2024 conference schedule

Building and Facilitating Lessons with Critical Contexts, Nicole Hansen
ROOM: GATEWAY 1

One way to support students in building a positive math identity, agency, and authority is by facilitating lessons with critical contexts. In these lessons, students use math as a tool for making sense of our world and engage with issues of representation, power, and justice. In this session, participants will experience and analyze an Algebra 1 lesson from the Desmos Math curriculum where students model the population change in Detroit over time. Participants will then think and plan together about facilitating lessons with critical contexts in their math classrooms.
Intended Audience: 6-12 classroom teachers, special educators, and interventionists

Using Math Menu in Middle School, Elizabeth Kielty 
ROOM: OSCAR 1

In this presentation, we will explore the what and how that make math menu accessible, equitable, and sustainable within our dynamic classroom systems.  Because mathematics is a social activity, we will address some of the most common challenges that arise when using Math Menu in middle school together. 
Intended Audience: 6-8 classroom teachers, special educators and interventionists

Beyond Practice: Learning Math Concepts by Playing Games, Karen Gartland
ROOM: NORTHSTAR 1

Mathematics games are developed in many forms. This presentation will move beyond how games are often used in classrooms to simply practice previously learned concepts and, instead, will consider a focus on game-playing as an instructional practice for teaching concepts by building mathematical thinking. Participants will engage in playing games primarily for grades 5-8 and discuss the integration of game-playing into main menu routines. Additional topics will include managing routines for game-playing in middle school classrooms, student accountability, and ideas for game variation. 
Intended Audience: 5-8 classroom teachers, special educators and interventionists

Fostering Positive Math Relationships, Dr. Kelly Bitinas
ROOM: NORTHSTAR 2

Are you looking to improve the quality of math instruction in your school district but are afraid of administrative pushback and teacher disengagement?  Learn how one school district in southern Massachusetts collaborated with ALN to help foster positive math relationships for staff and students alike, involving stakeholders from Central Office administration to building-based math coaches. 
Intended Audience: Teacher leaders, coaches, and administrators

A Trauma-Informed Math Classroom, Kerianne Severy
ROOM: OSCAR 3

If all means all, that includes that highly reactive student whom you may or may not know has a trauma history or is currently experiencing trauma at home. We will discuss how to structure your classroom, how to speak to students, and how to address misbehavior in ways that do not escalate and instead make the student feel safe. Math does not innately lend itself to relationship building as well as say English, so we will also discuss how to intentionally build relationships through math class. We will spend time discussing how the ALN Launch and low floor/high ceiling tasks provide inroads with students who fear rejection or judgment.
Intended Audience: PK-12 classroom teachers, interventionists, and special educators 

System Change is a Team Effort, Carly Epstein and David Cohn
ROOM: OSCAR 3

In this workshop participants will learn about the partnership between ALN and Union Street Elementary School (USS) in Springfield, VT, specifically what it takes for impactful system change. What role does each part of the system play in ensuring change? What are actionable steps to building distributed leadership for impactful change? Participants will engage in goal setting and role expectations and learn about the system supports necessary for transforming math classrooms to a place where all students have agency and ownership. Participants will see firsthand how a supported collaborative shift to teaching for understanding impacts students, educators, and schools. Participants will leave this workshop with strategies to support system change in math instruction through distributed leadership as well as tools to support responsive teaching and learning through PLC structures. 
Intended Audience: Teacher leaders, coaches, and administrators

A focused look at strategies to build student engagement through student discourse, Joy Dobson and Brandi Corbett
ROOM: GATEWAY 2

In this presentation, participants will experience math as learners while strengthening their understanding of the importance of student discourse.  Student discourse is integral for all students to access and engage in mathematical concepts.  Participants will learn strategies in a fun and collaborative session while exploring strategies from Connie Hamilton, Peter Leijadal, Teachers Development Group, Jo Boaler, and All Learners Network. 
Intended Audience: PK-8 Classroom teachers, special educators, and interventionists

A Conversation Between a Classroom Teacher and their Coach, Joshua Bunker and Alexa Stewart
ROOM: NORTHSTAR 1

Opportunities to collaborate between coaches and classroom teachers support differentiation and access to grade level learning. In this session, we will build on the work we shared this fall at the ALN Virtual Conference related to using the High Leverage Concepts to Guide Your Coaching Conversations. We will share our experiences throughout the year as we worked to use the HLCs to drive all our coaching conversations and decisions. This presentation will demonstrate how a team can build and plan for appropriate differentiation and small group construction.  It is not mandatory to have attended this fall in order to engage in this workshop. 
Intended Audience: Teacher leaders, coaches, and administrators

Math Reasoning that Supports Mathematical Procedures, Nakasha Kirkland
ROOM: NORTHSTAR 2

The over-reliance on algorithms can create misconceptions that hinder the development of mathematical reasoning. In this session, we will examine flexible approaches to solving equations and proportions that will aid in bridging the chasm between student's numerical reasoning and their algebraic reasoning. Student-ready activities will be shared.
Intended Audience: 6-8 classroom teachers, special educators and interventionists

Outdoor Math for Elementary Learners, Timiny Bergstrom
ROOM: OSCAR 1

This workshop is an introduction to the purpose and value of incorporating outdoor nature experiences into math instruction and routines as well as how to implement these experiences in a manageable way. There will be opportunities to brainstorm, discuss, and troubleshoot problems that can arise during an outdoor classroom experience so that participants feel ready to try some outdoor learning math activities when they return to their classroom. 
Intended Audience: PK- 6 classroom teachers, special educators, and interventionists

High School Math Untracked, Lynne Manley
ROOM: GATEWAY 1

This presentation will share Milton Town School District’s journey using the Plan Do Study Act cycle to move closer to full inclusion in math classes, particularly Algebra I for all in 9th grade. This work includes a belief that all students can achieve at the level of Algebra I mathematics with their peers, strengthening math identity, agency, and authority. We will share where we’ve been and where we are going concerning differentiated math instruction and intervention. 
Intended Audience: 9-12 classroom teachers, special educators, interventionists, teacher leaders, and administrators