Saturday 8 February 2014

KISS Long Division

Here is a link to a demonstration of the KISS long division method.  Thank you for your patience.

http://showme.com/sh/?h=jS4xV5c

Friday 7 February 2014

Valentine Brunch Sign Up

Next Thursday, February 13th, we will be celebrating Valentine's Day with a brunch. Parents, please click on the link below to sign up for treats.  I, or Mrs. Turon, will contact you early next week to confirm.

Thank you!

Tuesday 4 February 2014

First Steps in Math

Welcome back from an extended weekend!  While students and parents enjoyed a day without classes, the teachers at Beaumont School were hard at work at the Pembina Trails SD board office enjoying free coffee and video gaming...

...Just kidding!  But I knew that'd get your attention.  Our PD inservice topic was actually all about math; First Steps in Math, as a matter of fact.  FSiM is a program brought to our division from Australia to train teachers to identify the misconceptions students have about math, and provides suggested activities to address these weaknesses and strengthen students' concept of numbers and how they work.

Mrs. Wood and I have both had previous training in the FSiM method, and appreciate having the opportunity to revisit and refresh our understanding of the program.  Oftentimes, Mrs. Wood and I have success teaching new procedures and ideas in math class, only to have students flounder or get frustrated due to estimation errors, or basic fact mistakes.  Our FSiM refresher reminded me about the importance of addressing those misunderstandings and common errors before proceeding with new content.   This supports our teaching earlier this year about the importance of having a solid base of math skills and understanding to support future learning.

Some of the ideas that stuck with me the most yesterday include:

-the importance of probing for understanding in order to make sure students aren't getting the right answers for the wrong reasons
-the importance of teaching students first, then the curriculum
-the importance of fluency in basic math fact recall- this ensures that the brain is not overloaded with "remembering the small stuff", leaving it without any resources to "learn the new stuff". 
-the power of authentic, hands-on activities and problems to solidify learning (not just pencil and worksheet tasks)
-the importance of developing rigor (or "stick-with-it"ness) in math learning

Over the next few weeks, in addition to our curriculum based lessons in math (fractions and decimals coming soon!), I will be conducting a few small assessment tasks to determine if individual students are currently operating in math with misconceptions (i.e. getting the right answers (or wrong) for the wrong reasons).  As we work through these tasks, identified students will receive additional tutorials at recess or "at-home" tasks to help address and correct any issues.  In addition, the students of 5/6We have been recently introduced to the XtraMath.org website to help strengthen their fluency in math facts.   We will be logging in "at school" for the first time tomorrow.  Students are encouraged to log into the site for one 5 minute session per day.   As we don't have daily access to the Beaumont computer lab,  please let me know if you have difficulty accessing the site from home,

I am very much looking forward to the next few weeks ahead!

S. Welbergen