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.