Meeting Minutes March 10, 2010
“Math Madness”
President Lori Stevens called the meeting to order at 7:31 pm. Ms. Stevens then requested officer
reports.
VP Communications Karen Cholakis asked delegates to please provide their opinions and ideas for
topics for next year’s meetings. The membership will vote on the topics at the May meeting so she
would appreciate any ideas or suggestions.
VPs Programs Susan Boyd stated that when topics were prioritized last year, math was the number
one topic. She thanked Dr. Salvo for her demonstration of how Math Tree, Inc. techniques. Dr. Salvo’s
reach information is as follows:
Lynn Salvo
drshortcut@mathtree.com
www.mathtree.com
1-877-MATH-987 (1-877-628-4987)
She also thanked all of our speakers for coming.
Secretary Kristen Thatcher had no report.
Treasurer Ed Myers reported the LEAP account balance is $244.00. 42% of the schools have paid
their dues. Please send your dues to Mr. Myers through the school pony mail to Sugarland Elementary.
Ms. Stevens indicated that she had scholarship applications for delegates to bring back to their
PTA/PTOs. She also mentioned an upcoming charity drive for the March of Dimes and the Virginia
Cooperative Extension’s FIT Extension runs from March 21-May 15th. To find out more information
you can visit their website at www.fitextension.ext.vt.edu or call Beverly Samuel at 703-777-0373.
Ms. Stevens also reported that she attended a budget input meeting with other county-wide
organizations on January 30, 2010 and provided LEAP input to a joint session of the Board of
Supervisors and School Board. Ms. Stevens provided both boards a copy of the survey results LEAP
prepared.
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Ms. Stevens also discussed that a nominating committee has been formed to solicit volunteers to run for
LEAP Board positions. The members of the committees are: Barbi Marshall, Gary Walters and Roni
Hennessey. Ms. Stevens suggested that next year it would be helpful to have a co-position for each
officer to help make the transition easier.
School Board members, Tom Marshall and Tom Reed were recognized.
Ms. Stevens thanked the panel for coming and introduced the speakers for the program:
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Michael Allison Chandler, Reporter, The Washington Post
Deborah Bliss, Mathematics Supervisor, LCPS
Heather Applegate, Supervisor of Diagnostic and Prevention Services, LCPS
Michael Allison Chandler, Reporter, The Washington Post
Ms. Chandler began her remarks by stating that when she was in school, she did not like Math and was
excited to learn that once she went to college (she was an English Major), she would not have to take
math anymore. Ms. Chandler has since graduated and is the Education Reporter for The Washington
Post.
Ms. Chandler wanted to write story about what motivates or de-motivates students when studying
math. With the support of the Fairfax County School Board, she took her SOLs and it was determined
she should take Algebra II. She enrolled in high school and started her Regular Algebra II class trying
to understand what gets regular students in a regular class excited about Math.
She discovered she was better at Math than she thought but it was something that she had to continually
work on – as not understanding one section could make her fall behind for the remainder of the class.
She wrote a column, “X=Why?” which can be found on The Washington Post website archived, that
discusses if there is a need to change textbooks, teacher quality, studies on teacher math confidence,
why does a formula work.
She found that students who had parents in math-related fields like engineering recognized the
importance of understanding math. She mentioned that when she was growing up, her parents were
English teachers and so math was not discussed.
Ms. Chandler also found out that students liked math when they were good at it or student interest
increased in math when the student was keeping up with the instruction and “got it”. However,
students had to realize that they had to go to class to help them keep up.
Deborah Bliss, Mathematics Supervisor, LCPS
Ms. Bliss has been working with the State of Virginia Math Standard of Learning since 1995 until she
came to Loudoun County to supervise the Math curriculum in 2009. The tests have been changed three
times since 1995 and parents and educators would ask Ms. Bliss, “Why change something if it’s not
broken?” Ms. Bliss stated that huge changes in Math have occurred and the tests are reflective of these
changes.
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Ms. Bliss said there is an interesting dichotomy with students. It is socially acceptable for a student to
say he/she is not good at Math. However, it is not socially accepted to for a student to say he/she is not
good at reading or cannot read. Unfortunately, there is not much research on how students gain their
sense of numeracy. However from what work has been done, how math is taught is different from
when parents went to school. The use of models and manipulatives is prevalent as children learn with
materials – materials are concrete examples. From the manipulatives, to help the child develop their
Math skills, he/she is encouraged to create of picture which is symbolic of the materials they have to
been working. Teachers find that when children build a model, they own it which helps in their
learning. Finally, the algorithmic component is introduced after the student is comfortable with the
concept and physical understanding of the topic.
Ms. Bliss stated that understanding the goals of the SOLs is something people often misunderstand.
The goals include thinking critically, using technology, reasoning, justifying and understanding
operations and how they relate to one another are all principals that apply to any subject. When a
person hears Algebra she may cringe, however, children are doing algebra as soon as you place a group
of colored M&Ms on their tray and ask them to sort by color. Loudoun County has a goal to have
SOLs 7th grade math should prepare all of our students to take Algebra in eighth grade.
Heather Applegate, Supervisor of Diagnostic and Prevention Services, LCPS
Dr. Applegate talked about how students (and parents) can overcome their math anxieties. She gave a
brief overview of the causes of math anxiety and factors that maintain that anxiety. With one exception,
most causes are environmentally or model driven. Environmentally, there were a series of events that
triggered and reinforced the anxiety. The model cause is when the child sees how a parent or teacher
responds to the subject and models the anxiety. Once the anxiety is in place, a pattern begins.
There are some myths about math that may perpetuate some students’ anxiety. Boys are better than
girls in math. However in a 2008 study in Science, that was examining math achievement between
girls and boys, the study concluded that there was no achievement difference. Yet, there is still a
perception that boys have math brains and girls have reading brains. Another study looked at teacher
anxiety for 2nd grade teachers. At the beginning of the year there was no difference with how students
perceived their math skills. At the end of the year, students with teachers with math anxieties perceived
their math skills were not as strong.
As Dr. Applegate stated, “When you have a negative experience, it is human inclination to withdraw –
I am just not good at this, therefore I will avoid it”. Therefore, the anxiety is justified and the result is
avoidance. However, the more you read the better you read, the same concept is for math. When you
avoid it you don’t the practice you need then you fall behind. The same principles used to get children
to work at something needs to apply to math. Parents and educators need to stress to children, to “get
back on that horse” and “practice, practice, practice”.
There are also children who are effort averse. These bright kids now have to use some horsepower to
better understand math when all other subjects comes easily to them. If they have to work at it, they
don’t like it – which perpetuates the anxiety.
So how can a parent help a child with math anxiety? Dr. Applegate suggests stress cannot be
eliminated; in fact a stress free environment can lead to sloppiness and mistakes being made. Parents
and educators should help children understand how to have an appropriate level of stress – to recognize
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it’s okay to have a modest level of anxiety with the goal of not to be so afraid of math the stress turns
negative and becomes distressful causing the anxiety.
Dr. Applegate also suggests that the child build a hierarchy to prevent anxiety build up. She also
suggested using a graduated exposure with appropriate scaffolding – what would be an appropriate way
of showing how to do the work. She also suggests developing a strong reinforcement system for
completing math activities from the hierarchy. She stated that we have to help students get over their
fear of math. Parents can build a reward system or have them not worry so much about the grade but
focus on understanding the concepts. Parents can also work math into everyday life like cooking or
shopping to make it interesting and real to the children. She gave some online tools for parents that can
be found in her presentation which is on the LEAP website.
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Question and Answer Session:
Q: [To Ms. Bliss]: With all the weighting changes, why doesn’t Loudoun County have Honors
Classes?
A: LCPS is working on having 2 classes becoming honors classes – Algebra and Trigonometry. These
courses will go before committee on the 24th of this month for a final determination.
Q: Why is it that society tends to reward those individuals who have interpersonal skills and yet it is
the antithesis for those individuals with math abilities.
A: Many high level positions recognize math abilities – look at the financial sector. Without the
ability to reason, to justify, these “interpersonal skills” individuals would not be as successful so they
do utilize math abilities.
Q: Does math need a PR campaign?
A: There are some campaigns out there now on U-Tube and other places.
A. The way you were taught had little to do with how you learn and educators and parents have
learned that and are working to provide a learning environment that supports each student’s way
he/she learns.
Q: There is an emphasis on language arts in k-3 that if a child excels he/she can be challenged to
further his reading/language arts ability. My first grader says math is easy but I don’t see anything
to help him foster his interest and challenge him?
A: There are programs available and please contact the school or the Math Supervisor who can help
you with some ideas.
Q: Who here thinks they are good at math? What does good at math mean?
A: It depends on how it is defined. Good math is good mathematical thinking. We want children to be
able to extract information needed to solve a problem, solve it, and then put it back in the original
content.
Q. Why do we not have more uniformity across the County?
A. A National curriculum will not happen because the Federal Government cannot impose that across
the States. However for Virginia, the Standards of Learning movement ensures the basic structure
of learning, let’s says Algebra I, is the same across the State.
Q. Getting to the motivation of students, how do we motivate to want to learn? What do you say to a
student who asks, “Why should I study science or learn math”, what do you tell them?
A. You can show them everyday examples of how science or math is used in life, work, sports or
maybe discussing with them how life everyday or life in general would be different without having
learned science or math.
LCPS Superintendent Dr. Hatrick:
Dr. Hatrick thanked the parents and our Representatives for supporting unfreezing the local composite
index (LCI), which will provide funds from the State to Loudoun County. Dr. Hatrick provided a
memorandum that outlined the Virginia House and Senate’s budget to Loudoun.
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The LEAP meeting adjourned at 9:39 pm.
Next Meeting: Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 7:30pm –
“Moving Beyond Boundaries”
Join us a LEAP explores issues surrounding our ever-changing school attendance boundaries and
selections for school sites. What have been the common issues in selecting and acquiring school sites?
How can the process for developing attendance boundaries better serve all stakeholders in a timely
manner? Are there ways that the negative impacts of the inevitable changes to school boundaries can be
lessened for our students?
Submitted by Maura Walsh-Copeland for Kristen Thatcher
Reach information for the panelists is as follows:
Ms. Deborah Bliss
Mathematics Supervisor, LCPS
Deborah.Bliss@loudoun.k12.va.us
21000 Education Court
Ashburn, VA 20148
(571) 252-1340
(571) 252-1802 (fax)
Dr. Heather Applegate,
Supervisor, Diagnostic, Psychologists
DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES
(571) 252-1013
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