For many of us, math was something we did in school, or that
we engage in when we balance our checkbooks.
It is a necessary skill – a tool we need to manage our lives and do our
work. But it is rarely celebrated – except
at Seabury!
At Seabury, math is more than a collection of skills we tick
off a list – it is a way of thinking that can be challenging, fun, engaging,
and intriguing all at the same time.
Seabury’s teachers seek to develop strong math skills in their students,
and also to develop students’ mathematical thinking and love for discovering
new patterns and possibilities.
Most schools talk about differentiating instruction to meet
student needs. Looking at Seabury’s math
program you will see that Seabury takes differentiation to a level that is
unheard of for most schools. In our
effort to challenge each and every student every day, teachers have developed
strategies for tailoring math instruction to individual student needs through
the use of individualized instruction, flexible grouping, using a variety of
teaching tools (rather than just the math texts), and the use of open-ended
activities that allow students to go as deeply into a topic as their interest
and readiness will take them.
Here is a math problem for you. There are 25 students at the middle
school. Students are grouped by math ability
and readiness, and teachers have used six different texts (ranging from sixth grade, through pre-algebra, algebra and geometry) with students this year. Our middle school math teachers are currently
preparing students for final exams that will be given during the last week of
school. In order for each student to
take a final that is tailored to what she or he has studied this year, teachers
are How personalized does that
make Seabury’s math program?
But math isn’t just working in a small group or individually
with a teacher at Seabury. Students at
the lower school engage in “Math Adventures,” which are open ended activities
that allow students to explore interesting patterns, develop their mathematical
thinking, and explore the concept behind the algorithm for solving
problems. Students in the fourth-fifth
grade class have developed their mathematical thinking through working with
Math Pickles and
have solved complex puzzles that have stretched their understanding of factors
and prime numbers and patterns such as the Fibonacci sequence. Students at all levels have incorporated
math into art, and have made connections in the integrated curriculum to
math. Kindergarten students studying
marine life recently made a life-sized nurse shark, measuring carefully to make
sure it was the size of a real shark.
As with all of Seabury’s program, tailoring instruction to
meet individual needs, allowing student’s individual development to drive the
pace of instruction, and building understanding through engaging, challenging activities
drives math instruction. Our students
celebrate math because it’s fun, challenging, and it provides a chance to learn
something new at school every day. Come
celebrate with us!
– Sandi Wollum
