Sunday, September 17, 2017

Where's Andrew Been? I'll Tell You

Hi everyone,

I've been quiet lately, but there's been a lot happening.

Some upcoming opportunities:
I'm excited to be giving a two-day workshop here in California on October 6-7, 2017 through Grassroots Workshops.
This two-day workshop is near and dear to my heart because it's designed with math teachers in mind. The purpose of the workshop is to strengthen the teaching tools of those who attend so they can go back to their classrooms and:
  • help students strengthen their number sense
  • use student thinking to drive their math instruction
  • use problem-solving as a vehicle for conceptual understanding

I share more in the video below. I really hope you can make it. Bring a friend!
You can register by clicking here.

Grassroots Workshop Promo from Mr.Stadel on Vimeo.

Family (math) Fun:
This summer I've had a blast doing mathy things with my kids. Thanks to Christopher Danielson and John Stevens. Danielson shipped us out some really cool math boxes that included really cool books, puzzles, and wooden tiles for us to play with. Learn more about them here. John Stevens wrote an awesome book, Table Talk Math. Recently, my kids and I have had some fun and low-risk math-type conversation over these sweet placemats he recently made available. Check them out!

My new-ish role:
I'm starting my fourth year as an instructional coach in my district. We coaches will be expected to support teachers in all subject areas. Our work with teachers will be to focus on specific teaching goals and objectives of their choice while in conjunction with their site goal. It's a new challenge for me and I've already learned a great deal from my fellow coaches and the teachers I have worked with.

One part of my new role is to support a small cohort of teachers who are working with 9th grade students in an algebra enrichment type course. The purpose of the course is to provide students with the conceptual understanding and number sense necessary to transition successfully to a full year of Algebra in 10th grade. We've already explored Number Talks, Clothesline Math, and Which One Doesn't Belong. Visual Patterns is on the horizon and we are using a Standards-Based-Grading model with reassessments to provide ongoing support for student.

Maybe you have seen my Clothesline Integer Game. Leave it to the awesome math community to make it better. I recently had the pleasure of meeting up with Geoffrey Dean and he shared his adaptation of the game; students could play in small groups and try and get 5 In A Row. I'll ask him if I can share it on the page above. I took his adaptation and made a desmos version of it.
In the algebra enrichment course, we will also be trying out this desmos activity on multiplying integers using a number line.

My Master's:
I'm pursuing my Master's in Educational Technology.
Talk about adding even more to my workload. Ha!

That's maybe a fifth of what I've been up to lately... but who wants to read more? Ha!
Hope you are doing well and your year is off to a great start.

Role,
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