Jamie Bernath, Ashwaubenon, WI jbernath@ashwaubenonk12.org
I feel blessed to be a part of the pilot for CPM’s new 8th grade support course, Inspirations & Ideas. I have been teaching middle school math for 19 years and have attended workshops and in-services on number talks, how to motivate the unmotivated, trauma sensitive approaches, growth mindset, and the importance of building relationships. But often times these things seem like an “extra” that we need to fit into our current curriculum. Inspirations & Ideas is the first curriculum I have seen that takes in all the best practices of teaching and makes them part of the curriculum. For instance, every day starts with a launch, such as a Number Talk, Which One Doesn’t Belong?, or another thought-provoking question. This gets my students talking and thinking. In particular, Number Talks help my students hear new methods for solving math mentally, which builds their math “tool box.” I have had students run to their Core Connections, Course 3 math teacher so excited to share with them their new strategy!
In the past when I have worked with intervention students, the programs were always built on the idea that “these students” need math taught through direct instruction and lots of routine practice. CPM has a totally different philosophy! My students are creating their own data through hands-on and highly-motivating activities. One of my favorite activities was a bean bag toss. They tossed a bean bag at a target placed at different distances, and measured how far away each bag landed from the target. Then they graphed the data to look for relationships. CPM also uses Desmos Activity Builder to make lessons engaging. In Stacking Pennies, students look for trend lines and learn about association with their own data. This class is full of conversations and hands-on authentic learning. What student wouldn’t be motivated to learn math in this environment?
In addition, CPM has built-in lessons and activities about growth mindset, personal narratives, and building relationships with students. This is so wonderful because it is what all teachers should be doing, and it is designed into the daily activities. At the end of each unit, students are given a high interest task to work on while the teacher takes the time to conference with each student one-on-one. During this time, I get to bond with my students, ask about their grades and talk about things they are excited about. Teaching is not only about the math but about building relationships.
All of my students are considered Tier 3 intervention students, and each has made huge gains in their learning and confidence of math. My students have had an average increase on their STAR scores of 117 points in only seven months! I had a parent tell my principal that her son loves his “extra” math class, which is so amazing to me. The eighth grade teachers that teach my students in their CC3 class report seeing a huge confidence increase with my students in their classes. I credit much of this to CPM’s Inspirations & Ideas curriculum. My students and I are so blessed to have been part of this pilot and will forever be changed because of it.
For more information about CPM’s support course, Inspirations & Ideas, visit cpmstg.wpengine.com/iandi
