Principal’s Message
Happy New Year & welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.
The calendar page has turned to 2018 at Eagle View! With the seasonal ornaments tucked away for another year, we return to the busy world of learning. As I mentioned in the December newsletter, one of our two school goals relates to Numeracy: To develop numeracy skills with a specific focus on computational fluency in the context of number sense. Inspiring curious and engaged mathematical minds involves a team – students, staff and families need to all be on board as children take on classroom challenges as well as problems in our everyday lives.
The first step with our children is to set the tone of a “Growth” vs. “Fixed” Mindset. Wondering what that is all about? Check out this poster which traces the thought patterns of both mindsets:
http://alumni.stanford.edu/content/magazine/artfiles/dweck_2007_2.pdf
On our January 29 Professional Development Day, Eagle View staff will be spending a day with Nikki Lineham, who specializes in developing numeracy skills. Nikki points to the importance of instilling a growth mindset around mathematics. As adults, we sometimes extend our own fixed mindsets on to our children by saying things like, “Oh don’t worry; I was never good at math either.” If we shift to a growth mindset, we model that we are capable of whatever we want to do if given the time, space and the right strategies. As Ms. Lineham notes, we learn to say, “Yes, you can learn this math. You totally can! It’s just going to take work and effort!”
The next step is to involve our children in lots of mathematical challenges, both at school and in their lives at home. Virtually any task that involves numbers, measuring, counting or using money works. This might involve playing number games, helping to cook or being responsible for money through an allowance.
At Eagle View, we have a great opportunity coming up to “play” math with our children. On Tuesday, January 30, a University of Victoria group called Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences will be hosting a games night called “Math Mania” here at Eagle View. The gym will be set up with stations featuring puzzles, soap bubbles, kaleidoscopes, hexaflexagons and games such as Get your Goat, the Penny Game, the Set Game, the Game of 24 and the Tower of Hanoi. These activities are designed to demonstrate to children fun ways of learning both math and computer science concepts. Consider putting this day in your calendar. Bring your school aged children and join in the fun!
Lois Bender, Principal