Elementary Math Update 2015-2016
Issue #1
Welcome Back
It is almost that time again! Can you believe the summer is almost gone? If you are anything like me you are anxiously awaiting the sweet days of the NC Autumn months. We have had a productive summer in elementary math and are looking forward to a wonderful new year.
2015-2016 CMS Curriculum Maps
Meet the 2015-2016 Curriculum Map Team
A special thanks goes out to these young ladies for all of their hard work and dedication in supporting teachers this year. They did the impossible in many ways, by creating new curriculum maps for every unit of the year. They worked 7 long 8 hour days until the work was complete. We are in the final stages of formatting each map. All maps for the first unit of the year are up and accessible through the links below. Links are continuously being updated with new maps as they become available.
Tiny URLs for Curriculum Maps & Scope and Sequence Documents & Cycle Assessments
What is changing? What is staying the same?
Elementary Mathematics Website
The elementary mathematics website elementarymathematics.org is still live and functioning. We can access everything that has been previously housed on this site. We cannot guarantee how long this site will be up and running. It belongs to Amy Lehew, who has graciously made a way to keep it live for the time being. We will not be housing any new material on the site. All updated support materials will be housed on Canvas. All school based staff will be trained in the use of Canvas at the opening of school.
6-Week Cycle Assessments 2015-2016
We are now operating on 6-week learning cycles. This framework is based on the the work of Paul Bambrick-Santoya's Driven by Data. You can expect 6-week cycle assessments for grade k-5 beginning in August. The assessments will be aligned to CMS curriculum maps and scope and sequence for math. Each will assess the CCSS cited in the scope and sequence documents.
A few notes about assessments:
- designed to be completed in a 20-30min sitting (or less)
- k-2 assessments for cycle 1 only are complete and accessible via tiny url
- may contain open ended questions and rubrics
- are formative in that data should be used to drive upcoming intervention, remediation and enrichment cycles
- are currently housed on Google until loaded into schoolnet
- will be housed on Canvas
Math Facilitator Meetings 2015-2016
We will continue to have math facilitator meetings to support facilitators in supporting teachers as they teach. Sessions will begin in September and run from 12:30-3:30 one day each month (excluding December). All updates will be provided via monthly e-newsletter like this one.
School-Based Professional Development: Contact us... we are here to help!
Gabr'l and I are committed to your support. We have PD scheduled for several schools already! All you have to do is call or email us. Please note that our goal is to support you in the ability to lead mathematics in your buildings. We have adopted a "real-time" co-facilitation model for all school-based PD. The plan is to help you build and facilitate professional development sessions first and to support you in developing any follow-up sessions. Math Solutions sessions last year were designed to develop our ability to facilitate model lessons, coach teachers, design and facilitate professional development. We are so excited to see this district investment come alive all 110 elementary schools this year! #wearecms
Do the Math Materials/ Math & Reading Materials
We regret to share that due to budget realignment, the district was unable to fund the Do the Math and Math and Literacy materials for the 2015-2016 school year. Schools will have the opportunity to participate in an online PD session for literacy and math integration in January. While this was completely out of our control, we offer sincere apologies for the loss.
Interesting Resource
As many of you know I just finished a degree over the summer. An amazing resource was shared in this course. The url is listed below. This continuum and it's links are well aligned to practices in our unpacking documents and the common core progressions documents. Poke around and see what you think.