4 Ways to Get the Most From your P2S2 Online Platform Subscription

You now have access to tons of classroom video, clips of Cathy building the landscapes, the capacity to create and run PLC's to support teacher learning, but where should you start?! How can you make sure you're getting the most out of the P2S2 system?

Below are just 4 of many great ways to allow the P2S2 platform to permeate your school culture.

(WARNING - Some of the hyperlinks below require access to our P2S2 platform. If you do not yet have a subscription, but are interested please contact us to discuss options for you.)

1. Study the Landscapes over and over and over again!

If there is one thing we can never fully understand, it has to be the landscapes. Not just knowing the words on the page, but deeply understanding what each big idea and strategy looks and sounds like when kids mathematize contexts and talk about their ideas is a career-long journey. With each unit having about a 10-minute clip where the big ideas, strategies and models the kids will be constructing are discussed in the unit, we get a stronger sense for interpreting students' thinking throughout the unit, and how to move them forward with our questions. Whenever I am about to meet with group of teachers who want to talk about a certain unit but am strapped for time, I make sure to set aside 10 minutes to watch Cathy build the landscape for that unit! Below is a screenshot from one of the clips where Cathy builds a new landscape for our 1st grade measurement unit, Farms and Fences.

fosnot math landscape measurement

2. Set up and run a Professional Learning Community (PLC).

While the online platform is a fantastic resource for teachers in their planning and teaching of CFLM units because of the hundreds of hours classroom video, the real power of the platform goes well beyond individual use. As a math coach, principal, curriculum director or teacher leader, the "My PLC" function allows users to facilitate powerful discussions between their colleagues. In a PLC, you can assign any number of sections of the platform to collaborate about and grow together as professionals. If you are not familiar with this amazing feature that keeps your whole school frequently using the platform, contact us and we'll give you a quick tutorial on how to set up and run amazing PLC's with your colleagues.

3. Utilize the new "Online Resources" tab.

Many of our online platform subscribers are not aware that Cathy and Maarten worked tirelessly last year to upload resources for teachers who are teaching online. Importantly, every unit now has a "Learning Guardian Notes" section that your students' guardians can use as a guide to support their children while learning through CFLM at home. Additionally, there are now PDF, JPG and PPT documents in color of all of the appendices that teachers can use whether teaching online or in person. What some teachers love the most about this section is that the Minilessons for all of the units are now also in slide decks so teachers can use those with kids in the classroom or online. Check them out in the "Online Resources" tab that is in EVERY unit on the P2S2 platform!

4. Start your staff meetings or other collaborative meetings with a short classroom clip.

As a principal, I was always trying to find ways to keep the discussions focused on what matters the most - teaching, learning and kids. The online platform is chock-full of classroom video that helps get conversations going about teaching and learning as you prepare to meet with your colleagues.

Start a meeting with a video like the one below from the "Supporting the Investigation" section where you and your colleagues can collectively examine teachers questioning and conferring with kids. Then, spark a discussion about how the teacher celebrated the students' ideas, got underneath the students' thinking and challenged them to examine structure, take their idea further or even develop a mathematical argument to convince their peers of in the congress.

Some in our community will often share a clip of a math congress in "Planning Math Congresses" and discuss how the teacher in the clip moved the dialogue ball amongst the kids. One of my favorites on that topic is the clip of the congress from Day Two of the Field Trips and Fundraisers unit titled "Michael shares." The teacher in this clip uses some amazing teaching moves to keep the kids building on each other's ideas.

We know of other P2S2 users who like to play a portion of a clip of a number string from the "Exploring Minilessonstab and ask teachers how they would model that students' thinking or what questions they would ask students to discuss after one child brings a new idea to the community. Check out the 10 clips in the Exploring Minilessons section of our new 3rd grade area and perimeter unit, Tabletops, Floors and Fields where you can have great discussion about number strings.

The power of the P2S2 platform goes well beyond a classroom video library and is an essential component in transforming every classroom at your school into vibrant mathematical communities. 

Do you have more ideas? Please hop on the Community Forum and share your ideas for getting the most out of the powerful Personalized Professional Support System!

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