ATMNE NH 2024

Counting is easy as 1,2,3 … or is it? Algebra and Fractions have been described as gatekeepers to higher level mathematics. Learn why I think the gatekeeper shows up much sooner and learn what you can do to promote high level mathematics for our youngest and most vulnerable learners through a deep dive into counting.

This is an outgrowth of a book study of Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics sponsored by the Maine Math and Science Alliance in 2022. This will be a panel presentation consisting of three teachers, grades 2, 5, and 7/8, an administrator, and Hannah Lakin of the Maine Math and Science Alliance. The focus will be on changes in our practice as we come to the close of our second year employing, and refining, these practices.

Individual ideas develop collective understanding, and collective thinking increases individual agency. We’ll share how reasoning routines structure mathematical discourse to develop students’ mathematical ideas and voices to coalesce into collective understanding. Explore discourse strategies embedded in routines - by experiencing them and watching video - that provide space and support to awaken students’ agency in an inclusive classroom and leave ready to integrate them in your classroom.

Can you imagine a designated time where students simultaneously get the math support that they need while also choosing the path that they take to get that support? Can you imagine a time where students had choice over math games that were tailored to their current instruction in math and to their own math journey? It is possible! Come participate in this interactive workshop and learn how to structure a math differentiated block in your classroom where students are engaged, have choice, and develop a positive math identity by experiencing it through the eyes of a student.

K-2 is a critical time for math learners. This session supports teachers and leaders with key early numeracy content by viewing videos of student thinking in the domain of addition and subtraction and number words and numerals. Interview assessment strategies are examined to ensure that teachers identify knowledge each student has in order to build on it. Key instructional techniques like distancing the setting will be examined to ensure students are moving forward in their understanding in a robust manner.

Scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress suggest that if current educational practices in math classrooms remain the same, the achievement gap between Caucasians and African descent learners will be eliminated by around 217 years. To close the academic achievement gap for all students, teachers must be equipped with methods to conduct equitable instruction that is culturally relevant.

In this session, attendees will learn methods for providing cultural relevance within specific academic settings. Participants will be empowered with strategies that will engage students in a relevant manner as well as acquire pedagogy, perspective, and practices to implement in the math classroom.

Teachers will be given a week of lessons that will take their students to confidence in balancing equations. We will use hands-on-objects, which will be provided.