February is Black History Month, and it is is a good place to start if you want to show students a diversity of Scientists in STEM. I’m putting together a calendar for each of the weekdays in February highlighting current and historical Black Canadians and others from around the world engaged in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Clicking on the name links in the actual calendar gets you to some biographical information about that person. You can find the calendar at Black in Stem 2021 Week 1  I will be updating it for each week in February.

 

 

You might also want to check out this assignment idea, A Scientist Like Me, if you want to diversify what your students think of as a mathemetician or scientist.

Spring 2021 will see some good math (and science) professional development opportunities. Take a look at the Jan Mar 2021 Newsletter V 2 if you haven’t received it via your school. There is a math routines series (you can attend one or all of them) and a book club for Peter Liljedahl’s new Building Thinking Classrooms. We are also running a series called Impactful Differentiation to help teachers plan for the range of access points and interests in their classes. Sign up on the Staff Development Calendar or contact me at donna.morgan@burnabyschools.ca if you want further information. The Building Thinking Classrooms session is quite popular, so if you end up on the wait list, don’t worry, I will be expanding the group and holding another session.

Access and Equity in Math

The events of last week in US have again highlight issues of racism and equity. A group of about 25 teachers has been exploring the book series, Access and Equity: Promoting High Quality Mathematics which has us looking at ways to reframe our beliefs about who are capable math learners, adopting approaches that engage all students in math discourse, and looking at the roles and responsibilities of teaching math in an equitable fashion. Contact Donna.Morgan@burnabyschools.ca if you would like to see some of the resources we have used to further this discussion.

One important factor for teachers is to increase the representation of different groups in our math content. Two new books can help us do that. The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity by Amy Alznauer is a beautiful picture book that tells the story of Ramanujan from his early childhood mathematical ponderings to his reinvention of much of modern mathematics. A supportive website includes activities for teachers and students.

Another recent and award winning publication is a series of biographies combined with activities for young people: Women Who Count by Dr Shelly M Jones. This book highlights African American women mathematicians. Details can be found on Dr. Jones’ website.

Number Talks

Would you like to start using more math talk and productive discussion in your classroom but aren’t sure how to begin? Contact me to set up a demonstration math talk in your class (virtually for the time being). Contact me Donna.Morgan@burnabyschools.ca