UNION SPRINGS - A group of math teachers at the Union Springs Central School District have not let the dog days of summer turn their minds off.
Jason Rearick / The Citizen
Fourth-grade teacher Amanda Heath, left, and fifth-grade math teacher Lorie Colbert coordinate the math curriculum for the two classes at the Union Springs High School auditorium Wednesday morning.
Fourth-grade teacher Amanda Heath, left, and fifth-grade math teacher Lorie Colbert coordinate the math curriculum for the two classes at the Union Springs High School auditorium Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday, 12 math teachers representing nearly all grade levels congregated at the Union Springs Middle-High School to prioritize the mathematics curriculum for the 2007-2008 academic year. They will be working on the curriculum through Friday.
Teachers formed groups by grade level to map out New York state's math curriculum. Each aspect of the curriculum was printed on a slip of paper, and teachers had to determine if the concept was essential to math education, requiring 70 percent of instructional time; important, utilizing 20 percent of instructional time; or compact, taking up 10 percent of instructional time.
Once determined, the teachers taped the slips to an easel-size sheet of paper, which was divided into thirds representing the three categories. The map will later be formed into a flow chart, which will outline the broad goal of the year-long math courses and identify what the teachers believe to be the key concepts students need to master.
“When we get together it's saying to staff, ‘Okay, based on our data, test scores and observations of student results, what is it that we can give a little less of our energy to, and what do we need to spend time on so we can put our arms around it,'” said Karen Durcroff, principal of the A.J. Smith Elementary School and K-12 Math Program Coordinator for the district.
The curriculum issued by the state, if strictly followed, would require teachers to spend a great deal of time on subject areas, according to Durcroff.
“We're trying to make it manageable,” she said. “It's all important, but we also have to make it fit into our school day.”
“Instead of getting a document which is huge and very hard to understand, making us feel like 'Oh my gosh, what do I teach,' (mapping) breaks it down, makes it so much clearer in our minds,” said Morgan Bonney, a kindergarten teacher for Cayuga Elementary School.
“It makes it clear what we should be teaching,” said Cayuga first-grade teacher Renee Lipiska.
Prioritizing the curriculum is especially important at the high school level, said Mike Putnam, a ninth-grade teacher at the middle-high school.
“In theory we don't know what's going to be on the regents because it's a new exam,” he said. “We need to map out what we have to teach.”
In 2004, the Board of Regents recommended that the three semester-long Math A and B courses, which were first implemented in 1999 to replace Sequential One, Two and Three, be phased out in favor of three, one-year courses covering algebra, geometry and trigonometry.
The Integrated Algebra Regents Exam will be introduced for the 2007-2008 school year, with geometry and algebra 2 and trigonometry following in June 2009 and 2010, respectively.
Generating a curriculum map is not just for teachers, Durcroff said.
“This conversation will help answer the age-old essential question: Why do I need to learn this?” she said. “Is it for economics? Is math career oriented? We will be getting kids to see the big picture of why they will be needing math skills.”
The mapping strategy is a blended program from the Cayuga-Onondaga and Madison-Oneida Board of Cooperative Educational Services that has been tailored to meet Union Spring's individual needs, according to Linda Rice, district superintendent.
Prioritizing content areas is part of the district's five year plan voted on in the fall of 2005, she said.
“One of our main goals was to articulate a curriculum that would be a living and breathing document that we could revisit and have that happen in all content areas,” she said.
The district has already prioritized the curricula for English Language Arts, social studies and science, and are working on curricula for physical education and art, among others.
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net
Teachers formed groups by grade level to map out New York state's math curriculum. Each aspect of the curriculum was printed on a slip of paper, and teachers had to determine if the concept was essential to math education, requiring 70 percent of instructional time; important, utilizing 20 percent of instructional time; or compact, taking up 10 percent of instructional time.
Once determined, the teachers taped the slips to an easel-size sheet of paper, which was divided into thirds representing the three categories. The map will later be formed into a flow chart, which will outline the broad goal of the year-long math courses and identify what the teachers believe to be the key concepts students need to master.
“When we get together it's saying to staff, ‘Okay, based on our data, test scores and observations of student results, what is it that we can give a little less of our energy to, and what do we need to spend time on so we can put our arms around it,'” said Karen Durcroff, principal of the A.J. Smith Elementary School and K-12 Math Program Coordinator for the district.
The curriculum issued by the state, if strictly followed, would require teachers to spend a great deal of time on subject areas, according to Durcroff.
“We're trying to make it manageable,” she said. “It's all important, but we also have to make it fit into our school day.”
“Instead of getting a document which is huge and very hard to understand, making us feel like 'Oh my gosh, what do I teach,' (mapping) breaks it down, makes it so much clearer in our minds,” said Morgan Bonney, a kindergarten teacher for Cayuga Elementary School.
“It makes it clear what we should be teaching,” said Cayuga first-grade teacher Renee Lipiska.
Prioritizing the curriculum is especially important at the high school level, said Mike Putnam, a ninth-grade teacher at the middle-high school.
“In theory we don't know what's going to be on the regents because it's a new exam,” he said. “We need to map out what we have to teach.”
In 2004, the Board of Regents recommended that the three semester-long Math A and B courses, which were first implemented in 1999 to replace Sequential One, Two and Three, be phased out in favor of three, one-year courses covering algebra, geometry and trigonometry.
The Integrated Algebra Regents Exam will be introduced for the 2007-2008 school year, with geometry and algebra 2 and trigonometry following in June 2009 and 2010, respectively.
Generating a curriculum map is not just for teachers, Durcroff said.
“This conversation will help answer the age-old essential question: Why do I need to learn this?” she said. “Is it for economics? Is math career oriented? We will be getting kids to see the big picture of why they will be needing math skills.”
The mapping strategy is a blended program from the Cayuga-Onondaga and Madison-Oneida Board of Cooperative Educational Services that has been tailored to meet Union Spring's individual needs, according to Linda Rice, district superintendent.
Prioritizing content areas is part of the district's five year plan voted on in the fall of 2005, she said.
“One of our main goals was to articulate a curriculum that would be a living and breathing document that we could revisit and have that happen in all content areas,” she said.
The district has already prioritized the curricula for English Language Arts, social studies and science, and are working on curricula for physical education and art, among others.
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net
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