concepts and reasoning for years to come.

Part 2: The Nitty Gritty of Problem Solving and Real Life Application

This workshop will blend elements of the following foundational workshops, tailored to meet the specific needs of administrators and principals: Model Drawings (Grades 1-6), Performance Tasks: Assessing Student Learning Formatively, and Make It Real: Applying the 8 Mathematical Practices in Your Classroom (these workshops are a part of the Math Initiative Workshop Series and full descriptors are available on that page). By the end of the day, participants will also recognize what successful implementation of problem solving and real life application looks like in a classroom!

Part 3: Math Observation in Action

Educators and the implementation of new mythologies can be successful with clearly defined, universal set of criteria and expectations that are anticipated by all observers and evaluators.  Using the 8 Core Components of creating mathematically rich classrooms as a framework, participants will collaboratively observe recorded math lessons and discuss components observed/not observed. Participants will be prompted to engage in the necessary, but often tough conversations around mathematically rich teaching and learning in order to provide quality feedback during observation and coaching.

Mentoring/Coaching

Prerequisite: Parts #1-3 of the Principal/Administrator’s Math Training Series

During this part of the series administrators and principals will get hands-on, job embedded coaching as they put their learning from Parts #1-3 into action in their schools. The Administrator/Principal Training Series includes 2 to 4 half-day mentoring/coaching sessions on-site where Strategic Intervention Solutions will,side-by-side with the administrator or principal, observe teachers based on the components of the 21st Century Math Initiative. Following the observation, an SIS coach will reflect and debrief with the administrator or principal, enabling them to provide effective, encouraging, and constructive feedback to their teacher.