How This Curriculum Specialist Brings Math to Life for College students

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

However it doesn’t need to be, says Phonisha Hawkins, director of educational excellence for secondary math at KIPP Texas Public Faculties, a department of the nationwide KIPP constitution community.

If we encourage lecturers to be extra assured in their very own math talents, Hawkins believes, the following era of scholars may have stronger expertise and higher confidence in math as nicely.

To try 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 fitting reply.

As a curriculum specialist in Houston, Hawkins combats math anxiousness 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 kids (sometimes utilizing chocolate chip cookies as a handy studying device).

For Function Name, our sequence the place we characteristic unsung faculty workers members who assist form the day for teenagers, we spoke with Hawkins about how her job determines how lecturers educate and what college students study — and the ripple impact that may have.

The next interview has been calmly 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 study extra about intervention within the classroom.

I started to essentially fall in love with intervention and what which means for our college students and the way it modified every 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 wished to work extra with lecturers and do extra teaching. So then I turned an educational coach for a center faculty, 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 principally the face of center faculty math. I used to be put in control of main the curriculum implementation of high-quality educational supplies, so from coaching, calendars, assessments, every thing. And I did that for 2 years. We started to have visits from different districts who wished 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, nevertheless it simply made numerous 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 outdoors of faculty ask you what you do — for 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 feel that is the easiest way. Individuals perceive what a curriculum is, and so they perceive a specialist as being somebody who has experience in that space.

[Beyond that], I’d first in all probability describe it as an individual who manages all issues curriculum — so principally 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 try this for a complete faculty district. That comes with coaching lecturers on curriculum greatest practices, academic pedagogy, and ship studying to a various group of scholars.

Schooling shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. So I additionally work with lecturers on differentiate curriculum for the particular populations of scholars they’ve of their lecture rooms. So total, I’d simply say I implement, handle and conduct curriculum. I feel folks form of get that, as soon as I describe it that manner.

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

There are occasions when that does occur. A whole lot of instances that occurs above me, particularly after we’re in a proclamation or adoption yr. However typically what they’re going to 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 firms that you are looking at and also you then get to vet these. So somebody in my place would be capable of do these sorts of issues.

What does a tough day seem like 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 greatest on your lecturers or what’s greatest for college kids, and also you hit roadblocks of purple tape if you’re making an attempt to make these selections. You recognize what must be put in entrance of scholars, what modifications should be made, what pivots have to occur, however you find yourself having to undergo a number of layers of approval to get issues carried out. And when you’re going via that entire total course of, you understand that what your lecturers want and what college students want, they will not be getting straight away. I feel these have been my hardest days as a curriculum specialist.

Are you able to say a bit of bit extra about that? Is it typically a roadblock that is a lifeless finish, or is it a delay?

I’d say extra of a delay, like a flight that retains getting pushed again. For instance, with high-quality educational supplies, coaching and growth on your lecturers is an absolute should. You can’t 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 educational 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. A whole lot of the academic merchandise have opened up our eyes to actual conceptual studying, not simply procedural math anymore. However numerous lecturers have solely grown up and discovered and educated beneath 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 challenge — a selected vendor saying it may value this a lot, and now we have now to undergo all of the nuances of funds approval with the intention 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 onerous or irritating day for me, figuring out what lecturers want and figuring out 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 newer growth in educate math, how do you study these issues so that you just’re geared up to then educate and talk that to different lecturers?

The joke that I at all times 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 staff, I had an educational coach, after which I additionally had my assistant principals and my campus principal who actually poured into our studying. There was at all times 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 among my particular training co-teachers — is he stated, ‘Hey, we have to begin determining how our children study.’ And so we began giving our college students a studying model 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, in fact, is that procedural goes to be your step-by-step math.

Top-of-the-line examples I feel that anybody can determine with is dividing fractions. In dividing fractions, you need to use ‘maintain, 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 a similar factor? And so lecturers will educate, ‘maintain, change, flip,’ however they do not inform college students why it really works. So when college students get a phrase downside or they get one thing that is not like what you’ve got 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 various trainings and study so many various issues from nice academic leaders, I do not see that as typically now as I did 10 to 12 years in the past. It’s a little bit totally different, however I additionally suppose that the following half to that’s as a instructor, it’s important to develop higher.

So in case your district or your faculty might not have the cash to ship you to those trainings, YouTube is ideal. I’d go on YouTube quite a bit and simply do numerous analysis myself to determine what different individuals are doing. How are different folks educating this? A whole lot of instances the instructor down the hallway is your greatest skilled studying useful resource since you each are educating the identical factor, however they’re in all probability educating it another way. You’ll be able to study from different educators in your constructing.

What does a extremely good day seem like in your position?

A very good 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 really strolling right into a classroom and I get to see college students utilizing prior data to reach at an answer. They’re having conversations — I wish to name them math fights. Whether or not they agree or disagree, they will discuss 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 a bit of bit. Let’s make the educational actual for them.’ We introduced in chocolate chip cookies so the scholars had been in a position to mannequin, like, three divided by three-fifths. They had been in a position to mannequin that with the precise cookies, having a bit of 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 study conceptually, and never simply utilizing a trick or simply writing down no matter they see of their textbook — that was a extremely good day for me.

The instructor obtained some nice knowledge on the finish of the day, too, as a result of we have now to do exit tickets. So we’ll do one to 2 questions on the finish of the lesson simply to ensure the children obtained it, and in the event that they did not, what can we do to pivot? And that instructor had over 80 p.c 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 extremely good day as a result of she was comfortable together with her knowledge, and the scholars had been studying — they had been consuming cookies as they had been studying. It was a very good day to see curriculum come to life for college kids. And you’ll see math anxiousness lowering in a classroom like that.

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

The choices that somebody like me makes straight impacts scholar achievement. Like we simply talked about with the cookie instance, if I had not urged and confirmed that instructor mannequin this with cookies, would her exit ticket knowledge have been that prime? If I hadn’t challenged them to grasp why ‘maintain, change, flip’ works, would her exit ticket knowledge be that prime? And never essentially even the info, however would the children have really discovered what we would have liked them to study 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 we have now an evaluation that we write, and it is two questions too lengthy, then you might have college students who’ve math anxiousness as a result of the bell’s about to ring, and so they’re like, ‘I did not end my take a look at. Now I am nervous.’ So each choice that we make as curriculum specialists impacts lecturers and college students.

What do you would like you can change about your faculty or the academic system at the moment?

The most important factor I’d like to see is a rise in leaders who’re actually making selections for college kids. And what I imply by that’s numerous instances, as we get additional and farther from the classroom ourselves as lecturers, you possibly can start to suppose extra concerning the backside line or the greenback versus what you suppose is greatest for college kids. And as you get additional and additional away from the classroom, the larger and greater your position is within the decision-making. So what I’d like to see is the system of training, the system of math, be extra targeted on what’s actually greatest for college kids, not what makes it comfy for us.

I’ve seen numerous 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 selected stage of excellence, we have to do the identical for our educational leaders. And I feel, that manner, we are able to make a dent within the system and do what’s greatest for college kids.

One other one can be instructor efficacy. It is one thing that I’ve studied and researched and checked out alone. When a instructor comes into the classroom with math anxiousness or a dislike for math — and that is truthfully what actually occurs — that pours into college students. So now we’re elevating a brand new era 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 will hear youngsters 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 seemingly provides you distinctive entry and perception into at the moment’s youth. What’s one factor you’ve got discovered about younger folks via your work?

We do not give younger folks sufficient credit score. I hear lecturers say extra instances than not what the scholars cannot do. However for those who allow them to discuss, for those who really type a line of communication together with your infants and allow them to discuss, they’re going to let you know greater than you suppose 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 feel if we nurture that, we’ll be capable of see a way more well-rounded scholar.