Embracing Mathematics, Assessment & Technology in High Schools through LessonSketch Story Circles

EMATHS through Lesson*Sketch* StoryCircles is a collaborative project awarded through the Mathematics and Science Partnership in coordination with the Macomb Intermediate School District. Macomb ISD is doing professional development to Michigan teachers who use the EMATHS curriculum. With this contract, the GRIP lab supports the work of the EMATHS facilitators and participants by providing participant assessment, facilitator coaching, and technological support in the effort. To engage secondary inservice teachers in a practice-based mode of professional development the EMATHS facilitators implement a process we’ve designed called LessonSketch *StoryCircles. StoryCircles* are a facilitated process of collaboratively representing a lesson using a multimedia storyboarding tool (*Depict)* within the LessonSketch platform. The process unfolds in a blended mode, including two yearly face to face meetings, six synchronous videoconferences, and some 40 hours of online forum interactions that also use the LessonSketch platform. The GRIP’s staff mentors two EMATHS facilitators who work for Macomb ISD, mentors the participants in the use of the storyboarding technology, administers teachers’ assessments using the LessonSketch platform, scores and analyze those assessments, and provide hotline technology support to users. By analyzing the interactions participants have in forums, the GRIP staff assesses the potential of *StoryCircles* for developing teachers' mathematical knowledge of teaching, and improving their instructional practices.