Math Knowledge Network QUARTERLY Volume 2, Issue 2
Welcome to Volume 2 Issue 2 of the Math Knowledge NetworkQuarterly!
See links to all content below.
We are excited to share some of the recent work of our Communities of Practice: Math Leadership, Critical Transitions, Indigenous Knowledge & Computational Modelling.
Donna Kotsopoulos & Dragana Martinovic (MKN co-Directors)
PS – To stay up-to-date on upcoming events, activities, and resources, please visit the MKN website, join our mailing list (see subscription form bottom-right), and follow us on Twitter @mknrcm.
Might coding, in some ways and to some extent, fundamentally transform how we learn, teach and think about mathematics in grades 1-8 education?
To answer this question we turn to diSessa (2000, 2018), to view coding through a literacy lens, and map the Ontario situation to diSessa’s literacy principles.
The “evidence” we use comes from 3 sources: Ontario curriculum documents, teaching resources developed by team members, and data from mathematics + coding classroom research conducted by team members in Ontario and in Brazil.
These lessons are designed to combine mathematics with other subjects such as art, science, history and many more, to promote interdisciplinary learning! Interdisciplinary learning has shown to support students learning across the various curriculum and it’s fun too!
Curriculum Expectation: Sort and identify two-dimensional shapes by comparing number of sides, side lengths, angles, and number of lines of symmetry. Explain how elements and principles of design are used to communicate meaning or understanding in their own and others’ artwork.
Welcome to Volume 2 Issue 1 of the Math Knowledge NetworkQuarterly!
We are starting our fifth year with some leadership changes. Dona Kotsopoulos, a soon to be Dean of Western Faculty of Education is continuing as a Co-Director, joined by Dragana Martinovic, Professor from University of Windsor, who is replacing George Gadanidis, while he is on sabbatical. This year was challenging for all educators, school leaders, parents and students, making it even more important that we celebrate resilience and successes in our communities. In this Newsletter, you can read about activities of our four communities of practice in the previous quarter. Wishing you all health and happiness as we are closing on 2020!
Donna & Dragana (MKN co-Directors), & Arielle (MKN Coordinator)
PS – To stay up-to-date on upcoming events, activities, and resources, please visit the MKN website, join our mailing list (see subscription form bottom-right), and follow us on Twitter @mknrcm.
Remembrance Day provides a singular and unifying time for everyone to remember with gratitude the service and sacrifice of our fellow Canadians who served and sacrificed their lives that we may live in a bountiful country of freedom and peace.
The 60-minute film, In Remembrance: Service, Sacrifice and a Soldier Bear Named Winnie, follows Canada’s most famous black bear, “Winnipeg Bear” nicknamed Winnie by her regiment, throughout Canada’s involvement in World War I in story and song. Suitable for viewing from Grade 3 and up, the film includes actors, singers, boys and men’s choirs in the narration of this beautiful story and ends with a discussion of how Winnie became known globally as Winnie-the-Pooh. Her transition to the infamous life in the Hundred Acre Wood came about due to the author’s experiences in WWI and teach life lessons from preschool to senescence.
The film can easily be divided into 2 sittings of about 30 minutes each. We recommend that the 2nd part be viewed on Remembrance Day as it does include The Act of Remembrance with spectacular video and drone footage of the cenotaphs all across Canada.
The creators have also developed a set of curriculum resources, following the most recent Ontario guidelines, that will provide teachers with ideas for cross-curricular learning that engage students in critical thinking across all subject disciplines.
Continuing from our usual 
