Seattle Schools seeks members for Math Adoption Committee
From SPS:
Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is accepting applications from SPS families and community members interested in serving on the District’s Math Adoption Committee.
The committee will advise SPS on the selection of mathematics instructional materials for kindergarten through Grade 5 students that meet the new Common Core State Standards for mathematics. The goal is to have materials adopted in time for the 2014-15 school year.
The committee will be composed of mathematics teachers from Seattle Public Schools, as well as community and family members with experience in mathematics and with a wide range of skills, knowledge, experience, and working style. The goal is to ensure diversity in race/ethnicity, gender, school/student population representation, and perspectives.
Applications are due to the Math Adoption coordinator no later than Oct. 16, 2013. Those selected as committee members will be notified by email or by telephone during the first week of November.
The Math Adoption committee will require a commitment of approximately 50 hours between November 2013 and spring 2014, including a minimum of four daytime meetings, each runningfrom 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Additional meeting dates and alternate times may be necessary.
The first meeting date is tentatively scheduled for Friday, Nov. 15, 2013, at the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence, 2445 3rd Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98134.
Those interested in serving on the Math Adoption Committee should complete the application form (Word or PDF) and email, fax or mail it to Math Adoption Coordinator, Curriculum and Instruction, by Oct. 16, 2013.
The email address is mathadoption@seattleschools.org
The mailing address is:
P.O. Box 34165, MS 32-156
Seattle, WA 98124-1165
The fax number is (206) 252-0179.
The committee will advise SPS on the selection of mathematics instructional materials for kindergarten through Grade 5 students that meet the new Common Core State Standards for mathematics. The goal is to have materials adopted in time for the 2014-15 school year.
The committee will be composed of mathematics teachers from Seattle Public Schools, as well as community and family members with experience in mathematics and with a wide range of skills, knowledge, experience, and working style. The goal is to ensure diversity in race/ethnicity, gender, school/student population representation, and perspectives.
Applications are due to the Math Adoption coordinator no later than Oct. 16, 2013. Those selected as committee members will be notified by email or by telephone during the first week of November.
The Math Adoption committee will require a commitment of approximately 50 hours between November 2013 and spring 2014, including a minimum of four daytime meetings, each runningfrom 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Additional meeting dates and alternate times may be necessary.
The first meeting date is tentatively scheduled for Friday, Nov. 15, 2013, at the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence, 2445 3rd Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98134.
Those interested in serving on the Math Adoption Committee should complete the application form (Word or PDF) and email, fax or mail it to Math Adoption Coordinator, Curriculum and Instruction, by Oct. 16, 2013.
The email address is mathadoption@seattleschools.org
The mailing address is:
P.O. Box 34165, MS 32-156
Seattle, WA 98124-1165
The fax number is (206) 252-0179.
Comments
--Math Ingenue
-go Ingraham!
I'm hoping the process is more balanced this time and will be contacting some great teachers and professors to serve on the committee.
Or how about Ted Nutting, the Ballard H.S. math teacher who teaches advanced classes? He published many articles about math and described which textbooks actually prepare students for success.
Let’s hope they don’t use surveys again this time to weed out people who dislike investigational methods. We need basic skills for students instead of text-heavy approaches. The story problems do not work.
S parent
- Just sayin'
Admittedly, choosing to buy one textbook vs. another is (or should be) a less painful decision than the capital project of allocating students and programs to buildings, but at this point I have little belief that the district would give the work of the committee any weight.
+1 to what Linh-Co and S Parent said.
math tired
Ted Nutting, who teaches AP calculus the traditional way at Ballard High School, recalled the year he tried a reform text. "It was a disaster," he told the School Board May 6. Nutting told them he sent his daughter to Holy Names Academy so that she could learn real math.
I'm not sure which text he's referencing - Algebra, Geometry, or - but, argh.
math tired
Is this in high school? My son did geometry two years ago at Ingraham, and BOY did he moan about all the proofs they had to write - mostly in the first half of the year. AFAIK, they used the standard district Geometry text. But maybe the instructor was supplementing? I don't think so, though, because I distinctly remember seeing him getting proof problems out of his textbook.
I have 2 kids at Ingraham and I have never seen either Discovering Algebra or Discovering Geometry textbooks. One is a senior and the other a sophomore. In fact that is why we chose Ingraham instead of Ballard which is our neighborhood school.
"We need highly skilled elementary teachers who are well versed in CCSS"
Highly skilled, yes. Passionate about teaching math to their students, yes. Well versed in CCSS, not so important. Good math teaching and learning has existed long before CCSS was hatched, and will exist after CCSS is forgotten.
Whatever elementary textbook is adopted should support students, teachers, and families in learning fundamental math rules, and build procedural fluency and understanding on this base.
The selection committee should include the elementary teachers who will be using the books, but also high-performing middle school and high school teachers who are downstream of the elementary grades, and math experts in the community and higher education.
By the way, some common core standards are actually lower than Washington State grade level expectations for math in elementary. And I would strongly posit that runs counter to wanting to add rigor for all in all GEN Ed classes! We must not dilute standards or expectations.
Besides, we are supposed to be using Singapore as a District anyways, as a supplemental materials to Everyday Math.
Spiraling curriculum? Noooooo.
And for anyone attempting to draw the distinction between curriculum and textbooks, the textbooks are essentially the curriculum when the rubber hits the road in the classroom. Let's not pretend it is anything other than that. Professional teachers get sanctioned when they go "off roading" with their own materials they've brought in. I've seen it happen. It's totally on acceptable, but completely the way these days. Really great teachers getting sanctioned for teaching and being discouraged for using their own judgment. It's sad.
Dan Dempsey, please, weigh-in.
Games are great, tactile and manipulatives are fantastic. Different learners have different learning styles, and lessons need to be able to reach each and every child, absolutely. But games and group play with manipulatives, well, those shouldn't supplant direct instruction and modeling and pencil and paper work. Doing everything as a group in math especially in k5 is just nuts. Group work may be particularly "in vogue" now, and yes, functioning as part of the team in a community is an essential learned skill worthy of being taught in our elementary classrooms during class times. But that can be done during social studies projects or science kits, it shouldn't be for teaching math or or spelling tests or grammar (oh wait, that's right, we don't teacher kids grammer in elementary school, I forgot).
Signed: Please
curious
On the flip side, we've experienced some teachers that have used rather bad judgment in their material choices (primarily in Language Arts/Social Studies). Really bad choices. I don't know how you balance academic freedom with ensuring minimum quality or appropriateness of teacher chosen materials.
parent
A few years ago when Bellevue had their adoption, they actually piloted multiple programs in several different schools. The teachers, students, and parents were able to rate the programs on content and accessibility. Both EDM and TERC Investigations were not chosen because of this process. Too bad Seattle will not have enough common sense to do this.