Professional Learning for ECPS Educators

Welcome to our webpage dedicated to supporting educators at Edgecombe County Public Schools! Register below for virtual sessions — both workshops and coaching — with the number lab team.

Developing Number Reasoning with Powerful Models for Thinking

virtual workshop Plus virtual coaching

$400 (per participant)

*This workshop can be scheduled at a mutually agreed on date/time. Suggested dates can be sent via email.

This PD is targeted at PK-2nd grade educators, coaches, and/or leaders. It is assumed that participants have access to a rekenrek.

Using a format that combines an introductory workshop with customized coaching sessions, teachers of young learners will understand the power of incorporating models for thinking into their practice in order to help learners develop greater ability to reason with number. The focus will be on the most powerful model, the rekenrek, though dot cards and ten frames will also be referenced. We will study the design of the rekenrek in order to understand the reason that the rekenrek is a powerful model for thinking and teachers will observe Concept Studies that are facilitated with the rekenrek, have critical discussions of the Concept Studies in order to understand the structure and purpose of the Concept Studies, and spend time creating their own Concept Studies. Support will be provided in the form of modeling, sample Concept Studies (~7 will be given to participants), feedback, and collaboration on the writing of Concept Studies. In the weeks after the introductory workshop, participants will be expected to implement the Concept Studies they created or the ones that were used as models. The coaching sessions that fall across the next weeks will be focused on supporting participants to move through challenges associated with implementing Concept Studies that leverage the rekenrek. These sessions, which should take place in two smaller groups, will be responsive to the participants’ needs. Participants will share personal observations concerning attempts made to implement rekenrek supported Concept Studies with their coach. Coaches will then provide feedback in an effort to help teachers improve their ability to design and facilitate mathematics experiences that incorporate the rekenrek. Participants are welcome to video Concept Studies with the rekenrek in their own classrooms so as to highlight challenges or so that they can elicit feedback from their coaches.

Designing Thought Exercises: 100 Chart and Number Line

virtual coaching

$500 (per participant)

*This workshop can be scheduled at a mutually agreed on date/time. Suggested dates can be sent via email.

This PD is targeted at middle school teachers, coaches, and/or leaders. It is assumed that participants have a classroom 100 Chart and student 100 Charts for all students.

Teachers participating in this series of virtual coaching sessions will be guided in making critical observations of the design of two Thought Exercises from The Number Lab in order to understand how the design supports the goals. With understandings that emerge from this effort, participants will develop their own Thought Exercises, receiving critical feedback from the coach in order to ensure that the Thought Exercises deliver on the intended aims and are useful as exemplars in the future as participants design Thought Exercises on their own. Coaches will support, provide feedback, make suggestions for changes to manage challenges, and collaborate with participants in preparing for the next cycle of Thought Exercises.

There are dual goals for teachers participating in this series of coaching sessions: 1) to understand the power of these two Thought Exercises and to begin to be able to utilize them within their classrooms and 2) to grow their own understanding of a conceptual approach to mathematics based on discussions about the mathematical terrain encountered during the collaborative writing process.