Background
Brisbane School District
The Brisbane School District comprises two elementary schools and one middle school totaling 550 students. It is located just south of San Francisco and pulls students from Brisbane and portions of South San Francisco and Daly City. There is a strong district-wide emphasis on the practice of Highly Effective Teaching (HET) that stresses the development of the whole student through rich, cross-curricular themed projects and the practice of Lifeskills.
Lipman Middle School, where I teach 8th grade, is the only middle school in the district, bringing together students from both of the elementary schools. We have a total enrollment of 166 students, about a third of whom would qualify as socio-economically disadvantaged. Lipman recently received a state ranking of 7 out of 10 (10 being the highest score) compared to similar schools statewide. Classes at Lipman are taught in a core structure, with each grade having one Language Arts / Social Studies core class and one Math / Science core class. As a result there is a very small faculty at Lipman, allowing for little collaboration at grade level.
District-wide, the Brisbane Schools have been involved with substantial math professional development leading up to and following the adoption of the CCSSM. In conjunction with a number of neighboring districts and the Silicon Valley Math Initiative, teachers have attended numerous trainings and follow up meetings regarding the creation of common core transition units and best practices for improving student outcomes within the new standards. These practices include the use of MARS tasks, Formative Assessment Lessons (FALS), Problems of the Month (POMs) and number talks. I have participated in all of these trainings over the past two years and have worked to implement these practices in my teaching.
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