Join teachers, administrators, and district personnel from across the country as we explore together “Focus in the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics.” This conference will feature Bill McCallum and his team of Common Core facilitators, including teacher leaders from every grade band. Many of the breakout sessions will be run by teacher experts, leading the way in developing PD for fellow teachers implementing CCSSM. Time in the conference will also be devoted to small group focus on the major work in specific grade bands. Register by the end of March to receive the discounted registration fee!
Are you planning professional development for teachers this summer?
Add a single day focused on the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics with the Common Core Toolkit. The Toolkit is a single day add-on for existing PD. This program, available in elementary, middle, or high school grade bands, has been created by teachers, for a teacher audience, and is facilitated by teachers. Apply at the IM&E website now to host at your site this summer! Facilitators are available for all states. The cost is $200 per participant with a minimum of 15 participants. Priority will be given to early applications.
New features on the Illustrative Mathematics website
Our master geeks have been working day and night the last few weeks to bring you some improvements to illustrativemathematics.org. A lot of these improvements are behind-the-scenes, but there are two that are particularly worth mentioning:
1. Registered users can rate tasks by voting them up or down.
2. Registered users can comment on tasks.
You can edit and delete your comments, although it will leave a placeholder note that you deleted your comment in case someone replies to your comment (so their comment won’t be deleted also).
We have more improvements in store, and illustrations are being added every day, so keep checking in.
The Structure is the Standards
Phil Daro, Bill McCallum, Jason Zimba
A Grecian urn
Task Writing Contest 5 for Illustrative Mathematics
We are making some changes to the Illustrative Mathematics website: soon people who register at the site will be able to vote on which tasks they like, to comment on tasks, and to submit tasks directly to the website instead of through our email account. As such, our contest will also have a slightly different flavor and run for a full month instead of the usual two weeks.
Article by Roger Howe, “Three Pillars of First Grade Mathematics”
Roger Howe, a mathematician at Yale University who has thought a lot about elementary school mathematics education, has written Three Pillars of First Grade Mathematics, in which he expands on the CCSS Grade 1 mathematics standards. It’s well worth a read.
New initiative on implementing the standards, achievethecore.org
Student Achievement Partners has launched a major new initiative to help with implementation of the Common Core State Standards in both Mathematics and English Language Arts. Their website, achievethecore.org, already has some good resources, and no doubt will grow. Student Achievement Partners is a non-profit whose founding partners are David Coleman and Sue Pimentel, two of the lead writers for ELA, and Jason Zimba, one of the lead writers for Mathematics. The other two lead writers for Mathematics, myself and Phil Daro, are advisors for the project.
Task Writing Contest 4 for Illustrative Mathematics
For our fourth round of our Standards Task Writing Contest, we are going to do something a little different. Our theme focuses on the development of geometric measurement and it’s applications K-12, and rather than asking for tasks related to individual standards, we are putting up clusters. As such, tasks may be submitted for a specific standard within one of the clusters listed below, or for the overall cluster. Check out illustration for 8.EE Equations of Lines that illustrates the eighth grade cluster Understand the connections between proportional relationships, lines, and linear equations as an example of the latter.
Workshop on professional development in Tucson, Feb 17–19
The Institute for Mathematics & Education is holding a 2 1/2 day workshop for leaders implementing professional development on CCSS. I will be helping to run the workshop. I know this is short notice, but we have had a lot of demand for this and decided we should put something together. For more details, go to the Institute for Mathematics & Education.
Task Writing Contest 3 for Illustrative Mathematics
We would like to announce the third round of our Standards Task Writing Contest beginning Tuesday, January 17th, 2012. We’ve decided that one week is not enough time, so the deadline is in two weeks. Our theme this week focuses on the elementary progression of Measurement and Data and the following elementary standards:
- 2.MD.9
- 3.MD.4
- 4.MD.4
- 5.MD.2
You must be logged in to post a comment.