The K-16 CFG met on Thursday, May 20, at the Northwest District Office. Present were Lance, Janet, Jonett, Lidia, Carolyn, Donna, Michaelann, Mary, and Marcela. The meat of our meeting was Lance's giving us a taste of the professional development he facilitates using Developing Mathematical Ideas.
He started by asking us to add the numbers 68 and 24 in our heads. When we got an answer, we gave a thumbs up sign and waited for everybody to finish. Then, Lance scribed our answers and, most importantly, our thought processes for getting to the answer. For example, I thought, "60+20=80 and 8+4=12. Then 80+12=92." Each of us had a slightly different strategy, and it was interesting to talk about the different approaches to such a simple problem.
Then we read a case study about addition from a sixth grade teacher. We read how different students in her class had solved the problem and we applied their methods to solve a different addition problem (27+24). Together we talked about the logic behind each student's procedure and what children need to be able to understand about numbers in order to solve math problems in these ways.
This written summary in no way does justice to the experience. I think it's safe to say that we were enthralled by Lance's work. We learned so much about numbers--even though Lance did not actively teach us a thing. Through skilled facilitation, he created an atmosphere where people shared ideas and could learn from each other. In fact, Lance mentioned that his experiences with DMI have helped him reconnect with how to facilitate. The DMI experience is sort of like CFG's with math. The participants meet regularly, share their own student work, read case studies, write case studies, etc.
It makes me wonder if this is a direction that CFG's in general need to go. Can we inject more content into CFG's? It seems like the impact on student learning would be easier to measure that way. This is obviously powerful stuff--at least a third of Thursday's participants have already contacted their principals about their campuses being involved in DMI next year.
We spent the remainder of the meeting talking about logistics for the summer and next year. Here is a quick rundown of what we discussed.
·We updated our email and phone lists with summer contact numbers.
·We agreed that we'd like to have a summer social event, but did not make any specific plans.
·We talked about the implications of expanding the work of this group and inviting others to join the work. There was a consensus that the history and trust level that this group has built up are special and should not be tampered with. We are ready to go to the proverbial "next level" with inquiry and leadership. If other coaches who have not previously been involved with this particular CFG are interested in doing regional CFG leadership work, then I will start a new CFG instead of trying to graft new people into this K-16 CFG.
·We need to collect evidence that this group is having an impact on schools locally. We need to be deliberate about telling our stories.
·This weblog is important to nurturing this group. It keeps people connected and allows for more sustained reflections.
·A subgroup will meet in early June to write a proposal for funding to help us with our inquiry work: How do we make the most of our CFG training and experiences.
REFLECTIONS Excerpts from May 20, 2004, K-16 CFG
Sounds great--love the plans for next year. Keep it to a stable group--if you are looking for evidence then lets keep the group together for a bit.
How about a group portfolio to have established artifacts to reflect and show the progress and changes?
I think the group is really melding and working well.
·This year has been very stressful, but I'm leaving on a good note.
·Very glad for the invite from Lance to participate in DMI workshops next year--really looking forward to it.
Great presentation by Lance--opened my eyes re: math--especially meaningful because I am having difficulty with some of the math department at my school (as a Literacy Coach) getting them to look at math in a different way.
Although I was running late, I thoroughly enjoyed Lance's presentation concerning DMI. I see this as being a very important tool/strategy that could be used by our math teachers although we are middle school.
Dinner was great as usual!
Love these meetings. . . .
Often times we teach mathematics the same way we learned it as kids. . . and many of us describe ourselves as math-phobic. I enjoyed the time we spent doing and looking at student math thinking tonight. It felt like the group embraced the ideas and will leave with many questions. . .
I really enjoy this group. . . the history and comfort level keep me coming back.
Despite coming in late, I felt immediately included and immersed in the dialogue.
As always, the opportunity to see our practice with a new lens was explored and experienced.
I love the moments when we ask ourselves to be aware of our ways of thinking--'the metacognitive process of learning!'
Thank you, Lance, for new ways of looking at math and thank you to everyone in the group who makes it so exciting to be part of this learning community!
Loved the piece Lance brought it was both fun and enlightening.
I hope we do get together this summer. . .
Am happy to work on a proposal for the group--let me know when-
I enjoyed meeting everyone today and having an opportunity to reconnect once again. I've been thinking about how we as a group might share our work with others and public at large. Since the majority of us do not coach CFG's per se, there must be a way to communicate what we do. I have seen somewhere this idea of " Evidence-Based Practice" and I think that is exactly what we strive to do by incorporating CFG structures and protocols into our daily professional experiences. This idea of having some type of publication developed on a quarterly basis that would focus and reflect how we apply CFG work in various settings and situations could be a powerful vehicle of "making our work public". Maybe we could call it Evidence-Based Practitioner Quarterly (or something along those lines) and have specific recurring sections that would focus on topics/ideas/issues and everybody in the group could contribute written pieces/articles. I would like to see us brainstorm in the near future what these sections might be.
Comments (3)
Wow! It seems that I missed a wonderful meeting. Lance is such a skilled facilitator. I am not surprised that he held everyone mesmerized. I had to stay at school longer than planned and could not attend the meeting. A summer social event is a great idea.
Posted by Marilyn | May 22, 2004 3:59 PM
Posted on May 22, 2004 15:59
I think starting a "local" journal is great - I even think we could make a great impact on the national education scene.
It is a lot of hard work and will take lots of time. Is this something we think is a good idea -- and more importantly a good idea for us to do - it will require a greater commitment and use of our time.
I am for the idea and promoting the Houston area as an up and coming educational area beyond the "accountability system" we are known for... but ...
Maybe the money we are looking for will pay for printing, mailing, editing and people's time writing the new journal.
Posted by Michaelann | May 23, 2004 10:40 AM
Posted on May 23, 2004 10:40
I was checking the blog and I was hoping maybe as a future addition to this part - each of the grant winners will post a summary of their goals and maybe as part of the accountability post at least quarterly reports/reflections.
Making something a habit takes time and reflection.
Posted by Michaelann | May 24, 2004 10:58 AM
Posted on May 24, 2004 10:58