Spring Episode Preview
Paul Reynolds and I goofing off at the soon to be TLC location in Dedham, MA. It used to be a bank and we are standing in the entrance of the vault.
It is so bright and you can see the different rooms for studios and the makerspace.
Past episodes with these returning educators:
Jen Hawkins:
Zooming In on Math Teacher Moves with Jen Hawkins
Dr. Nicki and Ann Elise Record:
Meaningful Math Games with Ann Elise Record and Dr. Nicki Newton
Top Ten Ways to Get Students Problem Solving with Dr. Nicki Newton and Ann Elise Record
Ann Burgess
Zooming In on a Mindhunter with Dr. Ann Burgess
Transcript:
Melissa Milner 0:09
Welcome to The Teacher As... Podcast. I'm your host Melissa Milner, a teacher who is painfully curious and very easily inspired. This podcast is ever changing. And I hope with each season, you find episodes that speak to you in your work as an educator. This is the fifth season of The Teacher As, and it's exciting to see the growth and how many educators are listening episodes released every other week. If you enjoy the teacher as please rate it on Apple podcasts and leave a review, it helps the podcast reach more educators. Thanks for listening.
Melissa Milner 0:41
My last full episode was a rewind episode, one of my most popular with Dr. Nicki Newton and Ann Elise Record, and it was all about math routines. This rewind episode was due to the fact that we had to postpone our interview. And then while we were recording the upcoming one, they had to evacuate their hotel room. So kind of crazy. But this week, I'm sort of in the same predicament because I still don't have that episode with Dr. Nicki and Ann Elise. So I thought it might be fun to preview the amazing guests that are coming up. As long as life doesn't get in the way. I have two math related episodes coming up thrilled to have Jen Hawkins back talking about student vital actions in the math classroom. She shared about math teacher moves and episode 85. It's really important for any teacher of mathematics, and some of those vital actions apply to other other academic subjects as well. It was really great talking to her and I know you guys are going to enjoy that one. Also, as I just mentioned, I'm excited to have math educators Ann Elise Record and Dr. Nicki back on chatting about this time as about math puzzles. The half that we've recorded so far is really, really fun. They always have such great resources. So that's some information about some returning guests. If schedules allow, I might have Dr. Ann Burgess back on this Spring. She is the forensic nurse who had a character based on her in the Netflix show Mindhunter. And she was going to come back on I hope we can schedule it. She's also very busy. She's going to come back on and talk about threat assessment in schools. Basically, Dr. Ann is working with others to try to find the telltale red flags the signs that someone could possibly become a school shooter. And so I mean, it's obviously very important information for all of us who are educators. But I find it interesting when Ann was talking about it just quickly, the last time we recorded, she was talking about how it's really mostly online evidence that they're going through. And they're trying to find of all the people who have had, who have done the school shootings, which the social media posts have in common. So it's fascinating stuff. Also, I am going to have on Daphne Russell, she is a self proclaimed educational evolutionist, and a chaos pilot. So she'll be on to share her pretty unique ideas about teaching reading.
Melissa Milner 3:37
So the last guest I'm going to share about is another you know if schedule allows kind of situation is I'm hoping to get Peter H. Reynolds on he I'm sure you all know is the author and illustrator of the dot and ish, and so many other books. He is on tour right now with Scholastic, but his sister who kind of helps out with all things educational, is hoping that we can get him on this spring to the podcast, and if not, it can wait till the fall. I am very excited to say that I met up with Jane, who is Peter's sister, and I also met his brother Paul, who they've co they've collaborated on some books, Paul Reynolds, and they have something called Fablevision, which is a K through 12 Educational Publishing Company. And that was founded by Peter. The CEO is Paul and the President is Jane. So it's really an all in all in the family kind of situation for Fablevision Learning. I'm hoping Jane will come on and talk about Fablevision. But then I'm also really excited. They're very local in Dedham. Jane actually is in England, but she came down this week and I got to meet with her and Paul at their adorable bookstore in Dedham, Massachusetts. It's. So one part that was really exciting about this meetup this week with Jane and Paul, is that they showed me their new innovation and creativity center that is just getting started. It's called the Reynolds Center TLC studios. And this again is, it's like literally right around the corner from where the book bunny bookstore is that they own. And it's story powered TLC for creative educators.
Melissa Milner 5:31
So I have a little postcard that I got from them. I did get to tour the TLC studios, as they're painting and getting it ready, making it handicap accessible in the front of the building, which was very important to Peter. So I loved seeing that. So what's exciting about this is on this postcard, it says coming soon, located outside Boston and historic Dedham Square, TLC studios will be the place for teachers to recharge their creative batteries. And for students and families to be inspired to create bravely. TLC studios allows us to serve even more educators, both in person and virtually, with creative professional development resources that include constructionist steam, curriculum, and SEL programs, tied to the books of Paul and Peter H. Reynolds. And then there's a cool bulleted list that got me very excited. PD workshops for educators, video production, live streaming studios, audio production and podcasting studio, hands on maker lab, which I got excited about maybe having make writing be part of that, with Angela Stockmans work. And then also digital storytelling, animation and Creative Writing workshops. What we found was that we were definitely kindred spirits, Jane and Paul, and hi, we had a wonderful time. And I think I will be doing some work for them. I hope I will be doing some work for them. Jane's hoping I'll do some lessons and do some workshops about podcasting with students, and how it's not just one more thing, it can be part of your curriculum in what you're already doing. It was quite a exciting thing. And it all came from me simply reaching out to Peter, to see if he wanted to be on the podcast. The main reason I reached out to him is because of his book ish. It is the very first book that I read aloud, every school year, it is the culture of my classroom, we are all ish. And everything we do, you know, we don't have to be perfect. It's really that growth mindset. And this is just obviously one of many, many, many amazing books about growth, mindset and creativity. Creativity mindset is Jane kept saying the other night. This is exciting work that they're doing. And I you know, I hope to be a part of it. But even if I'm not, I'm going to be a fan. And I'm, you know, just a few exits down from this new TLC center. So I'll definitely be going there as a teacher to learn more from whoever they have there. And I hope that I'll also be going to teach at this center eventually, but we'll see what happens. Also, my minisodes continue this spring, I might have to take a week off here and there because it's a lot of a lot of work along with full time teaching job, but the minisodes you know, they started with being the teacher as filmmaker, and I still have a lot of content about that. But I'm also really getting interested in vocational education and apprenticeships. How Not everybody is meant to go to college. How the stigma when I was growing up of the, you know, the people who went to vocational school, it's really a shame because I think there's a lot more they're looking at people's skills and talents and what comes naturally to them and what their passions are. And it might be woodworking, it might be hairstyling and I just think that the more research I'm doing on it, I might do some minisodes I'm reading a book called apprentice nation. And it's just fascinating stuff what other countries are doing for apprenticeships, where the you know, the students they're going and they're working on the job, getting paid. It's not like an internship. They're getting paid while they learn and a lot of the apprenticeships also pay for college tuition.
Melissa Milner 9:51
I think it's important to look into for the United States to maybe start upping the game with our apprenticeships because we really You don't have that many apprenticeship programs. In the United States, there are students that maybe can't afford to go to college and maybe don't do well enough to have scholarships, either in sports or in academics, or whatever it is. And what an amazing alternative. The end, I mean, honestly, some people are going to college and coming out and not getting jobs. Where as with an apprenticeship, you've got your job, you're ready to go and you got paid while you were learning it. So it's just something I'm looking into. And so I might have some minisodes about that, it might not be till the fall, we'll see. So really exciting stuff coming up. And I thought, a fun spring preview would be to share a little snippet from my recording with Dr. Nicki, and Ann Elise before we got to cut off. So it's kind of a sneak preview of that episode. And I'm also going to share a little bit of the episode that I literally just recorded with Jen Hawkins about the student vital actions about 10 minutes ago, I got finished recording that with her. So I want to share a little preview of that as well. So enjoy.
Ann Elise Record 11:16
Yeah, so I'm going to begin with one of my favorite kinds of puzzles is called Magic Squares. And so in the Magic Square, these can go from like four boxes all the way up to many, many boxes. But the vertical, horizontal and diagonals will add up to the same number. So there's a sum of the numbers in the magic square, and you got to figure out where the missing numbers are. So they give you some numbers, and then you're figuring out the missing ones. In fact, my good friend, Susan Looney wrote a book called Yang and the Magic Turtle. She wrote like a fairy tale, based on this magic turtle. So the turtle that has this design on its back, and Yang has to solve the mystery of it. But I love them, they go from just like single digit math facts, up to algebraic stuff like it is incredibly much they can go up to Oh, wow. So it's a really fabulous way of exploring that flexibility that we're trying to build with the students are thinking you're adding numbers. But of course, it's embedding all within that that like Fact Fluency practice as you're trying to build. So after students have built the understandings of number of relationships, so let's say fluency within 20, that we can be using doubles to help us if we don't know it yet, or I get a bridging a 10, to make a 10. You know, we want to then be able to help work on the automaticity piece to help them you know, get into their long term memory what these facts are, so they can retrieve it from their memory, the playing it and it's fun and engaging ways of making them think and getting that purposeful practice all the time, is really a phenomenal way of doing it. So I do I love the the magic squares.
Melissa Milner 12:55
Yeah. Would you have this as a center? Or would it be everybody's doing it all at once? In the whole class? What do you recommend?
Ann Elise Record 13:02
Well I think that it's whatever is working best for the teacher, right. So certainly having a station in the classroom that is puzzles, or it can be an option in the fluency center. So you have a workstation, that is fluency. We want to find options and choices for the kids to help build their agency that they are the ones making some choices for themselves. So you might have some of these puzzles along with other choices, that when they're getting that fluency practice, they choose what they want to do. First, you always want to be able to model it with the kids, you never want something to be in a workstation that students aren't independent with, I would certainly you know, project one of these on the board and talk about what is the structure of this puzzle. Usually, you just have like nine line squares or three by three. And then you then you can give them what the total is for each row and column. And you have like one row that has two out of the three numbers filled in so they can begin there. And then they can be using that to then be fill it printing out all the rest of the ones that are there. So once you can do that and you feel comfortable, the kids understand what the process is for these, then it can become differentiated to the kids as well in terms of how many squares are within the square that you're doing, what numbers are they they can become multi digit numbers, I mean, they can be there's no limit can be fractions, decimals, you know, want it to be but the format of it is that every row and column and diagonal will have the same sum.
Jen Hawkins 14:29
Though much of this is applicable in any class. I mean, because it's about it's about students being engaged and thinkers, and that's vitally important because you know, the word vital means to be full of energy and we want our students to be engaged and full of energy. And the word vital means essential and absolutely necessary. And if students are not engaged thinkers in our class from then then we are failing, because it is vitally important that they be thinking Absolutely.
Melissa Milner 14:56
So let's get started. Do have like a list of them or how do we do this?
Jen Hawkins 15:02
Well, well I do have a list but it's not my list. I'm the thinking behind this that I'm that I'm absorbing and using and building on is from a partnership called the strategic Education Research Partnership, which is abbreviated as SERP SC RP from SERP was started by, I believe it was Phil Darrow, he was one of the writers of the Common Core. And it was a research partnership to create new tools for schools, and it's particularly connected to mathematics. And so through my work with illustrative mathematics, I've found a link to the ideas that the syrup Institute has put forward about student vital actions. And there are seven of them. And that could be what I talk about, is that what you'd like to hear?
Melissa Milner 15:50
Let's talk about it. Is it is it ranked, or they're all equally as important, I'm assuming.
Jen Hawkins 15:54
I think they're all equally as important, I will tell you my favorites. But there are seven of them. The first one is about having all students participate. The second is about students sing a second sentence, which, you know, I can talk a little bit more about each of these after I list them all, if you like. Yeah, the third is about students being able to talk about one another's thinking. The fourth one is about students being able to revise their thinking. The fifth and sixth by elections are about students using precise mathematical language, and about ELL students using whatever language they can to convey their ideas and giving them a support in moving towards academic language. And then the seventh, and my favorite student by election is about perseverance and productive struggle. But I do have a few favorites. But number seven is my favorite.
Melissa Milner 16:45
I think we'll end with that one.
Jen Hawkins 16:47
Sure. That sounds good.
Melissa Milner 16:48
Yeah, so maybe just start with number one. And tell us a little bit more about it, what it looks like in the classroom.
Jen Hawkins 16:53
Sure. So, what's interesting about this is that you notice how they were all about what students are doing. So this is about looking at students. And what's interesting about the student vital actions is that if an administrator walk into a classroom, and administrator could be looking at what the students are doing, and not what the teachers are doing, and find out if the students are being positioned as thinkers in the classroom. And so most of these things are observable things that can help administrators and fellow teachers that may be observing a peer, you know, provide feedback about whether the students are positioned as capable thinkers. So you know, all students participate, you know, like if we walk into a classroom, and we see one student just continually raising their hand and answering all the questions, what does that tell us about the rest of the kids in the classroom? How are they feeling, when they see that one kid always with their hand up? A lot of the times, they may feel like they are not making valuable contributions to the class. And then there can kind of be a downward spiral where they start to think, well, maybe I don't have valuable contributions, or maybe my ideas aren't any good. So it's really an equity issue, because the people that are talking in class are learning the most in class. And so if only a few students talk, and if a teacher doesn't have strategies and moves that provide opportunities for everybody to participate, then the learning opportunities are not equivalent. And the quiet students may lose confidence. You want to walk into a room and see a classroom or all students participate. And if you're a teacher, you want to ask yourself as a reflection after a class, who did I call on? How often did I call on so and so whose ideas were brought forward? Was there any sort of perhaps unintended bias in who gave attention to and whose voices seemed important and so teachers want to be cognizant of that.
Melissa Milner 18:42
For my blog, transcripts of this episode, and links to any resources mentioned? Visit my website at www.theteacher as.com. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @melissabmilner and I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap.