Evolution of a Lesson Progression Protocol - 1. Introduction

It all started nine years ago in Rocklin, CA. My goal was to make math more meaningful and relevant for my middle school students while also building an argument to get my first smart phone. Since that year, I have been playing with lesson plan/progression design. Below is a graphic I created to show the things I have been playing with and how they relate to each other.

CLICK HERE to access slide deck

My Why Part 1: Real Life Math Problem Solving
I started playing with lesson design back in 2010 as a middle school math teacher. It was the very beginning of CCSS and we had PLC Modays which means the students went home early so our teacher teams could collaborate over data once a week. With this shortened day, I create Real Life Math primitive HyperDocs CLICK HERE to see the first one I created.

I wanted to take some of the math topics we were studying at the time and combine them with the weekend activities of my family so my students could see some connections (yes they were contrived!) After that first one, I created a new one every weekend the rest of the school year. CLICK HERE for the rest of them.

THIS is one of my favorites from our parent math day when parents came to school with their students during their math period and they did math together. At the time I did not realize I was mashing my own lesson design protocol that would change my teaching forever.

The birth of the K. Beck protocol above (2nd column):

1. SPARK interest by sharing pictures of our family weekend mundane activities
2. CHALLENGE/INFORM the students to create math problems based on the information I provided
3. EXPLAIN the students solve the problems and explain/share their thinking and work collaboratively
4. APPLY students apply what they know about the topics we are studying to create the questions and solve them and show proof of understanding.
5. REFLECT unfortunately I was the only one reflecting which drove future planning and creating.

I was influenced by many educators I had begun following on Twitter: Dan Meyer @dydan, Scott Ferrand @scott_ferrand, Matt Townsley @mctownsley

From 2010 until 2013 I used Monday's as my Common Core math problem solving sessions and then I left the classroom to become a curriculum coordinator. 

Next post: 

Evolution of a Lesson Progression Protocol - 2. Instructional Coaching

The Math Is on the Wall - Installing the Whiteboards

This will be a series of posts to document and share how whiteboard walls have changed my teaching and student learning in my math classroom this year.

This post is about purchase and installation.

Let's Start at the Very Beginning... A Very Good Place to Start...

Back on August 26th I had an exchange with Chelsea McClellan a math teacher in Pollock Pines CA who invited me into her math classroom that has whiteboards on the walls.  I went and visited on September 7th.  The picture below shows her room.  

She painted her cabinets with whiteboard paint and added three 4x8 panel boards from Home Depot that she also painted with whiteboard paint.

I had been researching whiteboard walls for classrooms ever since I attended a CUE event in October 2016 and attended Ed Campos Jr.'s session CLICK HERE to read his blog post.

After visiting Chelsea's classes I made an appointment with my principal and we discussed how I could make this happen in my classroom.  There were a few stipulations that I needed to follow:

• The whiteboards had to be temporary (meaning they can be easily taken down if I move rooms)
• No painting of the desks with whiteboard paint - (again too permanent and I get that!)

Pretty simple and easy to follow.  I purchased four 4x8 panel boards from Home Depot (click here).  I had three of the boards cut in half - 4ft. x 4ft. and one of the boards was cut into fourths - 2ft. x 4ft.
My after school STEM club installed the whiteboards:

• They put duct tape around the edges of the boards
• Used 16lb Velcro to put on the walls (click here) 

I'll be adding one more board cut into thirds against my cupboards opposite this picture before we go back after winter break.