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ABORIGINAL GIFTS
PROJECT REPORT 2004/05

Prepared by: Dr. Rahael Jalan
Submitted by: Britannia Secondary School








School Britannia Secondary School
Aboriginal Gifts – Project Report 2004 – 05 Page 2
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“ABORIGINAL GIFTS” – Curriculum Development and Implementation

In recent years, students entering high school seem to have fewer and fewer skills required to be
successful in Principles Math 8. Besides learning disabilities and a lack of work ethic, some of our
students seem not to have any math beyond the grade 4 or 5 level. As a result, more and more
students have been placed in Essentials Math 8, then Essentials Math 9 and 10, with little or no
opportunity of returning to the Principles of Math stream. While many of these students are from
aboriginal descent, there are also some that are not. It is becoming increasingly clear that in order
to change the direction of this trend, courses need to be developed to give these students the
fundamentals necessary to be successful in the regular math courses and avoid the Essentials
stream.

Earlier this spring, a colleague and I were fortunate enough to attend a workshop in North
Vancouver called Making Math Meaningful for Aboriginal Students. While there, we met Lyn
Daniels, Aboriginal Education Consultant at the VSB, and Dr. Rahael Jalan, Business Foundations
Project Director of the Chinook Program at UBC. During a break, I had an opportunity to speak
with Dr. Jalan who seemed interested and keen to work with us. Dr. Jalan has had experience
developing a bridging course for aboriginal students at the University of Regina and we are very
fortunate to have her offer her expertise to help us develop our own courses. She has agreed to
write a workbook for the course at the Grade 8 level as a start and continue to monitor the ongoing
project as an advisor.

The goal of this project is to provide the weaker incoming students with the necessary remediation
and subsequent skills, so that these students will, by the end of Grade 10, have sufficient knowledge
to successfully write either the Principles Math 10 or Essentials Math 10 Provincial Exams. At
present, these students have no such option. To accomplish this goal, professional development
must be available to teachers to assist them in planning, monitoring and assessing the effectiveness
of this project. Strategies must be developed to focus on:

• Changing the attitudes of both teachers and students

• Understanding the role of cultural bias and expectations of aboriginal students

• Believing that by working together, success is attainable

• Meeting with parents of these students at the beginning of the year to inform them of the
intent of this project

• Structuring a learning environment where the teacher is strict, but compassionate, fair and
respectful, and power is shared in the classroom
Ms. Vicki Vidas
Head, Mathematics
Britannia Secondary School




Aboriginal Gifts – Project Report 2004 – 05 Page 3
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Background

There has been very low Aboriginal student participation in Grade 12, “Principles of
Mathematics”, in the Vancouver lower Mainland Area.

In response to the very low Aboriginal student participation in Grade 12 Mathematics in
the Vancouver lower Mainland Area, a math workshop was conducted at the Leo
Marshall Curriculum Centre in North Vancouver, on March 23, 2004.

March 23, 2004 math workshop for high school teachers

On March 23, 2004, a math workshop was held at the Leo Marshall
Curriculum Centre in North Vancouver. This workshop was conducted in
response to the low Aboriginal student participation in Grade 12, “Principles
of Mathematics” in the Vancouver lower Mainland Area.

The workshop was proposed and organized by Lyn Daniels, Aboriginal
Education Consultant, Vancouver School Board. A brief description of the
workshop is outlined below.

“The teacher participants will have the opportunity to learn a more
empathetic approach to teaching Math to Aboriginal students. The approach
will consider that so much of teaching is the attitude that the teacher holds
for the students and their capacity to learn. The participants will learn the
language of Math, Math Literacy and how to impart that to their students. So
much of the math concepts that we study today come from Indigenous
knowledge such as the Mayan number system. Indigenous people have
always used Math to solve problems in their communities and will continue
to in the future”.
• Math is a gate keeping course for Aboriginal students and their future
prospects in post-secondary education.
• High School graduation rates for Aboriginal students are very low (23%)
• Post-secondary institutions such as UBC are working with secondary schools
and colleges to recruit Aboriginal students to business and science faculties
and Math is key course for those areas.
• Many Aboriginal students have the gift for learning and applying Math but
are underrepresented in the challenging Math programs and overrepresented
in the Math courses that do not lead to a future in post-secondary education.
• The decisions about Math education are made for students in grades 7 and 8.
These are the teachers that will be invited to participate.
• Aboriginal Resource Teachers who work in elementary, secondary and
alternate programs will also be invited.




Aboriginal Gifts – Project Report 2004 – 05 Page 4
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Dr. Rahael Jalan was asked to present the math workshop to high school
teachers from the lower mainland Vancouver area. These participants teach
Aboriginal students in their high schools

The response to the workshop was very positive. It is all too obvious that the
problems and obstacles at the high school level impact students program
choices at the post secondary level. Some of the participant’s comments are:
- Changing the attitude of both teachers and students.
- Understanding the role of cultural bias and expectations of Aboriginal
students.
- Believing that by working together, success is attainable.
- Structured, challenging curriculum with Aboriginal content.
- Structuring an enabling learning environment. This includes teachers
who are strict but compassionate, fair and respectful and power is
shared in the classroom.

Britannia High School Project

Vicki Vidas, Head, Mathematics at the Britannia High School contacted Dr.
Jalan after the March 23rd workshop. She was interested in trying out the best
practices methods and curriculum identified by the Chinook Business
Foundations Project Team, at Britannia High School for Aboriginal students.

Randy Clark, Principal, Britannia High School, was very enthusiastic to have
the school participate in a pilot project. The project is entitled, “Aboriginal
Gifts”. Some seed funding has been provided for the project by the
Vancouver Foundation. Lyn Daniels, Aboriginal Education Consultant,
Vancouver School Board was successful in attracting the seed funding from
the Vancouver Foundation.

Several meetings were held with mathematics teachers at the Britannia High School, who
are keen to participate in the project.


The purpose of the project was defined as follows:

To identify, develop and implement curriculum and methods that focus on the teaching of
mathematics which will provide the weaker incoming students with the necessary
remediation and subsequent skills. The objective is to provide these students the option, so
that they will, by the end of Grade 10, have sufficient knowledge of mathematics required to
successfully write either the Principles Math 10 or Essentials Math 10 Provincial Exams. At
present, these students have no such option.

To accomplish this goal, professional development must be available to teachers to assist
them in planning, monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of this project. Strategies must
be developed to focus on:

• Changing the attitudes of both teachers and students




Aboriginal Gifts – Project Report 2004 – 05 Page 5
___________________________________________________________________________________________

• Understanding the role of cultural bias and expectations of aboriginal students

• Believing that by working together, success is attainable

• Meeting with parents of these students at the beginning of the year to inform them of the
intent of this project

• Structuring a learning environment where the teacher is strict, but compassionate, fair and
respectful, and power is shared in the classroom


The intended approach for achieving the goals and objectives was defined by the
following:

1. Identify a skilled researcher/director who will lead the project
2. Identify mathematics teachers who will participate in the project
3. Identify current teaching practices (content & methods).
4. Identify measures of success
5. Look for examples of exemplary performance, particularly in institutions with high
numbers of Aboriginal students.
6. Develop curriculum plans and successful methods for teaching mathematics at the
Grades 8, 9 and 10 level giving particular attention to materials and examples of
relevance to Aboriginal learners. This will be done in 3 phases, one for each of the
grades. The first phase will be completed in the 2004-2005 school year.
7. Conduct workshops for teachers to evaluate the curriculum content and methods
identified.
8. Identify methods for the on-going evaluation of intended outcomes

Current status

Steps 1 through 5 are essentially complete
Curriculum plans have been developed for Grades 8, 9 and 10.

Curriculum for Grade 8 is essentially complete. Two workbooks have been completed and
implemented in Grade 8. The workbooks were found to be useful for the initial part of
Grade 9.

8 workshops were conducted in the period May 2004 – February 2005 with teachers from
Britannia Secondary School.




Aboriginal Gifts – Project Report 2004 – 05 Page 6
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Details regarding steps 1 through 8

1. Identify a skilled researcher/director who will lead the project

The candidate identified to lead the project is Dr. Rahael Jalan.

2. Identify mathematics teachers who will participate in the project

Mathematics teachers from Britannia Secondary School participated in the project.
The team of teachers is led by Ms.Vicki Vidas, Head, Mathematics, Britannia
Secondary School.

3. Identify current teaching practices (content & methods) by Vicki Vidas, Teacher,
Math Essentials 8, Britannia Secondary School.

There is no provincially prescribed curriculum for EMATH 8 and EMATH 9. The
current BC curriculum does not recognize, nor address, the very real problem facing
educators who must deliver a broad curriculum to all students. Some of these students
significantly lack the basics required to assimilate the content of that curriculum. By leaving
these students in the regular classroom, the inevitable outcome is …failure.

In an attempt to give students some success, some hope in math, some schools particularly
those designated as inner city, are counseling students into locally developed “essentials”
courses, designed to engage them until they reach the grade 10 level, at which time, they
will be formally enrolled in the ministry recognized Essentials Math 10, 11, and 12 courses.
Teachers, under recent cutbacks, do the best they can to find materials to engage students in
the “essentials” stream, for 3 hours each week, for each of the grades 8 and 9 years.

Without a curriculum to follow for guidance, nor textbooks appropriate for these students
with very different needs, materials often consist of a series of photocopied
worksheets/projects, dependent on what the teachers deem appropriate for that particular
class. These worksheets/projects are typically handed out during class, to be completed and
returned at a later date for marking.

The materials used vary from teacher to teacher, even within the same level, and certainly
from school to school. It is not uncommon for students to hand in math binders for marking,
with photocopied worksheets which are in disarray, and with many of the worksheets either
missing or not in order.

Teachers are frustrated; students are frustrated because they do not see the purpose of
these seemingly pointless exercises, designed to keep them busy. Clearly, here at
Britannia, with “essentials” classes that have a disproportionately high enrollment of
Aboriginal students, the need to create a better alternative is evident and paramount.





Aboriginal Gifts – Project Report 2004 – 05 Page 7
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4. Identify measures of success

Students entering high school seem to have fewer and fewer skills required to be
successful in Principles Math 8. Many have been placed in the essentials stream. As
a consequence the students placed in the essentials stream drop out of mathematics
and do not return to the principles of mathematics stream. The success of Aboriginal
students in acquiring basic foundation skills in mathematics is low.

One of the obstacles that the project team identified is the smooth transition from
elementary school to secondary school. We need to look for a long term solution for
the lack of foundation skills in Mathematics amongst Aboriginal students, who lack a
solid foundation in basic arithmetic. Their analytical skills are not developed and
they find it difficult to work a problem through to its logical conclusion. The
transition from elementary school to secondary school becomes very difficult for
many students. These barriers are more pronounced in the case of Aboriginal
students because they are not challenged to learn the required level of mathematics in
the elementary school system.

There is a need to provide Aboriginal students with the necessary skills to complete
the Principles of Mathematics by Grade 10. Success in Grade 10 is needed for
students to move on and complete the higher level Grade 12 mathematics courses
which will enable them to make a successful transition to post-secondary education.

5. Look for examples of exemplary performance, particularly in institutions with
Aboriginal students

Dr. Rahael Jalan has had experience developing foundation courses in mathematics
at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College at the University of Regina.

The First Nations University of Canada formerly the Saskatchewan Indian Federated
College (SIFC) is recognized as a leader in providing post secondary education to
Aboriginal students. The FNUC has a string of very impressive accomplishments in
graduating Aboriginal students in Business Education, Sciences and other
professional programs in which Aboriginal people are severely underrepresented.

The FNUC Foundations Program has demonstrated success in building mathematics
foundations. Aboriginal students continue with university level mathematics courses
and have successfully made the transition to post secondary Education. Before the
courses were introduced in 1992, Aboriginal student participation in post secondary
Education requiring mathematics at the University of Regina was low. The numbers
have increased substantially since then.

The FNUC foundation courses are structured and focused on teaching key concepts
in depth. Materials taught in depth in these courses are carefully selected. Particular
attention is paid to the history of mathematics and contributions of Traditional
Societies to mathematics.





Aboriginal Gifts – Project Report 2004 – 05 Page 8
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Mathematics is taught as a universal language using numbers, the evolution of
numbers, Arithmetic, Algebra with emphasis placed on elements of the language of
mathematics, rules of operation and relations. Foundation courses are designed to
help students make a smooth transition into post secondary level mathematics
courses required for professional programs in Business Education and other Math
and Science based professional programs.

6. Develop curriculum plans and successful methods for teaching Grades 8, 9 and 10
giving particular attention to materials and examples of relevance to Aboriginal
learners - Report by Vicki Vidas, Teacher, Math Essentials 8, Britannia
Secondary School.

Curriculum development will be completed in 3 phases, one for each of the grades.
The first phase will be completed in the 2004-2005 school year.
Dr. Rahael Jalan has agreed to write workbooks for the Grade 8 level as a start and
continue to monitor the ongoing project.

From experience, my observation is that students are largely unsuccessful in the
“regular” classroom not because of inability, but because of a weak foundation.
They cannot cope with the deluge of topics at the grades 8 or 9 levels because they
have not been given a mastery of the basics. Some cannot multiply or divide; some
even have difficulty just adding and subtracting.

Realizing the futility of endless meetings pondering “How did this happen?” to
securing possible support by cutting through layers of bureaucracy, the decision was
made to end this charade by seeking support from external sources. Each year
delayed translates into another generation of lost potential. As mentioned earlier, I
decided to approach Dr. Jalan to help us develop necessary and appropriate
mathematics curriculum and to implement successful teaching methods.

The success of this program depends not only on developing appropriate curriculum
to meet the needs of these students, but also in sharing and learning from examples
of exemplary performance in other successful settings. Another important factor is
the personality of the teachers involved in the classroom. Ideally, these teachers
would have a certain warmth in order to connect and motivate these students, many
of whom have known only failure in earlier attempts at math. Teachers, who can be
creative in bringing math alive, who can offer incentives and rewards for attendance
and performance, who can provide an environment that is nurturing, yet structured
are key to the success and longevity of this program.

Also it is important to have people familiar with the grades 8-12 math curriculum, so
that not only will these students be taught the missing basics, but they will also be
guided back to the Principles stream, keeping their options open to go on to
university. It is the hope of this program that teachers begin with a group of students
at the grade 8 levels and follow the same group through to grade 10 and even,
perhaps, to Math 12.





Aboriginal Gifts – Project Report 2004 – 05 Page 9
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My personal experience in this pilot year has been very encouraging. From an initial
enrollment of 20 students, 17 remain on the class list. There is a core group of about
15-17 students who attend regularly, quite remarkable, considering the fact that
attendance problems and attrition rates for “essentials” classes have traditionally
been as high as 50%. Of the remaining 17 students, 7 are Aboriginal, 7 have
ministry designations that range from mild to moderate to severe learning/intellectual
disabilities. 3 have chronic health impairments. Many are identified as having
behavior problems and require constant supervision to remain on task.

Feedback from other project participants notes that, regardless of their difficulties in
the past, these children seem to enjoy coming to the math classes. In my class
(essentials 8) students are in their seats, with pencil and paper ready, because they
know that by doing so, they can earn a sticker; and the student with the most stickers
at the end of the month earns a movie pass to Silvercity. At the outset it may be an
incentive which motivates them to come to class on time but later on it becomes a
habit. Little prizes for good work are also awarded. Through Dr. Jalan’s efforts, two
official Vancouver Canucks jerseys, signed by Captain Marcus Naslund, were
awarded to the 2 top students at the end of the 3rd reporting period. For those who
maintained a grade of C average or higher, Canucks caps and t-shirts were awarded.
On the day of a big test, Dr. Jalan surprised them with hot chocolate and cookies.
On that test, the students performed beyond our wildest expectations!

The highest mark 101% (the student earned a bonus mark), was achieved by an
Aboriginal student. The next highest was 100%, achieved by a student designated
with a mild intellectual disability. No student failed. These incentives have clearly
been worthwhile. Now the students don’t pay particular attention to the incentives
and are happy to be in the class. Attendance continues to be excellent.

At the end of the 3rd reporting period, (March 2005), the highest score 86%(A) was
achieved by an Aboriginal student, 5 students earned the letter grade B, 1 student
earned C+, 5 students earned C, 2 students earned C-, and 3 students earned I.

In my 16 years of teaching, I cannot recall any other “essentials” classes that I’ve
taught to have had such a phenomenal marks distribution.

The tests Dr. Jalan designed and used to assess these students were not trivial. I am
confident that if these same tests were to be given to students in the “regular”
classes, the students would have difficulties, if calculators were not allowed.
Calculators have not been allowed from Day 1 of the program. All test results, along
with all rough work are stored at Britannia and are available upon request, should
proof be required to back these claims.

7. Conduct workshops for teachers to evaluate the curriculum content and methods
identified

Eight workshops were conducted over the period May 2004- February 2005. All
participants emphasized that mathematics is the area where students have the most




Aboriginal Gifts – Project Report 2004 – 05 Page 10
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difficulty. It serves as a filter to many professional careers. Students need a solid
foundation in mathematics.

The current curriculum covers a wide range of topics at an introductory level. The
number of topics that need to be covered makes it difficult for instructors to
complete the required curriculum and work on key foundation concepts in depth.
There are varying levels of structure in the delivery of mathematics courses.
Participants agree that there really needs to be structure in the teaching of
mathematics.

Workbook material required for the Grade 8 level and methods of instruction and
evaluation were identified and agreed to.

Excerpts from project participants’ feedback - Britannia project.

i. Hey Vicki,

Here are my thoughts on the math project:

Firstly, having a workbook for the students is a great asset. This enables the teacher
to break down the traditional negative edifice that is sometimes connected to a text-
book based math program. The students like the ownership of having the workbook;
they garner a sense of accomplishment by working and completing sections in the
workbook. The organizational component of it is also huge - no more excuses about
not having their text. The downside of this is if you ever allow the workbooks to go
home, they might not come back.

The basic premise of the math initiative is so important - teaching the students the
fundamentals of mathematics. Without this base level of knowledge, the world of
math and all of its complexities will not exist for marginalized students. They may be
able to understand the nuances of a grade 10 math concept but will get the problem
wrong due to their failings of grade 5 math. Starting from basic terminology, then
to numeration, into fractions, decimals, etc... is exactly what these kids need. Unless
we as educators address these areas of deficiency, these students will continually be
unsuccessful in math.

Trevor Stokes
Teacher, Alternate Programs, Britannia Secondary

ii. Hi Vicki,

I have been teaching at Outreach, a District First Nations alternative program for 18
years, teaching Math and Science for 17 years; I am also a member of the VSB First
Nations Education Advisory Committee ( have been for maybe 13 out of last 15
years).

I have been teaching math and science at the Outreach First Nations Alternate
Program for 17 years; the 'Making Math Meaningful' workshops which is part of the




Aboriginal Gifts – Project Report 2004 – 05 Page 11
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“Aboriginal Gifts” project, have been the most beneficial math professional
development activities that I have attended in those 17 years. This is because the focus
of these workshops is on 'what can we do to increase the capacity of aboriginal
learners to achieve greater success in math'. Through the accreditation/school growth
plan process at Britannia, we have learned about the conditions that have acted to
limit aboriginal school success: poverty, mobility, residential school experience,
parental educational levels, etc. This has provided a necessary understanding of
limiting conditions, but has not, by itself, provided solutions.

The Math workshops are providing a collaborative setting for 6-8practicing Math
teachers, outside consultant (Rahael), First Nations educational leaders (Lyn and
Laura), to come together to learn about how to improve aboriginal math achievement.
In our workshops, we get to learn from each other, ask specific 'how to?' questions,
like on the subtraction of signed numbers; share what strategies work to build student
engagement; and recognize, lament, but accept that not all students will become
instant converts to success building behaviours, like attending. The math workshops
are particularly important to me and the other alternate program math teachers
attending because they are giving us intensive 'in-service' training to become better
math teachers (alternate teachers are generally teaching English, Socials, Math and
Science and most are not specifically trained in math teaching) and to reinforce our
hope and optimism about our collective ability to bring about improved math learning
and student self-esteem through applying some or all of the aspects of the Making
Math Meaningful curriculum and class implementation.

For me personally, the math workshops have invigorated my teaching; after each
workshop I return to my classes feeling more knowledgeable about math concepts and
teaching math. From our sharing of teaching strategies and math ideas, I take into my
classes both new teaching methods and increased optimism about my students’ ability
to achieve. Because I am teaching mostly Grade 10 students who will be writing a
Provincial Exam in June based on a specific provincial curriculum, I have not been
able to directly use the text material of this project, but I have been able to use the
concepts, the collaboration, and the greater awareness of how about the students as
distinct learners to improve my students’ math achievement. As an indicator of this,
about 40% of my class achieved 100% in their Unit 1 Math Exam - it was so great to
see students asking for a copy of their exam to take home to show their mom's and
dad's. I would very much like to be able to continue with these math workshops next
year."

Steve Garrod,
Department Head, Alternate Programs, Britannia Secondary
April 3, 2005

8. Identify methods for the on-going evaluation of intended outcomes

Prior to the start of this program, students were given a “survey” test, to gauge
their level of math abilities entering the 1st year of high school. They did not do
well. At the beginning of their grades 9 and 10 math years, these same “survey”




Aboriginal Gifts – Project Report 2004 – 05 Page 12
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tests will be ”re-administered” to see what, if any, improvements have occurred from
year to year.

Most Aboriginal students come with competencies in mathematics at about grade 4
or 5 level. Evaluation and monitoring outcomes is an integral part of the project.
Regular feedback through homework and testing is needed to help students identify
their strengths and work on their weaknesses. Students will be expected to write a
final comprehensive exam at the end of the year, which will count for 25% of their
total mark. Structure, appropriate curriculum and support needed for building solid
foundation skills are necessary for engaging and maintaining student interest and
success.

Additional Steps
The intended steps are complete except for final workbooks editing for grade 8. However as
the project was underway, it became clear that additional steps would be needed to go from
best practices identification to best practices implementation. In other words, methods and
materials for teaching grades 8, 9 and 10 mathematics foundations have been identified.
Workbooks have been developed for Grade 8. Curriculum implementation for grade 8 will
be completed by June 2005. Finding ways of introducing these practices into Grades 9 and
then to Grade 10 courses present significant challenges. We are currently working on an
implementation action plan that goes beyond the Grade 8 level.

Implementation action plan
Project participants were in agreement on mathematics foundation skills requirements,
methods and strategies that have produced very positive outcomes and successes at the
introductory Grade 8 level. Participants are keen to implement identified successful
strategies and continue to implement curriculum at the grades 9 and 10 levels.

If we are to succeed in implementing best practices identified in this project, then there
should be adequate funding commitments for the long term success of the project. If not, the
fear is that we may successfully initiate the project, only to abort implementation at a critical
stage, due to a lack of funding.

In order to create appropriate curriculum and workbooks for Grades 9 and 10 and to provide
extra tutorial and study skills assistance, the project needs to be funded adequately.

Implementation of strategies and best practices identified in the project could benefit
Aboriginal communities, increase Aboriginal student participation in institutions of higher
learning, increase student success and retention rates at the secondary and post-secondary
levels.

The population of Aboriginal people continues to increase significantly. A greater
investment is needed now to increase their participation in education. Education will
increase employment opportunities for individuals which in turn will benefit their
communities. The economic and social development of Aboriginal communities will enable
Aboriginal people to have greater control of their future, reduce unemployment, the need for
social assistance, more penal institutions and provide equal opportunities for all British
Columbians.




Aboriginal Gifts – Project Report 2004 – 05 Page 13
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Excerpts from participants’ feedback - School workshop and Britannia project.

i. Hi Rahael, Thanks for coming to meet with all of us; I think it went well! From all the
questions and comments, I'm sure that you sense the staff is quite receptive to this
project.
We, as teachers, are a hard sell, but you've managed to make them believe that it just
might be workable. Your visit was like a breath of fresh air and helped to renew their
convictions that they can make a difference. If you could look over your schedule and let
me know when you are available, I can set up a schedule for you to meet with the
teachers and visit their students. Vicki, Vidas, Head of Mathematics, Britannia
School, Vancouver

ii. Dear Rahael I wanted you to know how inspiring it was to listen to you talk about
mathematics. You have such a passion not only for math but for learning in general. This
was evident in the many degrees you possess as well as your varied experiences.

You taught us how one can learn from our experiences and better ourselves. You were
so willing to share your own personal experiences which made us connect rather than
feel overwhelmed with the information that was covered. You taught us not to water
down the curriculum because it doesn’t create confidence only confusion!

I was quite surprised to read in the article you provided us about how 50% of
Engineering students fail 1st year calculus.
You gave us a lot of food for thought to think about not only how we teach mathematics
but about our own insecurities to math that we may be exhibiting to influence students in
a negative manner. You told us to tell our students to not make excuses for not doing
well in math! You went on to give us countless examples of students who made a 360
degree turn with the right kind of encouragement and support!

As you made us aware that only one math course was required to complete our degree in
Education, I realized that we need continued professional development so as to
effectively teach mathematics in the classroom. You got us thinking in the right
direction. Now, it is up to us to further our education in mathematics if we are to teach it
with the same passion!

Thank you Rahael for teaching me how to inspire my students and how to create math
energy in the classroom!
Yasmin Jiwa, Resource Teacher in Burnaby

Welcome

Welcome to my blog.
I am so new at this and will by the end of this week make some changes to the blog. But for now, welcome.

Aboriginal Teacher