Just utter the word “integer” and shivers run down the spine of all of us who were petrified of math classes in school.
For people like me, math never meant fun. It meant sweaty palms, cloudy thoughts, dizziness and a heart-stopping fear of being wrong or seeming stupid. I couldn’t help the physical reaction; if you ask my parents, they would readily admit it’s an inherited trait. But if teachers could find a way to prevent fear of math from ever setting in, students might never feel like comprehending math is beyond their capabilities.
The teachers at Matthew Whaley Elementary School celebrated their second Math Night this week, inviting students and their families to engage in a night full of math games. Math concepts are buried behind the guise of fun, the same way moms sneak vegetables into muffins.
Students learned about probability by predicting what number they’d get when the rolled dice. They learned about fractions by looking at a collection of Twizzlers and figuring out how many, out of the total, were red. To study estimation, they tried to guess how many jelly beans, coins and M&Ms various jars held; students who submitted the closest guesses will win the jars and their contents today.
I watched one little boy carefully line up candy bears alongside a pretzel rod. The pretzel rod turned out to be equal to eight candy bears. We laughed when he said his original estimate was one pretzel rod = 19 candy bears. Without hands-on experience, how would he know?
In each activity, teachers made a point to be encouraging and positive even when students had the wrong answer. Math specialist Cassie Winters, coordinator of the event, said the night isn’t just devoted to helping students see practical applications of math. It’s also about building parents’ confidence, so they don’t immediately tense up when their kids ask for help.
Math Night included three presentations of ways to continue math education at home. One focused on problem-solving strategies, another focused on at-home math tools and the third introduced parents to math iPod apps. “The apps can build their child’s interest in math and their own comfort level,” Winters said.
Lafayette High School math teacher Rebecka Norton accompanied her son, Daniel, to the estimation table, where he tried his best to guess how many jelly beans one jar held. She was impressed to see how the games managed to include many different math skills, with varying degrees of difficulty.
“It’s exciting to see them get excited about math. I saw games for lots of skills: estimation, fractions, money, word problems,” she said. “We couldn’t get him away from the fraction table!”
The night also featured a Math 24 championship, the culminating event of a weeks-long competition in third, fourth and fifth grades. From weeks of play, four students from each grade entered the final championship. Their challenge: take four provided numbers and, using any computational method, get a result of 24.
The real achievement of Math Night, from my perspective, was the teachers’ ability to remove any sense of pressure to get the right answer. As the students who competed in Math 24 undoubtedly found, different formulas can reach the same solution and sometimes, it takes several attempts before you find success. That doesn’t just build math skills; it teaches perseverance, reflection and analytical thinking.
Va. Seeks Input for Revision of School Report Cards
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is partnering with the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) to redesign VDOE’s online School Report Cards for public schools, school divisions, and the state. The views of stakeholders and other report card users are critical to the success of this project. CIT is gathering feedback from stakeholders and users through an online survey that is open to the public.
Providence Classical Presents ‘Truth, Beauty and Goodness’
Students from all grades at Providence Classical School will perform “He Shall Reign Forever in Truth, Beauty and Goodness” at 6 p.m. Saturday at Hornsby Middle School.
The show, which is free, benefits the PCS scholarship fund. Refreshments are provided by Starbucks, Martins, Fresh Market and Chick Fil-A’s Monticello Avenue location. The event is sponsored by Union First Market Bank. To reserve free tickets, click here.
HRA Students Build Model of School Addition
As construction continues on Hampton Roads Academy’s new academic wing, HRA’s Lower School students have been working on a construction project of their own.
Using building blocks, the students constructed their own replica of the new wing. It will feature five science laboratories and seven classrooms with fully integrated technology. Renovations throughout the Lower, Middle and Upper School divisions are also under way, and will be completed when school convenes for the fall 2013 semester.
