Transcript Promising Practices In Mathematics

James Bay Lowlands Secondary School Board:
Northern Lights Secondary School
A Little Background
James Bay Lowlands Secondary School
Board consists of one secondary school
(Northern Lights Secondary School NLSS).
 The enrollment of students at NLSS is
between 160 – 180.
 We offer Grade 9 and 10 Essential,
Applied, and Academic Math as well as
11 and 12 Workplace and College Math.

Promising Practices for Math
1. Fostering Connection Between Elementary and Secondary
Background
There are 3 elementary feeder schools
for NLSS.
 Funding came through NEOSA student
success for math coaching
opportunities.
 Teachers from each school were
granted release time to interact with one
other.

The Big Picture
(Main Goals)
Create dialogue and share resources
/ideas between elementary and secondary
math teachers.
 Improve mathematics instruction by
working with manipulatives, technology,
three part lesson templates (minds on,
action, consolidation/debrief), and problem
based lessons to differentiate instruction.
 Generate excitement for Senior
Mathematics

Implementation
Day 1
Share resources, technology
(Geometers Sketchpad, PowerPoints,
Fathom, Excel etc.) manipulatives and
teaching experiences.
 Choose some relevant topics from the
curriculum and brainstorm to create
three part lesson plans.

Implementation
Day 2
Implement a lesson plan with the
students.
 Debrief afterward: what was successful
and what did not work very well.
 Keep lines of communication open for
future collaboration.

Analysis

The experience was positive overall as
it:
 Provided a clear view of an elementary math class.
 Helped open lines of communication with teachers
and students.
 Gave some practical tools to aid with the instruction
of mathematics.

Some difficulties included:
 The ability to line up schedules.
 The inability to measure the effects of the program.
Promising Practices for Math
2. Connecting Mathematics to College and Careers
Background



NLSS received funding last year to implement
a high skills major program in Health and
Wellness.
Part of the program involves a collaboration
with the college, which enables the students to
attend Northern College in Moosonee and take
a course, as well as receive other necessary
certification (i.e. First Aid).
Courses such as mathematics also include 6
to 10 hours of Contextualized Learning
Activities where students connect and apply
the information they are learning in high school
to the field of Health and Wellness.
The Big Picture
(Main Goals)
Students will connect what they learn in
mathematics to a field of interest.
 Students will become familiar with the
college setting so they know what is
expected in the future.
 Students will learn about health and
wellness as it is connected to the
communities of Moosonee and Moose
Factory

Implementation

A Contextualized Learning Activity was
created that:
 applies the concepts of exponential
growth/decay of the spread of bacteria and
the effects of antibacterial drugs (very
applicable with H1N1)
 uses the collection of data and statistics to
look at health issues in the community
 looks at how probability is used in the media
to communicate health problems which are
common in aboriginal populations.
Analysis
The CLA is attached to the exponential,
statistics, and probability units of
MBF3C (Grade 11 College
Mathematics)
 These units are all coming up in the next
2 months and a more thorough
evaluation will be made at that time.

Contact Information

If there are any questions, feel free to
contact me.
 Mark Hughes
 (705) 336-2900
 [email protected]