Back to School Clarity for Math Expressions School Leaders

As you consider the Back to School staff meeting agenda, be sure you’ve left time to set the stage for a successful instructional year of math.

Clear is Kind. Unclear is unkind- Brene Brown

As you consider the Back to School staff meeting agenda, be sure you’ve left time to set the stage for a successful instructional math year.

Yes, you probably have decided on your math goals, and yes you’ve probably outlined your professional learning, but the staff meeting agenda is different. Training is building up instructional practices, changing teacher behaviors.

I’m talking about what should be on every leader’s yearly back to school agenda, and I’m regularly drawn back to the quote by Brene Brown:

Clear is Kind, unclear is unkind.

You think “I already told them. We had that training ___ years ago.”

Now remember, the Chinese proverb:

“Tell people what you want them to know. Then tell them again. Tell them what you told them. Then tell them again."

Once is never enough and assuming people know, remember, or have a common understanding is setting you up for many heartaches and headaches later.

BE CLEAR.

Every year, re-norm your staff on what math looks like in your building.

Be clear about your why. Share the vision statement about math. Reground people in the school’s core beliefs around what math class should look like, feel like, and sound like. Any and all goals and PD should reinforce and be in alignment with that math vision statement.
Be clear about daily instruction requirements. Present the master calendar and be clear on the required minutes for all of the math components. This might be collaborative, or done for them (by a leadership team), but it should be very clear how you expect the minutes to be laid out. As a reminder: Math happens every day. It is a core subject. We do NOT skip it for library, electives, parties, early release, etc. If extracurriculars interfere with the master math schedule, math is reprioritized for later in the day. It is not skipped.
Be clear about instructional materials.

Be clear about additional resources you’ve provided:

Starting example : At our school, we use Math Expressions (or insert your curricular resource) as our primary resource 90% of the time. This looks like:

BUILDing learning with whiteboards, tools, and conversations.
Whiteboards are used daily.
Manipulatives are used frequently.
Workbook use to reinforce learning, apply learning, and to create procedural fluency and independence. We use the problems needed. Completion does not equal mastery.
Remembering pages (from Math Expressions) daily.
Unit assessments and quick quizzes are used at point of use, and success criteria is shared across the grade level

Programs like I-Ready, IXL, Reflex Math, etc. can be good companions to your instruction, but being unclear about when and how to use them creates a lot of issues. Can they be used during core instruction or only during WIN (What I need block)? My opinion? Only during WIN or on reteach days– these are not Tier 1 tools, therefore they should not replace tier 1 instruction. How many minutes do you require?

Be clear about instructional frameworks such as small group instruction.

When and how often are small groups? What does that look like, sound like and feel like? In my opinion, it is routine on reteach days (a day after every quick quiz, unit test) and is routine in our WIN groups. It is a part of our core 1 instruction on a responsive level, during procedural fluency days, or as a response to instruction as students practice and apply. There are days more suited for small groups than others.

If you ‘think’ teachers already know where you stand on these things or what the requirements are, you mostly likely have a gap between vision and reality. There are way too many things for teachers to know and remember year to year. It is our job and responsibility to provide clarity , protect instructional time, and provide the support needed to have aligned and purposeful instruction year after year.

Need help with this? Click here to download a free implementation one pager for school leaders using Math Expressions.

Categories: : back to school