In a world that is full of instantaneous responses via “commenting” on Facebook, “retweeting” on Twitter and “liking on Instagram, how might we as educators take time to slow down and measure the impact we are having on students?   How might we cross over district lines to collaborate and innovate? In what ways might we interrupt our thinking to meet the needs of all learners?

Michigan Math Educators (#MichME) is a professional learning network with over 250 educators from across eight different counties who continue to investigate, learn, and grapple with those questions. We focus this year’s learning on the impact that our identity, values, beliefs, capabilities, behaviors, and skills, have on our students’ identities, values, beliefs, capabilities, behaviors and skills.

#MichME meets at Celebration Cinema’s Wave Room in the morning as a collective 250+ education team. Our professional learning network has met three different mornings so far this school year and has dedicated time and space to working collectively toward conceptual change. “Conceptual change happens when people make their current beliefs explicit, subject them to scrutiny from themselves and others, consider how new information either fits or challenges their existing beliefs, and then make permanent changes to what they know and do (Dack & Katz, p. 7, 2013).”     We are utilizing John Hattie, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey’s text Visible Learning for Mathematics, as our anchor, as we engage in learning, dialogue and discussion around equity, equality, identity and positioning.  

The morning allows for individuals to reflect upon their individual journeys to becoming an educator, as well as, how their identity, values and beliefs as an educator evolved.   In addition to individual reflection and learning, we take opportunities to expand our professional learning network and cross district lines collaborating with other participants from different schools, districts and counties to broaden our perspectives and interrupt our current thinking and patterns of behavior.  

The Structure of Learning

The structure for our days of learning is broken into three distinct parts. 

In the morning we meet as a collective group. We spend our mornings analyzing our identity, values, beliefs, capabilities and behaviors to allow the time, space and energy for adaptive change, which is something that might not yet be best “liked, retweeted or commented upon” in 140 characters or less on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, but will have an everlasting impact on the lives of our students.  

In the afternoon there is time and space for district teams to meet and then individuals have options to choose, for more focused sessions.  This year’s afternoon session are focused on: feedback, questioning, social justice in mathematics education, problem strings, mathematics communities that include families, fractions, creating a collaborative learning environment and leveraging visual mathematics for algebraic thinking.

After a morning and afternoon of learning and collaboration, participants are invited to commit to a permanent change. “Learning is a permanent change in thinking or behavior (Dack & Katz, p. 3, 2013).”   This intention is part of an implementation guide that the network utilizes to capture evidence and impact on student learning. The implementation guides capture the participant’s intention, evidence and reflection.   Afternoon breakout sessions utilize the evidence to discuss patterns, trends and next instructional steps for professional learning. Evidence varies from participant to participant but has included videos, student journals showcasing thinking and pictures of opportunities for students to share their thinking.

Continuing To Grow

As a network, we know and value that professional learning does not solely take place on the five days that we have the opportunity to meet as a collective team. It continues to grow and be illuminated in classrooms, buildings, and districts in between our time with one another.   We not only believe that we can make a difference and have a positive impact on students, but we are collecting and analyzing evidence to measure our impact and to intentionally plan next instructional steps. In between our five scheduled days of learning, we continue to challenge ourselves and interrupt patterns of thinking by participating in extended learning opportunities through videotape reflection, as well as, participating in cross district learning labs. 

Join the Network

To learn more about #MichME and the impact it is having on professional learning in West Michigan follow #MichME on Twitter and make plans to join us for the 2019-2020 school year.  

This blog post was written by Kent ISD’s Math Team

• Rusty Anderson rustyanderson@kentisd.org
• Marcus Deja  marcusdeja@kentisd.org
• Andrew Smith andrewjsmith@kentisd.org         

References:
Dack, L., & Katz, S. (2013). Intentional interruption (pp. 3-7). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Hattie, J., Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2017). Visible learning for Mathematics. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.