Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education.
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I love teaching 8th grade. Those little brains are on the cusp of being able to handle advanced reasoning and abstract thinking. They're ready to start internalizing the basic structure and ideas of algebra by changing stories into tables or graphs or equations. Variables are finally an idea that makes sense, and their brains are powerfully pushing to solve for the unknown. They are turning their world into a relationship between numbers.
It's a beautiful moment when students make mathematical claims and support them with calculated evidence from different sources. Unfortunately, many of our students are only scoring at the 4th or 5th grade level when it comes to using basic math skills. Multiplying and dividing fluently with integers, fractions, and decimals really throws a wrench into the math they are able to do. I don't want those basic skills deficits to get in the way of their conceptual understanding. A calculator is a tool kids can use to overcome those barriers as we help them catch up on the basics during other special intervention times.
About my class
I love teaching 8th grade. Those little brains are on the cusp of being able to handle advanced reasoning and abstract thinking. They're ready to start internalizing the basic structure and ideas of algebra by changing stories into tables or graphs or equations. Variables are finally an idea that makes sense, and their brains are powerfully pushing to solve for the unknown. They are turning their world into a relationship between numbers.
It's a beautiful moment when students make mathematical claims and support them with calculated evidence from different sources. Unfortunately, many of our students are only scoring at the 4th or 5th grade level when it comes to using basic math skills. Multiplying and dividing fluently with integers, fractions, and decimals really throws a wrench into the math they are able to do. I don't want those basic skills deficits to get in the way of their conceptual understanding. A calculator is a tool kids can use to overcome those barriers as we help them catch up on the basics during other special intervention times.