Mathematically Connected Communities - Leadership Institute for Teachers (MC2-LIFT)
Description
The MC2-LIFT project is an institute partnership. Four research mathematicians, 4 math education faculty, and several mathematics educators work together to run mathematics, pedagogy, and leadership training for cohorts of K-12 public school teachers from southern New Mexico for a two year period. We are nearing the end of the first cohort and are in the process of picking the second cohort. Besides providing PD in the form of bi-weekly Saturday meetings during the fall and spring semester and a three week institute in the summer, we have work with teachers in their classrooms, helping them implement their learning from our institute in order to produce student-centered instruction designed to produce deep learning.We have learned a lot working with the first cohort. It has taken considerable effort and time to build trust among all participants in order to provide a positive environment for participants to learn and share their learning. Weve not always succeeded in providing quality feedback and have altered our feedback mechanisms, including having them participate in structured peer feedback activities. Our pre-post data are showing us that the teachers content knowledge is improving. While the largest gains are with our primary grade teachers, high school teachers are also showing gains.