Summer Workshop Plans

Prime-Team Summer Workshop Agenda

In summer 1999, we had four workshops, each lasting one week.

How many teachers do you involve in your workshops?

About 65

What are your major goals for your workshops in terms of content and pedagogy? (Just one or two paragraphs)

The major goals for our workshops are to provide professional development in two major areas-curriculum reform and local educational change. Curriculum reform is interpreted broadly to include mathematical content, student learning, pedagogy, and assessment. Local educational change refers to issues related to implementing systemic change at the level of individual schools. These issues include working with colleagues, administrators, counselors, school boards, and parents; mechanisms for scheduling and enrollment; articulation with middle schools and colleges; and strategies for effective collaborative reflection and establishment of local professional development communities.

In summer 1999 there were four one-week workshops, one on each of the first three courses of the Core-Plus high school mathematics curriculum. Each workshop focused on the first four units of a given course (out of seven plus a capstone unit). By working through only four units, more time was available for the necessary work with content, pedagogy, assessment, and other implementation issues. Each workshop day lasted 8 hours with 1 hour of "homework" each night. The workshops were led by experienced Core-Plus teachers and the project directors. Team teaching in this way proved to be effective, and it provided a good balance of theory and practice, big ideas and nuts & bolts. During the summer workshops, teachers alternated between learning the curriculum much as their students will learn it, and reflecting upon that experience in terms of content, curriculum, student learning, pedagogy, and assessment.

With respect to the goal of school-based leadership and educational change that runs throughout the project, during the summer workshops there were several afternoon sessions focused on working with colleagues, administrators, counselors, and parents, mechanisms for scheduling and enrollment, articulation with middle schools and colleges, strategies for establishment of local professional development communities, and strategies for local evaluation efforts.

Are you offering professional development on specific curricula that you are hoping will be used in the classroom? If so, which curricula are you using?

Yes. We are focusing on the high school curriculum developed by the Core-Plus Mathematics Project.