Maths aren't necessarily hard. Board discusses school closures

Algoma District School Board (ADSB) trustees and administrators discussed many things, from alternative ways for students to learn math to school closures, at the board’s committee of the whole meeting Tuesday.

Natasha Cole, Northern Heights Public School teacher, was on hand with several Grades 6 and 7 pupils to demonstrate Number Talk, a different approach to how the often difficult subject of math is taught at the Grand Boulevard school.

The traditional way of teaching and learning addition, subtraction, multiplication and division worked for many pupils in a bygone era, Cole said, but not for all.

The strategy at Northern Heights includes a number of different mental math approaches to solving basic mathematical problems.

Students in attendance Tuesday demonstrated several different ways as to how they concluded 57 plus 33 equals 90.

Each student explained to Cole and the board which method they used to arrive at that answer.

In other news from Tuesday’s meeting, Joe Maurice, ADSB superintendent of education, gave the board an update on Voices from the Gathering Place a website which originated with Korah Collegiate teacher Peter White.

Beginning as a musical presentation by White, it grew into a Shaw TV presentation known as ‘The Anishnaabe View: In Their Own Words,’ focusing on the original and continuing role of First Nations and Metis people in the Sault and area.

From there, Sault and area First Nations and Metis figures, such as Lyle Sayers, Barb Nolan, Peter Migwans and Mitch Case, began producing web-based videos on the Voices from the Gathering Place site from a strictly First Nations/Metis standpoint.

Maurice told SooToday the website is expanding, with four new videos coming in the near future and production on a fifth starting soon.

Maurice also reminded the board of Education Week, a province wide initiative.

The theme the province has determined for Education Week is Ontario 150. 

May 8 to 12 will include the presence, at ADSB schools, of the Tour for Humanity bus, which highlights wrongful treatment of various people in Canadian history, including the Indian residential school experience, the head tax on Chinese immigrants to Canada, discrimination against Jews and Japanese Canadians in World War II, and, in  a modern sense, the scourge of cyber bullying.

The bus is associated with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies. 

The week will also include three days of activities with David Bouchard, well known Metis educator and public speaker, at ADSB schools and Algoma University.

Maurice said more details of ADSB Indigenous Education Week will be released as the week approaches.

On another topic, the board was informed of the 'Water Does Wonders' program, which has been established by Healthy Kids Community Challenge.

Modern water bottle refilling stations have been installed at many ADSB schools, said Marcy Bell, ADSB superintendent of education, with students being reminded water is the fluid most necessary for healthy brains and bodies, vital to learning.

Students have been supplied with ADSB water bottles.

Bell told the board students are also being reminded, by comparison, of the harmful effect of sugar-filled soft drinks on brains and bodies.

Finally, the board was brought up to date on Accommodation Review status of two ADSB schools.

The second and final public information meeting regarding the fate of Sir James Dunn Public School in Wawa will take place at 6:30 p.m. May 1 at the school’s library.

It has been suggested the school’s JK to Grade 8 students be accommodated in a JK to Grade 12 school at the Michipicoten High School site.

Other meetings will be held next week regarding the fate of Blind River Public School.

It has been suggested the school’s JK to Grade 8 students and programs be housed in a JK to Grade 12 facility on the W.C. Eaket High School site.