Progress Adding Up for Math Project

Article from the Opelika Auburn News
Saturday, February 28, 2004
By Jenny Rosetta

Becky Scarborough’s eyes light up as she describes a recent project in her first-grade classroom at Wright’s Mill Road Elementary School in Auburn. The desks had all been moved to the side, and the children were constructing their own city with geometric blocks, carefully arranging buildings around city streets. Each building was logically placed according to blueprints the children had made.

Sounds like a typical social studies lesson on how a community works together, right? Wrong – This was a math lesson in geometry.

“The kids just floored me with their creativity on this project,” Scarborough said. “They really got into it, and I could see them using their higher level thinking skills and problem solving to make it all fit. They were not afraid to try and figure it out, and that is what we want them to do in mathematics.”

Scarborough is one of the District Teacher Leaders in Auburn for the TEAM-Math (Transforming East Alabama Mathematics) project – a partnership of Auburn University, Tuskegee University, and 12 east Alabama school districts aimed at improving K-12 student achievement and narrowing the gap for students who traditionally do not do well in mathematics. Selected out of 187 proposals, TEAM-Math recently was awarded a $9 million grant by the National Science Foundation as part of the Math and Science Partnership, a grant that was icing on the cake for the project.

“We had started this process and had a kickoff event in 2003 before we knew we were getting the money. This was something that was going to happen using whatever resources we had,” said Gary Martin, TEAM-Math project director and associate professor in Auburn University’s College of Education. “Students in east Alabama are not performing as well in mathematics as we would like, and there are gaps across subgroups. This was a perfect time to start the project because all of the planets were in alignment. This grant gives us the ability to jump ahead.”

The partnership’s first step was creating a curriculum guide based on a number of references including Principles and Standards of Mathematics published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics as well as the Alabama Course of Study mathematics guidelines.

“The development of the curriculum guide was work that needed to be done,” said Marilyn E. Strutchens, project co-director and associate professor in the College of Education at AU. “We wanted the teachers to have a common curriculum across the board to ensure consistency in teaching. We also wanted to make sure that the curriculum would help us meet the requirements of the SAT-10 and Alabama High School Graduation Examination.”

The second step for the TEAM-Math partnership has been reviewing a wealth of textbooks to see which ones match up with the standards of the curriculum and support the goals of the partnership. The universities also are analyzing their teacher preparation programs, Martin said.

“We want to make sure that our teacher preparation and what the teachers in the schools are doing is one in the same. We have started to place interns with our teacher leaders in the schools to help achieve that goal,” he said.

Professional development for teachers in the 12 partner schools is a major part of TEAM-Math. During the next four summers, all math teachers will have an opportunity to participate in intensive sessions that will focus on expanding mathematical knowledge as well as providing a new range of instructional tools,” Strutchens said. In fact teacher leaders are in training today at Tuskegee University.

“We have already seen some viewpoints change,” she said. “Teachers have come to the professional development sessions and have been skeptical. When they try a new tool in their classroom and see that students become engaged in the activity, then they start to believe it. We want the teachers to challenge the students to think critically and use problem solving as a base instead of something that is done at the end of the chapter.”

The TEAM-Math approach is definitely not ignoring the basic skills, according to Martin.

“Our view is that the best teaching practices yield the best results. Basic skills are embedded throughout the program. It is basically a matter of know as much as you can, but if the kids are not learning and engaged, then it’s not working,” he said.

That is certainly something Scarborough, who has taught for more than 20 years, can attest to. The use of manipulatives, cooperative groups, drawing pictures and discussion is something that is very prevalent in all of her math lessons.

“I think doing more with manipulatives and less pencil-and-paper work helps the students think of it as fun. It provokes discussion, which is what leads the students to be able to provide a rhyme and reason for what they are doing. Writing a math sentence is just like writing a regular sentence; it has to make sense,” Scarborough said.

The shift in teaching practices is certainly something different, and sometimes exhausting, for Michele Matin, an Opelika District Teacher Leader and eighth-grade teacher at Opelika Middle School.

“When I first came out of college it was stand up in front of the class and lecture. Now it is more critical thinking and group interaction and getting the kids talking,” she said. “Once you get them talking, they are going to be interested and voice their opinions no matter what the subject is. Before you know it, they are thinking about math. Now it is not just what you teach, but how you teach it.”

Both Scarborough and Matin are excited to have a pool of resources at their fingertips through the TEAM-Math partnership.

“It is great to have everyone working together toward the same goals and to be able to pull ideas from someone else,” Matin said. “If someone else is successful, I want to know what they are doing that I am not so that I can do it too.”

The network TEAM-Math has formed makes it a true labor of love, according to Strutchens.

“By having districts pull together, you end up with a really talented group working on this,” she said. “There is definitely a collaborative spirit. We’re not doing it to the schools; we’re doing it with the schools.”

“In the end, a project that will not change things overnight is definitely a project worth working on,” Martin said.

“This is a tough project. On the other hand, it is a dream project,” he said. “A lot of people want this to succeed.”

Top | Other Headlines | Home page

Last updated Thursday, May 12, 2005 10:49 AM
Report any problems or suggestions to webmaster@team-math.net