MIAA 350 Reflection 2 for 5th Grade Re: Having a math specialist at the fifth grade level One

of the greatest parts about this year, besides the state adopting Common Core Standards, is the fact that I get to teach math all morning. All 3 of the 5th grade classes at Tully Knoles Elementary School get to rotate through my class every morning for 70-80 minute blocks of time. I cannot even begin to tell you how positive of an experience this has been for not only myself, but for the 96 fifth graders involved in this rotation as well. Early into the summer of 2013, I, being a political junkie was reading up on Common Core and was realizing that there was a very strong chance that the CSTs would not happen in 2014, and that Common Core would be adopted in the middle of the year. I contacted my 5th grade teacher team, and suggested that in order to better learn and practice the common core standards during this transition year, we should just pick one subject to teach, and teach it to all the students during a rotation. My team was definitely on board, so one of them took Language Arts (taught through Science), the other took Language Arts (taught through History), and I took Math. Dont get me wrong, I love literature, science, and history, but I was in the math club in high school. I did drive around in a car with a bumper sticker saying Id rather be deriving f(x). What I am trying to say is that I was ecstatic to primarily be teaching the subject that I most enjoy. So I dove into the curriculum. I studied vertical articulation of the common core standards before our bosses made it a requirement. I paced out the Common Core curriculum standards early July mornings while most teachers were sleeping in. I read articles about math and studied curriculum packets that other states had made based on the Common Core Standards. I became a learner. For the first time in my teaching career, I was actually doing what I dreamed the profession was about before I entered it.Before deadlines, pacing guides, district-bought curriculum, and CSTs killed my dream. It was a lot of work to get music scheduled appropriately, and to get our boss on board, but we did it. It was a lot of work to learn and the breadth and depth of the subjects we chose, but we are

doing it. It is not quantity on our plates, it is quality. The more I learn about the common core standards the more I believe that it is a very difficult set of standards to master and learn well, and I truly believe we are doing the right thing at TCK by dividing and conquering. Not only do I get to study and learn the curriculum, because I dont have to plan for other subjects, I also get to study and learn more mathematically about the students then I ever have in the past. I have 96 students, but I know each ones mathematical history, strengths, and challenges more so this year then any other because I am math minded. Originally we divided the subjects so we wouldnt have to work so hard, and while I believe we always have been working smarter, we have taken ownership of our subjects and because of this, we are actually working harder then ever before. For the first time, I have pride in what I am teaching, and I study it endlessly because I have finally realized that professional growth should be a continuous aspect of my profession. It should come because you want and need to learn more, not because it is a requirement. Far too many math teachers do not have a good understanding of the content they teach. One way to avoid this lack of knowledge poorly affecting the children, is to not have them teach math.