Math DiscourseEast Lansing Public Schools
and Michigan State University 2016-2019 |
Ever since beginning my career at East Lansing Public Schools, I have been blessed to be part of Math Discourse professional development with my mathematics department and Dr. Beth Herbel-Eisenmann. Throughout the three years of engaging in this professional development, I have learned about powerful and productive mathematical classroom discourse and students' positive mathematical identity development. I have engaged in action research within my own classroom about how to help sixth grade students develop strong mathematical explanations. This ongoing professional development also allows me to engage with these ideas with my colleagues every month. I share the data from my action research with my students, and together, we work to improve the discourse within our classroom. This professional development has been transformative to my practice.
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Trauma Informed PracticeEast Lansing Public Schools
October 24, 2018, February 27, 2019, March 20, 2019 |
During the 2018-2019 school year, a prevention specialist from Eaton Regional Education Service Agency came to my school to teach the staff about trauma and how educators can respond to kids with trauma backgrounds. We learned about adverse childhood experiences, the behavioral and developmental effects of trauma, and how to interact with and respond to our students that experience trauma. This training has helped me to identify some of my students that may come from trauma backgrounds, has helped me to be more sensitive towards my students, and has informed how I interact with these students.
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CMP3 Users' ConferenceMichigan State University
February 22-23, 2019 |
Michigan State University hosts a Connected Mathematics Project 3 (CMP3) Users' Conference every year. In the winter of 2019, I had the privilege of attending the conference with my school's mathematics department. At this conference, there were a variety of breakout sessions. I attended sessions about establishing a collaborative learning culture, supporting students with language difficulties, ways to utilize the focus questions provided by the curriculum, and assessment resources. In these sessions, I engaged with other teachers, learning new ways to engage students with the CMP3 curriculum in my classroom.
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Kagan Cooperative Learning WorkshopBattle Creek, MI
August 20-24, 2018 |
During the summer of 2018, I attended a Kagan Cooperative Learning workshop. I learned about cooperative learning and how to implement it in my classroom effectively. I learned many different structures that keep students engaged and teach them social skills. I also learned some great classroom management tips, such as how to organize the room as a whole, how to organize the students within the room, and how to use music to improve student engagement and understanding. This workshop helped me make changes in my classroom to improve the environment and to improve student engagement. I use these strategies and cooperative learning structures every day in my classroom now.
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Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference
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In the summers of 2017 and 2018, I had the opportunity to attend the Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM) Conference. This conference offers many breakout sessions with a variety of topics. I attended breakout sessions with topics including but not limited to technology, algebraic development, manipulatives, number talks, student discourse, positioning, differentiation, formative assessment, standards based grading, and literacy within mathematics texts. Many of my colleagues attended this conference with me, which gave us a valuable opportunity to discuss what we learned and changes we wanted to make within our mathematics department.
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CHAMPS Classroom ManagementLansing, MI
December 5, 2017 |
I had the opportunity to attend a CHAMPS Classroom Management Training in 2017. During this training, I learned how to establish clear behavior expectations for all students. I also learned how to reduce misbehavior and increase engagement in the classroom. There was time to plan out my expectations, rules, and consequences. I was also able to spend some time planning out the first two weeks of the next school year. This training was very valuable, and contains practices that I rely on every day.
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Connected Mathematics Project 3 TrainingEast Lansing Public Schools
September 22, 2016, October 13, 2016, November 10, 2016 |
During my first few months teaching, my district brought in a trainer who has also taught with the Connected Mathematics Project 3 (CMP3) curriculum. The trainer gave me a comprehensive understanding of the curriculum as a whole and each individual unit. I learned which mathematical ideas would resurface throughout the year and in which specific lessons they would resurface. I learned which lessons could be skipped over to save time for other topics and which units can come before other units. I also learned about the best structure for lessons. This training has helped me decide how I want to structure my daily lessons and how to structure the school year as a whole.
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Reading StreetOkemos Public Schools
February 16, 2016 |
Even though the school I interned at had been using Reading Street for several years, I was fortunate to receive training for this curriculum. During the training, I learned how to best implement this curriculum. The trainer showed us a variety of resources available on Reading Street through Pearson. I also learned about instructional practices in the literacy classroom. While I no longer teach with Reading Street, the literacy instruction practices that I learned about in this training have still been valuable to me. The math curriculum that I use requires a significant amount of reading. For my students that struggle with reading and for many students on particularly difficult passages, it is helpful to remember the literacy training that I received through this curriculum.
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TCI ScienceOkemos Public Schools
September 2, 2015 |
The school I interned at adopted the TCI Science curriculum. TCI brought in a presenter to train the staff to use this curriculum well. During the training, I learned about engaging elementary students in science. I learned the importance of allowing kids to learn science through experience. This training also emphasized the power of inquiry. Even though I teach middle school math instead of elementary science, helping my students learn through experience and inquiry are strategies that I bring into my classroom every day.
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31st Annual Educational Technology ConferenceMichigan State University -
The College of Education November 15, 2014 |
As an undergraduate student, I had the opportunity to attend this conference and gain knowledge bout some great technologies before beginning my career. I learned about technologies for communication, collaboration, and gathering information. I explored Weebly, Thinglink, and Google Classroom for the first time. As a teacher about to begin my career, it was helpful to get to know what technologies teachers use successfully within the classroom.
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Photo Attributions:
Image 1: https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23coetc15&src=typd
Image 2: https://www.teachtci.com/science/elementary-school/
Image 3: https://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PS1gC9
Image 4: http://mdisc.org
Image 5: https://connectedmath.msu.edu
Image 6: https://www.mictm.org/index.php/events-news/mctm-conference-and-institute/341-mctm-2019-conf
Image 7: http://www.safeandcivilschools.com/services/classroom_management.php
Image 8: https://www.kaganonline.com
Image 9: https://connectedmath.msu.edu/events/users-conference/
Image 10: https://www.eatonresa.org/services/prevention/
Image 1: https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23coetc15&src=typd
Image 2: https://www.teachtci.com/science/elementary-school/
Image 3: https://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PS1gC9
Image 4: http://mdisc.org
Image 5: https://connectedmath.msu.edu
Image 6: https://www.mictm.org/index.php/events-news/mctm-conference-and-institute/341-mctm-2019-conf
Image 7: http://www.safeandcivilschools.com/services/classroom_management.php
Image 8: https://www.kaganonline.com
Image 9: https://connectedmath.msu.edu/events/users-conference/
Image 10: https://www.eatonresa.org/services/prevention/