Mathematics Support
APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN FOR 2022 - 23 WA STATE FELLOWS NETWORK
Click HERE to apply!
If you have been a Math Fellow for three or more years, please join the Emeritus Math Fellows!
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Math Support
Our Vision for Mathematics Learning:
All students, especially students of color, have culturally relevant experiences through caring adult relationships that allow them to have voice in their learning and see themselves as math learners
We believe that the path to this vision requires us to attend to Beliefs, Practices, and Mathematical Content in relationship with the families and communities that we serve.
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Beliefs about mathematics and learners of mathematics
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Pedagogical and Structural Practices
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Mathematical Content knowledge of teachers and leaders
To ensure this vision, PSESD facilitates and supports networks and offers a number of resources & services.
Professional Development
We are able to meet with you and your district math leaders to construct a professional development program informed by the latest research in the field of mathematics education that is tailored to the needs of your students, teachers, and community. We can:
- Meet with you and your math leaders to identify needs as well as areas of interest such as Common Core Content, the Standards for Mathematical Practice, high leverage mathematics teaching practices, and teaching mathematics with and for social justice
- Facilitate collaboration with your community and math leaders to support community voice in the planning and implementation of mathematics support.
- Conduct professional development sessions targeted at identified needs and areas of interest which are informed by research, on-going, and job-embedded
- Support math coaches in classroom coaching, debriefing and leading PLCs
- Support math leaders in conducting district wide instructional materials reviews to consider the match of district needs, research informed best-practices, and available instructional materials
- Support math coaches and teachers in crafting and leveraging an assessment system that utilizes assessment resources already in place, including summative, interim/benchmark and formative assessments
- Assist in collaborations within district between math teachers and other departments such as Special Education, English Language Learning, Blended Learning or content areas such as Science.
This is only a partial list. We are eager to work with you to support your students and teachers as we continue implementation of the Washington State Learning Standards and work to close the opportunity gap in mathematics. Please let us know if we can be of service.
Resources
Leslie Nielsen, Ph.D.
Math Program Manager
lnielsen@psesd.org
Remy Poon
PreK - 5 Mathematics Systems Consultant
rpoon@psesd.org
Community & Family Engagement
Community & Family Engagement
The PSESD Math team has been honored to work with a multicultural and multilingual group of parents who gathered to share their educational values and what they wish for their children’s education. We believe that our vision for math learning must be realized in partnership with families and communities Click below to learn more from this group of parents.
Sharable PSESD Family Math Engagement file
Learning Through Play
- Learn through Play P-16
- Through activities, play and sharing discover how learning can be fun
- Fun is subjective and cultural and familial! Make it relatable and relational
- Seek out practices that sustain your joy in teaching
Place Based Learning
- Connect to the community you are in
- Connect to the seasons and the many living beings here
- Go outside, take kids outside, teach outside, learn outside
- Respect the native people of this land
Learning Through Relationships
- Learning is a process of developing relationships, and relationship building is a process of discovery
- All learning is in relationship to the environment, history, and communities we are in
- Think about, and include your context, and everyone's context in your teaching
- Your own positionality is only part of your relationship
Family-Educator Partnerships
- Meet with the parents/families at the start of the school year to get to know each other
- Let parents know what kids are learning and learn from parents how kids learn at home
- Cultivate partnership between educators and families, learning from each other
Cultural Humility
- Build relationships with families and communities different from yours, and learn to engage with many cultures
- Acknowledge/stop eurocentricity
- Having a willingness to learn and understand other cultures, and be willing to reflect on where your knowledge of other cultures is inaccurate, or needs growth
Hands-On Learning
- Teach different ways for different learners
- Teach skills with real life experiences
- Honor children's timing
- Learn through activities and experiences
Check Your Beliefs
- Acknowledge and address implicit bias and work towards correcting it
- See and nurture every child's genius
- Reflect and examine when you are judging students by race, ethnicity, or home language
- Take time with kids who systematically aren't given access to it
- Actively undo -isms
District Math Leaders
District Math Leaders
District and building mathematics leaders in the region focus on closing opportunity gaps in mathematics by leading with racial equity. This network has chosen to focus on improving teacher, administrator, and community understanding of systemic causes of racism and educational inequities to close the opportunity gaps in mathematics by addressing the following questions:
How will we support teachers to challenge and disrupt:
- Traditional teacher-centered pedagogies?
- Student sorting based on perceived “ability?”
- Deficit perspectives about students, their families, and communities?
- Limited and stereotypical representations of doers of mathematics?
- The positioning of mathematics as neutral and disconnected from social justice?
PSESD Math Leaders will meet most months throughout the year from 9am to noon for in person meeting and 9am - 11am for virtual meetings. At each meeting we focus on leading with racial equity in mathematics, do mathematics together, have opportunities to network with each other to attend to problems of practice, and receive information and give feedback on current issues in mathematics education in the state.
All math leaders and teachers are welcome.
Register and learn more about upcoming meetings HERE. Click below to read our Newsletter.
Math Fellows
Math Fellows
The Fellows are a growing network of Washington state educational leaders who expand their capacity to improve student learning through ongoing professional learning and leadership development within their local context and in partnership with school districts, educational service districts, and community agencies and state organizations.
PSESD Math Fellows meet four times a year, and our learning focuses on:
- Leading with racial equity
- Learning pedagogy and content knowledge that Fellows can take back to their districts, buildings, or teams
- Developing as teacher leaders
- Creating and enacting an Action Plan
Some of the PSESD Math Fellows Action Plans include:
- Implement Routines for Reasoning in my own classroom as a first step and then invite colleagues to learn with me
- Lead book studies in my building/district on Number Talks or Routines for Reasoning
- Facilitating a district-wide Fellows cohort in my district
- Work with colleague(s) to plan together and to support them in unpacking individual lessons, identify learning targets, modify lessons to fit a Launch, Explore, Summarize model, and include high-leverage tasks in each lesson
- Work with grade level colleagues to use Number Talks and Routines for Reasoning to improve math teaching practices and support student learning Focus on attendance, collect and analyze data and find ways to increase student attendance.
Math Fellows is a three-year commitment requiring school &/or district leader sponsorship. Fellows can choose to meet at the PSESD in person for a full day four times a year and/or meet virtually in 2-hour afterschool sessions via Zoom.
Math Fellows applications open in the spring of each year and are open through the early fall.
Emeritus Math Fellows
Math teacher leaders who have participated in the Washington State Math Fellows program for three or more years are welcome to join the PSESD Emeritus Math Fellows.
Emeritus Math Fellows is a new group of dedicated math leaders who want to continue to advance their knowledge and skills as math leaders. The group co-plans and co-facilitates their meetings which focus on the same topics as Fellows, but at a deeper level. We meet four times a year for a full day. Participating in the Emeritus Math Fellows is a yearly commitment requiring school &/or district leader sponsorship.
If you are a Washington State Emeritus Math Fellow, you are welcome to join us. For more information, please contact Leslie Nielsen and complete the Emeritus Math Fellows Survey.