December 18, 2024 • 15 mins
In this episode of Practical Access, hosts Lisa Dieker and Rebecca Hines welcome Dr. Sarah Bush, Lockheed Martin Eminent Scholar at the University of Central Florida and co-author of The Math Pact series. The conversation dives into strategies for making math education engaging for all students, including those with disabilities.
Dr. Bush discusses the synergy between high-leverage practices (HLPs), mathematics, and effective teaching practices (ETPs), emphasizing the importance of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in both general and special education. She advocates for asset-based approaches to teaching, highlighting the need to leverage students’ strengths and avoid harmful deficit labels.
Key insights include:
- Avoiding Deficit Labels: Shift focuses to students’ strengths and build on them to support areas of growth.
- Value in Math Education: Replace rigid teaching rules with flexible, meaningful practices, like emphasizing the true meaning of the equal sign and avoiding ineffective keyword strategies in problem-solving.
- Creating Positive Math Experiences: Teachers should cultivate an open, contextual approach to math, encouraging engagement and reducing negative associations. Dr. Bush stresses the importance of never framing oneself as “not a math person” in front of students.
Dr. Bush also reflects on what makes an inclusive math classroom truly exceptional—empowered, confident teachers who foster a caring and nurturing environment, set high expectations, and provide tools for students to succeed.
This episode is packed with practical strategies for educators looking to create inclusive, effective math classrooms that inspire confidence and success in all learners.
We love to hear from our listeners! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. We look forward to receiving your questions on our Twitter (@Accesspractical) or Instagram (@Practical_Access).
Resources:
Sarah Bush's Bio: https://ccie.ucf.edu/person/sarah-bush/
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics: https://www.nctm.org/
Math Pact Series: https://www.corwin.com/landing-pages/the-math-pact?srsltid=AfmBOorx3GL6RwftuSyi3uY6dwF96tn9h_QvrDpPNwoNrO9Da0RpG366
NCTM and CEC Position Statement on Teaching Mathematics to Students with Disabilities: https://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Standards_and_Positions/Position_Statements/NCTM-CEC-Disabilities-Position-Statement-December2024.pdf
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:00):
Music.
Lisa Dieker (00:07):
Welcome to Practical Access. I'm Lisa
Dieker
Rebecca Hines (00:10):
AND I'm Rebecca Hines and Lisa. I'm excited
about today's guest in partbecause of their commitment to
STEM skill acquisition for allstudents, but also, you know,
just a career committed topreparing teachers with skills
that can support all students.
Who do we have?
Lisa Dieker (00:31):
Yeah, so we're really excited to have a really
good friend of both of ours anda colleague, Sarah Bush, who is
a professor and the LockheedMartin Eminent Scholar at the
University of Central Florida,and the author with Karen Karp,
we had earlier on a book calledThe Math Pact. That's a series,
and we'll be highlighting someof that. But welcome Sarah.
We're so excited to have youwith us.
Sarah Bush (00:52):
Thank you both so much for having me, and I'm just
so excited to spend just alittle bit of time with two of
my favorite people.
Lisa Dieker (00:59):
Well, with that, I'm going to kick it up with the
first question. And I think oneof the things, Sarah, that
you've always done so well, andI I really appreciate, is you're
an advocate for just kids. Itdoesn't matter if it's special
ed or general ed. Can you talkto us just a little bit about
this high leverage practicemovement, and kind of the
differentiation for kids withdisabilities, and kind of your
(01:20):
world of how you see NCTM, HLT,HLPs, and special ed and that
world kind of merging in thework that you do?
Sarah Bush (01:30):
Sure. Thanks so much, Lisa. Um, you know, when I
think about the high leveragepractices, you know, and I know
we've even had some pastdoctoral students focus on those
that we've worked on together,you know, I really don't see
them. I see them fittingseamlessly with much of the work
put out by the National Councilof Teachers of Mathematics, in
(01:50):
particular, when I think aboutthe high leverage practices, and
then I think about NCTMs eightmathematics teaching practices
which are also high leveragepractices, you know, I think the
thing they have in common isthat, you know, they're both
essential. You know, everypractice in there is essential.
And, you know, I was even kindof reviewing the high leverage
(02:11):
practices document, and theysaid something in there that I
really loved, which was thatthey are so important that
skillfully executing them isfundamental to effective
teaching. And I feel that wayabout both sets. And to me, your
good teaching practice is goodteaching practice. And so much
(02:32):
of what's effective in thespecial ed literature, you know,
around UDL and other things,absolutely we should be leaning
to in our general educationcontent areas, you know, those
of us who focus on that as well.
So I just see them assynergistic. And, you know,
really fitting together very
Rebecca Hines (02:54):
You know, Sarah, I love what you're saying here,
nicely.
because across my career, what Isee and when I'm preparing
teachers, doing professionaldevelopment, you know, with
teachers in schools, etc, isthat I think sometimes we lose
sight of the fact that there'ssometimes just one point
(03:15):
difference between whether astudent is labeled as a student
with disabilities. And yet, Ithink that's what resonates, you
know, to some people, especiallyI found in the area of, you
know, math, to be honest, youknow, we have this idea of
what's appropriate for a certaintypes of kids. So in your
(03:37):
professional work, what? Whatare some of the basic premises
that you try to explain toteachers about this idea of
supporting every learner youknow with their own individual
abilities?
Sarah Bush (03:51):
You know, you brought up something I think is
so important. And I think itgoes back to the idea that you
know, historically, we haveassigned labels to students and
many of the and I'm not talkingabout a student formally labeled
as having IEP, but just ingeneral, we use these deficit
(04:12):
labels often to describe groupsof students. These are, you
know, and they're, they arelabels that carry such long term
negative effects that, you know,we actually talk about this in
NCTMs Catalyzing Change series,which I was the lead writer of
the middle school volume, and wetalk about no longer using
deficit labels to describestudents. And you know, what you
(04:36):
mentioned isn't exactly the samething, but one thing that I
think we you know, that's soimportant for us all to shift
to, is really focusing onstudents strengths, and how we
can take the strengths thatindividual students bring, which
are very individualized, theirstrengths and their life
experiences and all all thepieces of their backgrounds, and
(04:59):
really leverage those as entrypoints to build up their areas
of growth. All of our learnershave areas of growth. And, you
know, another thing I thinkabout all the time that should
just apply to all learners iswhen we think about the idea of
scaffolding, you know, we, youknow, the whole purpose of
scaffolding. You two are theexperts of this. But it's, you
know, when I think about it avery general sense, but it's
(05:21):
removing barriers to learning,but not removing the learning
opportunity, and not diminishingthe cognitive demand of the
learning opportunity, but rathermaking that opportunity fully
accessible for each learner. Andto me, that applies to all
learners, whether they arelabeled as a student receiving
special education services ornot?
Lisa Dieker (05:42):
Oh, I love that. I love the asset based and I love
Sarah Bush (05:47):
I love that.
Lisa Dieker (05:48):
Yeah, it's such a simple change, but I think it's
Sarah that I have a school thatthat's actually they're not
a big change. I think that'swhat what your work is. And so
allowed to use kids namesanymore labels. They have to use
I'm going to ask you about twodifferent pieces of work,
kids names, and they have tostart with the strength before
because, you know, I've alwaysadored everything you've written
they talk about a deficit. So ifthey're.
and followed your work, andyou're thinking, because I just
really think it's from a mathmindset of access and equity.
(06:10):
And the other teachers you know,should really think about that
if they if they read your work.
And so one of the things that Iknow you have a math pact that I
would love to hear about that,because I know it so asset
based. But I'm also going to goretro a little bit on the 13
rules that never expire, orthat, oh, that do expire, that
that I find it's one of myfavorites. It's a 2014,
(06:34):
publication. I know it's free,downloadable. I name that. You
know, it's got lots of things,but I'm always curious, like
when you're out in schools andimagine I'm a new special ed
teacher and you come and watchme. I'm sure you don't take your
checklist of 13 things to checkthem off, but I'm wondering,
what are like the most commonmistakes as a field we tend to
(06:57):
make that maybe we should bethinking about and how maybe the
Math Pact could help us move tothat next level?
Sarah Bush (07:07):
Yeah, you know, when I think, you know, 10,000 foot
view on this, you know, I wehave just, you know, we have,
from our own past mistakes asKaren and Barb and I and as well
as working with, you know,hundreds of teachers across so
many different states anddistricts and schools and at the
state level. You know, we know Imean a near infinite number of
(07:30):
rules that expire, that peoplehave now shared with us, but
there are a few that are veryuniversal and really span the
grade bands that I would maybeuse as a good launching point.
And the two that come to mind isthe idea of the equal sign is
one big one, because so oftenstudents think that when you
(07:54):
have something as simple as twoplus three equals, they tend to
think that that equal signrepresents the like, here comes
the answer, instead of the ideaof equality. And we really need
to, you know, that's why it's soimportant to to have different
(08:15):
structures of our equations,even in like, the first grade,
when students are firstintroduced, to the equal sign
and the notion of that becausewe want to build flexibility in
that thinking, and because theproblem is, as soon as we get to
two plus three equals somemystery number, a variable plus,
you know, one, they don't knowwhat to do with that, and all of
(08:36):
their thinking falls apart. Soone of the rules that expire is
really the idea that peoplemight say two plus two makes
four, don't do that. That's ano, no. You just need to use
equal and from the start, focuson what the meaning of the equal
sign is. Think about the equalsign as a balance, you know,
build that up conceptually. Sothat's one, and then another one
(08:57):
I would really love to bring upis not using the ineffective
keyword strategy. And weactually have another article
that was published specificallyon that. I think it was in the
either the May 2019 or 2020,issue of teaching children math,
but we talk about what to doinstead. So what I mean by that
is we don't want to teachstudents things like altogether
(09:21):
means add. If you see a wordproblem, or, um, some always
means add, or left always meanssubtract, because left could
mean the left, you know, someoneleft their backpack behind or
something else. And so instead,we, in our article, we provide
lots of suggestions, but wedon't want to teach this rigid
(09:43):
notion of like circling keywordsfor operations and not real.
Instead of building meaning ofthe context. We instead want
students to build meaning thecontext. And really, the way
this relates to the Math Pact isnot teaching rules that expire.
Is one component of a Math Pact.
So the Math Pact is really ourextension of the past decade or
so of work we've done with thiswhere we've really said, okay,
(10:06):
so people, you know, we're onthe same page. You know,
communities are not teachingroles that expire, but now they
need to know what to do instead.
And our Math Pact talks abouteffective alternatives, which
are based on deep understanding,such as using multiple
representations which aligns sowell to UDL. And, you know,
(10:27):
having students developgeneralizations and patterns for
their thinking and math and soreally, our Path Pact series
really is that how to guide andframework of how to build up
coherent instruction within andacross grades within a school
and a district.
Rebecca Hines (10:48):
Sarah, as you were responding, I was really
thinking about those, you know,all of the layers to how we
develop ideas about math. And Ifeel like you know that that
stage where a child reachesbarriers and now it starts to
influence how he feels or shefeels about math. So do you have
(11:10):
ideas or for our audience aboutyou know, how do we avoid
building in those negativeassociations with math for these
learners?
Sarah Bush (11:21):
I love that question. You know, I and I
think the literature tells us alot on this too. But if I just
had to get really practical, Ithink some of the things I would
say would be, first of all, youknow, every teacher should make
a commitment to themselves sothat they will never say in
front of students. I wasn't amath person, or I'm not a math
(11:44):
person, because we know allchildren look up to their
teachers. And so day one, thathas to be the commitment.
Everyone is a math person, andeveryone can do math. And so I
think that's one big one.
Another one is we need to be,you know, we need to provide,
math needs to be open ended. AndI think when we make it very
close ended and rigid andinflexible, that's when students
(12:08):
start not seeing themselves init. And so we need to kind of
notice and seek out and showcasestudents different ways of
approaching problems. And ofcourse, obviously, when we're
doing that, doing that, we'realso formatively assessing,
which can give us as educatorsmore knowledge about their
(12:28):
understanding so we can targetbetter. And then the other, you
know, thing that I'm thinking ofis we need to make a contextual
and that really relates to a lotof my transdisciplinary STEM
work, which is really focusedon, you know, we want students
to see math and everything theydo. And so instead of giving
(12:49):
them plain problems, we want togive them very contextual
scenarios and task and meaning.
So they build all this meaning,and they they are excited to do
math and interested and engaged.
Lisa Dieker (13:05):
So, you know, my final question for you is, you
know, I know you've, you'vetrained some of the best and
prepared some of the bestteacher leaders in in Central
Florida, and really have thechance to take them to that next
level, getting their doctoratesand working in partnership with
the district. I'm curious, whenyou walk into some of those
classrooms, because I know someof those teachers, what would be
(13:25):
the two things that you're like,yup, that's the best inclusive
math class I've seen? What wouldbe the two things that kind of
stand out in your mind over andover again that you've seen in
those really good classrooms?
Sarah Bush (13:37):
Wow, that is a great. That is an amazing
question. I don't know. I mean,sometimes you know when you see
it, but part of me thinks that,I think the teacher feeling
empowered and confident is a bigpart of it, right? And our
(13:59):
teacher leaders areunbelievable, and I absolutely
feel that when I go in there,when I see their teaching, but
when they're empowered andconfident as educators, that
comes through. But then I thinkthat has to be paired with this
nurturing and caring atmosphere,right? Because students not just
(14:24):
need to feel safe, but in theirenvironment, but they also, you
know, need to feel cared about,and that what they say and do
matters, and that their teacheris going to do everything to
help them succeed, not do it forthem, but but give them the
(14:45):
tools and opportunities tosucceed, and those high
expectations are part of that.
So those are just a few things.
I could probably think of othersif I thought about it more. But
I love that question.
Lisa Dieker (14:55):
No, I think it's a it's it's exactly, and I think
you just circled back to wherewe started that it's all about
putting those high leveragepractices together and bring
teachers in a caringenvironment. And I thought that
was a beautiful answer. Thankyou.
Rebecca Hines (15:09):
And Sarah, I I particularly like the, you know,
the the broad lens with whichyou can can look at this, so
that it in particular, that ideaof a benchmark approach, really
so that students can build upontheir skills without feeling
like they are somewhat lesserthan if there's their starting
(15:32):
places different from theirpeers. I really love that.
Lisa Dieker (15:37):
We thank you for joining us. As always, you had
some wonderful insights and somereally beautiful nuggets for the
field. So thank you again,Sarah, and if you have questions
for us, please send us a Tweet@Access Practical or post a
question on our Facebook@Practical Access. Thanks.
Music.
Lisa Dieker (00:07):
Welcome to Practical Access. I'm Lisa
Dieker
Rebecca Hines (00:10):
AND I'm Rebecca Hines and Lisa. I'm excited
about today's guest in partbecause of their commitment to
STEM skill acquisition for allstudents, but also, you know,
just a career committed topreparing teachers with skills
that can support all students.
Who do we have?
Lisa Dieker (00:31):
Yeah, so we're really excited to have a really
good friend of both of ours anda colleague, Sarah Bush, who is
a professor and the LockheedMartin Eminent Scholar at the
University of Central Florida,and the author with Karen Karp,
we had earlier on a book calledThe Math Pact. That's a series,
and we'll be highlighting someof that. But welcome Sarah.
We're so excited to have youwith us.
Sarah Bush (00:52):
Thank you both so much for having me, and I'm just
so excited to spend just alittle bit of time with two of
my favorite people.
Lisa Dieker (00:59):
Well, with that, I'm going to kick it up with the
first question. And I think oneof the things, Sarah, that
you've always done so well, andI I really appreciate, is you're
an advocate for just kids. Itdoesn't matter if it's special
ed or general ed. Can you talkto us just a little bit about
this high leverage practicemovement, and kind of the
differentiation for kids withdisabilities, and kind of your
(01:20):
world of how you see NCTM, HLT,HLPs, and special ed and that
world kind of merging in thework that you do?
Sarah Bush (01:30):
Sure. Thanks so much, Lisa. Um, you know, when I
think about the high leveragepractices, you know, and I know
we've even had some pastdoctoral students focus on those
that we've worked on together,you know, I really don't see
them. I see them fittingseamlessly with much of the work
put out by the National Councilof Teachers of Mathematics, in
(01:50):
particular, when I think aboutthe high leverage practices, and
then I think about NCTMs eightmathematics teaching practices
which are also high leveragepractices, you know, I think the
thing they have in common isthat, you know, they're both
essential. You know, everypractice in there is essential.
And, you know, I was even kindof reviewing the high leverage
(02:11):
practices document, and theysaid something in there that I
really loved, which was thatthey are so important that
skillfully executing them isfundamental to effective
teaching. And I feel that wayabout both sets. And to me, your
good teaching practice is goodteaching practice. And so much
(02:32):
of what's effective in thespecial ed literature, you know,
around UDL and other things,absolutely we should be leaning
to in our general educationcontent areas, you know, those
of us who focus on that as well.
So I just see them assynergistic. And, you know,
really fitting together very
Rebecca Hines (02:54):
You know, Sarah, I love what you're saying here,
nicely.
because across my career, what Isee and when I'm preparing
teachers, doing professionaldevelopment, you know, with
teachers in schools, etc, isthat I think sometimes we lose
sight of the fact that there'ssometimes just one point
(03:15):
difference between whether astudent is labeled as a student
with disabilities. And yet, Ithink that's what resonates, you
know, to some people, especiallyI found in the area of, you
know, math, to be honest, youknow, we have this idea of
what's appropriate for a certaintypes of kids. So in your
(03:37):
professional work, what? Whatare some of the basic premises
that you try to explain toteachers about this idea of
supporting every learner youknow with their own individual
abilities?
Sarah Bush (03:51):
You know, you brought up something I think is
so important. And I think itgoes back to the idea that you
know, historically, we haveassigned labels to students and
many of the and I'm not talkingabout a student formally labeled
as having IEP, but just ingeneral, we use these deficit
(04:12):
labels often to describe groupsof students. These are, you
know, and they're, they arelabels that carry such long term
negative effects that, you know,we actually talk about this in
NCTMs Catalyzing Change series,which I was the lead writer of
the middle school volume, and wetalk about no longer using
deficit labels to describestudents. And you know, what you
(04:36):
mentioned isn't exactly the samething, but one thing that I
think we you know, that's soimportant for us all to shift
to, is really focusing onstudents strengths, and how we
can take the strengths thatindividual students bring, which
are very individualized, theirstrengths and their life
experiences and all all thepieces of their backgrounds, and
(04:59):
really leverage those as entrypoints to build up their areas
of growth. All of our learnershave areas of growth. And, you
know, another thing I thinkabout all the time that should
just apply to all learners iswhen we think about the idea of
scaffolding, you know, we, youknow, the whole purpose of
scaffolding. You two are theexperts of this. But it's, you
know, when I think about it avery general sense, but it's
(05:21):
removing barriers to learning,but not removing the learning
opportunity, and not diminishingthe cognitive demand of the
learning opportunity, but rathermaking that opportunity fully
accessible for each learner. Andto me, that applies to all
learners, whether they arelabeled as a student receiving
special education services ornot?
Lisa Dieker (05:42):
Oh, I love that. I love the asset based and I love
Sarah Bush (05:47):
I love that.
Lisa Dieker (05:48):
Yeah, it's such a simple change, but I think it's
Sarah that I have a school thatthat's actually they're not
a big change. I think that'swhat what your work is. And so
allowed to use kids namesanymore labels. They have to use
I'm going to ask you about twodifferent pieces of work,
kids names, and they have tostart with the strength before
because, you know, I've alwaysadored everything you've written
they talk about a deficit. So ifthey're.
and followed your work, andyou're thinking, because I just
really think it's from a mathmindset of access and equity.
(06:10):
And the other teachers you know,should really think about that
if they if they read your work.
And so one of the things that Iknow you have a math pact that I
would love to hear about that,because I know it so asset
based. But I'm also going to goretro a little bit on the 13
rules that never expire, orthat, oh, that do expire, that
that I find it's one of myfavorites. It's a 2014,
(06:34):
publication. I know it's free,downloadable. I name that. You
know, it's got lots of things,but I'm always curious, like
when you're out in schools andimagine I'm a new special ed
teacher and you come and watchme. I'm sure you don't take your
checklist of 13 things to checkthem off, but I'm wondering,
what are like the most commonmistakes as a field we tend to
(06:57):
make that maybe we should bethinking about and how maybe the
Math Pact could help us move tothat next level?
Sarah Bush (07:07):
Yeah, you know, when I think, you know, 10,000 foot
view on this, you know, I wehave just, you know, we have,
from our own past mistakes asKaren and Barb and I and as well
as working with, you know,hundreds of teachers across so
many different states anddistricts and schools and at the
state level. You know, we know Imean a near infinite number of
(07:30):
rules that expire, that peoplehave now shared with us, but
there are a few that are veryuniversal and really span the
grade bands that I would maybeuse as a good launching point.
And the two that come to mind isthe idea of the equal sign is
one big one, because so oftenstudents think that when you
(07:54):
have something as simple as twoplus three equals, they tend to
think that that equal signrepresents the like, here comes
the answer, instead of the ideaof equality. And we really need
to, you know, that's why it's soimportant to to have different
(08:15):
structures of our equations,even in like, the first grade,
when students are firstintroduced, to the equal sign
and the notion of that becausewe want to build flexibility in
that thinking, and because theproblem is, as soon as we get to
two plus three equals somemystery number, a variable plus,
you know, one, they don't knowwhat to do with that, and all of
(08:36):
their thinking falls apart. Soone of the rules that expire is
really the idea that peoplemight say two plus two makes
four, don't do that. That's ano, no. You just need to use
equal and from the start, focuson what the meaning of the equal
sign is. Think about the equalsign as a balance, you know,
build that up conceptually. Sothat's one, and then another one
(08:57):
I would really love to bring upis not using the ineffective
keyword strategy. And weactually have another article
that was published specificallyon that. I think it was in the
either the May 2019 or 2020,issue of teaching children math,
but we talk about what to doinstead. So what I mean by that
is we don't want to teachstudents things like altogether
(09:21):
means add. If you see a wordproblem, or, um, some always
means add, or left always meanssubtract, because left could
mean the left, you know, someoneleft their backpack behind or
something else. And so instead,we, in our article, we provide
lots of suggestions, but wedon't want to teach this rigid
(09:43):
notion of like circling keywordsfor operations and not real.
Instead of building meaning ofthe context. We instead want
students to build meaning thecontext. And really, the way
this relates to the Math Pact isnot teaching rules that expire.
Is one component of a Math Pact.
So the Math Pact is really ourextension of the past decade or
so of work we've done with thiswhere we've really said, okay,
(10:06):
so people, you know, we're onthe same page. You know,
communities are not teachingroles that expire, but now they
need to know what to do instead.
And our Math Pact talks abouteffective alternatives, which
are based on deep understanding,such as using multiple
representations which aligns sowell to UDL. And, you know,
(10:27):
having students developgeneralizations and patterns for
their thinking and math and soreally, our Path Pact series
really is that how to guide andframework of how to build up
coherent instruction within andacross grades within a school
and a district.
Rebecca Hines (10:48):
Sarah, as you were responding, I was really
thinking about those, you know,all of the layers to how we
develop ideas about math. And Ifeel like you know that that
stage where a child reachesbarriers and now it starts to
influence how he feels or shefeels about math. So do you have
(11:10):
ideas or for our audience aboutyou know, how do we avoid
building in those negativeassociations with math for these
learners?
Sarah Bush (11:21):
I love that question. You know, I and I
think the literature tells us alot on this too. But if I just
had to get really practical, Ithink some of the things I would
say would be, first of all, youknow, every teacher should make
a commitment to themselves sothat they will never say in
front of students. I wasn't amath person, or I'm not a math
(11:44):
person, because we know allchildren look up to their
teachers. And so day one, thathas to be the commitment.
Everyone is a math person, andeveryone can do math. And so I
think that's one big one.
Another one is we need to be,you know, we need to provide,
math needs to be open ended. AndI think when we make it very
close ended and rigid andinflexible, that's when students
(12:08):
start not seeing themselves init. And so we need to kind of
notice and seek out and showcasestudents different ways of
approaching problems. And ofcourse, obviously, when we're
doing that, doing that, we'realso formatively assessing,
which can give us as educatorsmore knowledge about their
(12:28):
understanding so we can targetbetter. And then the other, you
know, thing that I'm thinking ofis we need to make a contextual
and that really relates to a lotof my transdisciplinary STEM
work, which is really focusedon, you know, we want students
to see math and everything theydo. And so instead of giving
(12:49):
them plain problems, we want togive them very contextual
scenarios and task and meaning.
So they build all this meaning,and they they are excited to do
math and interested and engaged.
Lisa Dieker (13:05):
So, you know, my final question for you is, you
know, I know you've, you'vetrained some of the best and
prepared some of the bestteacher leaders in in Central
Florida, and really have thechance to take them to that next
level, getting their doctoratesand working in partnership with
the district. I'm curious, whenyou walk into some of those
classrooms, because I know someof those teachers, what would be
(13:25):
the two things that you're like,yup, that's the best inclusive
math class I've seen? What wouldbe the two things that kind of
stand out in your mind over andover again that you've seen in
those really good classrooms?
Sarah Bush (13:37):
Wow, that is a great. That is an amazing
question. I don't know. I mean,sometimes you know when you see
it, but part of me thinks that,I think the teacher feeling
empowered and confident is a bigpart of it, right? And our
(13:59):
teacher leaders areunbelievable, and I absolutely
feel that when I go in there,when I see their teaching, but
when they're empowered andconfident as educators, that
comes through. But then I thinkthat has to be paired with this
nurturing and caring atmosphere,right? Because students not just
(14:24):
need to feel safe, but in theirenvironment, but they also, you
know, need to feel cared about,and that what they say and do
matters, and that their teacheris going to do everything to
help them succeed, not do it forthem, but but give them the
(14:45):
tools and opportunities tosucceed, and those high
expectations are part of that.
So those are just a few things.
I could probably think of othersif I thought about it more. But
I love that question.
Lisa Dieker (14:55):
No, I think it's a it's it's exactly, and I think
you just circled back to wherewe started that it's all about
putting those high leveragepractices together and bring
teachers in a caringenvironment. And I thought that
was a beautiful answer. Thankyou.
Rebecca Hines (15:09):
And Sarah, I I particularly like the, you know,
the the broad lens with whichyou can can look at this, so
that it in particular, that ideaof a benchmark approach, really
so that students can build upontheir skills without feeling
like they are somewhat lesserthan if there's their starting
(15:32):
places different from theirpeers. I really love that.
Lisa Dieker (15:37):
We thank you for joining us. As always, you had
some wonderful insights and somereally beautiful nuggets for the
field. So thank you again,Sarah, and if you have questions
for us, please send us a Tweet@Access Practical or post a
question on our Facebook@Practical Access. Thanks.
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