The Math Mission - getting our students communicating about Math using AT

The AT team's Math Mission launched this week with the first Learning Community session at Terraview Learning Centre. Among the learning at the session, the Math Mission special education teachers participated in a carousel of activities which incorporate assistive technology to facilitate math communication. They also learned about the Virtual Learning Environment (vLE) through Desire2Learn (D2L) on-line digital learning management system platform, where teachers and their students will post, share and discuss their math problem solving throughout the year.

A screenshot of part of the Math Mission D2L site.

The Learning Community meets several times throughout the year. To start, teachers picked at least one marker student to track on a "communication rubric".

During the carousel, teachers explored strategies and tools on the Promethean Interactive Whiteboard and the use of Ministry-licensed software program SMART Ideas.

SEA consultant Christine Harvey-Kerr modelling the use of the IWB to get students
 talking during an activity "Tug for the Truth".

Teachers had hands-on opportunities to work with various assistive technology tools to see how they would connect with the learning needs of their students to support communication.

Using the interactive whiteboard as a student activity centre.

Developing a SMART Ideas template - a scaffold to help students organize their ideas when answering problem solving questions in Math.

Creating a Math vocabulary word list for students using Read and Write Gold.

Being part of the project is that teachers are committing to trying open problems with their students while concentrating on using AT to develop their students' math communication skills.