Author Archives: Ontario Junior Math Resources
Math AQ/ABQ Subsidies are available again
The Ontario Teachers’ Federation is offering subsidies of up to $450 for Ontario public school teachers who complete a Math, Technology or Kindergarten Additional Qualification course.
Read the following document for further information – AQ Subsidies FAQ pamphlet.
Newer parent (and teacher) resources!
Inspiring Your Child to Learn and Love Math (Council of Ontario Directors of Education) – a math learning website for parents and children from k-8, including videos, activity ideas and support materials, to offer strategies for helping your child at home and encouraging real-world mathematical experiences as learning opportunities.
Home Connection activities from Mathies.ca
*Find these and many more resources at EduGAINS.ca Home Support!
It’s that time again! What are YOUR goals this year?
What are your goals for this year as a math teacher?
I’d like to focus on the quality and quantity of my formative assessment practices and strategies, such as using entrance and exit slips as a quick way to find out what students already know and how I should proceed with instruction. I’d also like to take the time to conference with my students more often. I’ve included a few excellent resources on my Assessment Resource page under Formative Assessment. It can be difficult to find the time to do it well but the more we assess FOR student learning (and view assessment as much more than just an evaluative tool) the better we can plan for instruction that targets students’ needs and abilities (e.g., guided math groups) and provide feedback that helps to boost student learning.
Good luck to everyone heading back to school! If you need some help planning fun and meaningful math lessons, keep exploring my website!
“At least one h…
“At least one hour a day should be allotted to mathematics instruction at the junior level.”
Source: Ontario Ministry of Education: Teaching and Learning Mathematics: The Report of the Expert Panel on Mathematics in Grades 4 to 6 in Ontario, p.10 (2004). How many hours of math instruction do your students and/or children receive every day?
Summer Math Practise
Summertime is here and school’s almost out! For students, it’s a time of rest, relaxation and spending time with family and friends. Not to mention probably watching loads of television, playing video and online games, having unlimited time for social media…parents soon start to worry about the resulting “brain drain” that can occur. How can we encourage children to practice and retain their math skills when all they really want to do is relax, play with friends and forget about studying? Summer learning loss is a real problem and can put students at a disadvantage when they head back to school in September. However, there are ways that parents can help their kids keep their brains sharp without making it boring and “academic” in nature. By incorporating real-life problem solving activities into daily conversations you can encourage the development of mathematical thinking and application skills. This type of learning can happen anytime, whether it be while shopping at the grocery store or the mall, taking a walk downtown, or preparing a recipe. Let’s show our students and children that math IS everywhere! Have a look at the following resources for further reading and ideas.
Growing a Summer Math Garden (Education World)
Everyday Math Lessons (Family Education)
Math Math Fun under the Sun (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics)
Summer Math Resource Bank (New Canaan PS E-Math)
Summer Activities (School District of Cheltenham Township)
Math AQ Subsidies available for teachers!
Attention OCT Teachers! As an incentive for Ontario teachers to specialize in math, those who complete a Math AQ/ABQ/Honours Specialist course right now (as of April 2014) can receive $450 back from the Ministry of Education (through the Ontario Teachers’ Federation). The average course costs around $650 so that’s a huge savings! If you want to read more about why this is happening, check out this article.
Gap Closing Resources for Teachers!
Check out the EduGAINS Gap Closing resources for students who need more practise and support in mathematics. These excellent resources were developed by Dr. Marian Small, who has also authored many wonderful professional learning resources such as the popular text “Making Math Meaningful” (2012, 2nd edition). Under “Number Sense Junior” you will be able to freely download teacher and student resources for eight modules that each assist in helping students improve a Number Sense skill.
In addition, the CLIPS and ePractice tool allows access to complementary online activities in Fractions, Geometry, and Patterning. AMAZING!
Featured Game Site
Math Frog Grade 6 Games – Interactive single and multi-player games, organized by strand. Support student learning and engagement by incorporating fun math games into your lessons!
This blog is designed to help Junior teachers (Grades 4 – 6) easily access links, documents, resources, activities, games and sites that relate to the Ontario curriculum mathematics strands. We all know how time consuming it can be to navigate the web in search of appropriate and relevant resources to use in the classroom. Hopefully, by bookmarking this blog your life can become a bit easier and you can focus on your students rather than “Googling” for an hour, skimming, scanning, downloading, saving, printing, etc. I’ve basically done a lot of the research and sifting for you. Of course, this is not a complete project – in fact, I encourage visitors to share other sites and resources (each page has a comments section at the bottom so you can share). I’ll also be continuously adding items as well.
That being said, enjoy working your way through the blog. Perhaps you’ll encounter some fabulous resources that you didn’t even know existed. I know I did! Don’t worry, I didn’t keep all the good stuff for myself. It’s all here! 🙂
To help make navigation easier, right click on a link and choose the option to “Open link in a new tab.”
What you can find on this site
You’ll gain access to resources developed by the Ontario Ministry of Education, including the Guides to Effective Instruction, as well as several eWorkshop videos and activities. The site also features links to Math games, instructional videos for students, and access to tools that can be used with interactive whiteboards to support hands-on learning. For those interested on further reading, the Research page offers a short but carefully selected bibliography of books and journal articles that deal with current research trends in mathematics education.
Thank you for visiting!
Helen Courssaris, OCT, BA, BEd, MEd (2012)