February 1, 2024
Academic Services
Secondary Mathematics
Our Secondary Mathematics Consultant Bob Crane has been providing PD on a new resource. To date this first part of the roll out has been done in most schools. Some schools have yet to make arrangements for the delivery of this resource and are encouraged to do so at their earliest convenience.
This PD will be done in two phases. The first is the developing of Math Fact Fluency strategies for addition using a sequence of 24 games which are done in order as foundation and then derived strategies are mastered. This allows for differentiation and progression to reflect where each student is in their development. So for example one does not play game 12 Sum War until they have demonstrated proficiency in the previous eleven games.
Starting in April, Bob will be recycling through the schools and providing PLC for grades 4 to 6, the multiplication strategies and games 25 to 42. The buy in from teachers has been amazing with feedback being that they were using the resource the very next day in their classes.
This is intended to be part and parcel of their daily math classes. It should be noted that these are hands on and not digital games and in game 5 on doubles fact, Bob has been able to build a cultural element to the process which has been shared with provincial schools
Tech Services
Kim MacKinnon, our Elementary Technology Integration Consultant attended FETC (Future Education Technology Conference) and participated in sessions for 4 days, learning a lot about AI and Assistive Technology. She's got some great new ideas and concepts to bring back to our teachers. Kim will be working on a video to share some of what she learned with everyone and will send it out in the Technology Integration Newsletter very soon.
Operational Planning Session
This month, the entire staff of Mi'kmaw Kina'matnewey got together to take part in a planning session. The goal of the session was to develop our operational plan for the upcoming year. We are working towards aligning our plans and reflecting on our activities to ensure we are addressing the needs of our communities. It was a great session and all of the staff had the opportunity to reflect on their own plans and really think about how to meet the needs of the communities we serve.
Of course we also had an opportunity to do a little bit of team building and had some active fun at Activate. It's always good to get together and have some fun with colleagues!
