Friends of Blessed Sacrament,
Each year, I establish goals as part of our campus improvement plan. One of our campus goals this year is math fluency. Math fluency is often defined as the ability to quickly and accurately recall mathematical facts and concepts. In observing classrooms, reviewing test data, and speaking with parents/guardians, math fluency is one of the biggest challenges for our students, especially when they move from the intermediate grade levels to the middle school grade levels as mathematics moves from the concrete to the abstract.
To help with this goal, I have directed all math teachers in Kindergarten through Eighth Grade to implement Math for Love during the first three weeks of school. This will help build a student’s math fluency and confidence before diving into a math textbooks filled with traditional problems. We used Math for Love during our summer math academies and the students loved the approach to teaching mathematical concepts and skills. Students who struggled were becoming more and more confident as they observed and learned math in a new way.
In addition, the Math for Love lessons are based on the student’s last grade level. This year we have some students who haven’t been in a classroom since March 2020. Others were in and out of classrooms last year due to COVID-19. We have to first ensure a student’s previous grade level skills are mastered before moving into the new year’s standards and benchmarks. So if a student is saying “We already learned this” then that is better than “This is new” because it should have already been taught! That is the point, to ensure they have their fundamentals mastered.
Math for Love is not mean to replace how math is taught, but rather to provide students with additional tools to help them become stronger in the area of math fluency.
Math for Love was implemented in Seattle Public Schools and they saw constant growth and a new love for a subject that is often difficult. I invite you to learn more about Math for Love by listening to Dr. Dan Finkel, Math for Love Founder, explain why he created this program. The overview can be found below.
Again, this is not meant to replace our math curriculum or be a long-term course of study. It is rather part of the opportunity to re-group, re-center, and review heading into new school year.
In service to the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament,
Michael Fierro
Principal