Decimal Madness - Anatomy of a Lesson Study

Last week, a group of teachers from three schools within our supervisory union came together to participate in a lesson study at Calais Elementary School.  In this blogpost, I share that experience with you addressing:

• What is lesson study?  Why is it valuable professional development?
• What happened during our fifth grade lesson study at Calais?
• How to get started with lesson study?

To L.A.: I Promise to Persevere

We started this week in my educational community with the sudden, gutting loss of our beloved colleague and friend, Laure Angel.  It's impossible to find adequate words to describe Laure's impact.  She was absolutely unique. A combination of warmth and positivity and spunk and intellect and pure energy.  She was an adventurer.  She was the go-to gal, if I was looking for someone with enough spark to start a fire and enough fuel to keep it going.  And I'm sure that I'm not alone in that...

Those who know me well know that I've been working on a doctoral program at UVM and that at times I wonder why I bother.  My area of focus is understanding teachers' experiences integrating math with other subject areas.  A few years ago, Laure asked me if I could chaperone the Hunger Mountain hike that accompanies the seventh grade elevation study.  I had been unable to attend (my job is grant funded and it couldn't be justified), but we agreed that it would be great if in the future, math was being integrated to the extent that I could justify going.  Since then, Laure and I have had many more discussions about integrating math with her subject area (which was Social Studies) in the middle school.

Last year, Laure invited me into her classroom to observe an integrated lesson that she and the Language Arts teacher developed and were teaching together.  I take so many pictures in my job - recording things I see, things I want to act on, things I want to share.  That day, I took some pictures of the whiteboard, students working and also one of Laure giving me a wink and a big grin as I was leaving the room.

When I found out that Laure died, I remembered that picture.  It had stuck in my mind.  At the time, I remember remarking how natural she looked winking with a smile whereas I can only wink with a completely straight face.  I wondered if that was some indicator of a difference in our dispositions.  Was this something I should work on?

On Monday, I scrolled through my phone to look for that picture only to find that it was gone.  Like everyone else, from time to time I have to cull my collection to create more storage space for videos and other pictures.  I deleted the picture of Laure, but I saved the picture of her whiteboard included here.

And strangely it feels just as quintessentially "Laure" as the other picture did.  It reminds me that the best way to honor the memory of this beautiful person is not to dwell, but instead to continue on in spite of struggle.  I'll keep working on my degree.  I'll keep working on supporting teachers and teams on math instruction and integration.  I'll keep working on learning how to wink with a smile on my face.  I'll continue to ask myself, "What would Laure do?"  And then, I'll do it.

DI to support PBL - Dabbling and Diving at U-32

This post accompanies an Ed Camp on Wednesday, February 8 @ U-32.

Participant's choice:

Session 1: Dabble

 Links for Dabblers:

• Danielson Proficiency Scale.
• Sample Assessment: Grade 8 October Math Benchmark Assessment

Session 2: Dive

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Combining Multiple Pathways and Layered Curriculum

Links for Divers:

• LFHC task assessment and revision organizer
• Reading on Layering Curriculum 
• Example of Layered Science Curriculum