MfA Summer Think: a great experience to Dive Deep

I've had the wonderful privilege of attending the first ever Math for America Summer Think conference and had such a great time learning and connecting with other professionals over the past three days. I collaborated with numerous other teachers who all have the same issues that I'm having in order to improve our own practice. Specifically, we took a look at how to scaffold assignments to make sure that they are accessible to a wide range of students. The key questions we asked were:

• How do we scaffold without giving away answers?
• How do we meet the needs of struggling and excelling students?

I found both of these questions really interesting because I hope that whatever I am doing is meeting my students where they are in order to bring them to where I want them to be. Unfortunately, sometimes there is not enough time during the school year to consider this fully and I am glad to have taken some time over the summer to do so.

One of the bigger questions for myself was the idea of transparency of the scaffolds. If you think about real scaffolding it is easily seen from nearby and afar. In the case of our classrooms that would mean students know who is getting what assistance, which can lead to a stigma problem. I wondered if there was a way to emphasize growth mindset deeply enough that it wouldn't matter in the end and students would cheer each other on for making choices right for them. That is obviously a longer question to answer.

Nevertheless, I came away with some great ideas and specific modifications to make for my assignment I brought as well as how I can prepare augmentations to give to specific students in need.