PD for teachers

The 6-hour workshop is designed for teachers who are new to or have some experience with standards and standards-based grading, looking to integrate grading practices that align with desired student outcomes, including both content material and the contextual soft skills learned in the classroom. The workshop is open to all educators, regardless of discipline, and will bring together ideas on how various pedagogical structures can be better supported by standards-based grading rather than a more traditional points-based grading system. Participants will be able to compare grading structures and experience a student-centric approach in the first half of the workshop, exploring what grading using standards might look like in the classroom. In the second half of the day, participants will be in a teacher-centric mode, reflecting on their experiences to determine which ideas were most valuable and directly applicable to their classrooms. Time will be set aside for teachers to develop their own standards, with workshop leaders as coaches, so that they can use them in their own classrooms.

This session will explore integrating productive struggle into math in grades 3-8.  We will engage in content tasks, discuss features of effective implementation of productive struggle tasks, and discuss what works in an ideal math class incorporating productive struggle in learning.  Attendees will learn about the value of integrating productive struggle into their lessons and the effective placement of these tasks within a lesson.  Takeaways will include activities and tasks that can be used in the classroom.

This session will explore integrating productive struggle into Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Pre-calculus classes through open-ended collaborative tasks.  Attendees will learn about the value of integrating productive struggle into their lessons and the effective placement of these tasks within a lesson.  Takeaways will include activities and tasks that can be used in the classroom.

In this session we will look at how to engage elementary students in fractional reasoning with attention to creating a positive environment around fractions.  We will look at how to introduce fractional concepts with attention to meaning and visuals before procedures, rules, and symbols.  This session will also serve as a great way to brush up on fraction operations and fraction understanding for the elementary school teacher.

This session will engage participants in learning about using aspects of the Building Thinking Classrooms framework, while integrating preparation for standardized Tests including: the SAT, the ACT, and the NJGPA.  The facilitator will provide resources such as topic-aligned standardized test practice questions, and exploration of how to effectively integrate this prep into an already tightly packed curriculum.

This extended session explores how Math-ics practices—focusing on structure, reasoning, and sense-making—can be used to strengthen students’ problem-solving abilities. Teachers will examine the role of numberless word problems and other abstraction-first strategies that temporarily remove numerical detail so students can focus on relationships, patterns, and the underlying structure of a task. By working through open-ended problems, analyzing student thinking, and discussing approaches that promote perseverance, educators will consider how to design learning experiences that build grit, deepen understanding, and support clear justification of reasoning.

In this four-hour workshop, teachers will engage in a series of hands-on Math-ics activities designed to help students move beyond answer-getting and into genuine mathematical thinking. Together, we will examine numberless word problems, structure-focused prompts, and open-ended tasks that center reasoning and strategic decision-making. Participants will have time to collaborate, test out task variations, and examine classroom examples to understand how these approaches foster persistence, flexible thinking, and strong mathematical communication. By the end of the session, each teacher will leave with a practical, classroom-ready implementation plan outlining how to integrate these strategies into upcoming units, routines, and assessments.