Mathematics at Shutesbury

 

 

Polly at board


Hi!  Welcome to the Math Page!  My name is Polly Wagner and I’m the math coach at

Shutesbury Elementary School.  It is my job to help build and support a dynamic

learning culture where mathematics is valued and nourished, where adults and students

alike, develop curiosity and inquiry as habits of mind when working on mathematics. 

Our mission is to provide an engaging and rigorous mathematics classroom for every

student.  We work on this in a number of ways.  I visit mathematics classrooms, capture

student dialogue and ideas in writing, and have one-on-one meetings to discuss content,

student work, assessments, and plan for next steps.   We also work in small,

collaborative study groups of teachers where we visit math classrooms and discuss

learning and pedagogy.  And once a month we meet as a whole staff to work on math

together.  When the staff gets together we:

  • Do important mathematics;
  • Learn the curriculum and how it is connected from year to year;
  • Look at student work samples;
  • Connect student ideas to the important ideas in the curriculum;
  • Focus on the Common Core Standards for Content and Practice;
  • Develop skills for assessment and raising student achievement.