Desmos Fellows Weekend v2.0

Two years ago, I was a member of cohort 2 of the Desmos Fellowship. On my way home from Fellowship weekend, I wrote a blog post about my experience.

This summer, I was invited to join the cohort 4 weekend as an alumni Desmos Fellow. It was an honor to be asked back and it was again a wonderful experience. As I sit on my flight back to Brookings, I want to highlight my top five takeaways from the weekend. In no particular order…

1. I was reminded that I have a lot to learn about equity, access, and social justice. This past year has been an eye-opener for me. The SDMath/Sci Leadership cohort I was a part of helped me realize that I have a long way to grow. This weekend helped me grow in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I appreciate that Desmos is committed to helping find solutions to these topics.

2. Imposter Syndrome is real. On Friday at 4pm, Fellows weekend officially kicked off with an icebreaker activity. Standing in a large circle, each person had 20 seconds on the clock to introduce themselves and talk about something that they were bringing with them this weekend. Responses varied, but there were many in the room feeling “I’m very nervous about being here … I don’t feel as though I’m good enough to belong here … I can’t believe I’m here … I’m not worthy!” (BTW – nice equity move by Team Desmos by putting 20 seconds on the clock and forcing people to adhere to the time constraint. The very subtle equity piece: if someone was done talking before the 20 seconds had elapsed, we were to stand in silence until the time was up. Not only did the 20 second mandate restrict someone from talking way too long, it also ensured that everyone have an equal voice.)

3. Desmos growth. Not only are there now 40+ more Desmos Fellows, the Desmos Teaching Team continues to grow as well. In the past 12 months, Desmos has hired a half dozen or so former teachers to join their teaching team.

4. It was great to connect with other teachers who are wrestling with the same – for lack of a better word – issues that I am. I had a couple of deep conversations with various Fellows focused on a variety of topics. One such conversation was about standards based grading and the role of homework. I’m planning on implementing a target based grading system this year and still have a few wrinkles to iron out before school begins in August. It’s encouraging to know that I have some people in the Fellowship who I can reach out to who are also implementing SBG.

5. I am extremely excited about the changes happening in mathematics education. The CCSS have been around for nearly a decade. There are pockets of teachers slowly breaking away from traditional methods and embracing inquiry-based, conceptual-based methods. There are research based best practices that support collaboration, equity, student identity, and access available to all teachers. Colleges and universities are starting to worry less about GPA and class rank and more about recruiting students who have learned how to collaborate, to communicate, and to think.

My flight is about over and it is time for me to snap back to reality. On the forefront of my mind is how can my department at BHS help all students become better mathematicians, and in turn, help raise the percentage of students who are “proficient” or better on the Smarter Balanced test.

Mid-credit scene:
Fellow alumni Lauren suggested to us that we write ourselves a letter to help solidify the memory. This is the letter to myself. With that, I'll post a few pictures.