August 28th PD

I visited a bunch of PD sessions on Tuesday and was very impressed. I started with Steve Linewand (sp?), who was with HS math teachers. His message was powerful and somewhat radical. Essentially, he says that we need to push the limits of what's acceptable in mathematics instruction since the traditional way has only worked for about 30% of students. He noted that those 30% of students have powerful and vocal parents, not all of whom believe that a different approach to math instruction is necessary. I spent almost 2 hours at that session, I wish I could have been there all day.

I then popped in to Mari Muri's "math games" session with 3rd grade teachers. I've seen Mari before and we're very fortunate to have her with us for 50 days this year. The teachers seemed very engaged, and I'm not surprised, having been through one of her workshops at an administrator's meeting back in June.

After that I went to AITE and RIPP, where I had a chance to talk to teachers about the PD. I heard mixed reviews, mostly positive. I told the teachers that if there's something specific that worked or did not work, let us know; email Joanna Nicholson, Mona Hanna or Mary Jennings and give us some feedback. We need to hear whether it's effective. I ended the day at Westover with Janet Allen, who was working with the secondary English teachers, and Nancy Brett, who was with the instructional media specialists. I heard good things, although I know people don't like sitting for that long.

All in all, it seemed like a very worthwhile day.