By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
A new “Math in Focus” program at Crim Elementary School is adding up to success for students there.
Crim Principal Melanie Garbig explained to the Bowling Green Board of Education Tuesday that a math enrichment and intervention program in second grade at that school is making a big difference with students and their test scores.
In the past, Crim was put on the “watched” school list by the state due to several students with disabilities, Garbig said.
The new program puts math into a “real world” context. Students learn to apply their skills in the world, not just compute the numbers. And intervention is quick when a student is not grasping the concept.
“We’re seeing that it’s making a difference,” Garbig said. “You can watch how their wheels turn,” when math concepts click for students.
The teachers have team meetings each week to stay on top of the students’ needs. And they created a “spiral” that keeps refreshing the skills already learned.
The math success is seen continuing into future grades, with some fifth graders tackling a bit of algebra.
“Students definitely are expanding further than we ever did,” Garbig said.
The board asked how parents were reacting to the “Math in Focus.” Teacher Stacey Higgins explained that the homework sent home covers math topics that the students are secure with. Any “stretching” with math is done in the classroom, she said.
The board also asked how the teachers were adapting to the new math concept, since it is so different than the way the learned to instruct math.
“This is not how I was taught to teach math,” Higgins said. However, she added that the Bowling Green district has been supportive of its teachers learning the latest concepts.
“While my training was now 20 years ago, and times were quite different – and continue to change for my colleagues at five and 10 years from training as well – I think what really matters is that we have had the opportunity to work in a great district that has honored ‘good teaching’ regardless of program,”
Higgins said after the board meeting.
“Whether we are teaching ‘Everyday Math’ or ‘Math in Focus,’ ‘Common Core’ or ‘NCTM’ standards, we have had administrators that emphasize we are teaching students not programs, and that good teaching transcends any series or materials,” Higgins said. “It is that support that empowers the teachers to tweak and revise instructional decisions and plans to best meet the needs of our students.”
Also at Tuesday’s board of education meeting, Garbig passed out copies of the elementary school’s newspaper. She said a fifth grader came into her office one day and told her that he had a dream – to start a school newspaper. The copies given to the board members were the result of his dream becoming reality.
