Mathematics

News/Events

 

National Mathcounts Honors

Long Beach Middle School was one of only 240 schools nationwide to achieve Gold Level Status in the 2013 Mathcounts Club Program. The participating students successfully completed a total of six rigorous critical thinking math challenges throughout the school year. On the final math challenge, a total of 20 Long Beach seventh-graders scored 80 percent or higher. Benedict Albergo, Derek Bannon, Sarah DeFlorio, Karleke Dennis, Blaise Derenze, Logan Friedman, Tristan Groh, Jahan Khan, Adam Leavitt, Sean McCarthy, Marina Meyer, Morgan O’Brien, Trevor Radin, Dillon Razler, Lindsey Rudtner, Christopher Scandole, Jesse Scott, Liam Thornton, Jared Weissberg and Gabriel Wilkens-Vega received a Gold Level trophy and banner from Mathcounts that will be proudly displayed in the middle school lobby.

The Mathcounts Club Program is a national math enrichment program designed to inspire excellence, confidence and curiosity in middle school students. Long Beach Middle School students in grades six and seven participate in Mathcounts as an enrichment program that meets every other school day, under the direction of teacher Kelly Honerkamp.

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AMC Math Winners

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Mathcounts Competition

A team of 10 Long Beach Middle School seventh-graders participated in the Mathcounts chapter competition on Feb. 12, increasing their school’s placement from 11th place last year to seventh place this year. Last year was the first year students participated in the program. Mathcounts competitions are organized at four levels: school, chapter, state and national. Mathcounts is an accelerated math enrichment program offered to Long Beach Middle School sixth- and seventh-graders who excel in math. Through this program, students explore mathematical concepts beyond their normal grade level. Pictured Kneeling (l to r): Blaise Derenze, Evan Garcia, Danielle Breen and Marina Meyer. Standing (l to r): Mathcounts teacher Kelly Honerkamp, Gabriel Wilkens-Vega, Logan Friedman, Liam Thornton, Jared Weissberg and Tristan Groh. Absent from photo: Jack Cruse-Mulhall.

“These competitions can be quite challenging, but the real success of Mathcounts is in the challenges that students overcome as they problem-solve in mathematics,” said District Director of Mathematics Cheriese Pemberton. “Mathcounts spurs students to view mathematics as exciting, challenging, rewarding and fun.”

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Math Professional Development

Common Core Learning Standards in Math
On Feb. 22-23, Long Beach teachers participated in a Common Core math training session with Kim Sutton. The grade 3-8 mathematics workshop addressed the new Common Core Learning Standards. Teachers learned practical and meaningful strategies for getting to the heart of intensive math content with music, literature and hands-on activities. This in-service course, which focused on number sense and operations, included concepts such as the development and understanding of numbers, place value thinking, fraction fluency and positive reinforcement of basic concepts. Teachers also learned practical and meaningful classroom management strategies throughout the seminar.

Collaborative Inquiry
High school teachers are engaged in Action Research. This in-service course, taught by Director of Mathematics Cheriese Pemberton, gave teachers tools to increase student performance in Algebra and Algebra 2 & Trigonometry through data-driven practices. Participants engaged in collaborative inquiry to identify problems of practice, review literature about what works, and develop an action plan to address student needs based on research-based practices. Participants went on to administer a pre-test in order to establish baseline data and a post-test to evaluate the effectiveness of their action plan. There will be three interim assessments administered between the pre-test and post-test. In this ongoing project, participants will explore Brambrick-Santoyo’s data analysis system as a means of determining individual student growth.

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Long Beach Implements Common Core Learning Standards

At the Feb. 12 Board of Education meeting, Kenneth Graham, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, presented a report to the board about the district’s progress toward implementing the Common Core Learning Standards. The Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics, adopted by the New York State Board of Regents in 2011, provide clear and consistent guidelines to ensure that schools are giving students the skills they will need to be ready for college and careers in a global economy.

Mr. Graham began by explaining that these internationally benchmarked standards are focused and coherent, providing guidelines for rigor and application of instruction to align current curricula with 21st century college and work expectations. The Common Core standards, he added, are not entirely new. They are intended to build upon the strengths and lessons of previous state standards.

With regard to mathematics, Mr. Graham said that under the Common Core standards, the focus of instruction has shifted, requiring students to build skills across grades, develop speed and accuracy, think fast to solve problems, and be able to understand and use the skills they learn in real-world applications.

Teachers in all K-8 classrooms are currently teaching to the Common Core standards in mathematics. Implementation began with the rewriting of curricula, which took place over the summer. The district has also implemented the use of the enVision Math program, which is aligned to Common Core standards. In addition, students in grades 3-8 who need extra support services have been attending supplementary instruction through the Math Academy. Teachers have been receiving ongoing professional development, working with consultants and administrators, in grade-level groups and at teacher meetings.

Mr. Graham went on to explain the shifts in ELA and literacy instruction that have taken place as a result of the adoption of the Common Core standards. Students are now expected to read as much non-fiction as fiction texts, learning about the world through reading. They are being asked to read more challenging material more closely and discuss and write about what they have read using evidence drawn from the text. They are also expected to increase their academic vocabulary.

The implementation of the Common Core standards is being carried out in elementary classrooms throughout the district, beginning with phonics instruction in grades pre-K-1, using Letter People in pre-K classrooms and the Wilson FUNdations program in grades K-1. The Fountas and Pinnell benchmark assessment program has been implemented in grades K-5 to assess individual student progress, and all classrooms have been equipped with leveled reading libraries. Literacy blocks have been introduced, and all students are expected to develop a writing portfolio to help track and assess their progress. The elementary ELA curriculum has undergone revisions to meet the Common Core standards. Teachers continue to receive ongoing professional development.

Mr. Graham pointed out that there have been recent gains in the percentage of students scoring at level 3 or 4 in ELA and math assessments, with most scores at or above the county average. With the implementation of the Common Core standards, the district has renewed its focus on moving more students toward mastery, with the goal of moving the district to the top third of the county.

To view a copy of the presentation, which includes a list of resources for parents, visit the Board of Education page of www.lbeach.org.

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Filling Post-Sandy Textbook Needs

After taking inventory of their losses in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, administrators of Long Beach Public Schools set to work soliciting donations to replace vital learning tools, such a textbooks, that were ruined in the floods that tore through the school buildings on this hard-hit barrier island.

Long Beach Middle School was one of the district buildings that sustained considerable flooding damage. Many of the textbooks that were left in lockers the Friday before the storm were destroyed. Books that traveled home with students did not fare much better, as many homes in the area also suffered considerable flood damage.
One of the corporate donors that came to the rescue was Big Ideas Learning, publishers of the Big Ideas Math series used by Long Beach students in grades 6-8. Hearing of the district’s plight, the company donated dozens of boxes of replacement workbooks, making it possible for middle school students to continue their math studies without further interruption.

Another generous contribution came from Pearson/Prentice Hall, publishers of “Earth Science: The Physical Setting,” which is the Regents review book used by eighth-grade accelerated science students. Through the cooperation of company representative Shelly Newmark, 100 new workbooks were delivered to the district to help these students continue their efforts to excel in science.

“This particular loss was especially hard to accept, since we had just purchased new review books from Pearson/Prentice Hall this year,” said Director of Science Kenneth Graham. “When I told Shelly of our situation, she went right to work to try to help us out.”

“We have been deeply touched by the outpouring of aid that we have received in the aftermath of this terrible storm,” said Superintendent David Weiss. “New supplies from community members and from around the country have been arriving every day to fill the real and specific needs of our hard-hit schools.”

To help alert potential donors of specific needs, the district has set up a special link on its website, www.lbeach.org, that says “Hurricane Relief Donate Here.”

   

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Common Core Math Workshop

Parents of Long Beach Middle School students attended a math workshop that provided them with many useful tools to help their children meet the new Common Core standards. The Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics adopted by the NYS Board of Regents in 2011 provide clear and consistent guidelines to ensure that schools are giving students the skills they will need to be ready for college and careers in a global economy.

The workshop, which was conducted by Director of Mathematics Dr. Cheriese Pemberton, gave parents a program overview, explaining what kind of changes in instruction were brought about through the Common Core and what the district is doing to be sure that students are ready to meet these new challenges. Dr. Pemberton outlined the assessment system that the district uses to examine data, assess how each student is progressing toward meeting benchmarks, and provide interventions when needed. Parents were given sample math questions to help them understand the kind of work their children are now being asked to do.

“We no longer just supply students with a formula and ask them to plug in the numbers,” said Dr. Pemberton. “Students are now being asked more often to reason problems out for themselves. If they approach a problem that they do not immediately know how to solve, they are encouraged to keep trying to reason it out. This is very different from the math classrooms we grew up in.”

The workshop concluded with a tutorial to acquaint parents with the Big Ideas Math Program that is used in Long Beach Middle School classrooms. This program, which was developed with the Common Core standards as its foundation, uses a balance of autonomy of discovery and direct instruction to guide students toward math competency. Dr. Pemberton showed parents how to use the online component of Big Ideas Math to help their children complete homework, prepare for tests, and extend their learning outside of the classroom.

     

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Calculating a Post-Sandy-Comeback

Hurricane Sandy hit Long Beach especially hard, damaging the homes and personal property of many families and closing district schools for a record 10 days. When classes resumed, teachers and administrators went to work seeking help to replace essential supplies so that students could return to the business of learning.

Anyone who has ever taken a higher-level math class knows that a graphing calculator is an essential classroom tool. Worried that many of his students might have lost their graphing calculators in the storm, Long Beach High School math teacher David Prince posted a series of projects on DonorsChoose.org called "Hurricane Sandy Calculator Recovery." DonorsChoose.org is an organization that allows teachers to post projects that require funding. Outside benefactors then contribute to the projects they deem worthy. Within four days, the Hurricane Sandy Recovery projects raised $1,769 from donors all over the country--enough money to purchase a classroom set of 30 TI-84 graphing calculators. To view the projects, visit http://www.donorschoose.org/project/hurricane-sandy-calculator-recovery-in-l/917493/.

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Math Olympians

Members of the Long Beach Middle School Math Olympiad club participated in the third annual Nassau County Math Olympiad, held at Kellenberg High School in Uniondale. The Long Beach team of (l to r) Jonathan Kapilian, Alexandra Kapilian, Alexandra Thursland, Mashiyat Ahmed and Samantha Melconian placed eighth overall out of 33 schools. They are pictured with Math Olympiad coach Tara Mele (right). The competition was sponsored by the Museum of Math and organized by St. Martin de Porres Marianist School.

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Family Math Day

More than 1,000 Long Island students and parents came out to enjoy Sandy Cohen Family Math Day, hosted this year by Long Beach Public Schools. This annual event is sponsored by the Nassau County Math Teachers Association and the Nassau County Association of Math Supervisors. It all started in 1989 with Sandy Cohen’s vision of creating an event to bring Long Islanders together to partake in family fun with mathematics. This year 450 families turned out for a day of lively workshops held at Long Beach High School, led by 80 guest speakers and assisted by 100 volunteers.

Families of students in grades K-6 participated in hands-on activities to enhance the mathematical knowledge of both children and their parents. Workshops with titles such as “Sweet Geometry,” “Gotta Minute,” “Yummy Math” and “Pyramath” kept families engaged with new and exciting approaches to mathematical problem solving. With a host of contests and door prizes, everyone received at least one souvenir to remind them of their day’s adventures.

“As a member of both of the sponsoring organizations, I expressed interest in hosting this event in Long Beach to give families in our community the opportunity to experience firsthand the joys of Family Math Day,” said District Director of Mathematics Cheriese Pemberton. “I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the many presenters and volunteers who worked so hard to make this event such a success.”

          

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AMC Math Winners

Yasmine Resnick (grade 10), Nerio Rodriguez (grade 11) and Michael Heiss (grade 10) finished in the top three of all the Long Beach High School students who competed in the American Mathematics Competition 12 (AMC). Their scores gained them recognition by the AMC as having exceptional mathematics talent.

Long Beach High School administered the AMC in February 2012 to all students who were interested in rising to the challenge. According to the competition’s official website, AMC is dedicated to the goal of strengthening the mathematical capabilities of our nation's youth by challenging them to problem solve mathematical concepts beyond the scope and sequence of their grade level, and by identifying, recognizing and rewarding excellence in mathematics.

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MATHCOUNTS Chapter Competition

A group of ten sixth and seventh graders participated in the MATHCOUNTS chapter competition, held at Hofstra University on February 16. Natalie Swegler, Mashiyat Ahmed, Kelly Gannon, Jessica Marcote, Kelly DiResto, Mary-Elizabeth McCourt, Savannah Kile, Eric Ricci, Jennifer Arnaud and Samuel Miller were tested on their knowledge of algebra, geometry, probability and other advanced mathematical concepts in a fast-paced timed setting. Natalie, Mashiyat, Kelly and Jessica all received scores labeled “highly commendable.”

Through the MATHCOUNTS program, which was introduced at Long Beach Middle School at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, sixth and seventh graders who excel in math are given the opportunity to explore mathematical concepts beyond their normal grade level. MATHCOUNTS is a national program that inspires excellence, confidence and curiosity in middle school students, providing them with the foundation for success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers.

“I applaud our students for participating in this rigorous competition,” said Mathematics Director Cheriese Pemberton. “It was a great experience for them to challenge themselves with this advanced curriculum. Most importantly, students recognized their ability to grow mathematically and realized what they can achieve through hard work and perseverance.”

 

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MATHCOUNTS Competition

The Long Beach Middle School auditorium was buzzing with excitement as a select group of sixth and seventh graders prepared to take part in the school’s first MATHCOUNTS Competition. Students, who participated in three grueling rounds of team competition, were tested on their knowledge of algebra, geometry, probability and other advanced mathematical concepts in a fast-paced timed setting.

Two teams earned perfect scores in round one. Those winners were sixth graders Sarah DeFlorio. Irving Oliva, Liam Thornton, Claire Ezratty, Emma Levin, Jack Cruse-Mulhall, Tamiyah Massey and George Ventura.

The sixth-grade team of Marina Meyer, Blaise Derenze, Ava DeBruin and Luke Toomey reigned victorious in round two.

Round three saw another tie with two seventh-grade teams claiming victory. The round three winners were Justin Simms, Mary Sabedra, Erica Russell, Kelly DiResto, Finian Ashmead, Eric Ricci, Justin Kolodny, Gregg Wildstein, Jennifer Arnaud, Noelani Tomicick and Natalie Swegler.

With the first official district competition under their belts, students were better prepared for the chapter competitions in February, followed by the possibility of state and national competitions in March and May.
     
Through the MATHCOUNTS program, which was introduced at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, sixth and seventh graders who excel in math are given the opportunity to explore mathematical concepts beyond their normal grade level.

MATHCOUNTS is a national program that inspires excellence, confidence and curiosity in middle school students, providing them with the foundation for success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers.