Burnaby Math

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

 

Choice Boards Ready

The Grade 8 and 9 choice boards, filled with meaningful tasks that span the curricular competencies and big ideas in mathematics, are finally up for your review and use.  Click here to see the full documents with all links and activities (and you will find the Grade 2-7 choice boards as well).

Pro D with Carole Fullerton on Friday

If you are interested in working on math professional develoment on Friday, Nov 27 and don’t have anything else planned, you are invited to join in with Carole Fullerton. She will be presenting to Burnaby about Place Value in Primary from 8:30-10 am and from 10:30-12 she will be presenting on Algebraic Thinking for grades 4-9. Details can be found here: Fullerton Nov 27 2020.

Welcome back to our new and strange reality. I know this is likely the most stressful back to school ever, fraught with uncertainty and fear.

Over the next while, I hope that I can be here to support you. I think that collaboration and turning to each other are the best ways to deal with all of these changes in a way that is educationally sound and preserves our (and our students’) mental health.  If you are struggling with how to deal with your math program this fall, or if you are a high school teacher faced with planning daily 2 hr lessons for grade 8’s and 9’s, or dealing with a hybrid environment for your graduation level students, please reach out! I’m devoting September to 1:1 support and preparing information and documents that might help you.  Contact me at donna.morgan@burnabyschools.ca or through my district phone at 604-760-6157.

To find some choice boards for math, go to our Burnaby Shares page on this blog.  In addition, I will be posting shortly a prioritized summary of our key big ideas (K-9) so that you can focus your teaching. Coming soon too will be socially distant ideas for games and activities in math.

Math Chats

I know it is hard to find time for pro d right now, but you might want to move forward with some new routines/ideas in your math program.  As a result, I will be using weekly math chats, starting Sept 24, to focus on some routines. Now is a good time to get our students engaged with routines, so that they will be easy to continue if we move to different phases.  Each Thursday, starting at 12:15,I will give a very brief (less than 15 min) presentation with plenty of time to ask questions either about the topic or on other math items.

Topics coming up:

Sept 24—Math Routines—Number Talks

Oct 1—Math Routines—Which One Doesn’t Belong

Oct 8—Math Routines—Estimate!

Zoom Meeting

https://ca01web.zoom.us/j/5867791012?pwd=aitxMDdWb2NETTFlR3F2c1FvejNTZz09

Meeting ID: 586 779 1012

Passcode: ILOVEMATH

Week (or more) of Inspirational Math

If you are not yet familiar with it, I would urge you to spend this first week (at least) using some of the great videos and teaching activities from Jo Boaler and the Stanford Math Ed team’s YouCubed.Org blog. You can quickly customize a lesson plan that will engage students and build their mathematical mindsets. Find the site here.  I particularly recommend showing some mindset building videos to improve student confidence in math.

Math Outdoors

Consider taking math outdoors. This needn’t be limited to primary classrooms, as much sophisticated math can be found in the natural and built environment around us. Find lots of ideas in this publication about Math Trails. Or consider this calculus investigation about the type of unusual wall in the image at right (thanks Jenn Cowley from BNSS). There’s plenty of math to be found outdoors and at a safe social distance.

Teacher Tech Tip: Simple Document Camera

So are you wishing you had a tablet now that you have to do hybrid lessons? Here are two simple ways to get the equivalent of a document camera: use this app with your smartphone or order this clip that can turn your laptop camera into a document camera. I’m not making light of our current difficulties, but these might be some solutions if you need usable tech quickly.  If you deferred replacement of your tablet, you can now order one, and the teacher purchase price has dropped considerably.  But I will caution you that COVID has slowed some of the production of laptops, so your replacement will not be instant.