The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Best practices, tips, and stories to help you be extraordinary in your classroom and beyond, featuring Curriculum Associates' Director of the Educator Community Sari Laberis.
The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Middle School Math Success with Liz Peyser
Get ready to unlock the secrets of making math relatable and engaging for middle schoolers with insights from Liz Peyser, National Director of Content and Implementation at Curriculum Associates. Liz shares her groundbreaking survey findings that reveal how hands-on activities and connecting math topics to students' personal interests can transform the learning experience. Discover how you can incorporate creative techniques like using manipulatives to visualize concepts and record procedures in a way that not only aligns with curriculum standards but also makes math fun and accessible. Liz offers a practical approach to transitioning from rote learning to meaningful understanding, a strategy that has won over educators across the board.
Join us as we dive into the logistics of optimizing classroom setups to foster teamwork and collaboration among students. Liz explains the power of working in pairs and how strategic furniture arrangements can enhance group activities. Gain valuable tips on how to make math lessons more relatable by linking them to students' passions, whether it's through sports, music, or other interests. This episode is packed with practical advice and real-life examples, providing inspiration and actionable steps for educators eager to ignite a love for math in their classrooms.
Hey everyone, it's Sari and it's Haley. Welcome back, haley, so excited to chat with you today and our lovely guest, liz Peyser. So Liz is a National Director of Content and Implementation at Curriculum Associates and you've heard her on the podcast before and we're really excited to bring her in to talk about motivating students, particularly middle school students, in the classroom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Liz did a really wonderful survey where she took 100 students, took some anonymous feedback and got some really great information that she was able to apply to really building out an understanding of math in middle school and how we can make it approachable and more doable for everybody. So really excited to have Liz on our podcast today and we hope you enjoy the episode with Liz.
Speaker 1:Welcome, Liz. We are so glad to have you back on the podcast today.
Speaker 3:Hello, hello everybody, Nice to virtually see you.
Speaker 2:All right, liz, I figured we could kick this off with just an overall look into the incredible survey that you did with your middle school students. So in that survey you talked about the power of hands-on activities and relatable content being these really incredible motivating factors. So we're curious how can math teachers effectively incorporate these elements into their lessons while still covering required curriculum, because it might seem a little daunting.
Speaker 3:I love that question. It's a mind shift. I think we have to think about covering and I'm using air quotes here which nobody can see but when we think about covering, it's a mind shift of it's. Not I'm going to teach them how to do and then they're going to do it a million times. I think that's how we typically think about covering a standard, but shift it to what is the concept. And I want them to understand the concept and I'm covering the standard for the concept. And can I do that with a hands-on activity or can I do that by showing them manipulatives? And I contend the answer is yes.
Speaker 3:I just did this in a conference recently with middle school and high school teachers and we were solving equations and, rather than start with the procedures, subtract four on both sides and then divide both sides by x. We did it. We modeled it first with the manipulatives and we used the hanger method, which is in one of our lessons in seventh grade. Then we recorded the procedures. So we got to the same outcome, but we did it with the manipulatives first and then we recorded the procedures from the manipulatives and overwhelmingly, the teachers felt that they understood the concept better by doing it that way and they came away with wow, I think I could do this with my kids in the classroom.
Speaker 1:That is awesome. Thank you so much for sharing, Liz, Switching gears a bit. I know you mentioned in the blog, which we will link in the show notes for all of our listeners, that middle school students love to work in groups. I think we all. When we all visualize a middle school classroom, you think of either like isolated desks or desks in rows. I'm curious if you can talk a little bit more about what that actually looks like logistically in the classroom and how our listeners can make working in small groups in middle school as impactful as possible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question and I think sometimes you know the furniture dictates what you do in the classroom and so often we have single desks. I was really fortunate to have flat top desks so it was very easy for me to manipulate the furniture from rows to groups and I often did just partners, but sometimes we would do groups of three, sometimes groups of four is a little bit. I found it less productive. I found working with partners was the most productive. So they would just like scoot their chairs over and work in twos and then when it was time to come back together or, you know, come back, not in partners we would just scoot their desks back.
Speaker 2:That's really helpful, liz, especially thinking about your time in the classroom. I would kind of love to to jut off of that a little bit and build on it a little. So with your experience being in the classroom. You also mentioned in your blog this power of making the math topics really relatable to your students, especially in regards to middle school students. I'm wondering do you have any examples of how that was successful in your classroom? You know, maybe you brought in some sports that your students were really interested in, or some specific music topics.
Speaker 3:Probably what I did most often is I talk. I would talk about things that I did, you know, like I had gone camping or I had listened to this music or I had read this book, and a lot of times they would roll their eyes at me and be like miss, that is so uncool. And then they would tell me what, you know, the hot topic was. So it was almost like I would say something and I knew I was doing this. I would say things like to kind of get their their gander up or, you know, to get them to respond, because then they would tell me what they were interested in. So it was kind of like the reverse, you know, so I would just have conversations with them. Or you know, like the reverse, you know, so I would just have conversations with them. Or you know, tell me, you know, what is the TV show that you're like watching now? Or and I guess now it's probably you know, movies or Netflix or something, and so then I would bring them into the conversation.
Speaker 1:That's so great and I think we've talked about this a lot on the podcast. But obviously connection and building trust is crucial for any type of learning and growth to take place in the classroom. Right, teachers have to build that trust in those relationships. Teachers also have a lot on their plates, especially middle school teachers who are teaching. You know 90 plus students. You know schedules are tight and they're following a scope and sequence. Obviously, it's clear the power of connecting with students is so crucial. Liz, how do you think teachers, especially middle school teachers, can figure out how to do this during the day? How did you do it? How do you see it in practice and how can they continue to foster connections throughout the school year when there's just so much other stuff going on?
Speaker 3:Absolutely and I think really just the simple things greeting them at the door, making eye contact and saying hello, how are you today? I mean just all those positive reinforcements, a little tiny things, saying goodbye, greeting like, staying at the door, have a great day. My favorite, my favorite part of the day actually was bus duty. Bus duty was so great. I love doing bus duty because I greeted everybody coming off the bus and I would send them home onto the bus. Wait, you know, like, like, see you tomorrow, have a great afternoon. You know just as little positive things.
Speaker 3:And I think middle school kids, especially middle school kids they come in, they're, you know, kind of surly. They don't want to smile, they look at the ground, they're just like, ah, don't talk to me. But secretly they love it. They want you to talk to them and they're never going to respond like, yeah, have a great day. You know like they're going to mumble or not say anything at all. But everybody loves the positive attention. So even though it feels sometimes it doesn't feel good because you're not getting any reciprocation back, they like just know that they are secretly internalizing the positivity.
Speaker 1:That's so true and those small actions can really go a long way. It reminds me of the episode we recorded, I think, a few months ago, where we really talked about with John Hattie and we really talked about with Professor Hattie listening and being present with your students, and I think what you just described just saying bye or have a great day or good morning and looking at them in the eye, although there's so much going on, just being present and with them and acknowledging them as people can really go a long way.
Speaker 3:I love that. I love that Exactly Yep Every single person acknowledging every single person.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, that's all we have time for today. Liz, Thank you so much as always for providing all of your insights and expertise. We love chatting with you.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Have a great day everybody.
Speaker 2:See you tomorrow. Thank you all so much for listening. We really hope you enjoyed our episode with Liz.
Speaker 1:Before we head out, we just wanted to let you know that our podcast is going on a little hiatus from now until the fall. Thank you so much for being here weekly to listen with us and learn. We really, really appreciate you and we will see you back here in the fall. Get inspired by following us on social media and please tag us in your posts on X at Curriculum Asoce and on Instagram at my Eye Ready. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest or if you want to be a guest, email extraordinaryeducators at cainccom. Please subscribe where you listen to podcasts and if you'd like to help more educators, just like you, join the conversation and please leave a review. Remember, be you be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates, editing by Shane Lowe, social media by Atsiti Hanan, guest booking by Sari Labaris and production by Haley Browning. This podcast is copyrighted. Materials and intellectual property of Curriculum Associates.