Minutes of Meeting 2/19/04 at Jewish Day School

 

Present:  Susan Fain, Ayana Touval, and Reuben Silberman from the CES Jewish Day School; Paul Penniman, private tutor; Nancy Wright, Washington Episcopal School; Dorothy Prats, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School; Syamala Chenulu, Capitol Hill Day School; Susan Harris, Queen Anne School; Lee Goldman and Susan Cowart, Madeira School; Stan Smith, Norwood School; Donna Nicholson and Margot Calcut, Connelly School of the Holy Child; Betsy Bennett, St. Albans; Beth Cole, St. Patrick’s.

 

Middle School Math Meets

One was cancelled because of snow and will probably not be made up this year.  Suggestion was made to have a snow make-up date in the schedule next year.

 

The first Middle School Math Meet for school year ’04-’05 will be held at The Langley School on October 5, 2004.

 

Treasurer’s Report

A report was passed out reflecting a balance of  $1,190.65.  Payment to the Middle School question writer is still outstanding.  However, since some schools have not yet paid this year, the balance should still be about $1,000.00, which is fine.

 

Since there was no speaker on the topic of Learning Differences, everyone shared experiences they had observed from their own classrooms dealing with students who have difficulty.

  1. Some students can’t process words mentally and tune out after a short time.
  2. Some students have difficulty taking notes.  The ‘Smart Boards’ can help here since can access teachers work on board later without having to take notes for themselves.  Otherwise, they should be encouraged to get notes from another student.
  3. Many students don’t or have difficulty reading a math book.  It is hard to get them to do this, especially in more basic classes, but can be of great value to them when they master this skill.
  4. They need a safe place in which to say ‘I don’t understand.’
  5. Handwriting is a problem for some students.  Neatness should be stressed.

 

 

 

Suggestions were then shared and discussed.

  1. Synopsis seems to work for some students.  Write down ‘why we do what we do.’  Provide a ‘cookbook’ approach for them.
  2. Have a student or group of students teach a lesson.
  3. Teach them how to read a math book; slowly and with a paper and pencil to do problems.
  4. For advanced class (AP Calculus), give pairs of students a blank piece of paper and have them write down what they remember from homework reading from previous night.
  5. For younger students (6th grade), at the beginning of the year teacher makes Big Idea Sheet at the end of each unit.  By end of the year, students are doing this.
  6. Have students write a paragraph at the end of each unit.
  7. ‘Shake’ things up from time to time in the classroom, for example, change the routine in the classroom, change the seating (suggestion of giving out colored popsicle sticks as students walk in indicating where they are to sit).
  8. Have music in the background for tests and group work time.  This may help some but may be a distraction for others.
  9. Students need to participate.  ‘Math is Not a Spectator Sport’  As there is much TV in students’ lives, teachers can be viewed as the entertainer.
  10. Handout was provided by Betsy that was part of their Professional Development dealing with multiple intelligences:  “Translating Brain Research into Classroom Practice and Multiple Intelligence Theory” presented by David Ghoogasian.  Paul has copies if anyone is interested.
  11. Syamala reported that the most recent “Educational Leadership” magazine has a good article about math and science teaching.  Dorothy has a good article about math learning disabilities and will send it along.

 

The next meeting will be Wednesday, April 28, and will discuss next year’s leadership and the schedule. 

 

Unfortunately, I had to leave before the end of the meeting and do not know what wrap-up there was.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Susan Cowart

The Madeira School

scowart@madeira.org

(703) 556-8217