This last week I had the privilege of being a facilitator for several different groups of teachers who were interested in increasing their mathematics content knowledge and exploring effective mathematics instructional practices. One of these opportunities was as a facilitator for the Building Mathematics Leadership (BML) Across Oregon training workshops. These workshops were held in Ashland, Salem and a third one is scheduled for the Pendleton area next week. This series of workshops is co-sponsored by Oregon Department of Education and Oregon Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ Professional Development Cadre. There will be two more of the BML series of workshops in February and March. The BML link above includes registration information. Saturday found me in the Education Building at Portland State University teaching the final face-to-face session for a PrISM Oregon course called Deepening Algebraic Reasoning in the Elementary Classroom.
In both the BML and PSU PrISM sessions a question came up about how to better promote mathematical problem solving in schools. (more…)