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Greetings Math Community!
We hope your year has gotten off to a fantastic start! We have been energized by meeting new teachers at the New Teacher Orientation, seeing many of you at the Middle Grades Math Start of the Year Collaboration Day, and being at school sites and in classrooms on the first day of school!
Please read on to find out about:
- Upcoming Math Professional Development
- Core Curriculum News
- Featured Resource
- Opportunities for Educators and Students
- Recent Activities
This information (and more!) is also provided on the SFUSD Math website at www.sfusdmath.org, and you can follow us on Twitter: @SFUSDMath. Please share this newsletter with your colleagues.
Grateful for our community and for all that you do!
The Math Team
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Upcoming Math Professional Development
Problem Solving Cycle (PSC)
Problem Solving Cycle (PSC) teacher leaders will come together for the first Teacher Leader Preparation (TLP) day on September 10th at C&I, 750 25th Avenue. Our focus as a PSC learning community will be centered around aspects of planning, delivering, and debriefing closures in order to connect concepts and procedures in student learning. Our TLP dates for this school year are September 10th, October 17th, December 5th, January 9th, February 25th, and an after school session on April 23rd.
Contact person: Alisa Brown.
Complex Instruction (CI)
Schools that have been involved in the Complex Instruction Program will be supported this year through these structures: T-facs (Teacher Facilitators) meetings, Video Club, and follow-up days for teachers who took the summer course.
The first T-facs meeting is on Tuesday, September 10th at O'Connell High School. These meetings occur monthly throughout the school year.
The first follow-up day for teachers who participated in the CI course this summer (Cohort 11) is on Thursday, October 10th. Participating teachers have received information about substitutes for this day.
Contact person: Angela Torres
To see a summary of our dates and planned activities for 2019–2020, check out our Middle School Professional Development Structures. For a listing of all middle school math professional development activities for the 2019–2020 school year, please see the PD calendar on the math department website.
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Core Curriculum News
Materials
All curriculum materials should now have been delivered to school sites. There have been no revisions to the curriculum since last year, and we are asking teachers to reuse their printed teacher materials from last year. Any student workbooks left over from last year can be used this year.
As always, the most current version of the curriculum can be found online through the portals.
If you need help with materials, please first check with your school's math leadership team (department chairs, teacher leaders, T-facs, assistant principals, etc). If you still need help, you can reach out to Vriana Kempster.
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Featured Resource
All students are mathematically brilliant
At the Middle Grades Math Start of Year Collaboration Day, teachers read and discussed Challenging Deficit Language in the Math Classroom, a blogpost written by Dr. Maria del Rosario Zavala. Dr. Zavala writes, “By training ourselves to notice what students do understand, and what actions they take based on their understanding, we can challenge deficit notions of students. By making it our job to elicit and understand student thinking, we can help ourselves move away from the damaging language that labels some kids as 'good at math' and others as 'bad at math.'" If you have not had a chance to read it, we encourage you to make some time for it, and then reflect with your colleagues on the implications for mathematics planning, teaching and learning at your sites.
Another blog that helps us to see and nurture all of our students' mathematical brilliance is mathematizing4alll, Rachel Lambert's blog on mathematics and neurodiversity.
If you have other blogs, articles, or other resources, that support us in our equity work, please send them our way! Contact person: Sarah Gleason |
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Opportunities for Educators and Students
Opportunities for Students
Free Mathematics Festival at San Francisco State
The San Francisco Math Circle is partnering with the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival to host a free mathematics festival at San Francisco State on Saturday, August 31st from 2:00-4:00pm! This festival will be open to the public. There will be a variety of games, puzzles, and other activities centered on creative, collaborative mathematical inquiry an exploration. Families can find out more about this festival and RSVP at https://www.sfmathcircle.org/sf-state-math-festival. Flyer
Opportunities for Educators
Discounts for Teachers at Liholiho Yacht Club
The SFUSD parent and chef-owners of Liholiho Yacht Club, a fun Hawaiian and Asian-inspired restaurant on Nob Hill, love SFUSD! To express their gratitude for all you do, Liloliho has a special offer: please enjoy 50% off all food, for up to 4 guests, at all times (until further notice). This offer is good for any employee of SFUSD (proof of employment required). It is also honored in Gen-Gen Room (their little cocktail bar with food hidden below Liholiho). To book: Liho Reservations or Gen-Gen Reservations
Teachers 4 Social Justice (T4SJ) Conference
Online registration is now open for the 19th Annual Teaching for Social Justice Conference: Abolition, Reparations & Healing at John O’Connell High School on October 12th. Bettina Love, the author of We Want To Do More Than Survive, is the keynote speaker! Join your local and national colleagues to network, explore empowering learning environments and develop a professional learning community. It takes a community! Click here to learn more and to register: 2019 T4SJ Conference.
California Math Council North Conference at Asilomar
The CMC North Conference, from Dec 6th to 8th, is an opportunity to learn with teachers from around the region about math content and pedagogy. The conference is at a beautiful location in Pacific Grove; it is a wonderful setting for reflecting and learning with your site colleagues. The theme this year is Embracing Cultural Diversity in Mathematics. Visit the conference website at www.cmc-math.org/cmc-north-conference for more information.
LWEA (Prop G) Hours
SFUSD educators represented by UESF are invited to participate in additional Professional Development offered through the Living Wage for Educators Act of 2018, more commonly known as the Prop G parcel tax or LWEA. For more information, refer to the flyer.
Opportunities for All
Dr. Jo Boaler - Wine Reception, Author Talk & Book Signing
On Friday, September 6th, Dr. Jo Boaler, acclaimed Nomellini-Olivier Professor of Education at Stanford and director of youcubed.org, will be launching her new book, “Limitless Mind,” at Napa Valley College. “Limitless Mind” explodes the myths that hold us back and reveals six keys to unlocking learning potential. The evening will include a wine reception, a talk delivered by Dr. Boaler, and a book signing. This talk is appropriate for teachers, parents, students, and lifelong learners. To register, please see: Limitless Mind Registration.
If you know of other upcoming opportunities for math teachers and students, please let us know! Contact person: Sarah Gleason.
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Recent Activities
Middle Grades Math Start of Year Collaboration Day
On August 15th, almost 80 middle school math teachers, from 19 middle and K–8 schools, participated in the Middle Grades Math Start of Year Collaboration Day at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Academic Middle School. The focus of the day was on getting to know our students, holistically and mathematically. We did math together, read some thought-provoking pieces of text, and engaged in rich discussion and sense-making, before we broke into our site teams for planning. If other commitments prevented you, or your colleagues, from joining us, we hope you can explore our resources and continue the thinking and learning back at your sites.
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New Teacher Orientation
We were excited to meet many of our new secondary math teachers at the New Teacher Orientation the first week of August. Teachers got together to learn about and explore the SFUSD Math Core Curriculum, to reflect on strategies that support all students to engage in rigorous mathematics, and to do math together as a community! Welcome to our community, and we look forward to collaborating, learning and growing with you in service of our students!
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Thank you for all that you do!
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