A True Value Add

On Thursday, September 15, Viz hosted its first-ever math workshop, thanks to our math department chair, Darren Modde. This past summer, Darren attended a presentation by Diane Broberg, math department chair at MICDS. He invited her to come to discuss the topic "Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics" with Viz's Middle School and Upper School math educators.
Peter Liljedahl, the author of the book of the same name, presented this same subject matter at the Summit for Transformative Learning in St. Louis (STLinSTL) held at MICDS in June 2022. STLinSTL brings experts and master teachers together to share research-based, sustainable learning practices.
 
In the workshop, Diane highlighted a few key aspects of good non-curricular activity. For example, randomizing groups of two-three students, allowing students to collaborate at the boards with only one writing instrument per group, and allowing students to walk around the room to learn how other groups completed the task. Viz Middle and Upper School math educators are already applying what they learned at the workshop.
 
The math department is planning to bring this research, the practice, and the knowledge of how to use non-curricular activities to the Lower School as well. The practice of vertical learning at the boards, together with age-appropriate problem solving, gives teachers the opportunity to inspire students to use math other than just having to learn it for a test.
Back
Visitation Academy is an independent, private Catholic school offering a coeducational Montessori preschool and Kindergarten program, the area's only all-girl elementary program for Grades 1-5, and an all-girl middle school and all-girl high school.
© 2023 Visitation Academy of St. Louis County. All Rights Reserved.