THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411040246
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 26 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HOLLY WESTER, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
KAREN BROWN IS FINALLY learning how to help her 8-year-old son, Trent, with his math homework.
Although she works as an accountant and her husband as an engineer, the Browns have had trouble with the revised math that Trent, a third-grader at Red Mill Elementary School, is learning every day.
``Math is so different from the way I learned it,'' Karen Brown said. ``The children are using new terms. It has been frustrating for me.''
In an effort to ease some of that parental frustration, as well as math anxiety, the staff at Red Mill is sponsoring a series of Family Math Nights, where parents and children play games and learn together. Trent and his mother were two of the nearly 100 individuals who participated in Tuesday's third-grade math night.
``The objective is to familiarize parents with the types of things we're doing with children in the revised math program,'' said Judy Fisher, coordinator of mathematics for city schools. Fisher is one of two coordinators who travel around and host this hourlong program for schools that request it.
This ``revised math,'' which connects math to the real world through hands-on activities, was introduced in 1989 when the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics published the ``Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics.''
``We're using some strategies parents have never heard of,'' Fisher said. ``The students are understanding not only the how, but the why of mathematics. They are thinking on a higher level.
``We're preparing our students today for jobs that haven't been created,'' she added. ``The math we were teaching prior to this was 100 years old. We're not in the industrial age anymore. We're in the age of information.''
Family Math Night has been only one way for area schools to introduce this fairly new concept. ``We were really interested in hosting it,'' said third-grade teacher Joyce Eatmon, one of the school's math teachers. ``One of our goals is to communicate more with the parents. We thought this would be very beneficial to both students and parents.''
Since the night is staffed by teachers, parents get the chance to see them in another setting.
Although activities vary in difficulty from grade to grade, Fisher follows similar formats each evening. During the third-grade night, Fisher started things off with a warm-up activity where participants measured each other's height and arm span with string to find out if they were tall rectangles, short rectangles or perfect squares.
After finding that most people were perfect squares, that is, their arm span and height matched, Fisher turned parents and students loose to work individually on a packet filled with games. Using things like beans and fake money, they worked on adding and subtracting skills.
Money is a useful mathematical tool since it's something people use in everyday life. ``We want them to see that math doesn't just happen one hour a day, five days a week,'' Fisher said. ``Math is everywhere.''
The students were particularly fond of a game where letters were given dollar values and they had to come up with the most expensive words they could think of.
``This is neat because we get to add up a lot of numbers,'' said Jason Scoville, 8. ``Math is my favorite subject.''
Jason's father, Ray Scoville, was having just as much fun with the games. ``I think it's real important to show them that you're interested in what they're doing,'' Scoville said. ``It's a good way of getting the family together.''
Many parents took that packets home to use during homework time. ``It's something different . . . a change of pace,'' said Principal Charles H. Grindle. ``We're trying to make learning as fun as possible.''
The night ended with a raffle, where students won math-oriented prizes such as dominoes and calculators. ``It's been a very positive thing,'' Fisher added. ``Everybody leaves happy.''
While it seems that the fun is what makes this program successful, parental involvement is the real basis. ``We want their support and need their support,'' Fisher said. ``They're in a better position to open up the real world application.''
Fisher has plans to host math nights at other elementaries this year - including Rose-mont, Trantwood and Salem - with the same goal in mind. ``We hope parents will have a better understanding of the revisions of the math curriculum,'' she said. ``We want them to talk mathematics to their children and encourage the fun part of math.
``We hope students will see math as a relative subject,'' Fisher added. ``Ultimately, we're hoping to see increased enrollment in the higher levels of math in high school.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos by HOLLY WESTER
``I think it's real important to show them that you're interested in
what they're doing,'' said Ray Scoville of his kids, Jason, 8, and
Mandy, 6.
Judy Fisher, city schools math coordinator, teaches the program at
Red Mill Elementary, while Karen Brown and son, Trent, 8, play a
math game.
by CNB