Differentiated Coaching for Educators

"I plan. I go over the teacher guide carefully."
"Why plan? The students are totally unpredictable."
"Planning lets me know when to deviate from a plan."
"Who has time to plan? Besides, I've taught this before."

To plan or not to plan. Personality type theory, on which differentiated coaching is based, holds that some people are naturally inclined to plan their work or work their plan--known as "Judging" types, not because they are judgmental but because they like to come to judgments, or closure.

Perceiving types on the other hand like to stay open to perceptions--a plan can get in the way of spontaneous discoveries and conversations that can enrich learning. Both are equally important stances toward the classroom. Teachers naturally lean one way or the other--they have a preference, but all of us learn skills that help us shift to meet the needs of our students. (more…)

"I don't get it." How many seconds do your students spend thinking about a problem before you hear those words? So many think that "Fast equals smart." Therefore, if can't instantly come up with a plan of attack, students think they need to ask for outside help. As I work with teachers to instill the truth that, "Smart is what you get when you work hard," we have to develop perseverance as a habit of mind.

To this end, we've a rubric students will use to evaluate their work on rich problems. (more…)

Frequently, I lead mathematics teachers through a problem from the wonderful site, www.nrich.maths.org, designed to help students develop mathematical conversations skills and value cooperative work. The problem asked participants to solve equations such as 19*24; 227 + 198; 57.6/2; 101*16*4, and so on, and then work as a group to agree on the most efficient method for each problem. For the first one, teachers often use the standard algorithm for multiplication. However, some will multiply 20*24 and subtract 24. Much faster. THEN the rest of the teachers immerse themselves in finding elegant ways to do the rest of the problems. They begin playing with the numbers. My favorite method is changing the last problem to 101 * (2 to the 6th power). The teacher who came up with it said, "It's really not a fast way but I can't recall the last time I was so engaged with an arithmetic problem!" (more…)