Today, Laura Reeves and I were invited to join the Pre-K, transitional Kindergarten, and special education teachers at Greendell for their staff development day. It was a great experience for me since I've seen many of those teachers in previous workshops and trainings.
The first thing about today was learning where Greendell is. Up until today I had no reason to go onto the Greendell campus since workshops with those teachers were often at the district office and the former portable C. I had driven by the sign indicating Greendell's campus for years but I never knew where it was. What a lovely campus it was! Such a gem in the Palo Alto Unified School District.
Dawn, Greendell's principal invited Laura and I to lead a discussion and training on Number Talks/Dot Talks. It was great to examine the structure of Number Talks, discuss how they connect to the Common Core State Standards, and explore the benefits of Number Talks for students and teachers.
One of the best parts of the workshop was the experience for Greendell's teachers to put the practices into place. It was good to see the teachers practice giving their Dot Talks and also play the role of students explaining their mathematical thinking.
I hope to have the opportunity to partner with the Greendell teachers again really soon.