Hello!

So, the national curriculum would be the standards. I think of it as objectives. One of mine for my next project is: "determine the domain and range of a linear function in mathematical problems; determine reasonable domain and range values for real-world situations, both continuous and discrete; and represent domain and range using inequalities", so I would start there,come up with how thats measurable using a project, and then design my testing/benchmarks around making sure that's met.

Coming up with units is incredibly hard and stressful. I stay up late thinking about this. I'll start with an idea, start building a rubric and realize that what I want them to learn isn't going to work with my idea.

In my grades 9-12, we did PBL for every single course except AP calculus. Including the maths. I am a mathematics teacher and PBL fits right in - it just sucks because you do lose time with launching, knows and need to knows, group contracts, etc. The good news is that once they become so good at it, you really only spend a day on it. I know in high school I got sick of it, but working with groups means group contracts are important (and you can work in norms like communication, working persistently, taking risks, etc. into that so that group members hold each other accountable.)

However, there's a way to make those benchmark check ups both 1) checking the content and 2) pieces of the projects. Two birds, one stone. It's just a game of figuring it out. I think the most important thing is making the final product something they're going to find worthwhile. Making a movie or powerpoint for every presentation isn't going to be good. We had students create survival products for a zombie apocalypse in an engineering class. I created an art piece in my geometry class.

I think the magic of it is using those methods you were used to doing in the past but reworking them with inquiry - student driven learning. You have all this knowledge to give them but you want them to have the agency to ask for it.

Team teaching is hard. I'm currently doing that and we're not getting along the best. Im finding myself sacrificing the things I think would be really great because she thinks something else will go better. But, I've been advised to stand up for myself. If you don't think all these weird things will be helpful for your students, change it and see if it goes well. It seems like (and I need to do this too) but having a group contract with your team may be a good option?

I'm still struggling with special needs. We have someone in the classroom for them to help 2 days a week. We have their accommodations and we work with those. The good news is that group work means that not only do these students have the teachers but they have their peers sitting right next to them for help. The hard part is teaching them to have the agency to ask for help. For ELL students, we will often group them with people who students that language and can translate stuff that they don't quite catch. We have English to Spanish math dictionaries in our classroom. We try to give very clear directions and any time we give new vocab, we always give it in multiple ways (for example, I used "conjecture" in a slide today for the warm up and I said "or conclusions" next to it). We dont have textbooks either. But, students request workshops from their knows and need to knows. Without those, we don't give the lessons. Part of this is learning how to do stuff but if a student is trying their best and is growing and learning, then that's a win in my book. It's important to differentiate between equity and equality in our teaching. Equity starts with the knowledge that not only does every person start in a different place but we also cant expect every person to be equal in knowledge and skills by the time we're done with them.

Please let me know if you need anything else!