Mini-Courses

levels of familiarity with MI are welcome, including those who attended the fall 2022 PLT, ALL-ED Meets

Dura-SEL: All Learners Learning Every Day to Build Durable SEL

Marvin Antebi-Gruszka is a former MƒA Master Teacher and is currently pursuing an M.A. in Mental Health Counseling at the City College of New York. He has worked at high-needs schools for 15 years as a science, health, and language instructor and as a student support specialist. Marvin looks forward to continuing his career in education through mental health counseling in schools.

Empowerment Through Reflective Practices

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Katie Francis and Deborah Schaeffer

MONDAYS, FEB 6, FEB 13, FEB 27 ONLINE  INQUIRY, PRACTICE, AND LEADERSHIP

How might we leverage self-reflection to cultivate both teacher and student agency? As teachers, we regularly reflect on our practice, our pedagogy, and our students to create the most vibrant and engaging classrooms. This process can feel daunting and self-critical, but ultimately fosters self-awareness, connection, and resilience. In this mini-course, we offer a fresh and fun way to approach reflection with a series of researchdriven practices. Designed to help us connect with one another, these tools will help us feel seen and heard and reaffirm our goals and values. We will open our first session by practicing mindfulness and creativearts reflection protocols. During session two, we will do a deep dive into interview protocols to strengthen our collaborative relationships. And in our final session, we’ll explore poetry as a tool for reflection and close with a protocol to integrate our learning. Teachers will leave with a renewed sense of vision and purpose and with a toolbox to integrate reflection into their lives and into their classrooms in transformative and meaningful ways. This course is open to all MƒA teachers.

Katie Francis is an MƒA Master Teacher and mathematics teacher at Curtis High School in Staten Island.

Everybody Deserves a Seat at the Table

Facilitator: MƒA Master Teacher Gary Rubinstein

TUESDAYS, APR 25, MAY 9, MAY 23 MƒA

 MATHEMATICS

When we teach topics involving square roots, trigonometry, or logarithms, we take for granted that our calculators have helpful buttons for determining the needed values. Before the invention of calculators, people used tables of values. Developing these tables was a critical endeavor spanning thousands of years and cultures worldwide. In this course, you will learn the elementary mathematics behind these tables. Using just geometry and algebra, teachers will analyze and discover some of the algorithms for constructing these crucial tables. We’ll examine tables for square roots, trig tables, and logarithms. Teachers will also explore and use a physical or virtual slide rule, a 300-year-old mechanical computing device, to demonstrate relationships between different sets of numbers. Teachers will leave with a new understanding of the mathematics behind the famous tables and will be able to include these clever algorithms in their lessons. This course is best for secondary mathematics teachers or anyone interested in the history of mathematical tables.

Gary Rubinstein is an MƒA Master Teacher and mathematics teacher at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan.

Excel Training for Novices and Prospective Data Specialists

Facilitators: MƒA Master Teachers Soni Midha and Dave Richardson

TUESDAYS, APR 18, MAY 2, MAY 16

MƒA

 COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Are you interested in learning about the role of a data specialist or how to use Excel to analyze school data? If so, join us as we start with the basics of Excel and build up to creating various reports for use in our school communities. First, we’ll cover the basics of Excel formulas, including VLOOKUP, SUMPRODUCT, and COUNTIF, and create a master data sheet. Next, we’ll use this master data sheet to understand and uncover bias using the Fergus disproportionality calculator. Finally, we’ll explore pivot tables, which help to sort and filter data in valuable ways. By the end of this minicourse, you will be able to confidently run data reports for your school community, calling attention to existing inequities and significant trends. This course is best suited for folks new to Excel and looking to learn the data specialist role from start to finish.

Soni Midha is an MƒA Master Teacher and mathematics teacher at East Side Community School in Manhattan.

Dave Richardson is an MƒA Master Teacher and mathematics teacher at High School of Economics and Finance in Manhattan.