Bondurant-Farrar Community Schools

Artifact
Artifact Title: Kim Sutton Math Conference Notes
Portfolio Author: Christina Cornia
Date: October 27, 2015
Iowa Teaching Standard 7 Engages in professional growth

a. Demonstrates habits and skills of continuous inquiry and learning.

b. Works collaboratively to improve professional practice and student learning.
c. Applies research, knowledge, and skills from professional
development opportunities to improve practice.
d. Establishes and implements professional development plans based upon the
teacher needs aligned to the Iowa Teaching Standards and district/building
student achievement goals.
e. Provides an analysis of student learning and growth based on teacher created
tests and authentic measures as well as any standardized and district-wide tests.

I chose this artifact to show:

X strength and competency in this standard
Evidence to support attainment of this standard:

Description of artifact and how the artifact meets the standard:

I have attended two Kim Sutton math conferences. Demonstrated in this artifact are notes I took at the Math
Games conference. This was a two day conferences focused on teaching and including math games for all
standards. This conference was a great learning experience. I learned several games, how they are effective,
and ways to vary the instructions to reach students at all academic levels.

Reflection on artifact:
The particular activity these notes reflect is a good activity to get students thinking of a number in different
ways. Ideas for giving clues about a number start as simple as even or odd and can be as complex as finding
the digital root or incorporate fractions.
The other conference I attended was focused on math fact fluency. This was very educational as each year
fourth grade has a strong push for fluency in facts for all operations. I not only learned activities to improve
fact fluency, but also that the current method we had been using was not affective. We had been using timed
tests and repeated practice. Timed tests are only effective for about nineteen percent of students.
After attending these two conferences Ive tried a different strategy for fact practice. As opposed to repeated
flash card practice, I have several games that students can play independently or with a partner. I will
continue to use these strategies to improve instruction for all students. I will also take advantage of
opportunities to attend more conferences and classes to improve my instruction in all content areas.