In addition to championing Elementary Math education, I’m a long-time Charter School advocate and have an especially deep relationship with two award-winning Charter Schools.

For many years, I volunteered and taught at Benchmark School in Phoenix, Arizona (the first school in the region to introduce the Singapore Math® curriculum!).  Next month, I’ll complete a three-year term as a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Common School in Fort Collins, Colorado (also a long-time user of Math from Singapore!). My two sons attended both Benchmark and Liberty.

I am very grateful to be able to count scores of Charter Schools among my training and consulting clients.

For these reasons, I was struck by the announcement that The Colorado League of Charter Schools is hosting a 20th Anniversary Luncheon & Silent Auction to honor and recognize Charter School Founders. The event will be held on June 3, 2013 — 20 years to the day after the Colorado Charter Schools Act was signed into law.

I’m a huge fan of the Colorado League of Charter Schools and truly appreciate all the great services it provides to Colorado Charters.

So…I’ve donated one-day of Singapore Math training to the League’s 20th Anniversary Silent Auction.

Proceeds from the auction will support the League’s 20th anniversary campaign, including advocacy programs and efforts to improve public awareness and understanding of charter schools.

The League’s Silent Auction accommodates online bidding, so I invite anyone (ANYWHERE) who might want to bring Singapore Math Training to a school to try and win this offering. If you don’t already know, I’ll go ANYWHERE to work with teachers looking to use Singapore Mathematics.

Happy Bidding! (I’ll post a link to the auction after it goes live on May 27.)

For prospective bidders, here is information about my training services, some comments from past participants and general terms for this auction item:

Since 2008, Cassy has had the pleasure of introducing Singapore Math® to thousands of teachers, administrators and parents in 34+ U.S. States, Mexico, Canada, Ghana and the Republic of Palau. She has helped more than 60 schools (including 15 in Colorado!) successfully implement the Singaporean curriculum.

Cassy’s acclaimed seminars receive rave reviews:

• Fabulous!! Cassy’s energy, enthusiasm and knowledge make this one of the MOST FABULOUS days of staff development that I have been lucky enough to experience in 40 years! Thanks so much!
• Cassy is wonderful! She has wonderful ideas and presents them with such enthusiasm! Amazing!!
• Best seminar I have been to in my 25 years of teaching. Lively, worthwhile, keeps your attention. Taking back strategies and activities I can use in my classroom. Very motivating.
• This seminar will significantly change how I approach teaching math problem solving with my high ability students. Cassy’s energy and enthusiasm for math made the day fly!
• Wow! Wonderful strategies! Can’t wait to bring it to my classroom. Thank you!
• This was the best workshop I have ever attended. Cassy was excellent.

Bid on this item to bring Cassy to your school!

Choose from seminars on supplementing with Singapore Math strategies, Singapore Bar Model Drawing or apply to multi-day adoption training. Resource handbooks for up to 40 participants are included.

Note: Cassy is prepared to bring this training to you. However, a winning bidder outside Colorado Front Range communities will be responsible for reimbursing her actual travel expenses to your location.

Questions: Cassy (at) SingaporeMathSource (dot) com.

SingaporeMathSource.com provides a broad assortment of resources for administrators, teachers, parents and students. What’s more, everything listed on these resources pages has been tested  and/or created by me personally. When I work with schools and teachers or host my after-school math clubs for students, these are the materials and sites I actually use and strongly  recommend.

If you haven’t visited these pages, I invite you to take a look.

New Singapore Math®  Jobs Placement Page

Today, I’m happy to add a new “Jobs Placement” page to the site’s Singapore Math® Resources. This page is the direct result of questions that I frequently am asked:

• Do you know of a teaching candidate with experience using the Singapore curriculum?
• Do you know of a tutor who might help my students learn math?
• What school might appreciate my knowledge and experience teaching Math from Singapore?”

This isn’t fancy (for now, at least). But I hope it might help schools, teachers and parents with specific personnel needs to meet one another. If you are asking any of these questions, let me know and I’ll see if I can help.

Photo courtesy of brizzlebornandbred. 

If your school is considering sending more than three or four teachers to one of these programs, you may find it’s more cost-effective and powerful to provide customized professional development for your entire school!

Bolles School 2013 Summer M4thodology Workshop

Grades K-2: June 17-19, 2013
Grades 3-6: June 19-21, 2013
The Bolles School
Jacksonville, FL
$695 per session

Instructors are Dr. Yeap Ban Har and Sarah Schaefer.

Singapore Math – Number and Operations Institute

June 24-27, 2013
Worcester State University
Worcester, MA
$700 (Plus get housing on campus for $25/night)

Course Instructor: Dr. Richard Bisk

The primary goal of this institute is to deepen your understanding of the math you teach, regardless of whether you plan to use the Singapore books as your primary texts.

Singapore Math Summer Institute – Where Content Meets Pedagogy

July 10-12, 2013
Worcester State University
Worcester, MA

Details coming soon.

2013 National Conference on Singapore Math Strategies

July 15-19, 2013
The Venetian/The Palazzo Resort
Las Vegas, NV
$769 for four days with discounts for multiple attendees from the same school. One, two, and three day options available.

Almost three dozen presenters (!), including Dr. Yeap Ban Har, Dan Meyer, Ron Clark, and yours truly, Cassy Turner.

My sessions are aimed at K-6 Administrators and include:

• You’ve Adopted Singapore Math, Now What?
• Making Math Assessment Meaningful
• What Happening Here? What an Administrator Should see in a classroom using Singapore Math
• Developing an In-House Singapore Math “Go-To” Expert

Singapore Math and Lesson Study Summer Institute

iSingaporeMath (dot) com

August 26 – 29, 2013
Briarciff Manor School District
Briarcliff Manor, NY
$169/per day or $676 for all four

Choose one, two, three, or all four days of this intensive institute with Bill Jackson and Dr. Makoto Yoshida.

The NCTM Conference program book is now online and choosing which workshops and sessions to attend continues to be a challenge.  If you’d like to check out some sessions on Singapore Mathematics, there’s good news and bad.

Good news? There are 10 sessions involving Singapore-style math this year and while there’s plenty of bar modeling, there are two that focus on implementations. (The number of overall choices is down again from the number offered last year)

Bad news? Anything listed below in pink is an overlapping session.  Below are my thoughts on which session to choose, if you have a conflict.

FYI – Three of the ten sessions are Exhibitor’s Workshops:

Exhibitor Workshops (60 minutes) are designed to allow exhibitors more time to showcase their products and services away from the Exhibit Hall.

Thursday, April 18: 9:30 AM-10:30 AM - No conflict

#61 – Getting Number Bonds to Stick Like Glue
Lead Speaker: Catherine Kuhns

Inspired by the highly successful strategies from Singapore, this session will focus on high-interest and engaging concrete, pictorial, and abstract tasks that lead to genuine understanding and recall of the critical number combinations up to ten. These activities are appropriate for whole groups, small groups, and centers—and they are kid approved. Suitable for educators teaching Grades prek-2.

Thursday, April 18: 12:30 PM-1:30 PM - No conflict

#173 – Reasoning in the Elementary Classroom: It’s Easier Than You Think
Lead Speaker: Berinderjeet Kaur
Co-Speaker: Denisse R. Thompson

Mathematical reasoning is not only one of the NCTM Process Standards but also an important practice in the Common Core. We will share several simple strategies from both the Singapore and U.S. perspectives on modifying tasks and questions to bring reasoning to the instructional forefront. Suitable for educators teaching Grades 3-5

Thursday, April 18 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM - No conflict

#301.3 - Math Buddies: The Digital Singapore Math Solution in Action
Exhibitor Workshop: Marshall Cavendish Education

The latest K–5 digital curriculum from Marshall Cavendish Education, Math Buddies aligns with the Common Core State Standards and integrates multimedia with instructional pedagogy from Singapore Math texts.

Friday, April 19 8:00 AM- 9:00AM – Some conflict

#306 – Adopting Singapore Math: A Case Study
Lead Speaker: Kathleen Jalalpour
Co-Speaker: Corrinne Lieu

Six years ago, Keys School in Palo Alto, California (K–8), adopted Singapore Math. We will present data, experiences, and film clips of math classes. We will summarize the overwhelming benefits of Singapore Math, the obstacles we had to overcome, and the best methods of implementing this acclaimed math curriculum. Suitable for educators teaching Grades preK-5.

Friday, April 19 8:00 AM- 9:15AM - Some conflict

#337 - Exploring Reasoning and Communication with Problems from Singapore Classrooms
Lead Speaker: Ban Har Yeap

Experience mathematical reasoning and communication by solving problems taken from Singapore classrooms. Learn three strategies to enhance reasoning and communication: the use of questions, concrete materials, and visuals. We will use geometry and measurement problems across grade levels. Designed for teachers working with grades 3 – 8.

The first session will provide an overview of an implementation at the Keys School in Palo Alto. Dr. Yeap will be using questions, concrete materials and visuals to explore problems across content and grade level.

Recommendations:
-> Interested in one school’s experience? Head to the adoption session.
-> The second session has Ban Har Yeap. Enough said.

Friday, April 19 9:30am – 10:30am – Some conflict

#372 - Singapore’s Visual Models to Reason and Make Sense of Problems
Lead Speaker: Andy Clark

We will focus on the visual models and visualization used in the highly successful Singapore curriculum. These aspects offer students entry points to complex problems and develop deep understanding of topics such as operations with fractions, ratio, and algebraic manipulation. We will also discuss examples of their rich problems. Suitable for educators teaching Grades 6-8.

Friday, April 19 9:45 AM – 11:45 AM  - Some conflict

#396 - Bar Modeling, Percent Decrease, and the Common Cold
Lead Speaker: Kathleen Hill
Co-Speaker: Jennifer Luebeck

Lesson using the investigative approach with an interactive computer simulation and the mathematical tool of a bar model to help students make sense of the variables that affect the spread of disease. Suitable for educators teaching Grades 6-8.

Friday, April 19 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM – Some conflict

#425 - Linking Bar Diagrams and the Standards for Mathematical Practice
Lead Speaker: Robin Silbey

This highly interactive presentation teaches bar diagramming, a powerful, visual–logical problem-solving strategy focused on reasoning. You’ll draw bar diagrams to represent and solve several word problems. Through the lens of the Standards for Mathematical Practice, you’ll see how bar diagramming develops mathematical proficiencies. Hands-on session designed for teachers working with grades 3 – 8.

Recommendations:
-> Looking for a specific lesson with a little bit of bar modeling? Head to the second session
-> Andy and Robin are always insightful. I’d aim to hit both the first and third sessions!

Friday, April 19 2:30pm – 3:30PM – No conflict

#542.3 - Lessons from Singapore: Developing Number Sense/Problem Solving with Visual Models
Exhibitor Workshop: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

See an American version of Singapore’s highly successful curriculum and its use in the U.S. The session will focus on how Singapore’s visual models and effective pedagogy enable all students to develop number sense and solve complex problems so they are ready for the Common Core State Standards–based assessments.

Satuday, April 20 10:00 AM – 11:00AM – No conflict

#681.3 - Implementing Singapore Math: A Collaborative Effort
Exhibitor Workshop: SingaporeMath.com

Explore how the Primary Mathematics series was used as a tool to build a higher-performing mathematics program in a low-performing school. The presenter will share data, pictures, teacher reflections, successes, and challenges of implementing this focused and coherent curriculum.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I visited Singapore in 2007, I learned how the country decided to focus on building strong Singaporean citizens beginning with their earliest education.  The country’s mathematics curriculum (Primary Mathematics) was developed in the early 1980s with this goal in mind. At that time, Singapore’s students were mediocre at math. Within a few years after the launch of the second edition of Primary Mathematics, Singapore’s students topped the international TIMSS study.

To me, it’s quite easy to attribute much of Singapore’s Math success to changes in how it approached education, including, most importantly, the new curriculum. Could Singapore’s culture have changed dramatically between 1984 (when Singapore’s students were ranked 16th of 26 in the Second International Science Study) and 1995 (when they ranked first in the TIMSS study)?

Today, much attention is paid to “Tiger Mothers,” who, in the words of the Economist,

“load their cubs down with extra homework and tuition to make them excel at school.”

This trend seems more recent; it’s also one which, remarkably, Singapore’s current Prime Minister wants to curtail (http://www.economist.com/node/21563354).

A more subtle consideration concerns expectations; how do parents and teachers ask students to engage in schoolwork?

I had a driveway moment this fall when NPR ran a story (http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/12/164793058/struggle-for-smarts-how-eastern-and-western-cultures-tackle-learning) titled, “Struggle For Smarts? How Eastern And Western Cultures Tackle Learning.” The piece focuses on the importance of persistence to a student’s learning. Reporter Alix Spiegel cites several examples, then gets to the heart of the issue:

“For the most part in American culture, intellectual struggle in schoolchildren is seen as an indicator of weakness, while in Eastern cultures it is not only tolerated but is often used to measure emotional strength.”

Reporter Spiegel then chooses to NOT to choose between East and West. In this silence, though, I believe there is a teachable moment for those of us in the West.

In training sessions with teachers, it is not uncommon to encounter resistance when I advise (insist) that teachers give students the opportunity to really work on math problems. This can be a difficult skill for teachers to learn.

And if teachers are inclined to want to move their class along before giving students a chance to truly work the math, parents can worse. They are unaccustomed to and uncomfortable at seeing their children struggle, unable to finish their home enjoyment (aka homework). Parents sometimes can be too quick to either give their kids a pass (well, you have tried, haven’t you?) or demand an explanation of the teacher (why can’t my child do the homework?).

Here’s where I find that it’s critical to have laid the groundwork and properly set expectations. Teachers need patience (whew, do teachers ever need patience!). They must let their students work through problems, even if they end up struggling and having to start over. And parents need to appreciate that homework (honestly completed or struggled with) can be the best feedback loop for teachers.

Pointing at cultural differences to rationalize a lack of math proficiency in many of our students serves no one. Instead, I think there’s a lot to be gained by asking that western students work a bit more to earn some of the praise they frequently receive.

For U.S. Educators, TIMSS is valuable since it compares the achievement of  American students to their peers in other countries. From the National Center for Education Statistics:

TIMSS provides reliable and timely data on the mathematics and science achievement of U.S. 4th- and 8th-grade students compared to that of students in other countries.

TIMSS 2011 truly was a global study; 52 countries and 7 education systems participated in 4th Grade, while 45 countries and 14 education systems were involved at the 8th Grade level.

Last week, TIMSS 2011 was released. Note that all scores are adjusted to a 500 scale average. The results (…drumroll please…):

For 4th Grade Math, the top scoring nations are:

1. Singapore, average score 606
2. Republic of Korea, 605
3. Hong Kong, 602
4. Chinese Taipei, 591
5. Japan, 585
—
11. United States, 541

The following North American jurisdictions also participated in 4th Grade Math:

North Carolina, 554
Florida, 545
Quebec, 533
Ontario, 518
Alberta, 507

For 8th Grade Math, the top scoring nations are:

1. Republic of Korea, average score 613
2. Singapore, 611
3. Chinese Taipei, 609
4. Hong Kong, 586
5. Japan, 570
—
9. United States, 509

The following North American jurisdictions also participated in 8th Grade Math:

Massachusetts, 561
Minnesota, 545
North Carolina, 537
Quebec, 532
Indiana, 522
Colorado, 518
Connecticut, 518
Florida, 513
Ontario, 512
Alberta, 505
California, 493
Alabama, 466

A summary of TIMMS 2011 results is available here.  Data tables with results for 4th and 8th Grade mathematics are here.

A listing of all participating entities and their TIMSS 2011 math scores for 4th and 8th Grades is reproduced below:

TIMSS 2011 4th Grade Math

TIMSS 2011 8th Grade Math

The National Center for Education Statistics is the source of Tables and other information extracted from TIMSS 2011 in this post.

Hot off the presses, here are the Winter 2013 dates for my BER  seminars “How to Use the Best Strategies from Singapore Math to Strengthen your Math Instruction”  and  “Boost Students’ Math Problem Solving Skills Using Singapore Model Drawing” You can read more about these one-day seminars and register by clicking on the city.

(Click though for specific location and registration info.)

Current 2013 dates – “How to Use the Best Strategies From Singapore Mathematics to Strengthen Your Math Instruction” (BER)

• Jan. 8 - Sioux Falls, SD
• Jan. 9 - Rochester, MN
• Jan. 10 - Minneapolis, MN
• Jan. 11 - Phoenix, AZ
• Apr. 2 - Manchester, NH
• Apr. 3 - Long Island, NY
• Apr. 4 - Newark, NJ
• Apr. 5 - Cherry Hill, NJ

This overview of  Singapore Math® strategies will put your students on the road to success with number sense, computation and problem solving.  (Plus you a get a handy-dandy handbook!)

Your city not on the list? Contact me and I can bring my Singapore Math® workshop(s) to your school or district – email

During follow-up in-services, I like to have teachers meet in grade level groups and spend time discussing the challenges and successes they have had thus far with their teaching of Singapore Math. Each grade level is then asked to list these challenges and successes on a poster and share with the group as a whole. This allows us time to compare and share lessons from the content fresh on their minds.

There is so much challenge the first year when implementing a new curriculum, it’s helpful to take a few moments to reflect on how many successes the teachers and students have had. These posters then guide subsequent  teacher learning as we focus on the concepts that they are finding challenging.

In my “Giving Thanks” message last year, I confessed that 2011 would be difficult to beat. Well…beat it I did. In 2012, my math training and consulting business more than doubled and I enjoyed some amazing professional opportunities… Where to start?

Training and learning on four continents

Cassy Turner with teachers in the Republic of Palau

How about Palau? In May, I was awarded a contract by the Republic of Palau to assist the Ministry of Education (MOE) with the implementation of the Singapore Math® Curriculum. I visited Palau twice in 2012, providing training and professional development for teachers and MOE Staff.

Cassy Turner with teachers at AIS, Ghana

Then there’s Ghana. The Association International School in Accra, Ghana, hired me to help teachers adopt Singapore Math®. I spent a week working at AIS in September 2012.

Cassy Turner with Korean Teachers at ICME-12

And Korea. I attended the Olympic Games of Mathematics Education, otherwise known as the International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME), in Seoul, Korea. Held only once every four years, ICME-12 attracted 5,000 participants from more than 150 countries.

These life-changing experiences in the summer of 2012 included mathematics teaching, training and learning on four continents. All told, I logged more than 60,000 miles. Incredible!

School Clients and BER

While international clients are energizing, I am extremely grateful to provide professional development services on a regular basis for more than a dozen North American Schools that are using Singapore Math®, the world’s best elementary math curriculum.

I truly appreciate my relationship with the Bureau of Education & Research (BER), now in its third year. Through BER, I presented more than 30 Singapore Mathematics seminars for teachers across North America in 2012. I’m very grateful that BER invited me to present at their “Helping Students Succeed in Math” conferences in the coming months.

Learning and Presenting

For the 4th consecutive year, my personal learning included attendance and participation at the 2012 annual conferences of both the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and NCSM. At NCTM, I was a speaker, presenting a session with Lauri Susi of Conceptua Math entitled, “Technology + Singapore Strategies = Number Sense” to a large audience of Math Educators.

Cassy’s badges from Math Educator conferences

I continue to conduct peer reviews of articles submitted for publication in NCTM journals and met my personal goal of reading at least 50 books for the third straight year.

Community Service

Despite a very busy work and travel schedule, I made time this year to serve several causes that are very important to me.

I’m entering my 3rd and final year as a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Common School, an award-winning K-12 Charter School in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Congratulations are in order for Liberty’s first high school class which graduates in May. This group of seniors earned the highest composite ACT test score of any school in the state. And the Elementary school was the first in the nation to be re-certified as a Core Knowledge Official School through the Analysis of Curriculum and Practices (ACAP) process recently developed by the Core Knowledge Foundation.

I’m proud that my after-school math club continues to be wildly popular with kids who have great fun while building math skills that last a lifetime. Special thanks to parents who help oversee the club when I can’t be there.

I’m also wrapping up my 4th year as an advisor to students in the award-winning International Baccalaureate (IB) program at Poudre High School.

Personal

Of course I’m most thankful for my wonderful family, which has also enjoyed a memorable year. As also is my custom, I’ll spare readers more details.

Once again, my sincerest thanks to clients, colleagues, partners and students for a wonderful year.