Town Hall

On Tuesday evening about 125 people gathered in the Middle School music room for a discussion about Mineola’s implementation of the common core standards and curriculum.  I made a brief presentation and then a panel of school personnel fielded questions.  The concerns dealt primarily with mathematics in grades K-2.  These concerns are understandable since the NYSED curriculum wasn’t released until late August.   The terminology and expectations of this curriculum are very different from Everyday math.  As a District we have responded with parent resources K-7 that include teacher videos of HW problems as well as letters to parents with an overview of the topics in the new unit, new vocabulary and activities to do at home.  Parents also relayed a concern over student work space on HW sheets, which we will address.  We have purchased math workbooks (they have just been released) in grades 1-4.   Grades 3 and 4 already have them, grades 1 and 2 will start with the next module.  I found it interesting that no one voiced a concern over the ELA curriculum which the district planned and began implementing last year.  I think the extra time to plan for that implementation allowed a smoother transition. We continue to adopt and adapt all curriculum materials to best suit our students’ needs.  We have staff developers and weekly and monthly opportunities for teachers to share concerns and resources.  The underlying theme behind the common core standards is to expose students to grade level expectations while simultaneously providing work and materials at his/her ability level.  Here is a link to the video of that evening:  http://youtu.be/N8NTPeE0Ldg