Submitted by: Kelly O’Shea

Science met and followed the plan outlined in this slide deck (which we used as a Pear Deck): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RVB6Wq7J-obBuJnImRim4-9ZskgEHlV1CBjctzJoEec/edit?usp=sharing

The workbook we are using in our meetings focuses on identifying ways that white supremacy culture shows up in our classrooms and helping us make changes to counteract/subvert/move away from that.

For this meeting, we focused on the October theme of “What am I teaching?
Procedural fluency is preferred over conceptual knowledge.”

There was a lot of great quiet reflection and thinking, and then we had a good discussion that landed on thinking about how many of our students seem to see procedural fluency as the hallmark of being successful and do not value conceptual knowledge in the same way. Although we feel we value it in our classes and thought about many ways that it shows up, we were thinking about how to help students shift that belief—and where we can act to reinforce that shift in values. (Personally, I was thinking about examining whether my assessments do a good enough job of testing for and showing the value of conceptual thinking.)

Then, we used the tools from the workbook we are using (see slides) to make plans and list steps for how we will act with accountability to work toward our goals. Some of the goals include: allowing more room for students discussing how they feel about areas in science that are inequitable, introducing scientific role models of diverse backgrounds, not rushing/compromising/cutting corners due to the current situation, working on assessments for concepts and not only skills.

We will work on our plans over the next month and reflect on our progress in the next meeting… as well as moving on to the next activity in the workbook as we continue to examine our classrooms and curriculum!