Professional Development Workshops in Mathematics with Cathy Fosnot
Educators from Bay Area schools will come together on Thursday, August 21st and Friday, August 22nd from 9am - 4pm at Berkwood Hedge School for a two-day institute with Cathy Fosnot. Ms. Fosnot is a guru in the field of mathematics education world-wide.
Ms. Fosnot will work with Aurora teachers as well as teachers, researchers, and administrators from Berkwood Hedge School, San Francisco Day School, U.C. Berkeley, Mills College and Mill Valley School District. Many of the progressive educators in the Bay Area know Ms. Fosnot's work in the progressive education movement.
She will bring together theory and practice, which will help inform Aurora's teachers, and strengthen the implementation of Aurora's BRIDGES in Mathematics curriculum. She will focus on the BIG IDEAS in mathematics for children ages 5-10, including how to help children construct their own deep mathematical understanding and mathematical strategies, how to structure a mathematics lesson, and best ways to provide differentiation for students.
Participants will also engage in mathematics activities to stretch their own mathematical understanding. This summer, in preparation for Ms. Fosnot's workshop the staff at Aurora School is reading three of her books.
Day One:
Experiencing Math Workshops and a Math Congress and Examining the Practice in the Elementary Classroom
In this workshop, teachers will become learners in a mathematics environment where math is the posing and solving of problems, the searching for patterns, and the construction of formulae, models, and strategies. Teachers will experience firsthand an active Math Workshop and a Math Congress. Teachers will learn how to scaffold mathematics instruction and discussion so that it builds connections across solutions and is based on important mathematical ideas. Through interactive CD-Rom materials, teachers will view and analyze an exemplary teacher and her students engaged in constructing the open number line model, the prevalent model used for addition and subtraction. Teachers will analyze students at work, student work, teacher decision-making, and the big ideas of mathematics.
Day Two:
Developing Efficient Computation Strategies with Mini-Lessons
Building on the foundation developed on Day 1, teachers will delve deeply into what it means to calculate with number sense - how mathematicians look to the numbers first to decide on a clever strategy. This training will operate on the premise that efficient computation should be the goal of computation work, meaning that children need to develop a deep sense of number, landmarks, and operations resulting in a repertoire of strategies. Teachers will participate in multiple mini-lessons that develop number sense, computation strategies, and demonstrate the mathematical tools we use when working with mathematics.
About The Workshops:
Abbie Koss, Aurora's Assistant Head of School and Curriculum Coordinator, has worked with Cathy Fosnot in New York City in the 1990's and has led the effort to bring Ms. Fosnot to the Bay Area. Aurora is hosting breakfast and lunch for all participants and has managed the organization and execution of the workshop.