nothing short of a fundamental shift of thinking...

A fellow member of my PLC and I were invited to rub elbows with the big-wigs at the board office. We were to sit in and contribute to the conversation around the board-wide purchase of a new assessment tool for Math. What we are looking for, basically, is for a user-friendly tool for the average generalist teacher of math to administer several times throughout the year that would give us a snap-shot picture of how our students are progressing.

I sat in on two different presentations: Nelson Math presented their PRIME assessment tool, and I also sat in on the First Steps in Mathematics presentation. Both were incredibly interesting, comprehensive and very useful in terms of gathering information - however, both required nothing short of a fundamental shift of thinking... that’s all, nothing else really. I kept coming back to the picture in my head of my teaching partner (bless her soul, she’s great but...) who’s idea of math is still mired in an old-school philosophy, rooted firmly in an idea that good math starts with basic skills. This would be a HUGE undertaking to get her to the place where she can both think deeply and flexibly about mathematics, as well as moving all of her students towards that ideal.

These programs both require intensive teacher training: 3 - 5 DAYS of training just for the Number strand. To get the entire board on board (ha!) with this would be monumental. It would be a massive undertaking to train all of our teachers to become, basically, experts in mathematics, whereas most elementary teachers do not possess any degree whatsoever in post-secondary mathematics.

It would be hugely beneficial - and I, for one, cry out in a loud, earnest voice, that it is high time for a change in the way we teach math. We can no longer be shackled to the ideas foisted upon us by how we were taught math - it didn’t work then, in a world deemed rustic and antiquated by today’s standards, let alone what standards our future holds for us. When we are still slamming our heads against walls killing ourselves over teaching long division, when the reality is that most of us have never had to use that procedure outside of the 4th grade classroom where we (dis)learned it, why are still at it? What service are we doing for our children?

What we need is nothing short of a miracle: we need a quick and painless tool to deeply uncover and plan for our students’ incredibly diverse and complex mathematical needs. That’s all, nothing more. Perhaps it could take 5 minutes to administer, maybe 2 minutes to mark. Results could be colour-coded, graphs could be made, decisions made, money doled out... Is that really too much to ask for? Do we really need something that deeply and permanently disrupts and changes, thereby improving, they way we’ve been taught/teaching math?

The unsettling answer is:


yes.