A Math Assembly?

My first reaction was that of surprise and intrigue. Had never thought of doing this before and when a group of teachers presented the idea to me I had to admit I thought it was very original with many possibilities.

Numeracy is an area of focus here at our school and we have been using school wide math problems to help get the students a little more excited about math at school. If there is more excitement surrounding numeracy at school I would hope this would would help change negative attitudes some students have about math.

We have developed a plan to have out first "Math Assembly" in three weeks time. Each teacher has looked at the big ideas for Patterning and Algebra in the Ontario Curriculum as it relates to their grade level. They will have their students present this big idea in a creative way to the rest of the school. The staff here is very excited to see what everyone comes up with!

I read an interesting quote on Friday at our Numeracy PD Day:

"Math is right up there with snakes, public speaking, and heights."

Math and numeracy should not be a phobia. If students leave our school with a numeracy phobia have we let them down? Trying new and creative things to help students develop an interest in numeracy should be a priority for all teachers. Regardless of the subjects they teach.

Let me know if you have any similar experiences with this sort of idea. I'll post an update on how things go and we are already looking forward to February 2013 when we look at Geometry and Spatial Sense.