$5 - $10 Staff Other (Math) Resources

Are you an instructional coach or administrator seeking innovative ways to deliver a professional development session on enhancing student engagement in math? This customizable professional development (PD) template is an excellent starting point for guiding teachers on how to incorporate engaging, hands-on activities into their math instruction using their current curriculum. The template is fully editable, allowing you to personalize it with details specific to your curriculum, school environment, and even add photos or videos to further customize the experience.

Session Overview:

1. Experiencing Engagement from a Student’s Perspective: To kick off the session, teachers will participate in a variety of math activities within small groups, experiencing the learning process from a student’s point of view. These activities will range from traditional worksheets to more interactive and game-based approaches. Afterward, participants will reflect on their experiences and compare which method fostered higher engagement. By directly experiencing different learning strategies, teachers will gain a clearer understanding of what truly engages students and promotes deeper understanding.
2. Cognitive Engagement Quadrant Model: Following the activity, the Cognitive Engagement Quadrant Model (with a visual guide included) will be introduced to help teachers analyze the relationship between student participation and the level of cognitive demand. The model highlights four types of engagement:

• High participation with high-order thinking
• High participation with low-order thinking
• Low participation with high-order thinking
• Low participation with low-order thinking

Teachers will use this framework to reflect on their current practices and discover how to balance participation and critical thinking in their classrooms.

1. Multimedia Examples of Engaging Math Activities: To inspire creative approaches, the session includes a variety of video and picture examples showcasing real-world classroom scenarios where students are actively engaged in math lessons. Teachers will observe examples of hands-on learning, math games, and other dynamic activities that align with core math skills and concepts. These examples will serve as a practical resource for educators looking to transform their instruction.
2. Math Rotation Ideas & Engagement Strategies: Teachers will explore different strategies to maintain student interest and participation during math instruction, including rotation stations and game-based learning. These ideas are designed to provide teachers with concrete methods for incorporating student-centered activities into their lessons. By rotating through activities, students remain engaged while reinforcing their understanding of key math concepts in a collaborative and interactive setting.
3. Collaborative Problem-Solving Game: As part of the session, teachers will participate in a group-based algebra game that challenges them to solve an algebraic expression together. This hands-on game fosters teamwork, problem-solving, and engagement—skills that can easily be adapted to their own classrooms to make math more interactive and enjoyable for students.
4. Group Reflection and Anchor Chart Creation: At the conclusion of the PD, teachers will come together to collaborate on creating an anchor chart summarizing the key engagement strategies and takeaways from the session. This chart will serve as a reference for implementing these ideas in the classroom, and can also be shared with other staff members to extend the impact of the professional development across the school.

Research-Backed Approach: Engaging students through hands-on, interactive learning has been proven to enhance academic achievement. A study in a low-income elementary school found that students exposed to 12 weeks of hands-on learning experiences significantly outperformed their peers in classrooms using traditional textbook-based instruction (Guthrie et al., 2006). This PD leverages these insights to promote engaging, active learning environments that make a lasting impact on student performance.

**Customizable and Flexible:**This PD template is completely editable, giving you the flexibility to adapt it to your school’s specific curriculum and instructional goals. Whether you need to add school-specific materials, customize the activities, or include photos of your own classrooms in action, this template provides the framework to create a professional development session tailored to your teachers' needs.
By the end of the session, teachers will leave equipped with practical strategies to engage students, increase participation, and foster a deeper understanding of math concepts—all while making learning fun and meaningful for their students.

The topics and what is included:

• 24 pages of editable Google Slides. 
• An activity to show teachers the levels of engagement with different math activities. 
• Videos and pictures showing differing examples of engaging students during math. 
• An engaging math game to play with staff. 
• Engagement strategies that transfer to the classroom.

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Please e-mail me with any questions or concerns @ heather.schrage@gmail.com

The Mathematics Proficiencies were embedded into the curriculum to connect the Nouns (content) and Verbs (mathematical skills) together.

The proficiencies of Understanding, Fluency, Problem Solving and Reasoning are fundamental to learning mathematics and working mathematically and are applied across all three strands Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability.

With this resources, I have created an introduction to the four proficiencies. I have demonstrated how you can connect the proficiency statements/verbs to the mathematics curriculum. It is an easy way for you and your students to understand the skill you want them to develop, through the example questions provided. This resources will help your students develop their understanding of the proficiencies and the content at the same time!

What's Included:

• Understanding

- 3 Understanding proficiency statements

- 3 Example questions and answer slides

- 1 Blank Slide

• Fluency

- 3 Fluency proficiency statements

- 3 Example questions and answer slides

- 1 Blank Slide

• Problem Solving

- 3 Problem Solving proficiency statements

- 3 Example questions and answer slides

- 1 Blank Slide

• Reasoning

- 3 Reasoning proficiency statements

- 3 Example questions and answer slides

- 1 Blank Slide

This resource is best used in combination with my Maths Proficiency Goals

Maths Proficiency Posters