A mathematical explanation to solving life problems
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
Geillan was very friendly and approachable. It was easy to open up about math struggles. Thank you!!
The session was insightful and affirming. It gave both motivation for practices, and big and small practices to create equity in the classroom.
Thank you for this gift.
Not only applicable to math but applicable to all fields and harnessing your full ability to achieve anything you want out of life
AMAZING, very insightful on power struggles, values of intellectual contributions, norms, strengthening student contributions
I feel 10x better about math walking out of this room than when I first walked in!
One of the more enjoyable workshops I’ve attended in years.
A must attend for anyone committed to teaching and learning at any level.
I thought it was going to be another thing where we were told to be vulnerable but actually doing so would be a terrible mistake; however, instead everyone was completely supportive! I couldn’t believe it.
Beautifully paced, kind, supportive and connected to truths
This session provided candid, helpful realistic ideas and advice that are applicable and ready to use.
Finally something that’s attainable!
Introspective workshop allowing participants time to reflect and share what foundational skills are important for classroom success
It made me think a lot about how I have been conditioned to think about math, and it gave me confidence to keep doing higher maths.
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