I’ve never addressed my maths trauma the way that I just have. This was very helpful for me now and future teacher me. Thank you!
Keynote / Online service / Workshop
Engagement, Agency, and Content
Immediately transform your math teaching.
99%
found sessions valuable
96%
would attend again
93%
found session inspiring
15+
years of experience
Is stale teaching making classes boring for teachers and students?
Students are burnt out, bored, and frustrated in math class. By focusing on engagement and student agency to support rich mathematical content, change students’ attitudes in math class.
- Intrinsic motivation stirs students’ internal drive to succeed.
- Giving students power transforms that drive into a personal investment.
- High-quality content ensures students make strides in their learning.
Using these three pillars together makes classes more interesting for students, and easier for instructors to implement.
Dr. Geillan Aly
is a mathematics educator and former award winning Assistant Professor who received her PhD in Teaching and Teacher Education and a Master’s in Mathematics from the University of Arizona.
Her research focuses on the emotional side of learning mathematics and includes how computer-centered learning has affected students’ abilities to control their learning environment and how meditation may reduce mathematics anxiety.
Dr. Aly has been teaching at the university level for over ten years and, without sacrificing rigor, brings a personalized math learning experience to the classroom through active learning methods and by centering students’ emotional well-being. She is very familiar with the Common Core Standards and has experience teaching mathematics to Middle and High School students.
Underlying all of Dr. Aly’s teaching and research is a dedication to diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice in mathematics education. She enjoys traveling, seeing live music, and is an avid chef. Geillan is also a wife and mother of a beautiful boy. They live near Hartford, CT.
What teachers will learn
- The difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and why that difference matters.
- The importance of giving students agency in the math classroom.
- How the Compassionate Math framework supports this framework.
- Ways to transform milquetoast content to be more interesting to students.
- Strategies to immediately implement.
Location and Logistics
Everything you need to know about how the program runs.
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Format
This workshop can be conducted in-person or online.
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Length
The program can run between 1-2 hours based on your need and program time (a longer program provides more time for collaboration and discussion).
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Expanded option
This program can also be expanded to a full-day workshop where teachers receive hands-on support to directly apply the program's ideas.
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Parting Gifts
Participants receive a reference card summarizing the workshop and strategies share.
Case Study
Argosy Collegiate Charter HS
In Fall 2021, Dr. Aly was invited to work with Argosy Collegiate High School in Fall River, MA. Teachers and students were burnt out due to the effects of the COVID pandemic. Dr. Aly designed and developed her program focusing on engagement, agency, and content to counter the effects of burnout in both the teachers and students. The effects of these ideas were powerful and expanded this collaboration into a two year collaboration to transform mathematical learning at Argosy.
The teachers worked with Dr. Aly to motivate their lessons, give students more agency in the classroom, and incorporate more conceptual mathematical content into their lessons. In their second year, the teachers at Argosy focused on making groupwork more effective through workshops with Compassionate Math.
The results of this support cannot be ignored, the 2022 Student Growth Percentage (SGP) for 10th grade math students at Argosy Collegiate High School is 58% compared to 50% for the state of Massachusetts. Moreover, the SGP for Argosy’s low-income students is 54%, compared to 46% across the state. With the help of Compassionate Math, Argosy students are closing the gap!
What people are saying
A great workshop to help you dive deeper into the introspection of your teaching.
A great introduction to thinking about classroom norms and putting our beliefs into practice.
Real, relevant, and useful!
One of the more enjoyable workshops I’ve attended in years.
Loved the cycle of benign neglect it's information that needs to be shine more light on that issue. i really left more inspired and will certainly share this with my mom, who struggles with anxiety in other areas and it's amazing how unstoppable someone can be by motivated intrinsically.
Finally something that’s attainable!
We discussed belonging in much broader sense than I expected, and it was wonderful and deeply thought provoking and emotionally hard but excellent.
I found that her study tips would be helpful for more than just math class.
I would say that if you are questioning your position in math than this session would benefit you tremendously by taking most of your anxiety away and taking the mental blocks out of your mind so you can confidently do math and achieve the things that you want to achieve.
The session was very interactive to help us she how to interact with students using the shared board. Great explanation of Inquiry Based Learning and how it works.
She helps you a lot by understanding that you are not alone and struggling in math is completely normal
A mathematical explanation to solving life problems
This session was great. We talked about kinda taboo topics within math straying away from content focuses. Instead bringing up the emotional influences that interact with learning mathematics. The anxiety, and societal pressures that students come into the classroom with. How the sciences are finally starting to move away from the content is all viewpoint. Instead putting student motivation and wants/needs first.
The session in IBL is very informative and it provides actionable items that we could apply and bring with us in our classroom settings. Thank you for sharing your expertise; much appreciated!
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