What does Mrs. PF (Chang) Do All Day Long?

      When members of my own family ask me what it means to be a mathematics specialist, I have to assume that others are wondering the same thing. So, what exactly IS a math specialist/math coach? What do I do all day long? (Hint: it doesn't involve sitting around eating bon bons, but that sure sounds delicious).
       One of the very best things about my job is that it is so varied in nature. No two days look exactly the same; in fact, no two days ever look alike. For a person like me with unreasonably high needs for intellectual stimulation, this comes in handy.
       First and foremost, I work with kids. I've seen the other side of education (you know, the one where you sit in an office in a tall building downtown and have meetings all day) and frankly, it wasn't for me. My very favorite people in the world are kids. Their brains fire at rapid speed and they are never fearful of telling you the truth. They are hysterically funny people, especially when they don't mean to be. So, I spend most of my days working with children...YOUR kiddos. Now is as good a time as any to thank you for entrusting them to my care. We're having a blast.
      How and when do I work with them, you ask? I see every student in grades 1-5 at least once per week. This is accomplished through the magic and majesty of the beloved "push-in" model. Instead of grabbing kids by the handful and taking them to another location to offer remediation or enrichment, I stay right there in the classroom with their teachers. Sometimes I work with children in small groups as part of math centers, and other times I model lessons for them. In other instances, I co-teach lessons with their classroom teachers.
      One of the best parts of my day is offering a Literacy and Mathematics special in the afternoons with the 4th and 5th grade students. Too often we consider math and language to be opposite sides of the spectrum, which couldn't be further from the truth. I'm a big believer in crossing over the curriculum and in making connections between and among curricular areas. Besides, who doesn't love hearing a story read aloud, especially when their is an engaging activity to accompany it?
      Once per week I have the opportunity to meet with teachers during PLT (Professional Learning Team) committees. During these meetings we plan collaboratively, discuss best practices, make data-based curricular decisions, engage in "kid talk," and focus on high-yield instruction.We also laugh a lot, which is wonderful.The staff here at Brassfield share a keen sense of humor.
      When I am not working with students and teachers, I am creating or culling resources for the classroom teachers here at Brassfield. As a proponent of meaningful and purposeful technological integration, I have made it my mission to work with my colleagues to identify and share high-quality, content-embedded websites that support our mathematics learners. Additionally, I like to help teachers create caches of interactive and engaging math "games" that stimulate and educate. The underlying purpose in everything I do is the promotion and perpetuation of number sense and numeracy.
     My extra-curricular activities here at Brassfield include serving on the School Improvement Plan team as a key process data manager, participating in the Math/Media/Tech team, attending Leadership Meetings as needed, offering in-house Professional Development opportunities for staff, and helping with individualized learning plans for students (PEPs, IEPs, etc.).
      There you go, Mom. Now you know... :)

Defending This Crazy New Common Core

What’s the Deal with this Crazy New Math?

Larissa L. Peluso-Fleming, M.Ed.

            I was standing at the bus stop a few weeks back waiting for my fourth grader to return home from school. Several of my neighbors were engaged in a heated discussion about Common Core Math. “This isn’t the math I remember,” said one exasperated father. Another mother replied, “I can’t even help my third grader with her homework because I have no idea what I’m looking at…and I always got good grades in math when I was in school!” Chances are you have overheard a similar conversation or perhaps engaged in one yourself. So what IS the deal with this crazy new math?

            Our world has changed dramatically over the past few years and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Advances in communication, science, technology, and information processing, paired with our ever-changing workplace, demand a shift in the way we do business. Business and industry are increasingly calling for workers who can solve real-world problems quickly and easily, effectively communicate their thinking to others, identify and analyze trends in data, and utilize modern technology flawlessly. Some estimates claim that 90% of the jobs that will dominate the marketplace in just 20 years have not even been created nor even heard of yet. How do we respond to these transformations? How do we prepare our children to compete and thrive in this brave new world?

            The traditional algorithmic approach with which we are all intimately familiar is, unfortunately, riddled with conceptual weaknesses and relies far too heavily on memorized procedures and rules. Our mathematics curriculum has been a mile wide and an inch deep for too long. Adhering to the conventional methods of teaching and learning has been a disservice to our students. Strange and unfamiliar as it may be, the Common Core mathematics curriculum (though certainly not perfect!) aims to transform our time-honored curriculum by making it substantially more focused, coherent, relevant, and rigorous. It follows the natural evolution of mathematical foundations and structures and offers a rich preparation for the rigors of real world issues and challenges facing our future workforce. The Common Core curriculum calls on students to apply their knowledge to novel and complex scenarios that mimic problems they will actually face and be expected to solve down the line. The new curriculum perpetuates the notion that math is sensible, useful, and worthwhile. There is still room for students to focus on computation and arithmetic; however, these skills must be paired with analysis, rich understanding, improved decision making, and the ability to communicate effectively and efficiently about math.

            So, how can you help? What can you do to support your child when he or she comes home with an assignment that looks like Greek to you? How should you respond when your child tells you that the answer is less important than the process? Try asking questions such as “why,” “how do you know,” “can you explain,” and “does this always work?” Not only will you be bolstering your child’s ability to communicate, but by engaging in these conversations you are offering your child the opportunity to explain and defend his logic. You can rest easy knowing that your student is well on her way to becoming the perfect candidate for her dream job years down the road. Perhaps against our will, the world is changing; we must work together collaboratively to embrace and prepare our Brassfield students for what is to come.

            Should you have any questions or concerns, I welcome hearing from you! Please e-mail me at lpeluso-fleming@wcpss.net. 

Contact Infomation

Comments? Questions? Concerns?

Please feel free to contact me. I can be reached at lpeluso-fleming@wcpss.net or here at Brassfield Elementary School by phone at 919-870-4080. Feeling retro? Fax me at 919-676-5022.