Meet the users...

"Your school is very beautiful and the students speak so articulately about their work!"
"Our school is trying to go PBL and are we really inspired by your work here!"
"The freedom you give your students here is really surprising and impressive!"

and then the kicker...

"But does any of this really work in math?"

The tensions...
These statements sum up a lot of the thoughts that the frequent visitors to our school have. Impressed. Amazed. Inspired... And what about math? And further along, what about those darn standardized math tests?!

We ask ourselves these questions often as well and attempt to find the balance in our own classrooms that feels right for each of us. Yet we still keep noting the pressure (internally and externally?) to do better on the standardized tests AND do better projects OH YEAH, AND have equitable learning environments where students find belongingness, value, and where all of our language and activities attend to the building of growth mindsets. No problem.

So what's new this year?
This year our director sat down with our math department to encourage us to make some "forward leans" in this math work. His commission to us was to address the tensions addressed above and, most of all, to do kick-ass math work. Equipped with his motivation, some extra budget, and finally, the help of a known expert in design thinking, Ela Ben-Ur (Innovator's compass) we are embarking on a journey to WIN or LEARN.


The USERS:
As a first step, we were tasked with identifying our "users"... the humans who are at the center of this work. The initial thoughts documented below are from observations though we have had a few empathy interviews with students and parents that informed some of this thinking.

Teacher experiences:

• Desire to be the best math program in the US!
• Unsure if we are ever doing well/progressing fast enough.
• A little wishy washy on a shared vision
• Desire to play the game a little and CHANGE THE GAME a lot!
• Freedom to create our own curriculum and pacing based on student needs
• It is hard to meet the needs of such a diverse population (esp high demand IEP parents)
• Overwhelmed by number of students and workload (xblock, advisory, college day, intersession)
• Space is an issue, trying to be progressive in tiny spaces
• Students doing math homework in other classes
• Moving to HTH is like being a first year teacher again

Perceived parent experiences:

• Appreciate high level of choice
• Uncertain of how to productively support their students
• Like Table Talk Math
• They don't understand math at HTH because it is "Different" than other schools
• Desire a challenge in math class (and define challenge very narrowly)
• This class is too hard or not challenging enough depending on the parents
• Worry about SAT/ACT a lot
• Unsure what we cover in our classes
• Really enjoyed the fresh perspectives offered in our parent night! Lots of positive feedback
• Have minimal concerns when kept in the loop about grading and curricular choices
• Largely fixed mindsets about math learning but many are interested in mindset work!
• Hard to help their children because they think math learning is too hard.
• Very concerned with grades.

Perceived student experience: 

• Math is hard
• Pockets of students with growth mindsets
• Grade concerns vs. learning - how to push self and not be ok with just being done
• A focus on answer getting over sense making
• We thought math here was supposed to be easy
• Anxiety around tests and quizzes
• Like SAT prep
• Mixed: Some like big picture math ideas and other don't think it is learning unless it has direct strategies.
• Lots of holes in past knowledge but unsure of gaps existing
• "You go too fast"
• Extremely varied teacher by teacher (and this is good to a point!)
• Desire a challenge in math class (and define challenge very narrowly)