Supporting Students

1. Community

1.1. Science World

1.1.1. Teacher Night Out: Once a term (every time Science World releases a new exhibit) teachers are invited to Science World free of charge to explore and get lesson plans. Science World provides dinner and parking vouchers and teachers are provided with some free resources (prizes) for their classroom and a discount at the science store. The last exhibit was patterns in the natural world (sometime Math related and sometimes Science focused). see Teachers' Night Out for more details!

1.1.2. Bursaries: Science World also provides bursaries which cover 100% of the entrance fees for 2 classes per school and up to $500 for transportation to and from Science World.

1.1.3. Professional Development offerings

1.1.4. Outreach programs

1.2. Public Library

1.2.1. Field Trips are available to get students familiar with the public libraries and can help kids get their own library card. You can then encourage students to attend the public library more frequently

1.3. Local High Schools: As part of a Family of Schools initiative, I have created an after-school Math Buddies Club in which Math Leaders from Kwantlen Park Secondary come to my school once a week and play math games with some of our students who struggle with Math! It is creating a great bonding experience that is linking our feeder school and our high school. These high school students are getting excellent leadership experience and my students are getting a very special learning experience.

1.4. Science and Innovation Fair (school district and then onto provinicals). Moving away from a traditional Science Fair, Surrey is moving towards more of an innovation fair - with an aim to helping with real world problems. see Science - Pages for more details.

1.5. Kumon: Kumon is one of the many after school learning resource centers that offer after school one-on-one help.

1.6. Sports: As kids play and watch sports, they can be exposed to numbers in many ways. Recognizing the numbers on the back of jerseys, counting through keeping score, and in some sports, skip counting too!

1.7. Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences: Offers to pay teachers to attend an extra 4 weeks of professional development during the summer. https://www.pims.math.ca/educational/math-summer-school-elementary-school-teachers Their intention is to invest in educators with an end goal of creating a more enthusiastic Math culture at 7 different schools a year.

2. Home

2.1. Playing games that incorporate Math

2.1.1. 15 Math Games in 15 Minutes or Less | Scholastic

2.1.2. Chess, Checkers, Uno, Cribbage, Rummikub, Sequence, Dominoes. Mahjong, Sleeping Queens; Tetris; Turing Tumble, Quirkle, Dice Games, Monopoly, Hearts, and Go Fish

2.1.3. https://www.ecac-parentcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Family-Math-Night-to-Go-.pdf

2.2. Limit Technology: Explain how the use of too much technology can create deficits in a childs development. from ages 0-3, a critical age of development, too much screen time can interfere with the growth of their frontal lobe. This can result in decreased ability to focus and/or concentrate, a lowered sense of others' attitudes, and a decreased vocabulary (Margalit, L. (2016) What screen time can really do to kids' brains accessed from https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/behind-online-behavior/201604/what-screen-time-can-really-do-kids-brains)

2.3. Foster a Growth Mindset: Carol Dweck has done a lot of research into how parents should put less of an emphasis on a childs' intelligence and put more emphasis on the work ethic of their children. If a child believes that they cannot do something, then they are less likely to think that their efforts will be worth their time. Children need to understand that everybody has the capability to succeed with enough effort, practice, and patience. (Dweck, C. (2015) The secret to raising smart kids https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids1/)

2.4. Encourage reading and find literature that is math-based

2.5. When students are able to make mistakes without the pressure of failure or poor, permanent grades, they are able to succeed with less pressure and anxiety. Allow students to make mistakes and learn from them. Create teachable moment through these mistakes! Kids should pay more attention to mistakes, study suggests

3. School

3.1. Developing a Growth Mindset in the Classroom

3.1.1. Teacher Pay TEachers Growth Mindset ACtivity Bundle (Growth Mindset Activity Bundle

3.2. Early Numeracy Teacher: to provide assistance to the classroom teacher in early primary grades.

3.3. STEM

3.3.1. Mindset in the Classroom: Everything Educators Need for School Success by Mary Cay Ricci. Please see Ready-to-Use Resources for Mindsets in the Classroom: Everything Educators Need for Building Growth Mindset Learning Communities: Mary Cay Ricci: 0787721992738: Books - Amazon.ca

3.3.2. Make Do Kits have been provided by the district which encourage engineering and designing. their website Makedo - Cardboard Construction – Makedo Cardboard Construction

3.3.3. OSMO kits to be used in conjunction with iPad (and a free app). OSMO is a tile-based interactive educational system to encourage learning through play. Can be used for coding, numeracy, drawing and spelling. see Osmo | Real Play, Real Learning for more information.

3.4. Teacher Professional Development

3.4.1. Discovery Education Professional Development: Day of Discovery

3.4.2. Counting Collections

3.4.3. Discovery Education Professional Development: Day of Discovery

3.4.3.1. Discovery Education Math Techbook

3.4.3.2. Make Do Kits and how to use them

3.4.4. BCAMT (British Columbia Association of Math Teachers) host conferences every year to aid in professional development. On their website you can find professional development ideas, resources for teaching, academic journals and more! See Amazing Math Websites – BCAMT for more ideas!

3.5. LST (Learning Support Teachers): These teachers are available to support students who struggle with both literacy and numeracy. They specialize in small-group instruction which can cater to specific needs of the students.

3.6. Literature

3.6.1. Epic! Instantly access 35,000 high-quality books for kids

3.6.2. Class or school Library

3.6.3. Resources for math books:

3.6.3.1. 13 Classic Mathematics Books for Lifelong Learners

3.6.3.2. 16 Picture Books About Math to Inspire Curious Kids - WeAreTeachers

3.6.3.3. Free Math Apps

3.6.3.4. childrens-booklists

3.6.3.5. RECOMMENDATIONS

3.6.3.6. Math for Kids--Best Childrens Books for Teachng Math

3.7. Parents Night Out: Parents can come into school for a night of math games either with their children or without. They can take home some reproducible games to play and potentially take home some resources to play those games with (dice, cards, counters, etc). Show the parents what you are doing in your class so they can better understand how to support their children at home.

3.8. Providing manipulatives and multiple methods of communicating ideas

3.8.1. Technology: iPads, Laptops, Apps, STEM materials, calculators

3.8.2. Manipulatives: fraction tiles, miras, geoboards, blocks, rods and units, clocks, cards, dice, whiteboards, markers, graphing paper, number lines, hundreds charts, ten frames, counting collections, etc.