During 2008-2009, when I was a third grade teacher at the West Tisbury School, I had an opportunity to reflect with my mentor (Martha Stackpole) on some of the challenges that I faced in the Everyday Math Program (EM). I found that word problems were an area of weakness for my students. At times I was frustrated because I felt that I was trying to teach students how to solve problems in the way that EM expected rather in the way that made most sense to them. I wanted to come up with a systematic approach to help students become stronger independent problem solvers while still using the EM program as a resource. I felt it was critical to devise a simple method and template that I could implement in the classroom immediately. "Math Circles" was devised and I tried it out on my students as I was developing it. I could see the benefits of this idea immediately. After sharing our thoughts with our Principal, Martha and I met that summer to formalize this new way to utilize and maximize resources in Everyday Math program through the creation of “Math Circles.”
Our goals were the following:
· Create templates
· Develop a simple assessment and observation tool for teachers to use with Math Circles
· Create ready-to-go-resources / plans for the first unit of Everyday Math so that this approach could be piloted in the fall of 2009 in my 3rd grade classroom.
During the 2009-2010 school year, I implemented "Math Circles" in my classroom with great success, and then began to share the resources at a workshop for teachers across the Island of Martha's Vineyard, with the 3rd grade professional learning community, and then with colleagues at the West TIsbury, Oak Bluffs, and Edgartown Schools.
It is my hope to continue to share this approach with other teachers of math who may be able to customize this model to serve the needs of students in their elementary and middle school classrooms.
Kate Lefer 2011
Our goals were the following:
· Create templates
· Develop a simple assessment and observation tool for teachers to use with Math Circles
· Create ready-to-go-resources / plans for the first unit of Everyday Math so that this approach could be piloted in the fall of 2009 in my 3rd grade classroom.
During the 2009-2010 school year, I implemented "Math Circles" in my classroom with great success, and then began to share the resources at a workshop for teachers across the Island of Martha's Vineyard, with the 3rd grade professional learning community, and then with colleagues at the West TIsbury, Oak Bluffs, and Edgartown Schools.
It is my hope to continue to share this approach with other teachers of math who may be able to customize this model to serve the needs of students in their elementary and middle school classrooms.
Kate Lefer 2011