Dear Families,
Next week we have early dismissals on Thursday and Friday. Dismissal is at 11am. There are activities for students who have signed up ahead of time. If your student is not signed up for an activity, they need to be picked up at 11am.
This week our JFK Math Coach, Stefanie Hamble, is starting Math Studio with a group of teachers. Six years ago we started the inquiry based math best practices professional development with Teachers Development Group (https://www.teachersdg.org/). Teachers commit to a three year math studio professional development cycle. This professional learning is research based and is embedded in the real work of teaching, coaching, and leadership. We did two three-year cycles with Bill Feely from Teachers Development Group. This last 3-year cohort is our last group of teachers to go through Math Studio. This means that at the end of this cycle, all of our teachers that teach math will have been through professional development.
This inquiry based math is research based, and is based on specific teaching routines and catalytic teaching habits. The teaching routines are things like using structured math talk, sequencing and selecting students’ math ideas, conferring to understand student’s thinking and reasoning, and conferring to understand student’s thinking and reasoning. There are six specific teaching routines that are used to purposefully generate engagement in mathematically productive thinking and conversations for students.
Our teachers use the 10 catalytic teaching habits to orient students to ideas for analysis by focusing the class discussion and using purposeful, genuine questions and actions to reveal students’ thinking. The use of these teaching habits means that teachers are using math as the authority, and engaging students in metacognition and reflections.
We also use Habits of Mind and Interactions during math. These are explicitly taught to the students, and are identified in the work they do each day. You may have heard about turn and talk, purposeful private reasoning time, and asking genuine questions. These habits and interactions are things that our students and teachers use to understand math in a deeper and more meaningful way.
Be sure to talk to your student’s teacher about math and how we teach it at JFK during conferences in November!
Have a fantastic weekend
Sara Raabe
JFK Principal
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Upcoming Important Dates
Thursday, October 24th: Picture Retake Day ( AM only)
Early Dismissal at 11:00 with activities for students that signed up ahead of time
Friday, October 25th: Early Dismissal at 11:00 with activities for students that signed up ahead of time
Wednesday, November 13th: PTO Meeting, 5:30 in the library
Saturday, November 16th: PTO Holiday Craft Fair
Thursday, November 21st: Early Dismissal at 11:00 NO activities for students; Parent Teacher Conferences
Friday, November 22nd: Early Dismissal at 11:00 NO activities for students; Parent Teacher Conferences