I have been giving this a lot of thought and there are some options. There are of course virtual manipulatives (and some amazing ones such as the Math Learning Center), but as someone who has always taught using manipulatives so that students have that concrete material experience, I am really leaning towards having some sort of individual kits for students,
Individual manipulative kits could be in the form of: - tupperware containers - the food storage containers ( plastic like the ones you would get for take-out) -pencil boxes or cases - ziploc baggies. What ever you would decide to choose, it has to work for you and remember, you might decide to do one thing and after a short while, like many things, you might decide to change it. Some questions to ask ourselves:
There are some companies that have created individual math kits and this too may be a place to start to look at how they compiled their kits ( Spectrum, Hand2Mind) but tailoring the kits to your own teaching and getting your students to help you build them ( so they feel ownership of the kits) will likely be the most beneficial for you and your students. I would also suggest the students have their name on the kits to remove any confusion for health and safety reasons. If you create some , or have ideas to share please email me at [email protected] . If you are comfortable with me sharing them on this post to inspire other teachers, that would be awesome as well!
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Welcome back friends! Well who knew that 6 months ago we would be here - in this place where we moved from in class instruction to remote to hybrid and now back to face to face .. and full on in class instruction. I think about some of the positives that we have experienced with our instruction during COVID19. For many of us., it gave us an opportunity to branch out. We had that opportunity to spread our wings and think outside of the box. And guess what? We still have that opportunity. The innovation that was required for us to be successful during remote teaching cannot be lost. It needs to be transferred back into the classroom. As difficult as it is, we need to continue to engage our learners during these unusual times. How will we manage manipulatives in our classrooms especially wben they are necessary in the concrete phase of building student understanding? With the flux of some students attending in class while others transition in, how do we build understanding and capacity for all students while at the same time being mindful of our own well being ? How will we engage our learners in numeracy and still adhere to the COVID19 safety protocols? With the move from semesters to a quarterly system in high schools, how do we engage students and make the best use of our 150 minutes? There has been a lot of work done by the BC Numeracy network regarding essential learning standards. Essential learning standards will help us frame out planning, instruction and assessment. In our district while some students attended school part of the time in June, the majority of our students were engaged in remote learning since March 2020. Keeping this in mind, it would be wise to give ourselves permission to move gradually into curriculum rather than jumping in with both feet. Janice Novakowski, a provincial math specialist, along with members of the BC Numeracy Network took a look at the BC Math Curriculum and created a list of essential learning standards from k-7 that would assist teachers in their math planning for the 2020 year. This is a fantastic document! https://blogs.sd38.bc.ca/sd38mathandscience/fall-2020-resources/ All mathematics curricular content and competencies are important and connected, but when having to prioritize learning standards, such as during times of uncertainty, the idea of what is essential, foundational or core has emerged. In the period of remote learning in Spring 2020, this became significant as we came to the end of the school year as we needed to be mindful of what mathematics learning was essential for students to continue their learning at the next grade level. (Novakowski sd38)
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March 2021
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