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SUNY Canton Hosts Math Summer Institute

Teachers from area school districts who participated in the BOCES Math Partnership Grant: Kindergarten through Eighth Grade Web Resources Institute learned new ways to use the Web while teaching math. Pictured are (from left) back row Ben Fleahman of Ogdensburg City School District; Therese Baxter of Parishville-Hopkinton Central School District; Lori Rafferty of Ogdensburg City School District; Staci Bergen of Canton Central School District; Suzie Beach of Ogdensburg City School District; Becky Duprey, SUNY Potsdam Early Childhood, Childhood, and General Professional Educator; Autumn McCarthy from Canton Central School District, front row, Judy Green of Ogdensburg City School District; Alice Reed, SUNY Canton Mathematics Instructor; Kathy Londraville of Potsdam Central School District; Megan Johnson of St. James Elementary School, Gouverneur; and Mary K. Gfeller, SUNY Canton Associate Mathematics Professor.

 Math for students in kindergarten through eighth grade just became a lot easier and a lot more fun at SUNY Canton.

Last week the College hosted "Web Resources K-8 Instruction" to help North Country teachers utilize websites specifically created to assist in mathematics education.

"We are working with area teachers to integrate web technologies into the classroom," said Mary K. Gfeller, SUNY Canton Associate Mathematics Professor. "This Summer Institute helps train teachers to access Internet resources used for student learning."

Roberta Stillin-Dowman, Supervisor of Instruction Program Planning and Development for St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES, said that the Web Resources K-8 Instruction Institute is one of eight week-long Institutes that have helped approximately 100 area teachers utilize web resources and increase their professional development. The New York State Grant that funded the Summer Institutes was awarded to Hermon-DeKalb School and Clarkson University and was coordinated by St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES, and now incorporates all four colleges and 18 school districts in St. Lawrence County. The grant is intended to increase the academic achievement of students in mathematics and science by augmenting the knowledge of classroom teachers. "Partnerships between high-needs schools and the science, technology, mathematics departments at institutions of higher learning are at the core of these improvement efforts," Stillin-Dowman said.

Judy Green, a teacher from John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Ogdensburg, said she has seen the success of the Virtual Manipulative portion of the Web resources. She said some of her students became involved with a "Fraction Frenzy" game. "They had a lot of fun, and they answered fraction problems quicker in class," Green said.

Green said she used the web resources to make interactive lessons instead of teaching static formulas. She mentioned that she has shared the "Using the Web to Teach Math" website with a number of parents and grandparents who were looking for projects for their children or grandchildren during summer vacation. "I have also shared this with a number of other teachers," Green said.

Another Ogdensburg teacher was busy preparing a "Web Quest" or interactive learning project that challenges students to accumulate facts and figures and then sort the data into graphs. Ben Fleahman, who teaches fifth and sixth grade math at Grant C. Madill Elementary School, built his "Web Quest" based on Major League Baseball player's statistics. "Students need to collect the player's earned run average and batting average and create line graphs for each statistic," Fleahman said. "The students then determine which players will end up in the Baseball Hall of Fame, based on the trends of each player's statistics." Fleahman's creative project will eventually take its place alongside numerous other "Web Quests" on the website.

To access the Summer Institute for Web Resources website visit http://teacherweb.com/NY/StLawrenceCounty/UsingTheWebToTeachMath

August 15, 2005

Media inquiries should be directed to Gregory Kie, Media Relations Coordinator, or call 315/386-7527.

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