State Mathematics Education Coordinating Committee (SMECC)

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

Current Trainings

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.

Questions

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

Professional Learning Courses

Book Studies

Essential information about book studies:

• A digital copy of the book is provided as long as the recipient commits to reflecting (via Canvas) after every chapter and then submitting an artifact that was influenced by the content that was learned in the book study.
• Participants can earn 1.0 Utah State Board of Education (USBE) Credit Hours per completed book study.
• Registration and coursework is flexible—you can register any time and learn at your own pace up until August 30, 2021.

Registration

2020-2021 Book Study Application
Google Docs

Book Titles Available

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:

• Going deep with mathematics
• Leveraging multiple mathematical competencies
• Affirming mathematics learners’ identities
• Challenging spaces of marginality
• Drawing on multiple resources of knowledge

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:

• Build students’ agency, identity, and strong math communities
• Promote mathematical thinking, collaboration, and discourse
• Incorporate rich mathematics tasks and assign meaningful homework and practice
• Assess mathematics learning from a distance

Mini-Mathematics Professional Learning Opportunities

Essential Information about the Mini-Mathematics Professional Learning Opportunities:

• Registration and coursework is flexible—you can register any time and learn at your own pace up until August 30, 2021.
• Participants can earn 0.5 USBE Credit Hours per completed Mini-Math Professional Learning and should expect to commit somewhere between 4-7 hours to complete (can be done over several days).
• Courses are asynchronous (in Canvas) and self-paced but require active participant reflection including the submission of an artifact that was created as a result o f content that was learned in the course.

Flyers

Learner-Centered Formative Assessments in Mathematics

Social Emotional Learning in the Math Classroom

Available Courses

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

Professional Organizations