As part of York Region District School Board's Director’s Action Plan, professional learning in mathematics focused on providing differentiated learning and resources to educators in prioritizing the voices of students who are underserved, drawing upon knowledge of students’ identities and lived experiences to plan, teach and assess in environments that are equitable and engaging.
The support for this focus, as we navigate restrictions resulting from the pandemic, has included:
- Developing grade specific resources to support the implementation of the new elementary math curriculum;
- Offering after-school webinars to share resources developed and to provide responsive support to elementary and secondary educators on planning, instruction and assessment such as:
- using the new long range plans developed for the new elementary and Grade 9 math curriculum;
- using technology to support the new curriculum; and
- coding;
- Centring culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy as a part of all professional learning;
- Working with secondary math educators to adopt the moral imperative to de-stream and support teaching and learning in a de-streamed environment;
- Providing elementary school professional libraries and secondary math departments with new math teaching materials; and
- Updating the math page on YRDSB’s public website to ensure families have access to information about the curriculum and resources to support children at home.
Post-learning surveys administered towards the end of the school year indicated increases in almost all areas when compared to pre-learning surveys administered early in the school year including areas based on the following criteria:
- “I build positive relationships with students by getting to know learners by learning about their personal interests, academic profile and their intersection social identities”;
- “My planning, instruction and assessment are supported by my knowledge of students”;
- “I integrate equitable and culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy in teaching mathematics”; and
- “I design assessment and instruction to reflect the identities of, and ensure access and achievement for, students who face systemic barriers”
Access to the mathematics page on the board’s website has gone from 3,000 to 11,000 to 101,000 in the last few years. Last year, the board’s internal math page for educators received 31,000 views.
December 2021