OSD Happenings: An emphasis on math education
By Dr. Dennis Carter
Monday, October 27, 2008 11:02 AM PDT
While students were not in school Oct. 10, Ontario School District teachers were. Ontario teachers participated in a technology and math in-service that day. The course offerings were designed by staff members who serve on our Educational Technology Committee and our Math Teacher Leadership Team.
The in-service’s purpose was to help all teachers, regardless of the grade or subject they teach, explore tools and topics surrounding educational technology and the best practices in teaching math.
Many sessions were offered throughout the day, including The Oregon Virtual School District, multiplication fact strategies, developing high-quality math activities, using high-tech teaching devices, Oregon’s new math standards, measuring students’ math achievement and using “genuine questions” in all subjects.
“Genuine questions” are an example of a math-teaching technique that has applications to all subject matter. Genuine questions promote higher thinking. They are questions such as:
• Does that strategy work with all of the problems? Why or why not?
• How did you figure that out?
• What steps did you take to find the answer?
• What generalizations can you now make?
When students analyze their work in this manner, their understanding of a subject matter grows considerably.
This recent teacher in-service is just one example of the emphasis our district is placing on math education.
The 35 teachers who took a week-long class last summer on best practices in math education are now mentoring their colleagues at school and in professional development workshops such as this one.
We are grateful to our Math Leadership Team and Ed Tech Committee members for assisting in organizing this day and presenting this useful information to their peers.
Dr. Dennis Carter is the Ontario School District Superintendent. He can be reached at (541) 889-5374
