That's the way the cookie crumbles!

A high school math teacher in New York had his students measure and weigh Oreos, Double Stuff Oreos, and Mega Oreos to find out whether the larger cookies really are double or mega stuffed. This is a creative application of data and measurement concepts to the "Real World", and I'm sure it was incredibly fun too! It reminds me of an activity I saw in our 4th grade math class last year, in which students were challenged to find out the width of a single piece of paper. They were able to do so by stacking 10 or more papers together, measuring the height of the stack, and then dividing by the number of pieces of paper. By posing interesting questions that engage students in thinking about everyday objects in their lives in new ways, teachers are able to develop students' appreciation of and motivation for mastering academic skills and concepts.

In other news, a school district in Delaware has built the world's largest Lego tower. While this activity probably led to increased community cohesion and provided the experience of overcoming a seemingly impossible challenge based on the scale of the tower, I'm left wondering, what's the instructional purpose? There are wonderful opportunities for measurement and engineering in this project, but the articles I've seen don't delve into any of that. I hesitate to judge based on the reporting alone, but I would love to hear the people involved speak to the educational value of the project. If they were simply pursuing "A dream of eternal Lego fame", all the time and energy and effort could have gone into something that would make a real difference in the lives of the students and community.

Inside yesterday's Administration Retreat

Although the administration works throughout the summer, for many years we have gathered together for a full-day off site retreat the week before teachers return, to greet new faces and orient ourselves to the year ahead.

This year, like last year, we met in a small studio above Magnini's Market at the intersection of Hopkins and California, and began by looking together at 40 Maps, which is a collection of interesting maps documenting a wide range of ideas and concepts. This was a launching point for two ideas of data collection: both what is chosen to be looked at, and also how the data is presented.

Countries that don't use the metric system - from Wikipedia Commons

This led into an activity in which we broke into pairs and walked around the neighborhood, selecting a concept to document and present.

After a delicious lunch from SLOW, Mitch led us in a conversation about some of the important values and practices that underlie the three major strands of our philosophy and pedagogy.

We ended the day by doing the "Grow Your Garden" activity (which first came to TBS several years ago through a Positive Discipline training), which we do with all 4th and 5th grade students each fall. This is a reflective activity that asks participants to express ideas about themselves through a visual metaphor -- you can see my finished product at the end! Someone commented that my visual layout looked like a rock concert poster, which I thought was pretty cool, since I collect concert posters and have several hanging on my walls at home.

Inside a K-5 Division Meeting

Today's K-5 division meeting began with a pop quiz group recall of our groundrules: everyone participates, different opinions are welcome, limit side conversations, respect time, and maintain your sense of humor. This last rule was in full effect as people suggested some rules that aren't part of our list!

The second agenda item was work in the Zones of Regulation curriculum, led by Social/Emotional Coordinator Kate Klaire. She began this three-part sequence began by walking us through a lesson on "Triggers", which included an art/writing activity to link actions of others with zones we experience. Next, Claire and Lisa presented a lesson on "Size of the Problem" they had done with students in Blackberry Creek (K/1), which helps children consider whether how they are reacting to a problem is in line with the seriousness of the problem. Finally, Kate shared a lesson called "Stop Opt Go", that helps children slow down their thinking and make choices about how to care for themselves before trying to respond to problems or situations.  

The third part of our meeting was taken up by some housekeeping - last minute planning for today's visit from the Marine Science Institute, and planning for next week's Readathon.

The meeting then moved into a professional development portion focused on math, led by Sima Misra, our Differentiated Curriculum Specialist. Sima presented two activities: number talks and math warmups. Building on a presentation from last month by Lisa Chung (k/1), Sima had the faculty do some quick number activities (ex: show how many ways you can create 56 in two minutes), emphasizing ways to have students effectively share their thinking and strategies with each other. For math warmups, Sima taught us the whisper/shout/move technique for learning skip counting, and had us practice it.

The meeting ended with a discussion about next year's calendar of program events. We've got some amazing traditions, such as the Art Show, Winter Sing, Math Night, Readathon, and Walkathon, and we also want to find a way to integrate student-centered performances of understanding about the other academic areas of our program that we don't yet cover on a division-wide basis (science, cultural studies, Spanish, and PE).

Math Night x2

This week saw two wonderful math-related program events at TBS.

On Monday, Sima Misra, our Differentiated Curriculum Specialist, presented a parent education event on how math is taught K-5 at TBS, to a fantastic turnout of over 25 parents. Sima began with an overview of the curriculum scope and sequence, and then ran the parents through a series of activities to give a sense of how some of the lessons actually work to build numeracy and fluency.

This included doing quick imagery to investigate how we count and group numbers; using a series of rules that eliminate numbers from a pool to  examine the intersection of logic and number sense (ex: among a pool of 1-10, the number is odd, prime, and more than the number of legs on an ant); and modeling multiple ways to execute a multiplication problem including the standard algorithm, the box method, the lattice method, and the array method.




Sima also spent some time looking at how activities can be scaled up or down for enrichment or differentiation for individual students. For more on that concept, check out this handout with instructions for how to play Close to 20/Close to 100/Close to 1000.






On Wednesday, a veritable river of parents poured onto campus for our annual Math Night festivities. Students in all K-5 classrooms took the lead in teaching their parents about their own math learning, and how math instruction happens in the classrooms. In the Depot, 100s and 1000s projects from the 2nd and 3rd grade students were set up for a gallery walk to be enjoyed by all attendees. Check out the great pictures below!

A collaborative 1000 project created by five 3rd grade students

Using neuroscience in the classroom

Today I sent around this article about using neuroscience to inform classroom practice to the faculty. A quick hit of some highlights:


- Establish the relevance of the lesson to previous and future lessons.

- Allow more time for inquiry; ask fewer spontaneous questions, and focus on specific, planned questions. Also, slow down the pace; extend your "wait time" for student answers.

- Incorporate movement, play, and collaboration into the lessons.

And of course, teach students about their brains!