Feb, 2015 – DreamIT Update
Preparations for the math competition are going well. Math club meeting during the school day were well attended – better attendance than afterschool meetings. Students were committed to sports & other extra-curricular activities so they wanted to meet for 20-30 minutes during the lunch and recess period. During the math club meeting, students are using mental math, math tools and problem solving skills to to complete timed math activities. One of the most valuable outcomes of the students participating is the opportunity to explain their mathematical thinking when comparing answers or checking one another’s work. The mental math problems force them to use number sense to reason through problems quickly and often, in non-traditional ways. At the beginning of the school year, students were given a computation assessment and I’m anxious to see the post-test results after all the time spent helping students develop computation skills and number sense to reason through problems. Unfortunately, we had to withdraw from the Chicago City competition however, and the math club will continue to meet. My building houses two separate schools and after a meeting with the Dodge school middle school math teacher, we decided to have a combined school wide competition later in the year with teams from both schools composed of multi-grade members. We will also have a primary and 3-5th grade component in the competition – preparation for this event will also contribute to additional time spent developing number sense and computation fluency. At our recent Math PLC meeting, teachers at all grade level expressed interest in having math competition activities for all students so we’re excited to expand this opportunity beyond the middle school.
March 15, 2015 - Dream-IT Update:
Plans are well underway for our upcoming Parent Technology Workshop. It is scheduled for Wednesday, April 1, 2015 from 5:30-6:30 pm. This will be held in conjunction with our March Madness Basketball extravaganza – a fundraising activity for our middle school STEM trip to Washington D.C. The goal of the technology workshop for parents is to make them aware of and experience the online academic resources available to their children. We also hope to get parents to understand the necessity for technology access in their homes. Even during turbulent economic times, there are ways they can ensure their children have digital resources at home or in community venues (library, etc.). We intend to walk parents through several products that the school has purchased so they can see how their child will benefit. For example, www.ixl.com, the online math practice website. Parents will actually log in to the site, and be instructed to complete some problems so they can see the practice that’s available to their children and the “help” when their child answers a question incorrectly. Other sites that our school has paid for include Study Island, BrainPop, Odyssey Learning. We will also have parents create a product, such as an infographic or 3d design, so they will understand the types of technology-infused assignments we'd like their children to work on in school and at home.
Preparations for the math competition are going well. Math club meeting during the school day were well attended – better attendance than afterschool meetings. Students were committed to sports & other extra-curricular activities so they wanted to meet for 20-30 minutes during the lunch and recess period. During the math club meeting, students are using mental math, math tools and problem solving skills to to complete timed math activities. One of the most valuable outcomes of the students participating is the opportunity to explain their mathematical thinking when comparing answers or checking one another’s work. The mental math problems force them to use number sense to reason through problems quickly and often, in non-traditional ways. At the beginning of the school year, students were given a computation assessment and I’m anxious to see the post-test results after all the time spent helping students develop computation skills and number sense to reason through problems. Unfortunately, we had to withdraw from the Chicago City competition however, and the math club will continue to meet. My building houses two separate schools and after a meeting with the Dodge school middle school math teacher, we decided to have a combined school wide competition later in the year with teams from both schools composed of multi-grade members. We will also have a primary and 3-5th grade component in the competition – preparation for this event will also contribute to additional time spent developing number sense and computation fluency. At our recent Math PLC meeting, teachers at all grade level expressed interest in having math competition activities for all students so we’re excited to expand this opportunity beyond the middle school.
March 15, 2015 - Dream-IT Update:
Plans are well underway for our upcoming Parent Technology Workshop. It is scheduled for Wednesday, April 1, 2015 from 5:30-6:30 pm. This will be held in conjunction with our March Madness Basketball extravaganza – a fundraising activity for our middle school STEM trip to Washington D.C. The goal of the technology workshop for parents is to make them aware of and experience the online academic resources available to their children. We also hope to get parents to understand the necessity for technology access in their homes. Even during turbulent economic times, there are ways they can ensure their children have digital resources at home or in community venues (library, etc.). We intend to walk parents through several products that the school has purchased so they can see how their child will benefit. For example, www.ixl.com, the online math practice website. Parents will actually log in to the site, and be instructed to complete some problems so they can see the practice that’s available to their children and the “help” when their child answers a question incorrectly. Other sites that our school has paid for include Study Island, BrainPop, Odyssey Learning. We will also have parents create a product, such as an infographic or 3d design, so they will understand the types of technology-infused assignments we'd like their children to work on in school and at home.
