Services

Professional learning should be joyful too! The PL experiences described on this page can take shape as a 2-hour introductory session, a half day or whole day workshop, a multi-day institute, or ongoing school-year support. I welcome your collaboration in designing these PL experiences to meet your goals.

  • Through PL experiences, participants learn to harness the power of AI to improve the essential practice of lesson planning, moving well beyond the generic lesson sketches that AI tools typically produce on their own. Using general-purpose AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, teachers can design comprehensive lessons that are responsive, rigorous, and attuned to their students. What's key is providing the AI with the right information — using a planning template with six categories, each filled in by the teacher before the AI generates anything. Participants then get guidance in improving the lesson through dialogue with the AI, until it's a lesson they're confident teaching.

     

    AI-assisted lesson planning can be combined with professional learning addressing a specific pedagogical focus. Each workshop below pairs the planning framework with a topic that sharpens what teachers bring to the process — because the tool is only as good as the thinking behind it.

     Designing Tasks That Actually Work

    Where in this lesson would a student have something genuine to figure out?

     

    Guided Discovery in Practice

    How do you balance teacher guidance with student exploration — and how does that balance shift depending on the topic?

     

    Mathematical Argumentation in the Classroom

    Would a student need to argue in this lesson, or just explain? What would need to change to make argumentation necessary?

     

    Making Mathematics Accessible to Every Student

    Is this language revision changing the access point, or quietly changing the mathematics?

     

    AI Literacy for Math Teachers

    What kinds of knowledge can current AI tools draw on? What kinds can only come from the teacher?

     

  • Mathematical argumentation — students constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others — is central to many current state standards. To support students in arguing mathematically, teachers need a clear framework for the classroom, a repertoire of teaching moves that encourage it, and rich tasks that foster it — all grounded in a deep understanding of what mathematical argumentation actually is.

    I offer PL experiences in which participants learn how to build a classroom culture where students reason out loud, justify their thinking, and engage with each other's ideas. Teachers learn instructional routines organized around four phases — Generating Cases, Conjecturing, Justifying, and Concluding. Teachers engage in tasks rich for argumentation, which can then be used in their classrooms. Questioning strategies are emphasized. Methods to encourage equitable classroom argumentation are discussed and tested. In longer workshops, participants engage in Visualization Planning in pairs, understanding the mathematics deeply and anticipating teacher and student moves.

  • Making — designing and building real objects for a purpose — is a powerful but underused context for mathematics learning. Making creates authentic contexts for learning and using math and draws on students’ strengths that may not typically show up in math class. My colleagues and I have designed the MPACT curriculum units (grades 4–7, Creative Commons license, free to use and adapt) as complete resources for teaching math through making.

    PL on math-through-making (half day) introduces teachers to the MPACT curriculum and to the broader principles of making as a context for mathematics learning. In longer, multi-day workshops, teachers learn to make the projects in the units and how to support students in making. Techniques for drawing out the math are discussed and practiced, including the content-focused handouts that are included in the units.  Making as a tool for equity is emphasized. Teachers learn to use everyday craft and recycled materials, along with an inexpensive (around $200), easy-to-use 3D printer.

    Research on the MPACT curriculum, developed at TERC with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, showed significant learning gains for students on an assessment of  geometry, measurement, spatial reasoning, and computational thinking.

     Visit TERC’s MPACT Dissemination Hub for more information and to download the curriculum.

  • Sometimes the right curriculum doesn't exist yet — or the one you have needs work. I design new curriculum and strengthen existing materials, working collaboratively with teachers and curriculum leaders. Services include:

    • Simplifying complex mathematical language without reducing cognitive demand

    •  Designing units for topics not covered by existing curriculum

    • Creating more realistic, culturally relevant problem contexts

    • Developing lessons that incorporate age-appropriate use of AI

    • Supplementing or adapting existing HQIM for specific student populations