Twelve Ryle mathematics teachers have been attending training sessions specifically designed for mathematics instruction. The training is part of a grant received by Boone County and 5 other school districts in the state.
INDEPENDENCE - Ann Shannon recently needed to drive from Owensboro to Louisville to conduct a training session. The native of Ireland, now living in California, knew little about Kentucky. She was going to print a map from Google, but bought a global positioning system instead.
When she got to Louisville, she regretted her decision.
"I learned nothing with the GPS," Shannon said. "But I would have learned something if I had followed a map."
Shannon told that story while training a few dozen math educators Tuesday here at Simon Kenton High School.
Her point? "You want to be your students' Google map, not their GPS," she said. In other words, make them think.
Shannon and Vinci Daro, from Ann Shannon & Associates, have been contracted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to train teachers in four states on a new way of teaching math to high school students.
The grant for Kentucky was awarded to the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, which chose the Kenton County School District, Boone County Schools and four other districts to participate in the pilot project. It's also being done in North Carolina, Tennessee and New York.
"We know they're good thinkers on teaching, instruction and learning, and have already done a lot on trying to improve instruction," Cindy Heine, associate executive director for the Prichard Committee, said about the selection of Boone and Kenton. "They're seen as leaders in the state."
Math teachers from some of the seven high schools in the two districts on Tuesday went through the third of eight training sessions. They've already begun to implement some of the strategies.
The main point of Shannon's training, which she developed over the years as a teacher in England, is that "math is not a spectator sport." The teacher should be more of a facilitator of a discussion among students.
"It's about interactive lecture," Shannon said.
"It makes kids really think - it's not just a performance by the teacher," said Pat Murray, chief academic officer for Boone County Schools. "It really involves students, motivates them and validates what they already know."
Crystal Blanton, a Cooper High School geometry teacher, has started trying some of the strategies.
"The few times I've tried it, the kids were engaged, so that's a positive thing," Blanton said. "Usually if I can get them a starting point, it gets them to start thinking."
Simon Kenton math teacher Craig Reinhart said it's another tool teachers can use.
"Using methods such as questioning them more and making it more interactive is a big thing," Reinhart said. "It's about getting the students to contribute and molding them to the point where they want to do this. We want kids to feel success each day, and I think this can help."
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