Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had: Summer Book Study!
Are you already thinking about changes you want to make next year yet? Are you looking for some summer PD or a teacher book study that you can participate in with a group of eager, supportive teacher friends? Well, I've got some plans for just that and I want to invite you along!
This summer, I'm super excited to be hosting a book study of Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms by Tracy Zager with my friend Brittany from Mix and Math.
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In my last post, I invited you to join us in our a private facebook group exclusively for upper elementary math teachers! If you missed that post, head there to read all about our vision for our Upper Elementary Math Community and find out how to join us!
One of my favorite parts of summer is daydreaming about the improvements I want to make in my classroom for the upcoming year. I love reading new professional books and imagining good things for the year to come! It also energizes me to add a little something new to my year and my repertoire.
What better way to get energized for the upcoming year than to do a book study with your online math teacher friends?! We decided a book study would be a great way for us to learn together, get to know each other as teachers, and step into being the best math educators we can be (a big part of our mission in the Upper Elementary Math Teachers Facebook group!).
In just a few short weeks, we will open the doors to our Upper Elementary Math TeachersFacebook group and begin reading Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms by Tracy Zager together!
This book comes highly recommended by Brittany and when I saw the table of contents, I knew it was JUST THE BOOK for a summer focused on becoming the best math teachers we can be.
Here's an overview of the chapter titles so you can see EXACTLY what I mean:
Ch 1: Breaking the Cycle
Ch 2: What do Mathematicians Do?
Ch 3: Mathematicians Take Risks
Ch 4: Mathematicians Make Mistakes
Ch 5: Mathematicians are Precise
Ch 6: Mathematicians Rise to a Challenge
Ch 7: Mathematicians Ask Questions
Ch 8: Mathematicians Connect Ideas
Ch 9: Mathematicians Use Intuition
Ch 10: Mathematicians Reason
Ch 11: Mathematicians Prove
Ch 12: Mathematicians Work Together and Alone
Ch 13: "Favorable Conditions" for all Math Students
I love that "what mathematicians do" creates the structure of this book. We have these discussions so often in reading, writing, and science, but I know for myself, I have rarely spent a ton of time discussing "what mathematicians do" in a conscious way with my students.
The TITLE itself is another aspect of this book that gets me super excited. So many of us were educated during a time when "math teaching" was quite different from how we aspire to teach math for today's students.
Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had will challenge our math thinking and help us bridge the gap between the math experiences we likely had as students and the math experiences we want to give our own students. This book will leave you inspired, encouraged, motivated, and ready to get back in the classroom (well, after your well-deserved summer break of course!) and help provide you with ideas to give your students the amazing math experiences they desperately need!
Brittany and I believe we will all walk away from this book study with practical teaching strategies to empower our next group of mathematicians! Best of all, the Facebook group provides us a safe space where we can ask questions, share ideas, and learn from a community of math-minded, growth-focused teachers. (YES! yes!)
Are you ready to get in on the math fun?!
Here's how you can learn and participate with us!
Purchase Becoming Math! If you are ready to go all in with us on this book study, start by purchasing Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had by Tracy Zager.
Request to join the Upper Elem Math community! Brittany and I will host most of our book study discussions in our private Upper Elementary Math Teachers Facebook group, so be sure you have requested to join. On May 18th, the OFFICIAL LAUNCH DAY, we will open up the group and throw a little virtual par-tay to celebrate (can you tell we are so excited about this?!).
Read, Watch, and Discuss! In the Facebook group, Brittany and I will do LIVE discussions on the chapters of the book we are studying together! You can watch us chat and discuss right along with us.
You can also just be a lurker! This means you can hang out, watch our live chats, read the discussions had by other teachers, and learn by just being in the group! While we LOVE active participation, we also know that we have been in a number of Facebook groups where just being a part of the community and reading the conversations others have has taught us so much.
Follow along on the blog! I won't commit to writing about EVERY chapter--because you know how summer goes--but I am sure that studying this book will spark many math topics I want to talk about and share on the blog!
Subscribe to my emails so you won't miss any notes, freebies, or reminders about our book study plans.
Just so you know, Brittany and I will set a pace with our book study, but we also believe that the discussions will be beneficial for ERRRYONE even if you haven't had time to read the chapters. (I'm a SLLLLOOOOOWWWW reader and am a bit concerned about my ability to get through this book based on our schedule, but I'm going to prioritize my reading so that I can give you my best!) PLEASE still join us if you are also worried that you won't be able to keep up! There's room for ALL of us and you will still be able to learn from the concepts through our discussions!
We want this to be a time of learning, fun, and community with other math teachers!
Don't forget to grab your copy of Becoming Math. You can find it on Amazon or check out Stenhouse Publishers where I was able to grab it for a few dollars cheaper in early April.
Pin this post so that other passionate math educators can get in on the fun!
We hope that a study of Becoming Math will leave you inspired, encouraged, motivated, and ready to get back in the classroom (well, after your well-deserved summer break of course!) and give your students the amazing math experiences they desperately need! I know you will walk away from reading this book with practical teaching strategies to empower your next group of little mathematicians! We hope you decide to join us!