Inside USBE > Departments and Programs > Teaching and Learning > Academic Areas and Supporting Programs > Mathematics > Professional Learning
These professional learning opportunities are supported through the Utah State Board of Education:
The Utah State Board of Education is pleased to offer you the opportunity to participate in the STEM Institute for Administrators. Information regarding sessions are found on the Utah State Board of Education STEM website.
SMECC is a group of district mathematics coordinators, university professors, and charter school representatives in Utah who meet three to four times per year for statewide collaboration, professional development, and discussion of mathematics issues. Participation is limited to those in mathematics leadership positions in Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) and the SMECC mailing list is the primary means of disseminating current information.
Utah State Board of Education Massively Integrated Data Analytics System (MIDAS) Education
All trainings are hybrid (in-person at the Utah State Board of Education and Virtual on Zoom). All Informal follow-ups will be Virtual only.
Asset-Based Learning
Time: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Virtual informal follow-up will be October 27, 2022 from 9 a.m. - 10 a.m.
Instruction and Intervention
Time: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Virtual informal follow-up will be January 26, 2023 from 9 a.m. - 10 a.m.
Assessment and Feedback
Time: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Virtual informal follow-up will be March 23, 2023 from 9 a.m. - 10 a.m.
Professional Learning
Time: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Virtual informal follow-up will May 25, 2023 from 9 a.m. - 10 a.m.
Molly Basham at molly.basham@schools.utah.gov
Early Learning Mathematics Specialist
Trish French at trish.french@schools.utah.gov
Elementary Mathematics (K-5) Education Specialist
Lindsey Henderson at lindsey.henderson@schools.utah.gov
Secondary Mathematics Specialist
Essential information about book studies:
2020-2021 Book Study Application
Google Docs
Humanizing Disability in Mathematics Education: Forging New Paths
This book is about enhancing the practices of mathematics teachers by extending the concepts of access, equity, and empowerment to include students living with all types of disabilities. These students are rarely thought of as mathematics doers and thinkers, and so are seldom offered opportunities to engage in mathematics in meaningful and connected ways. Humanizing Disability examines the current mindset and pedagogy that students with different learning needs encounter, and then offers strategies and practices to humanize the mathematics experience for these students.
Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers
From the moment we enter school as children, we are made to feel as if our brains are fixed entities, capable of learning certain things and not others, influenced exclusively by genetics. This notion follows us into adulthood, where we tend to simply accept these established beliefs about our skillsets (example: that we don’t have a math brain or that we aren’t the creative type). These damaging—and as new science has revealed, false—assumptions have influenced all of us at some time, affecting our confidence and willingness to try new things and limiting our choices, and, ultimately, our futures.
Mathematics Instruction and Tasks in a PLC at Work
Improve your students' comprehension and perseverance in mathematical practices. This user-friendly book is divided into two parts, each covering a key team action for mathematics instruction in a Professional Learning Community (PLC) at Work™. First you'll examine high-quality research-affirmed math lesson design elements. Then you'll learn how to implement them within your math lesson routines and activities. The book features team discussion tools, sample math lesson designs, strategies for improving student discourse of mathematical concepts, online resources for instructional support, and more.
Open Middle Math: Problems That Unlock Student Thinking, 6-12
Imagine that you assign a math problem and your students, instead of getting discouraged after not solving it on the first attempt, start working harder—as if on a quest to figure out the answer. They talk to each other and enthusiastically share their discoveries. What could possibly make this fantastic scenario come true? The answer is: the Open Middle math problems and strategies in this book.
The Impact of Identity in K-8 Mathematics: Rethinking Equity-Based Practices
This book invites K-8 teachers to reflect on their own and their students’ multiple identities. Rich possibilities for learning result when teachers draw on these identities to offer high-quality, equity-based teaching to all students. Reflecting on identity and re-envisioning learning and teaching through this lens especially benefits students who have been marginalized by race, class, ethnicity, or gender. The authors encourage teachers to reframe instruction by using five equity-based mathematics teaching practices:
Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All
Continuing its tradition of mathematics education leadership, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has defined and described the principles and actions, including specific teaching practices, that are essential for a high-quality mathematics education for all students.
Putting Essential Understanding of Expressions and Equations Into Practice in Grades 6-8
When students move from the elementary to the middle grades, they progress from arithmetic to algebra, shifting their attention from known, specific quantities to unknown, often generalized ones. To succeed in this transition—and to develop a robust foundation for the idea of a function—students must develop a rich understanding of the meaning of a variable, an expression, and an equation.
Putting Essential Understanding of Functions into Practice in Grades 9-12
Do your students think that the vertical line test is indispensable and foolproof for determining whether a relationship is a function? Do they believe that every function can be modeled by an equation? Do they interpret the graph of a function as the function itself? What tasks can you offer—what questions can you ask—to determine what they know or don’t know—and move them forward in their thinking?
Teaching Math at a Distance, Grades K-12: A Practical Guide to Rich Remote Instruction
When distance learning is the new normal, educators know that rich remote math teaching involves more than direct instruction and endless practice problems. This powerful guide translates what we know about research-based, equitable, rigorous face-to-face mathematics instruction into an online venue and equips math teachers to:
Essential Information about the Mini-Mathematics Professional Learning Opportunities:
Learner-Centered Formative Assessments in Mathematics
Social Emotional Learning in the Math Classroom
Fostering Social Emotional Learning in the Mathematics Classroom (K-12)
Registration - Social Emotional Learning In The Mathematics Classroom
Google Docs
Learner-Centered Formative Assessments in Mathematics (K-12)
Registration - Learner-Centered Formative Assessments
Google Docs