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 must be, says Phonisha Hawkins, director of educational 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 talents, Hawkins believes, the subsequent era of scholars may have stronger expertise and higher confidence in math as effectively.
To do this, although, each college students and lecturers should perceive how math works on the conceptual degree — past memorizing formulation and studying methods for attending to the best 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 students (sometimes utilizing chocolate chip cookies as a handy studying software).
For Position Name, our sequence the place we characteristic unsung college employees members who assist form the day for teenagers, 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.
Title: Phonisha Hawkins
Age: 42
Location: Houston, Texas
Title: Director of Educational Excellence for Secondary Math
Present age group: Grades 6-8
Years within the area: 15
EdSurge: How did you get right here? What introduced you to your present position?
Phonisha Hawkins: I began off as a classroom trainer. 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 actually 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 turned an educational 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 principally the face of center college math. I used to be put in command of main the curriculum implementation of high-quality educational 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 task that nearly, I would not say fell in my lap, however it simply made quite a lot 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 college ask you what you do — as an instance you are at a social occasion with non-education of us — how do you describe your work?
I describe myself as a curriculum specialist. I feel that is one of the best ways. Individuals perceive what a curriculum is, they usually perceive a specialist as being somebody who has experience in that space.
[Beyond that], I might first most likely 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 in a position to do this for a whole college district. That comes with coaching lecturers on curriculum finest practices, instructional pedagogy, and the right way to ship studying to a various group of scholars.
Training is just not one-size-fits-all. So I additionally work with lecturers on the right way to differentiate curriculum for the particular populations of scholars they’ve of their school rooms. So total, I might simply say I implement, handle and conduct curriculum. I feel folks form of get that, as soon as I describe it that approach.
Are you additionally serving to to pick out the curricula for the district?
There are occasions when that does occur. A number of instances that occurs above me, particularly once we’re in a proclamation or adoption 12 months. 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 could 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 be capable of do these sorts of issues.
What does a tough day appear like in your job?
In my position, for somebody who loves curriculum as a lot as I do, a tough day can be whenever you’re making an attempt to do what’s finest in your lecturers or what’s finest for college students, and also you hit roadblocks of pink tape whenever you’re making an attempt to make these selections. You realize what must be put in entrance of scholars, what adjustments should 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 by way of that complete total course of, you already know that what your lecturers want and what college students want, they might not be getting immediately. I feel these have been my hardest days as a curriculum specialist.
Are you able to say a little bit bit extra about that? Is it typically 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 educational supplies, coaching and growth in your lecturers is an absolute should. You can not implement the supplies and never have the degrees and anchors of help 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 practice our lecturers in.
For instance, conceptual studying. A number of the academic merchandise have opened up our eyes to actual conceptual studying, not simply procedural math anymore. However quite a lot 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 problem — a specific vendor saying it may value this a lot, and now we’ve to undergo all of the nuances of funds approval as a way 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, understanding what lecturers want and understanding that I am chargeable 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 the right way to train math, how do you study 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 crucial to my growth as an educator. I used to be very blessed as a result of I had a workforce, 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 all the time coaching and growth occurring. And that coaching and growth pushed me to be a greater trainer.
One of many easiest issues that I ever did was — and this got here from one in every of my particular training co-teachers — is he stated, ‘Hey, we have to begin determining how our youngsters be taught.’ And so we began giving our college students a studying type survey, and it will inform us in the event that they had been tactile, visible or auditory learners, and we might 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.
Probably the greatest examples I feel that anybody can determine with is dividing fractions. In dividing fractions, you should utilize ‘hold, 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, ‘hold, 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, they usually understood what I wanted. Having the chance to go to so many alternative trainings and be taught so many alternative issues from nice instructional leaders, I do not see that as typically now as I did 10 to 12 years in the past. It’s a little bit completely different, however I additionally suppose that the subsequent half to that’s as a trainer, it’s important to develop higher.
So in case your district or your college could not have the cash to ship you to those trainings, YouTube is ideal. I might go on YouTube rather a lot and simply do quite a lot of analysis myself to determine what different persons are doing. How are different folks educating this? A number of instances the trainer down the hallway is your finest skilled studying useful resource since you each are educating the identical factor, however they’re most likely educating it another way. You’ll be able to be taught from different educators in your constructing.
What does a very good day appear like in your position?
A great day in my world is me with the ability to stroll right into a classroom, and I hear college students speaking about math. I do not hear or see the trainer 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 prefer to name them math fights. Whether or not they agree or disagree, they’ll discuss to one another about what they’re studying.
So not too long ago, we had been doing a fraction division, and I used to be working with one of many lecturers, and I stated, ‘Hey, let’s carry this off the web page for the children a little bit 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 a little bit plastic butter knife and chopping the cookies up into fifths after which saying, ‘OK, effectively 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 trainer bought some nice knowledge on the finish of the day, too, as a result of we’ve to do exit tickets. So we’ll do one to 2 questions on the finish of the lesson simply to verify the children bought it, and in the event that they did not, what can we do to pivot? And that trainer 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 bought it with the cookies.
For me, that was a very good day as a result of she was glad 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 anxiousness reducing in a classroom like that.
What’s an sudden approach your position shapes the day for teenagers?
The selections that somebody like me makes straight impacts pupil achievement. Like we simply talked about with the cookie instance, if I had not instructed and confirmed that trainer the right way to mannequin this with cookies, would her exit ticket knowledge have been that top? If I hadn’t challenged them to grasp why ‘hold, change, flip’ works, would her exit ticket knowledge be that top? And never essentially even the information, however would the children have really realized what we wanted 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 youngsters. If we’ve 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, they usually’re like, ‘I did not end my check. Now I am nervous.’ So each determination that we make as curriculum specialists impacts lecturers and college students.
What do you would like you may change about your college or the academic system at this time?
The most important 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 quite a lot of instances, as we get additional and farther from the classroom ourselves as lecturers, you’ll be able to start to suppose extra concerning the backside line or the greenback versus what you suppose is finest for college students. 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 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 snug for us.
I’ve seen quite a lot 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 degree of excellence, we have to do the identical for our tutorial leaders. And I feel, that approach, we will make a dent within the system and do what’s finest for college students.
One other one can be trainer efficacy. It is one thing that I’ve studied and researched and checked out alone. When a trainer comes into the classroom with math anxiousness 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 era of scholars who nonetheless hate coming to math class. After they come to math class, they’ll say, ‘I am simply anxious. I am unable to do math.’ And you will hear youngsters say that: ‘I am not a math individual. I am unable to do that.’ We have to [invest in] our lecturers extra, all of our lecturers — I am very a fan of math — however we have to lower pupil math trauma by rising our personal efficacy as lecturers.
Your position probably offers you distinctive entry and perception into at this time’s youth. What’s one factor you have realized about younger folks by way of 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 in case you allow them to discuss, in case you really type a line of communication along with your infants and allow them to discuss, they will inform you greater than you suppose they know. Lecturers 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 pupil.
