Instructional Specialist for Mathematics
765 Broad Street
Newark, NJ 07102
“…all students have access to high-quality, engaging mathematics instruction. There are ambitious expectations for all, with accommodation for those who need it. Knowledgeable teachers have adequate resources to support their work and are continually growing as professionals. The curriculum is mathematically rich, offering students opportunities to learn important mathematical concepts and procedures with understanding. Technology is an essential component of the environment. Students confidently engage in complex mathematical tasks chosen carefully by teachers. They draw on knowledge from a wide variety of mathematical topics, sometimes approaching the problem from different mathematical perspectives or representing the mathematics in different ways until they find methods that enable them to make progress. Teachers help students make, refine, and explore conjectures on the basis of evidence and use a variety of reasoning and proof techniques to confirm or disprove their conjectures. Students are flexible and resourceful problem solvers. Alone or in groups and with access to technology, they work productively and reflectively, with the skilled guidance of their teachers. Orally and in writing, students communicate their ideas and results effectively. They value mathematics and engage actively in learning it.”
(National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Principles and Standards 2000, p. 3)
The vision for mathematics education described above is ambitious. Achieving it requires rigorous, standards-driven mathematics curricula, knowledgeable teachers who can integrate instruction with assessment, policies that enhance and support learning, classrooms with access to technology, and a commitment to both equity and excellence.
By 2007-08 Newark Public Schools will have implemented and institutionalized standards-based curricula in Kindergarten through grade 8, providing a rigorous mathematics program for all K-8 students. The Office of Mathematics continues to serve Regional Offices to ensure that all programs, curricula, and staff development efforts support the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principles and Standards and Common Core mathematics standards.
- Education 4 Kids: This site allows students to independently reinforce basic math skills. Practice with counting money and basic operations.
- Figure This – Math Challenges: This site contains a variety of activities that support topics such as ratio & proportion, coordinate geometry, algebraic functions, and induction & deduction.
- Fun Brain.com Numbers Page: A variety of interactive games for students which support coordinate graphing, finding equivalent fractions, making change, and metric measurement.
- InfoUse’s Plane Math – in cooperation with NASA: Welcome to PlaneMath, a place to learn cool things about math and aeronautics!
- MathWorld Interactive: MathWorld is dedicated to helping educators and parents motivate their students to solve open-ended word problems, communicate mathematically, and share cultural and geographical information.
- Quia: This site allows users to create their own quizzes. Contains a list of games that can be used to strengthen and reinforce basic math skills.
- SAT Math: An online SAT preparation power tool.
- Math Stories Grades 1-8: This web site is designed to help grade school children improve their math problem-solving and critical thinking skills. It has 4000 math word problems ranging from grades 1-8.
- Mrs. Glosser’s Math Goodies: Math Goodies is a free educational web site featuring interactive math lessons, homework help, worksheets, and puzzles.
- NRICH Mathematics Enrichment: Contains problems which require various math skills at different grade/age levels. Also allows for students solutions to be submitted for later publishing.
- PBS Online – TeacherSource Math: A listing of integrated math lessons and activities grouped by grade level and categorized by topic.
- Scholastic Lesson Plans Search: A pool of teacher-tested lessons and reproducibles categorized by topics and grade level. Activities are written in article format.
- The Math Forum: This is the teacher planning section of the Math Student Forum. The lessons are grouped by grade level. Includes Ask Dr. Math and Teacher 2 Teacher exchange.
- Gradschools: A list of graduate programs in education categorized by areas of study.
- Harcourt Brace Math Glossary: An animated glossary of math terms grouped by grade level.
- Math In Daily Life: Information and examples of Math use in everyday activities.
- The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive: An archive of articles and information about the history of various math topics. Includes biographies of male and female mathematicians.
- The Math Forum – Key Issues in Math: Articles, lists, organizations, and other resources which contain information on pertinent issues in Math.
- Top 20 Math: A compilation of links for the top math websites.
- Puzzlemaker: Creates original puzzles, using your own word and/or number list.