Math Department Nuggets

Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30pm

Place: C209

Per Dr. Franklin:

Bring the following information with you to the meeting (compile the information during your planning period)

1. Identify your low level, on level, and high achiever students.

2. Identify what you are doing instructionally to meet each level of learners.

3. As a department we will discuss what you are doing instructionally to meet each level of learners and provide specific solutions.

Additionally:

1. Do not wait until grade posting time to enter zeros. That is not fair to the student or parent.

2. Reminder that 3 grades must be posted each week. I understand that every now and then you may fall behind, but that should not be the norm. I have been and will continue to run the grade posting report for verification. This is non-negotiable.

If anyone has any questions or concerns about the aforementioned information please let me (Dr. Franklin) know.

• October 9, 2015
• Ms. Watkins will be at Clarkston for Math Initiative Part II Training

• Seats are still available for the listed courses. Please have your teachers register if they need additional support. These sessions are for middle and high school teachers. See below. ~Dr. Bodison

  
  

  1. Coordinate Algebra - AM Session (Eligible teachers: Coordinate Algebra and Accelerated Coordinate Algebra/Analytic Geometry A teachers)

  
  

  2. Foundations of Algebra - PM Session (Eligible teachers: Foundations of Algebra - Grade 8 and Grade 9 teachers)

  
  

  3. Analytic Geometry - PM Session (Eligible teachers: Analytic Geometry and Accelerated Coordinate Algebra/Analytic Geometry A teachers)

• Departmental Fundraisers
• Competitive Math teams
• Grant Writing
• Pi Day Activities
• Departmental Socials

The Georgia Governor’s Honors Program (GHP) is a residential summer program for gifted and talented high school students who will be rising juniors and seniors during the program. The program offers instruction that is significantly different from the typical high school classroom and that is designed to provide students with academic, cultural, and social enrichment necessary to become the next generation of global critical thinkers, innovators, and leaders.

GHP is held in mid-summer (mid-June to mid-July) as a residential educational experience on a college or university campus. Students attend classes in the mornings and afternoons in specific areas of study, and they participate in a wide variety of social and instructional opportunities every evening. Meals and rooms are provided by the program with the only required and expected costs to the students being travel expenses to and from the interviews, a few basic supplies for classes and dorm rooms, and spending money as desired during the program.

Ms. T. Morgan, of the counseling department, is heading this initiative. It is open to 10th and 11th graders and we would like to send at least 50 students from Arabia. In the math department, we would like to send students who are truly interested in the participating in the program - who are good math students, can work collaboratively, who can persevere in problem solving situations, and can commit to the program. If you teach 10th and 11th graders, inquire about their interest and then complete the nomination form, located in an email sent by Dr. Swanson (Keep in mind, the smartest students are not always the best students for this program).

DeKalb County school district, due to the competitive nature of the program, requires that students have a 3.5 GPA in the area of nomination. The nominating areas include:

• Agriculture Science
• Communicative Arts
• Dance
• Engineering (Design, Mechanical & Electrical, Mechatronics, or Software)
• Mathematics
• Music (Instrumental or Vocal)
• Science
• Social Studies
• Theater (Performance and Design)
• Visual Arts
• World Languages (Chinese, French, German, Latin, Mandarin, Spanish) Native speakers cannot be nominated.
  

Students may only be nominated in one area. Please see the attached nomination form and give a deserving student a wonderful educational opportunity! Nomination forms should be concise, but detailed, because they will be compared to other student's nomination forms across the district for the initial cut.

Nominations are due to Ms. Morgan by Monday, October 5, 2015. This date is necessary so that she can work with students on their portion of the local application, as well as get her portion of the application ready for submission before the county deadline.

• Utilize Number and Math Talks in your classroom
• Utilize ExploreLearning, Usatestprep, First in Math
• Close Reading
• Notetaking
• FALs
• Improve RIGOR in your lessons, quizzes, and tests (Dr. Green's initiative)

If you have any questions about these, feel free to ask Ms. Watkins or Ms. Lee

• Increase rigor
• Lesson Plans must be posted by Monday, 8 am. I will send a reminder in the morning, check again at noon, and then send my report to Dr. Franklin.
• Lessons should include hands on activities that require students to THINK. Book work and below level work is not sufficient; students should be doing challenging math in class.
• Use other teachers and Google, to find resources for your class. It is your responsibility to seek out resources to enhance student learning.
• Utilize subject teams for planning and the creation of common unit assessments. You may not test on the same day, however, you should be using the same test.
• Display student work
• Display your standards
• Check your emails at least twice daily.

• Homework assignments shouldn't be more than 10 problems per night. Keep in mind that students have 7 other classes and may have homework in all 7 classes.
• Please choose HW problems thoughtfully; Choose a variety of problems for students to complete. Include word problems and problems that require them to explain their thinking (discussion questions)
• Review the answers but check HW to see if students are showing work. They must get into the habit of showing work.
• Encourage students to use PENCILS when completing math assignments.
• Encourage students to take notes. The Cornell Notes system is suggested, but you can modify this to you and your students' liking.
• Encourage students to watch videos at home so that you can focus on doing math in the classroom. Make them responsible by incorporating questions from the video into your warm-up/class openers.

• An order been placed for 300 licenses for MathXL. Once received, I will send the teachers the licensing info per student.
  
• Ms. Lee is heading the IXL initiative for Coordinate Algebra and Analytic Geometry Students
• Dr.Pfleger is heading the Catch Up Math Initiative for Coordinate Algebra and Geometry students
• In order to get students to purchase these programs, you must use them for HW (like WebAssign in science). The reason that we are moving to online HW is the issue of ACCOUNTABILITY!

Held during B Weeks on Tuesdays and Thursdays

Resources:

Virginia State Standards Of Learning Math Tests: Establish a baseline for your students

Usatestprep - Standards based Projector games

Braingenie - a free resource that can be used to set weekly goals, monitor student progress, and assign standards based assignments

Kutasoftware - Mr. Smith sent some worksheets and assessments created using Kutasoftware (check your email)

Points of concern: An actual schedule of implementation (everyone needs to be on the same page, not necessarily the same concept.

• Held weekly on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 4pm - 6pm
• Tutors: Ms. Lee, Mr. Sanon, and Ms. Watkins
• Target Audience: Students achieving on 8th grade level or below in math (Star Math results)
• Focus: Computational Fluency
• Pretest and Post Test: IKAN Tests

• First In Math (computational fluency) - A paid resource (DeKalb Cty has purchased the license), that uses games to improve computational fluency. Blue Envelope has login info for teacher and students.
• Braingenie - a free resource that can be used to set weekly goals, monitor student progress , and assign standards based assignments