During my first blog post I anticipated that the most valuable reward of my Kenan experience would be the relationships forged with my fellow fellows.  I feel like this is all I have written about lately, but it’s the truth!  When I began the Kenan Fellows Program I had just finished my “Beginning Teacher” stint.  Prior to Kenan Fellows I felt like I was just a 2^nd grade teacher – doing what I had to do to survive in this difficult, yet extraordinarily rewarding profession.  Through the connections I made during my Kenan Fellowship I believe I have transformed from a teacher to an education professional.

Much of this transformation I attribute to the people I met through the fellowship.  My mentor and fellow fellows taught me so much about how to be an advocate for education, not just a teacher.  Our mentor’s vision for us and for our project was huge, but I think that we delivered!  Through her mentoring she taught us how to fight the good fight and keep what is best for children at the center of all that we do.  I will carry these lessons with me for my entire education career.

As DPI Math fellows, the nature of our lessons is different than that of most Kenan projects.  We created a series of professional development presentations and a facilitator’s guide to accompany them.  Our lessons are intended for teachers.  We are specifically interested in reaching early elementary teachers who need support in building conceptual understanding of number sense.  Our project communicates the importance of developing this foundation within young students and provides a great jumping off point for this important classroom transformation.

I feel very confident in our final product.  We already accepted to three regional NCTM conferences in 2014.  Hopefully this will influence other teachers on a national scale.  In terms of spreading our work on a more local level, Katie and I will be presenting at the Triangle High Five SAS Math Summit this year.  While we will each be representing our own district at the event, I know that my work with our Kenan project has already heavily influenced the presentation proposal I have drafted.  Unfortunately, we have not yet learned how, exactly, DPI plans to distribute our work.  I am sure that will be settled in the near future.  While our formal Kenan Fellowship is winding down, I really believe that my fellow fellows and my work together is really just beginning.  I am sure that both the professional and personal relationships that I have forged with Katie, Christina, and our mentor will last far beyond our year as Kenans.

I am very grateful to both Kenan Fellows and Lenovo for the opportunity to work with the Lenovo tablet throughout my Kenan Fellowship experience.  The nature of the Lenovo tablet is perfect for the elementary classroom and melds nicely with the type of activities I plan for my students as a result of my work on my fellowship project.

As a classroom teacher in an elementary school, I love having a tablet to take with me as I visit students where their learning is happening.  I take a lot of anecdotal notes about what I observe in my classroom, and it is nice to have a device that can accompany me as I make these observations.  I have specifically enjoyed using the Evernote app on my tablet as a tool in the classroom.

With regard to the content of our Kenan Fellowship, the work of Kathy Richardson (on which our project if focused) hinges on hands-on, experiential math experiences.  This work cannot be genuinely reflected on a worksheet.  The ability to snap pictures of videos of student work using the tablet is invaluable.  I have included a video of one of our math assessments used in our Kenan project.  It is student interviews like these that give teachers extraordinary insight into students’ understandings of number concepts.

Kenan Fellowship: 2nd Grade Hiding Assessment

Unlike the vast majority of the Kenan Fellows projects, our DPI project is not a set of lessons or a unit.  Katie, Christina, and I were charged with creating a professional development series aimed at educating early elementary teachers about an approach to mathematics instruction and assessment known as AMC (Assessing Math Concepts).  When we began our Kenan project, I was definitely the AMC-outsider.  Both Katie and Christina had lots of experience with AMC.

My feelings of intimidation were quickly erased as my mentor, Katie, and Christina filled me in and helped me get set up to use AMC in my classroom.  I soon found that AMC was exactly what was missing from my math instruction.  Intuitively, I knew that the gaps that some of my students had in their understanding of mathematics stemmed from kindergarten or earlier, but I didn’t know exactly how to address those holes and still press on with my pacing guide.

Using AMC in my classroom has helped me to balance my curriculum and the somewhat remedial experiences with numbers that some of my students need.  The best part is that the kids love the AMC activities that we do.  What I have learned about early elementary mathematics through my Kenan experience will stick with me forever.  I’ll be using the work of Kathy Richardson whether I am teaching second grade, sixth grade, or working with my own (eventual) children.

I have included a link to a video of one of my student’s completing and AMC assessment with my fellow fellow, Katie.  This is one of my students who is probably benefitting the most from my newfound knowledge of AMC.

AMC in Action

I think it is fair to describe my mentor situation as rather unique.  As Katie mentioned in her blog, my fellow fellows and I were very nervous once we heard that our mentor, Barbara Bissell, was retiring from her post as section chief of the Math department at DPI.  Even after we found out that Barbara would continue to mentor us despite her retirement, I was still nervous about my fellowship experience.  I had been looking forward to learning the day-to-day workings of DPI and was worried that my mentor’s new status of “retiree” would keep me from the experience I had been anticipating.

I soon found out that I had nothing to be anxious about.  While my fellowship experience did turn out very differently than I had anticipated, I still did learn a lot about how DPI works and even ended up making contacts in many departments at DPI.  Also, we found out that just because Barbara wasn’t going in to DPI every morning any more didn’t mean that she didn’t have her finger on the pulse of what was happening math education in North Carolina.  Through Barbara’s expertise in mathematical knowledge for teaching, research-based instructional practices, and the creation of professional development we have been able to create a Kenan project that will help teachers to help their students develop a foundational understanding of number concepts.

I think that the content presented at each KFP Professional Development Institutes built upon the previous institute nicely.  Of course the information and activities at each PD were very professionally meaningful, but I feel that having the opportunity to interact with educators from across the state was equally as important.  I learned so much about education in our state.  As an elementary teacher, having the chance to talk to middle and high school teachers about their jobs was insightful.  Understanding what they are looking for in their students can give me more direction when dealing with my second graders.

Reflecting on our KFP Professional Development Institutes, I think that what stands out the most for me are the valuable lessons in education-related advocacy and activism that I gleaned from our third gathering as a cohort of fellows.  While all three KFP institutes were great, I think that the topics visited in this third institute were particularly relevant given the current climate of education politics in North Carolina.  Over the last couple of years there have been times when remaining positive about the teaching profession has proven difficult.  The presentations at the third PD institute helped me to see that there are ways for classroom teachers to be active in the education policy discussion.  I also found it very helpful to understand more about how policies are made.  Finding ways to use this information and the fancy title of Kenan Fellow in order to improve our teaching conditions and our students’ learning conditions presents an exciting challenge.  While the current climate is less than ideal, the opportunity to be a part of the turnaround is inspiring.

It seems like many issues surrounding education tend to foster really strong support at opposite ends of the proverbial spectrum.  Being an early elementary teacher I do not really have to deal with the issue of social media use in the classroom.  My students do not carry smartphones and they are not old enough to sign up for accounts on social networking websites. I think that the use of social media in the classroom entertains such polar viewpoints because the Internet can be a little bit scary. I think that some educators are willing to pass up social media as a learning tool because to them the liability involved outweighs the reward. In an age where every other story on the news is about another teen bullied via cyberspace, I think it is understandable that some educators and local policy makers say “no thank you” to social media. As a teacher, you feel a huge responsibility for your students’ well being.  If something terrible were to happen to one of your students because of social media activity associated with your classroom you would most likely feel tremendously responsible for it (additionally, your integrity as an educator would perhaps be questioned by outsiders).

I assume that those on the pro-social media side of the argument set their students up to act responsibly in cyberspace and communicate clear expectations for the use of social media and electronic devices in their classrooms.  If they have put the time and effort into a management system that works I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t be allowed to use social media in the classroom.  Social media definitely has compelling pros when it comes to access to instant feedback for students and distance learning.

Basically, I don’t think that this is the type of issue where there is one correct answer.  I think that if you are willing to put the time in to developing responsible ways to use social media in the classroom to enhance student engagement and learning, then you should be allowed to use social media in the classroom.

My experience with the Kenan Fellowship has taught me so much in so many different areas.  By working with DPI I’ve learned tons about the form and functions of this entity that was previously a mystery to me.  Through our PD institutes I’ve learned so much about what it means to be a teacher leader, ways to use new technology, and how to leverage my Kenan experience in the future.  From the work I’ve done on my project, Making Math Count, and my relationships with my fellow fellows and my mentor I’ve expanded my understanding of formative math experiences that are necessary in the early grades.  Already this year this knowledge has changed the way that I teach.  I’ve been able to more expertly supplement the curriculum that I am supposed to be teaching using what I learned from working on my fellowship project this summer.  I am helping my students to develop an understanding of numbers that will stick with them for a lifetime, rather than merely meeting second grade benchmarks.  While I have always worked to create a safe environment in the classroom where students feel comfortable taking risks and opening themselves up to challenges, I think that the way that I am approaching math now makes that type of environment easier to achieve.

Between working with the other fellows on my project, getting to know some of the folks at DPI, and being mentored by a woman who is both extremely knowledgeable and passionate about our project and about Mathematics education in general, it is difficult to pinpoint one “aha” moment.  Along with many of the other DPI fellows, I had the opportunity to attend a DPI Summer Institute.  I was lucky enough to be signed up for volunteering at the institute that actually corresponded with the region in which I live and teach.  I was able to attend some of the sessions and I learned a lot.  Being a teacher in a huge county/district like Wake means that I wouldn’t have had this opportunity otherwise (at least, not this year.  In a district so large it can be tough to get in on such opportunities.  Between the Summer Institute, the work with DPI, and the exposure to teachers in other districts through the Kenan Fellows Program, I’d have to say that my “aha” moment this summer is two-fold.  I’ve had the opportunity to compare and contrast my experience in my district with those of other teachers around the state, which has been eye-opening in good and bad ways (like everything, of course).  I’ve also learned a lot about how DPI works and the implications of its inner workings on my day-to-day life as a classroom teacher.  I think that it is easy as a classroom teacher to feel like DPI and you aren’t always on the same team.  Working alongside the talented and dedicated people at DPI has definitely made me much more understanding of their vision and mission for education in our state.

I decided to respond to this blog prompt this week instead of the “Aha” moment one because I have been thinking a lot about the start of the next school this week. 2013-2014 begins for me on Monday.  I’ll have a class of 21 second graders arriving eager to begin a new school year.

Seeing the connection between my students’ learning and my internship this summer is not difficult being that I’ve spent the summer learning about formative math assessments for early elementary students with my mentor from the mathematics department at DPI.  My experience this summer will positively impact my students’ learning every day of this school year.  Our Kenan project is using Kathy Richardson’s Assessing Math Concepts to create a professional development series that will be delivered virtually to K-2 teachers in North Carolina.  The nature of this project required me to become very familiar with this assessment program and the instructional strategies to address the data provided from the assessment.  The wonderful Katie Phelps made this possible by inviting us to an AMC training in Orange county earlier in the summer.  Also, luckily for me, my the other fellows in my fellowship are very experienced with AMC and are going to be a wonderful resource for me as I dive into this assessment program for the first time this school year.

While I am excited to put into practice the math strategies I’ve learned about this summer, I am looking for a way to balance these new strategies with some of the expectations of my district and my PLT.  In brainstorming with my fellow fellows and my colleagues I think I’ve found a couple good ways to incorporate Kathy Richardson’s work into the pacing guide outlined by my county. Richardson’s instructional strategies outlined in Developing Number Concepts will fit beautifully into the math centers and guided math groups that I already do.  I try to make these as differentiated as possible, which can be a challenge sometimes.  I’ve also discussed with my PLT the possibility of running our grade level’s math remediation group for the year using AMC for assessment data and the instructional strategies from Richardson’s Developing Number Concepts.  My experience this summer is not only going to have a positive affect on the learning of my class, but also on the entire grade level at the school where I work.