The education committee met at Garner last Tuesday to discuss issues surrounding the mathematics departments in the district. The main topics of discussion were teacher efficacy, the curriculum and interdependent work with students. The discussion was led by Kirsten Wendlandt, the K-6th grade mathematics coordinator for the district.
“The ICCSD mathematics program exists to ensure that all students engage in rigorous mathematics, have access to effective teaching and have access to learning with high expectations,” Wendlandt said.
Teacher efficacy was a highlighted point of discussion throughout the night, with 7-12th grade mathematics coordinator Kate Degner speaking on the topic.
“Teacher efficacy sort of wraps around everything else that we do… highly efficacious teachers are more likely to try out new teaching ideas, techniques, and share control of the classroom with their students,” Degner said.
The relationship between student and teacher can highly influence the level of learning, according to Wendlandt. The plan for the upcoming school years is to shift the learning focus from just on the teacher to a more community-based system, with the entire class participating.
“We’re really trying to shift and redefine what a math class looks like…what we’ve done is we’ve taken all 22 of our elementaries this year and put them into small cohorts that are going to meet six times throughout the year,” Wendlandt said.
One of the main concerns with this topic has been the time that may be lost during traveling between schools. However, the education board believes that the time outside of the classroom and the opportunity to learn from other schools will ultimately make up for it.
For the junior highs, the focus was also on shifting from teacher-focused to student-focused, using the method of illustrative math.
“I’m co-teaching in five different classrooms this year that are piloting illustrative math materials, so three days a week I’m in the classrooms and I may pick up on things that teachers will miss,” Degner said. “Student discussion is an integral part of this discussion, and the students themselves present multiple solution strategies for solving the same problem.”
The next school board meeting is on Tuesday, and you can listen to past meetings here.
