Has anyone used a Notice/Wonder like structure in #mathed professional learning sessions? Would love to hear more abt how you use it ... not w/ the math specifically but about their own learning experiences...SOME EXPLANATION
In my work I provide educators an experience of actually doing Math in Your Feet. I believe that as teachers we need chances to move out of our comfort zones and have experiences with new things, as learners.
In my workshops teachers experience familiar elementary math in a brand new context. We need to reflect on that. We also need to reflect on my approach facilitating the math/dance making which includes the flow of the lessons and how they build on one another, the conversations, the focus on language, and facilitating student collaborations in a moving classroom.
Because this is often new territory for teachers, I need and want make sure there is enough time for them to think about how they might approach using Math in Your Feet in their own classrooms. I want this reflection to be meaningful and useful.
Currently, I provide opportunities during my sessions for teachers to reflect on what the math/dance making they've been doing and what they notice about that learning. The reflection times are partly an adaptation of the Notice/Wonder approach which comes out of the Math Forum as a tool for helping students make sense of math. It is very similar to Descriptive Review, an arts education protocol introduced to me by my Teaching Artist Journal Colleagues.
Overall, I am quite comfortable facilitating noticings and wonderings but...then what? What happens next? Neither myself nor my participants have been satisfied with me trying to quickly answer all their questions at the end of a long day.
IN A NUTSHELL
I've only got a maximum of six hours with any one group and I want to make it count. I believe in the power of the notice/wonder-like descriptive review as a tool for reflecting on an experience, but I want to know what the next step is. My conversation with Joe helped me clarify and refine my original question. What I'm looking for now is:
...an approach to experiential educator professional learning that helps participants not just learn "how to do" something new, but supports them in extending their questions into answers that will work for them in their own classrooms.Unfortunately, organizations who bring me in are generally only willing to hire me for a day. Right now I see no possibility for developing longer-term coaching relationships. I would greatly appreciate your thoughts and feedback!
