Notes from Head of School
Back to School Night
We look forward to seeing you next Thursday for Back to School Night. The evening will start at 6:30 with a reception by the SCA where you can learn about our parents organization.
Back to School Night is designed for you to meet all of the faculty and staff and to learn about our overall program, our specials program, the programs of each grade, and the ideas, philosophy and thinking that goes into how and what we teach. We start out in the auditorium where you will meet the faculty and hear briefly from the specials teachers. Then you will proceed to your child's classroom to hear about what goes on there. Please know that if you have questions that pertain to just your child, you will be able to sit down with your child's teacher at conferences two weeks later.
Singapore Math
We are very excited to be rolling out Singapore math this year.
Singapore Math is the name of an approach to teaching mathematics based on the ideas of Jerome Bruner, an American psychologist. The learning in Singapore Math is experiential, and students learn mathematical concepts through a three-stage process: concrete, pictorial, and lastly abstract. The inclusion of the pictorial stage of learning is an important addition to math learning in this program. Singapore Math also emphasizes fewer subjects, which allows students go deeper in their learning. Problem solving is at the heart of program, and by encouraging students to explain their thinking, they encourage them to use metacognition. Most importantly, it promotes attitudes of appreciation, confidence and perseverance.
I used Singapore Math myself when I taught pre-Algebra and Algebra at Westtown, and found that it made it much easier for students to understand topics such as fractions and equations with variables. For the last two years, Deb Hazen used it with her students, and she has shared this with the rest of the faculty.
Independent schools and many public schools all over the country have adopted Singapore Math, and we found that the leading schools in the Philadelphia area chose Math in Focus as the program to implement Singapore Math. We have adopted this program and this summer our teachers were trained in Math in Focus.
You will hear more about this program at Back to School Night.
I hope to see all of you tonight this coming Thursday.
Have a great weekend!
-John
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