For this section, I will highlight the next steps for me in facilitating number talks specifically and teaching more generally. I will focus on those spaces where I can improve as I continue to teach mathematics until the end of this semester and throughout the spring semester. First, I will outline one place where I wish to improve in terms of accessibility and equity. I want to orient my students more to each other’s thinking so that I can facilitate and create a mathematical environment where they can discuss concepts with each other. Thus, my students can feel more validated and affirmed in how they express themselves and their ideas. Further, as a teacher, one area of improvement I want to focus on is how I can extend the central norms for number talks of centering student thinking and eliciting multiple voices to other subjects, such as ELA or Social Studies. In these subjects, I want to move away from just looking for a “single” correct answer and truly sit with my students’ thinking and any misconceptions they may have. Finally, based on the rubric I filled out about my number talks, I will focus on specific plans for developing those skills where I still struggle. Mainly, I will focus on how I can improve in facilitating greater student collaboration, digging more deeply into my students’ thinking by “conceptually pressing” them and highlighting the central mathematical idea of a given number talk.
