March
2005
COMMUNITY
- Notes
from the Principal
- Faculty
Spotlight: K. S. is a Spanish teacher immersed in
Spanish Culture
- Library Beat:
R. M. outlines new book search
- Faculty Question: What are you most anticipating
about spring this year?
- Healy responds to cafeteria questions
- PTO
- PTO completes successful auction; anticipates
success with FACULTY FOULUPS
- Day Student Council
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Library Beat
by A. G.
The Decades Project in N. C.’s 8th grade social
studies class will never be the same. R. M., the F.
A. Day Middle School librarian has now started making
web sites for teachers' projects. These individual
web sites are part of the Day Library web site and
have links to helpful sources for these projects.
All teachers have to do is ask and R. M. will work
his magic. These project links can be made for any
subject. Research projects have now taken a whole new
form. It is amazing that most kids never need to go
the library and do research the way they used to. Now
all they need is a computer at home.
R. M. is doing a great job helping to make Day Middle
School Library more accessible and useful to the students.
by C. A.-L. and J. T.
On the 16th of February, Mary Eich, the K-8 math coordinator
for Newton Public Schools, came to the Day School Council
meeting. Eich talked about math education, the general
connections to high school, math curriculum review
(which has been 2 years in the works) nearing its end,
and feedback from transitions from 6-7 and 7-8 grades.
But the central discussion point were the entry points
to high school.
In speaking about the transition to high school, Eich
said that students who have been in accelerated 8th
grade algebra can take honors in 9th grade. However
honors classes can be very challenging and end up in
a bad grade. So accelerated students can also move
directly into the next grade up, but this puts the
student out of sync with the curriculum.
“Its really about maturity,” said F. A.
Day’s interim principal Gina Healy. Eich mentioned
that most parents, and she says she agrees with them,
think that the lower level freshmen curriculum 1 math
courses are filled with immature boys and girls, who
lack confidence in math.
“[These programs] have put us in quite a different
place,” Eich said. She believes that the weak
point in the curriculum is 7-8 grade. Eich also believes
that K-6 multi-strand geometry, 7-8 one-strand pre-algebra
and algebra, and 9+ multi-strand algebra could be strengthened.
One-strand is a curriculum that focuses on one type
of subject, whereas multi-strand works with multiple
subjects.
Eich does not, however, believe that the math curriculum
is a disaster.
“We are not talking about a crisis, we are talking
about something of concern,” she commented. 2/3
of the students are getting good grades.
Throughout K-12, 8th grade is proving to be the hardest.
Reading and English are getting a lot of attention
throughout the school system. “It feels like
math has fallen off the face of the earth,” Eich
said.
But it is hard to plan a curriculum that one does
not entirely control.
“At the end of high school, it is actually the
college [board] that decides the curriculum,” commented
Eich.
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