CoP Newsletter, Summer 2014 - Volume I, Issue II
In This Issue:
Welcome to the second Math in Common Community of Practice newsletter. These quarterly digests showcase the work happening in the community and up-coming opportunities and events. Feel free to forward and share with your network and districts.
Coming Up
Principal Institute: Long Beach
July 23rd - 24th at CSU Long Beach
We look forward to seeing teams from
Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Long Beach,
Sanger  & Oceanside!
Virtual Learning Opportunities 
Design & Innovation Institute
August 28th and 29th at Stanford
Form a team to join the MiC Design & Innovation breakout community. 
WestEd MQI Training 
July 28-30th OR August 5-7th
Please contact your WestEd support provider for more information.
Are you following Math in Common on Twitter? 

Big shout out to Adela Jones of Sanger and Vicky Armstrong of Dinuba for seeing the incredible value of 'keeping the conversation going' on Twitter. Virtual collaboration is key! 
Follow us on Twitter
Leadership Convening Dates
Keep an eye on the MiC Events page for updates and details
September 29th-30th 2014

Newport Beach Hyatt

 

February 4th- 5th 2015*

Sacramento Library Galleria   

 

April 27th-28th 2015

Retreat at Tenaya Lodge

 

June 18th-19th 2015

Principal Institute UC Davis

 

July 23th-24th 2015

Principal Institute CSULB

 

October 7th-8th 2015*

Bay Area TBD  

 

January 27th-28th 2016

Southern California TBD

 

April 27th - 28th 2016

Sacramento Library Galleria

 

*This date has changed 

Opt-In Leadership Book Talks
 
The Oceanside team, lead by Eric Frandsen and Mandy Bell, participated in a Leadership Book Talk with Senior Partner Laura Schwalm and Nick Resnick. These chats are intended to support the capacity building of Leadership Team members on their journey to full implementation of the CCSS-M. 

Interested in our next book chat? E-mail Nick to register! 
MiC Member Spotlight 
"We're going to roll up our sleeves, we're going to work hard, and we're going to be better prepared [to lead CCSS-M] by the end of tomorrow than we are today."

Jon Yost, Assoc. Superintendent, Curriculum & Instruction, Sanger USD

A strong supporter of the MiC CoP starting with his toast at the first dinner in Oakland, Jon Yost opened our Principal Institute with a call to the principals in the room to embrace the learning opportunity and release the stress of the past year. We are grateful for his invaluable participation and leadership.
WestEd Reference Desk 
Thanks to Lupe Gomez & Santa Ana for posing a research question!
Math Video of the Month
Thanks to JoDee Marcellin from Sanger for tweeting this to us at the Davis Institute

We've gathered all the videos and comics shared in the community - find a silly video or picture in our shared space to spice up your next PD!
Who is Ed Partners?

Your MiC facilitators, Natasha, Laura, Nick and Danya, are all team  members of California Education Partners. Ed Partners is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to seed and grow collaborations between California's school districts. 

Learn more about us and our partnerships at our website:
Feedback
We're always interested in your ideas and experience in the MiC Community.
Please always feel free to email the MiC team with any concerns or requests
CCSS-M Virtual Learning Opportunites
Sign up for our very first district-led learning opportunities 
Oakland: Adults Grappling with Rich Math Tasks


Evaluating Students Level of Expertise with the SMP  
 
 
These short webinars are centered around a MiC-produced video of a promising district practice emerging from an MiC district. The session will feature Q&A time with a representative from the highlighted district and a discussion with other attendees about the implications for work in other districts. Participants will come away with an understanding of how to implement this strategy within the context of their own district.

The purpose of the virtual learning opportunities series is to offer MiC participants an opportunity to learn about an emerging promising practice from a peer district. These sessions showcase the particular practice and provide insight into their implementation, including challenges and strengths.
Have you ordered your free Jo Boaler book? >>

Dr. Boaler isn't sharing her presentation from the May convening, but encourages us to check out her website and MOOC.

Design & Innovation CoP Kick-off
August 28th - 29th at Stanford's Institute of Design

The Design and Innovation Opt-In Team is an opportunity for your education technology leaders to tackle a specific challenge related to instructional technology and implementation of the CCSS-M. In this team, participants will creating and testing a theory of action related to technology and CCSS-M, supported by a group of their peers. 

 

This process will include action research, developing a prototype, and testing a hypothesis. As participants identify and test their challenges, they will also collaborate and support their peers across districts to ensure best practices and common pitfalls are being shared. After participating in this strand of work, your district participants will have developed knowledge, skills and mindset to continue identifying challenges and tackling them through this design thinking cycle. 

 

Our first 2-year cycle will involve ~3 hours per month of individual work or team meetings for each participant. The majority of this process will be done with Nick on the ground with your team in bi-monthly meetings, helping to facilitate the "build, measure, learn" feedback loop, and making the cross-team connections that will  support the community's design and innovation challenges.  

 

The Institute at Stanford on August 28th and 29th is the kick-off event for the D&I CoP. Contact Nick for more information or to register a team.

The D&I work address the MiC Objective D: Technology and Innovation. It is a cornerstone of the cost free opt-in activities that allow districts to engage broadly and deeply in the MiC CoP according to their specific needs and interests.  

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CCSS-Mathematics Resource Exchange 
Check out the top-resquested MiC resources to date!:
The Math in Common Resource Exchange is a place to share resources, with a promise of constructive feedback in return.  When accessing a resource, we ask that you reflect on your purpose of utilizing this resource, and that you five feedback that will assist the "owner" district in iterating on this tool to help further their own work!

Go to the  MiC Resource Page for more, and make sure to post your favorite resources to share while you're there. Is there a resource you remember someone talking about but unsure of the specifics? Contact Nick to help track it down!

The MiC Resource Exchange is a place where CoP members can engage in authentic collaborative creation of tools and resources to support overall CCSS-M implementation for all districts.
Notes From the Road: Elk Grove, "FAST" Feedback Cycle for Classroom Visits
Elk Grove's Leadership Team, led by Cara Kopecki and Geri Keskeys, has been utilizing a "FAST" (Fair, Accurate, Specific, Timely) formative feedback process for their teachers that is helping to transform classroom instruction. To read more about this strategy, click here. 
 
Principal Institute Highlights from Davis
Our first cross-district institute with Math in Common principals, site leaders, and district support staff was a huge success. We had over 150 leaders from Dinuba, Elk Grove, Oceanside, Sacramento City, and Sanger spend two packed days learning together about high leverage actions for CCSS-M leadership from Dr. Tim Kanold.

Highlights:

Watch the Summer Institute Page for exit survey results, photos, and for ways to leverage the work and connections started at the institute.  

 

These institutes are given at the request from our MiC Leadership team to provide an opportunity to share the powerful cross-district learning and MiC resources with their site leaders. This is to help further their work in MiC Objective C: Supporting Teachers through Formative Assessment Practices.

May Leadership Convening Reflection

"I appreciated hearing how the other districts are all grappling with the same things. We are all in this together!" - May MiC Exit Survey

 

In May we:
  • Shared progress on a focal instructional shift 
  • Considered how to make our goals more specific and actionable at the encouragement of Dr. Kanold
  • Had deep and inspiring conversations with some familiar cross-district groups and some new ones
  • And much more!

 Check out this gallery of photos and posters from the event.   

We are looking forward to continuing and growing this momentum over the summer, into the fall, and beyond. 

 

For other takeaways from May and resources, please visit the May Event Page on our online community.

 

As we continue to launch opt-in and targeted collaboration opportunities between meetings, we will use the Leadership Convenings to check-in and consult around our progress toward our MiC and district team goals.

2014-15 District Goal Setting Resources

September's Leadership Convening will kick-off our year-long inquiry around the three developmental goals your team will set for the 2014-15 school year around the MiC CoP objective areas. This framework will allow for powerful learning experiences between districts, both during our leadership meetings and to guide the content and direction of the opt-in strands of work. 

 

We will be supporting you with resources to help facilitate and guide your team's goal setting. These resources include:

  • Your MiC Rubric Ratings from the May Convening
  • WestEd's Evaluation Tool for your district
  • The Goal Setting Template we are asking all teams to use, in order to have a common tool to base our discussions around next year.
  • Guidelines for team composition for the 2014-15 Leadership Convenings 

In order to prepare a rich, collaborative experience around these goals for the CoP in September, we ask that you have a team meeting to set these goals in August. Nick is available to attend these meetings to clarify resources, help collect goal information, and provide any assistance you'd like.  

 

More information about goal setting...

Math in Common Mission
The Math in Common Community of Practice offers the time, tools, and expertise for education leaders to work together, in and across districts, to advance student success in mathematics.

Math in Common Vision
All Math in Common districts are achieving their visions of student success in mathematics.