When will Summer lazy days begin, Not Yet!!

Alright ,Okay so I finished summer school. Celebrated 4th of July then quickly moved into CGI math training.

My little girls had a great time at the LA Galaxy game plus firework show. We killed two birds with one stone. We went to our first professional Soccer/Futbol game and we saw a killer firework show.  By the way Galaxy WON!

I enjoyed the weekend and then prepared for my 1-2 hour commute each way to the Big City area for CGI math training. I had been implementing CGI for about 4 years, I read all the books, I have observed it in many classrooms, given intro presentations at the district level, facilitated CGI cohort groups at one of my school sites last year so I think it was about time to update my skills. So CGI calls it CGI for Non-beginners, not advanced or accelerated training they call it Non beginners, how very West LA. If you are from Cali you know what I mean West LA is it's own beast with a unique kinda like wealthy granola, nerd, hippie population.  Anyway the team of presenters were super smart and thought provoking in a very calm West LA way, Angela, Nick and Caralee.

I told my hopefully new administrator with confidence" Yeah,I know CGI I can help you really develop that here at your new dependent charter."  I guess I need to deliver. The entire teaching staff is getting training at the beginner or non beginner level this summer. Awesome SAUCE!!!! that I will be at a working in this environment but now I need to live up to previous statement.

So here are my take aways that I am needing to incorporate into my instruction next year. 

1. Problem Solving is the heart of my math teaching and I need to give it the time it needs. I have previously worked at a Math Science Magnet and problem solving was not the heart of it I lost that and learned a lot about test prep and computational fluency so now I am working on a schedule that has embedded problem solving. The Cool Beans teachers that were at my table talked about how they do at least one if not two a day. I do not think I will get to 2 a day but a least one. 

2. Counting Collections, I need to put this in my schedule for math starting day 1/2 and we need to do it daily in order to build number sense skills needed for the true algebraic thinking. We watched several videos and analyzed the students counting and reasoning skills the presenters did  an amazing job of pausing in places to allow us as teachers to speculate and analyze. That was Radical!!! and made the case for Counting Collections again.

3. Fractions, Fractions, Fractions, I started to play around with this idea of building fraction knowledge in the lower grades. I read the CGI fraction book and I experimented with some lessons and found first graders were way more flexible and understanding of fractions. I want to develop this in my second graders.  Here's an example:

Which is greater?

4/5 or 4/10 

5/11 or 8/11

If I use my prior knowledge I am lost if I am more flexible these are super easy. I read this in the book but watching the kiddos share their thinking amazing. 

4. Number Talks books. Have you read the Number Talks book it is quite amazing and it was used in my district I used it quite a bit. But building off the fraction idea and the upper grade ideas check this out:

How many wholes do you see?

Hello, Holy Moley Gucamole! is it one whole with 8 parts or 4 wholes with 2 parts or 2 wholes with 4 parts. Mind Blown! dots are for older kids too. 

5. High Yield Routines

I read this book one afternoon while my kids were in the backyard swimming and playing. I thought maybe I can add something to my math wall. I skimmed it and thought bummer not to much but then I dug in and some cool ideas. If you number your students then create a set of equation cards that the you can pull and if the students number is the answer they are dismissed. How about if you seat your children in rows give them a coordinate number like 0,0 next 0,1 0.2 etc then give them answers and if their two numbers equal the number answer selected they are dismissed. The other piece is using these routines for assessments. That is a whole post by itself. 

Happy Five for Friday!!!!