Professional Learning Goals

The Mindful Math Project – Part 2 focuses on achieving three professional learning goals: release time for teachers to attend professional development opportunities, accumulating resources (both purchased and assembled by the project team) and implementing classroom technology to support these resources. Professional learning opportunities will consist of math coaching, co-teaching with peers and, finally, partnering with a math teacher from a mainstream and/or alternative school to collaborate on mathematical obstacles that students often meet. These resources will be teacher-ready and student-focused, and will centre on real-life mathematical applications and processes to improve the comprehension of mathematical language. We want the Grade 10 students to be just as successful as they were using the Grade 10 resources and found a shift in their mindset. We want to keep increasing their motivation and engagement. Finally, obtaining relevant technological tools for each program will enrich the learning experience. In addition, iPads, SMART Board and flipped classroom activities will serve to enhance the learning experience and present relevance of mathematical skills. We found our students were really engaged by the Grade 9 resources we created last year and we would like to create similar resources for the Grade 10s.

Activities and Resources

• Release time for project team to consolidate resources, attend professional development and learn best practices from other teachers
• Purchase technology that fit the needs of the students in each program
• Continue professional development for teachers on the benefit of technology with a focus on student learning
• Identify useful apps/resources and tools that will allow students to experience hands-on mathematical concepts. Technology when utilized correctly can deepen understanding of students regardless of their ability.
• Develop a database of activities and lessons with real-life application

Unexpected Challenges

• Team members were surplused unknowingly before the end of the 2015–2016 so were unable to participate in the project. New team members had to be recruited.
• New team members that were chosen were surplused again after the first semester of the 2016–2017 school year. Therefore, original members had much more to do than originally planned.
• Some schools where our programs are located still lack the proper infrastructure to keep up with developing technology that we wanted to use. We therefore had to modify what we were doing to making sure all programs had access to new resources.
• As always with technology, there are issues that arise that weren’t foreseen, therefore team members had to spend time tracking down vendors to replace things that were not working as they should

Enhancing Student Learning and Development

The Mindful Math Project – Part 2 will help students become independent learners by challenging curricula and engaging in self-reflection. Each lesson, activity and assessment will help to develop the students’ cognitive mathematical ability and an appreciation for real-life mathematical applications. Students will become more confident in their mathematical abilities and, therefore, will be less anxious about approaching the subject. By using these resources, we are hoping to change the mindset of these students. We want to increase student motivation and engagement. Our students need to see value in what they are doing and understand the meaning behind it. We want students to become much more confident learners who are able to use different resources when thinking about a problem and self-assess where they are, where they want to be and what they need to get there.

Sharing

The teachers in the Alternative Attendance Programs meet once a month to take part in a full-day staff meeting. During these staff meetings, there are allotted PLC times. The project team will take advantage of these PLC periods to share the resources and share best practices with the entire department. The resources will be posted on AW for all the teachers to access. Finally, collegial mentorship will be set up for those teachers that require assistance with incorporating the resources into their classroom. We will also be uploading all the resources on Google Drive so that teachers and students have access this material at any time. We are also hoping through the TLC platform other teachers and educators are able to take advantage of these resources and modify them to suit the needs of their students.

Project Evaluation

The Mindful Math Project – Part 2 is designed to meet the needs of every student. We found great success with the first project. Our students are liking math more and are more engaged. We plan to develop the same kinds of resources for the Grade 10s. The project will focus on creating a challenging environment to allow students to experience higher levels of learning. Differentiated Instruction and critical reasoning will be implemented in each activity and lesson, in addition to diagnostic assessments designed by the project team. These resources will measure levels and achievements in a wide variety of skills and develop an in-depth understanding of mathematics. Statistical analysis will prove that the learning goals are being met; this includes: student engagement, credit accumulation, time-on-task, attendance and, finally, active participation. Furthermore, teachers will provide biweekly student progress reports by conducting conferences with the students, recording daily observations of student progress and providing exit/entrance cards for the student to complete. The first part was such a great success that we are hoping to see the same results, but we won’t have this data until the end of the school year. Observationally, teachers are finding these resources a great help and we have been receiving amazing feedback. The students are completing tasks at a quicker pace and are retaining information. They are less anxious when coming into math classes and are even accessing and completing the work outside of class.