How This Curriculum Specialist Brings Math to Life for Students

The concept of being “dangerous at math” or “not a math individual” is deeply entrenched in American training — for college students and lecturers alike.

Nevertheless it doesn’t should be, says Phonisha Hawkins, director of tutorial excellence for secondary math at KIPP Texas Public Colleges, a department of the nationwide KIPP constitution community.

If we encourage lecturers to be extra assured in their very own math skills, Hawkins believes, the subsequent technology of scholars could have stronger abilities and higher confidence in math as nicely.

To do this, although, each college students and lecturers should perceive how math works on the conceptual stage — past memorizing formulation and studying tips for attending to the correct reply.

As a curriculum specialist in Houston, Hawkins combats math nervousness within the classroom by serving to to demystify the ideas for lecturers, and taking the topic off the web page and bringing it to life for college students (sometimes utilizing chocolate chip cookies as a handy studying software).

For Function Name, our sequence the place we function unsung college employees members who assist form the day for youths, we spoke with Hawkins about how her job determines how lecturers train and what college students be taught — and the ripple impact that may have.

The next interview has been flippantly edited and condensed for readability.

EdSurge: How did you get right here? What introduced you to your present position?

Phonisha Hawkins: I began off as a classroom instructor. I taught seventh grade math for 5 years. Whereas I used to be educating seventh grade math, my principal launched me to knowledgeable studying firm for educators, and we attended coaching from that firm to be taught extra about intervention within the classroom.

I started to essentially fall in love with intervention and what meaning for our college students and the way it modified every little thing that I did within the classroom. From there, I went on to be an interventionist. I left and went again to the district that I used to be raised in, which is right here within the Houston space, and I labored as an interventionist for 4 years specializing in sixth grade math.

After I did that, I made a decision that I needed to work extra with lecturers and do extra teaching. So then I grew to become an tutorial coach for a center college, for sixth, seventh and eighth grade. That led me into my position because the district math specialist in my earlier district. I used to be mainly the face of center college math. I used to be put answerable for main the curriculum implementation of high-quality tutorial supplies, so from coaching, calendars, assessments, every little thing. And I did that for 2 years. We started to have visits from different districts who needed to see how we had been implementing the Carnegie Studying curriculum. When KIPP Texas additionally adopted Carnegie Studying, it was a job that nearly, I would not say fell in my lap, however it simply made plenty of sense due to the work that I had been doing for 2 years. So that’s what led me to the place I’m now, at KIPP Texas.

When folks exterior of faculty ask you what you do — as an instance you are at a social occasion with non-education people — how do you describe your work?

I describe myself as a curriculum specialist. I believe that is the easiest way. Folks perceive what a curriculum is, and so they perceive a specialist as being somebody who has experience in that space.

[Beyond that], I might first in all probability describe it as an individual who manages all issues curriculum — so mainly precisely what I used to be doing at my final district. So I describe my position as somebody who authors curriculum [and] writes assessments, and on a bigger scale, you are ready to do this for a whole college district. That comes with coaching lecturers on curriculum finest practices, academic pedagogy, and find out how to ship studying to a various group of scholars.

Training is just not one-size-fits-all. So I additionally work with lecturers on find out how to differentiate curriculum for the particular populations of scholars they’ve of their school rooms. So general, I might simply say I implement, handle and conduct curriculum. I believe folks form of get that, as soon as I describe it that manner.

Are you additionally serving to to pick the curricula for the district?

There are occasions when that does occur. Quite a lot of occasions that occurs above me, particularly once we’re in a proclamation or adoption yr. However typically what they will do is that they’ll enable somebody in my position or within the curriculum division to vet supplies earlier than they’re chosen. So you might have one, two or three corporations that you are looking at and also you then get to vet these. So somebody in my place would have the ability to do these sorts of issues.

What does a tough day appear to be in your job?

In my position, for somebody who loves curriculum as a lot as I do, a tough day can be if you’re making an attempt to do what’s finest on your lecturers or what’s finest for college students, and also you hit roadblocks of pink tape if you’re making an attempt to make these selections. You recognize what must be put in entrance of scholars, what modifications must be made, what pivots have to occur, however you find yourself having to undergo a number of layers of approval to get issues accomplished. And when you’re going via that complete complete course of, you realize that what your lecturers want and what college students want, they might not be getting straight away. I believe these have been my hardest days as a curriculum specialist.

Are you able to say somewhat bit extra about that? Is it usually a roadblock that is a useless finish, or is it a delay?

I might say extra of a delay, like a flight that retains getting pushed again. For instance, with high-quality tutorial supplies, coaching and growth on your lecturers is an absolute should. You can not implement the supplies and never have the degrees and anchors of assist that you just want. So one roadblock that I’ve run into is funding. Like if I wanted to get particular coaching for my lecturers — as a result of I am strolling campuses, I am speaking to principals, I am speaking to tutorial coaches, and all of us could also be figuring out one particular space that we have to prepare our lecturers in.

For instance, conceptual studying. Quite a lot of the academic merchandise have opened up our eyes to actual conceptual studying, not simply procedural math anymore. However plenty of lecturers have solely grown up and realized and skilled below procedural studying. So understanding that, hey, I do want this coaching for our lecturers. I can ship it, however I want the manpower to assist me ship it. And so one roadblock that I’ve run into is a funding concern — a selected vendor saying it’ll value this a lot, and now now we have to undergo all of the nuances of price range approval with a purpose to make that occur. However all of the whereas, the lecturers and the scholars nonetheless aren’t receiving what they want.

So that may be an ideal instance of only a arduous or irritating day for me, understanding what lecturers want and understanding that I am answerable for ensuring that they get that.

With the instance you gave of conceptual studying versus procedural studying, if conceptual studying is a more moderen growth in find out how to train math, how do you find out about these issues so that you just’re geared up to then train and talk that to different lecturers?

The joke that I all the time make is I used to be raised in a unique time in training, though it is solely been 15 years. My first 5 years had been so vital to my growth as an educator. I used to be very blessed as a result of I had a group, I had an tutorial coach, after which I additionally had my assistant principals and my campus principal who actually poured into our studying. There was all the time coaching and growth occurring. And that coaching and growth pushed me to be a greater instructor.

One of many easiest issues that I ever did was — and this got here from one in all my particular training co-teachers — is he stated, ‘Hey, we have to begin determining how our children be taught.’ And so we began giving our college students a studying fashion survey, and it might inform us in the event that they had been tactile, visible or auditory learners, and we’d then scope our curriculum or lesson plans, ensuring that we’re hitting all of these. It helped me to be a extra conceptual learner. The distinction, after all, is that procedural goes to be your step-by-step math.

Among the finest examples I believe that anybody can establish with is dividing fractions. In dividing fractions, you should use ‘preserve, change, flip.’ That is the trick. The conceptual half is, why does that work? Why is dividing by the fraction or multiplying by the reciprocal going to get you an identical factor? And so lecturers will train, ‘preserve, change, flip,’ however they do not inform college students why it really works. So when college students get a phrase drawback or they get one thing that is not like what you have given them earlier than, the educational would not stick.

I used to be very lucky to, like I stated, have leaders who understood instruction, and so they understood what I wanted. Having the chance to go to so many alternative trainings and be taught so many alternative issues from nice academic leaders, I do not see that as usually now as I did 10 to 12 years in the past. It’s a little bit completely different, however I additionally assume that the subsequent half to that’s as a instructor, you must develop higher.

So in case your district or your college might not have the cash to ship you to those trainings, YouTube is ideal. I might go on YouTube quite a bit and simply do plenty of analysis myself to determine what different persons are doing. How are different folks educating this? Quite a lot of occasions the instructor down the hallway is your finest skilled studying useful resource since you each are educating the identical factor, however they’re in all probability educating it another way. You possibly can be taught from different educators in your constructing.

What does a very good day appear to be in your position?

day in my world is me having the ability to stroll right into a classroom, and I hear college students speaking about math. I do not hear or see the instructor on the entrance saying, ‘Copy what I simply wrote down on the board.’ I am truly strolling right into a classroom and I get to see college students utilizing prior information to reach at an answer. They’re having conversations — I prefer to name them math fights. Whether or not they agree or disagree, they’ll speak to one another about what they’re studying.

So lately, we had been doing a fraction division, and I used to be working with one of many lecturers, and I stated, ‘Hey, let’s convey this off the web page for the children somewhat bit. Let’s make the educational actual for them.’ We introduced in chocolate chip cookies so the scholars had been capable of mannequin, like, three divided by three-fifths. They had been capable of mannequin that with the precise cookies, having somewhat plastic butter knife and chopping the cookies up into fifths after which saying, ‘OK, nicely that is three, and that is three.’ Simply watching the scholars be taught conceptually, and never simply utilizing a trick or simply writing down no matter they see of their textbook — that was a very good day for me.

The instructor obtained some nice knowledge on the finish of the day, too, as a result of now we have to do exit tickets. So we’ll do one to 2 questions on the finish of the lesson simply to verify the children obtained it, and in the event that they did not, what can we do to pivot? And that instructor had over 80 % of her college students exceed the mark on an exit ticket. And when she texted me on the finish of the day, she stated it was due to the cookies. They obtained it with the cookies.

For me, that was a very good day as a result of she was completely satisfied along with her knowledge, and the scholars had been studying — they had been consuming cookies as they had been studying. It was day to see curriculum come to life for college students. And you’ll see math nervousness lowering in a classroom like that.

What’s an sudden manner your position shapes the day for youths?

The selections that somebody like me makes instantly impacts scholar achievement. Like we simply talked about with the cookie instance, if I had not steered and confirmed that instructor find out how to mannequin this with cookies, would her exit ticket knowledge have been that prime? If I hadn’t challenged them to know why ‘preserve, change, flip’ works, would her exit ticket knowledge be that prime? And never essentially even the info, however would the children have truly realized what we would have liked them to be taught for that day?

So for somebody in curriculum, our day-to-day selections make all of the distinction in what goes in entrance of children. If now we have an evaluation that we write, and it is two questions too lengthy, then you may have college students who’ve math nervousness as a result of the bell’s about to ring, and so they’re like, ‘I did not end my check. Now I am nervous.’ So each resolution that we make as curriculum specialists impacts lecturers and college students.

What do you want you could possibly change about your college or the tutorial system right this moment?

The largest factor I might like to see is a rise in leaders who’re really making selections for college students. And what I imply by that’s plenty of occasions, as we get additional and farther from the classroom ourselves as lecturers, you’ll be able to start to assume extra concerning the backside line or the greenback versus what you assume is finest for college students. And as you get additional and additional away from the classroom, the larger and larger your position is within the decision-making. So what I might like to see is the system of training, the system of math, be extra targeted on what’s actually finest for college students, not what makes it comfy for us.

I’ve seen plenty of leaders demand excellence from their lecturers, however nobody’s there to carry them accountable as leaders. So if we’re anticipating our lecturers to rise to a particular stage of excellence, we have to do the identical for our tutorial leaders. And I believe, that manner, we are able to make a dent within the system and do what’s finest for college students.

One other one can be instructor efficacy. It is one thing that I’ve studied and researched and checked out by myself. When a instructor comes into the classroom with math nervousness or a dislike for math — and that is truthfully what really occurs — that pours into college students. So now we’re elevating a brand new technology of scholars who nonetheless hate coming to math class. After they come to math class, they’ll say, ‘I am simply anxious. I can not do math.’ And you may hear children say that: ‘I am not a math individual. I can not do that.’ We have to [invest in] our lecturers extra, all of our lecturers — I am very keen on math — however we have to lower scholar math trauma by rising our personal efficacy as lecturers.

Your position doubtless offers you distinctive entry and perception into right this moment’s youth. What’s one factor you have realized about younger folks via your work?

We do not give younger folks sufficient credit score. I hear lecturers say extra occasions than not what the scholars cannot do. However when you allow them to speak, when you truly type a line of communication along with your infants and allow them to speak, they will inform you greater than you assume they know. Academics have to belief their college students extra, particularly math lecturers. They know greater than we give them credit score for. And I believe if we nurture that, we’ll have the ability to see a way more well-rounded scholar.