Mathematics
Welcome back to the 2022 school year! My team and I are so excited to welcome your children into our mathematics classrooms after the extended school holidays and kick off the year surrounded with positivity, perseverance and enthusiasm.
Our team of wonderful mathematics teachers this year includes: Miss Mary Mahipus, Miss Brooke Gordon, Miss Damika Doorley, Mrs Anastasia Constable, Mrs Keesha Nugent, Mr James Gerchow, Ms Jamei Pertzel, Miss Manjan Deghgani and Mr Nicholas Cardiff. We will also be joined by Mr Tim Barclay, Mr Srikanth Sogathur and Mrs Andrea Everitt during our Maths Enrichment classes. These teachers have all been working so hard over the past 2 weeks to refine and enhance our curriculum and to prepare meaningful learning experiences for their classes.
I wanted to pass on a couple of notices at the start of the year:
- Mathematics tutoring will take place every Tuesday at 1st break in F111. All students are welcome and encouraged to attend.
- As per the book list, all students are required to have a scientific calculator. Students will use this frequently in class and during assessments. Any brand of scientific calculator will be suitable and your child's teacher can support them in learning how to use all the functions. Please ensure your child is prepared for Maths class.
Term 1 Assessments
During Mathematics in Term 1, all year levels will be assessed through an exam at the end of Term 1. More information will be available via Daymap over the coming weeks and keep and eye out for any emails from your children's teachers with updates as we approach these exams. We understand that absences may become a challenge as we navigate Covid isolations, so I would recommend encouraging your child to stay active on the class Daymap page and attend Mathematics tutoring if they have missed any learning.
At the start of the school year I also want to share this image about mathematics classroom norms. We know that a lot of students start the school year with anxiety when coming to Maths. I want to take the time to reassure students that in the maths classroom we encourage and welcome mistakes, questions and creativity. We want students to believe that they can learn maths and find meaning for numeracy in their life.
Boaler, J (2020) Setting Up Positive Norms in the Math classroom. Youcubed at Stanford University. Retreived from http://www.youcubed.org/wp-content/uploads/Positive-Classroom-Norms2.pdf
I want to finish my article with commending all of the parents and caregivers for navigating the extended holidays, through what I can only imagine was a period of confusion, exhaustion and hopefully not, isolation periods for some family. I guess this is a "tag, we're it" as we happily welcome students back into our classes and return to some normalcy.
Tess Reeves
HoD Mathematics