This academic year is math teacher Jalen Robinson-McClure’s first year teaching at Bellarmine. However, it is not his first year AT Bellarmine. Robinson-McClure graduated in 2015, ten years ago.
Another first for Robinson-McClure was his attendance at the CPM (College Preparatory Mathematics) teacher conference in San Diego, CA on Feb. 22 and 23.
There he learned more about the student-centered, problem-based curriculum that Bellarmine uses. According to CPM.org, the curriculum believes in these three pillars, or tenets.
- Collaborative Learning:Students learn ideas more deeply when they discuss ideas with classmates.
- Problem-Based Learning: Students learn ideas more usefully for other areas when they learn by attacking problems– ideally from the real world.
- Mixed Space Practice: Students learn ideas more permanently when they are required to engage and re-engage with the ideas for weeks or even months.
Robinson-McClure appreciated the opportunity to learn from other educators. He said, “We took the time to practice as students and see what it is like from their perspective in the CPM curriculum.”
He also noted, “Our keynote speaker spoke on how CPM can be used to help diverse learners and help to build equity in the classroom and in the community.”
Robinson-McClure did not go away empty-handed. “We also learned new techniques to implement in a CPM style classroom,” he shared. No doubt that Robinson-McClure will share those techniques with his math colleagues as well.
