We met for lunch to share a little bit of what we experienced in the morning sessions. We all had positive things to say about the sessions we attended. We would need more time to talk later. Michelle and I attended our first session together this morning. The focus was on technology. Because our classroom blog is our next goal, we thought it was wise to listen to the presenter together. It was informative and relevant. The presenter was Dr. Elaine Weber. To learn more about what Dr. Weber shared with the audience, read the post that Michelle and I wrote during the presentation titled Technology In The Classroom.
After lunch I was on to the first breakout session of the afternoon. It was really difficult to decide where to go because there were so many choices. Top on my list was Mathematics Navigator: A Safety Net Program For Struggling Students by Angela Phillips and Rick Pinchot from Chets Creek Elementary School in Jacksonville, Florida. O.K. I know that flying all the way to the west coast to listen to my friends present was just a little selfish, so I decided to attend Breaking Through In Math Profieciency presented by a team of educators from Hawaii.
Breaking through to Math Proficiency
Presented by Faye Ogilvie
Honaunau Elementary School, Hawaii
The principal of Honaunau School shared the story of her school. They have 158 students and are a cohort 1 America's Choice school! In 2006, 60% of the 158 students met proficiency in reading, with 24% of the students doing the same in math. They missed AYP in math by 4%.
As a result they decided to make their focus on the math workshop. They knew they had to do in math what they had done in reading. They began by moving the math block to the morning. They developed a parent program to engage them in the student's mathematical understanding. The principal shared that their entire faculty and staff made a solid commitment to improve math instruction and it worked. Their math scores jumped 19% in 2007. It was inspiring to listen to the presenters successes.
1 comment:
Wow! I can't believe they only have 158 students in their entire school. We have over 200 in fifth grade alone. Must have been interesting to talk to the Hawaii school leaders.
Lori M.
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