School’s family math night turns parents into students
A parent and student team up to explore the features of one of the Smart Boards used at Our Lady of Victories Elementary school. The school has integrated technology into the new curriculum to better prepare students for the future. Photograph by Claire Theobald.
By Claire Theobald
Parents became the students at Our Lady of Victories school during Family Math Night on Wednesday, April 6th. Parents were encouraged to take an active role in helping their children with math, and were introduced to the new math curriculum.
The curriculum leaves behind traditional lecture-style teaching in the classroom, said Joe Estephan, the math inquiry based learning consultant with Alberta Learning. Instead, it encourages teachers to embrace a new “inquiry based learning” method to promote creative problem solving and to better prepare students for the future.
“Traditionally, we would see a teacher at the front of the room, standing and delivering information, kids are probably writing down notes, or being told how to solve a problem, and then the kids would then go and do it,” Estephan said. “Now it’s totally [about] exploration.”
In a world of quickly advancing technology, educators are faced with the challenge of preparing students for future careers that may not even exist yet. The solution Estephan suggests is to create a more open, creative, and collaborative learning atmosphere, where students are allowed to use technology to explore subjects like math for themselves.
“As a teacher, and being a teacher, I have always left it open for kids,” Estephan said. “And I am always impressed with what they can come up with on their own, without me having to tell them what to do.”
The principal of Our Lady of Victories elementary school, takes a moment to pose for the camera while operating the parent student math night, part of an initiative to encourage parents to continue student learning in math at home. Photograph by Claire Theobald.
At Our Lady of Victories school, principal Marilyn Landreville says her staff has accepted the inquiry-based method into their current teaching practices, using smart boards and other computer programs and technology to help students learn.
“A part of our school growth plan this year was to really take a look at inquiry based learning,” said Landreville. “And math was a great focus.”
The parent night was created to familiarize parents with these new teaching methods, with the hopes that parents will try some of these techniques at home with their kids.
“They’re not quite sure what math entails these days,” Landreville said. “You know, if they grew up learning math just one on one with the teacher, or trying to do their own math, it’s a little different now with the fact that we work together as a team solving problems.”
Not only did parents have the opportunity to speak with Estephan about the curriculum, teachers set up different math based activities to showcase creative ways of teaching math. Landreville believes that these techniques will appeal to different learning styles, and therefore make math education more inclusive.
“Manipulative may work for one child, while another one might just in their brain be able to think of what to do, while another might have to talk it out,” Landreville said. “So, this new method certainly allows for that.”
A father and son explore math in a new way at a "math restaurant set up by the grade five class as a part of the parent student math night held at Our Lady of Victories elementary school. The school is looking to find new ways of getting parents involved with student learning at home. Photograph by Claire Theobald.
Kevin, one of the parents who attended the night, looks forward to using some of the techniques he learned to help his 11-year-old son practice math at home.
“We can play a lot more games,” said Kevin. “It makes [math] more fun.”
Teachers also introduced parents to the smart boards, part of the initiative to integrate technology into every day studies. Parents and students had the opportunity to play with the devices together, while teacher Laura Blythe shared how she uses the technology to engage her math students.
“The smart board allows them to be interactive, and they’re totally zoned into it,” Blythe said. “They’re excited to see it and to use it, so it’s really improved teaching and learning.”
Although she hasn’t completely turned her back on traditional teaching methods, one change in her classroom has been the replacement of practice sheets in exchange for more group exercises.
“It allows a different mode of teaching the information to the kids,” Blythe added. “I still use old fashioned stuff, [like] putting examples on the board, but I always integrate Smart Board stuff.”
This new teaching method represents a drastic shift in the way students are taught. Gone are the days when a teacher expected the students to regurgitate facts, paving the way for student driven learning that prepares students for a future that is anything but certain.
“It’s not so much the answer, but how you get there,” Landreville said.
For more information, and for tips you can use for your own children, check out the Alberta education website.
