SESSION 3A (Featured Session, Teacher Leadership)“What’s Ahead for Teacher Leaders?”

– Susan Moore Johnson, Jerome T. Murphy Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Roles for teacher leaders offer great promise for teachers and schools. They can enable accomplished teachers to extend their expertise and influence. They can ensure that novice teachers get crucial support as they launch their career. They can offer personalized coaching to peers seeking to increase their effectiveness. They can serve as a “third eye” in formal evaluations. And they can facilitate teams of teachers, knitting together their separate efforts, reducing their isolation, and increasing the school’s capacity. However, these roles often are difficult to initiate and sustain. In this session, we’ll draw from practice and research to explore the successes, challenges, and possibilities for promoting teacher leadership in schools.

About the Featured Speaker


SESSION 3B (Mathematics Content and Pedagogy): Technology in the Classroom: The perspectives from the University and the High Schools” 

– Joseph R. Fiedler, Professor of Mathematics, California State University, Bakersfield/Director, Cal Poly/CSU Bakersfield Mathematics Project

Co-Speakers: Tim Hansen, Mathematics Teacher, Highland High School
Charles Cummings, Mathematics Teacher, Frontier High School

The CSUB STIR Program was grounded in the CSUB Master of Arts in Teaching Mathematics degree. The eight required courses made heavy use of a variety of Hand-held and Computer technologies including CAS (TI Voyage 200) and Dynamical Geometries (Sketchpad). It was hoped that this pedagogical use of technology would transfer to the High School classroom; in part at least it has. Practicing University and High School faculty will discuss the process and problems involved in making this transition.


SESSION 3C (Models of Support): “Characteristics of Effective Teacher Induction Programs and the Impact of Well-Trained Mentors” 

– Craig McBride, PhD Candidate, University of Arkansas

A look at the common characteristics of some of the most effective new teacher induction programs across the United States. How do these programs lower new teacher attrition rates, and how does a well-trained mentor influence their effectiveness? A look at the most current Schools and Staffing Survey, Teacher Follow-up Survey and Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study data sets will help to explain who leaves, why they leave, and what we can do to get them to stay.


SESSION 3D (Communities of Practice): The Lesson Study Process: How Does It Support a Productive Community of Practice? 

– Carol Cronk, K-12 Mathematics Coordinator, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools

Co-Speaker: Davida Fischman, Professor, California State University, San Bernardino/Director, Inland Counties Mathematics Project

More and more we are unsatisfied by “one-shot” professional development for mathematics teachers, as this has been shown frequently not to be a catalyst of sustained change in classroom instruction. Lesson study, on the other hand, is a form of professional development that is directly connected to classroom practice and provides long term support for change. Teachers and facilitators will discuss why teachers of all experience levels feel lesson study provides an effective way to grow professionally and how lesson study creates productive communities of practice that will, because of teacher desire, exist long after program support is gone.


SESSION 3E (Mathematics Content and Pedagogy): “Open-Ended Assessment of Teacher Content Knowledge: Supporting Teachers in Retention”

– Panel Moderator: Susie W. Hakansson, Executive Director, California Mathematics Project

Panelists: Joanne Rossi Becker, Director, Santa Clara Valley Mathematics Project/Mathematics Faculty, San Jose State University
Chris Ograin, Director, UCSB Mathematics Project/Mathematics Faculty, University of California, Santa Barbara
Doreen Heath Lance, Director, North Bay Mathematics Project
Sharon Ross, Research Associate, Chico Mathematics Project

Professional development programs evaluate change in teachers’ content knowledge in many different way. Assessment items requiring a written solution or explanation are difficult to write and difficult to grade. Each member of the panel will share their methods for designing and scoring assessments to maximize scoring reliability and valid results. In one case, the assessment was over a three-year period.