National Classroom Impact

National Cohort Teacher Reflection

Before incorporating Math Buddies, we felt that math confidence for discussing mathematical ideas or strategies was pretty low. As a staff, we realized that our school community was very high in problem solving skills, but seemed to lack basic math fluency skills. The teachers then began to make a concerted effort to practice math fluency across all grade levels. We also saw a “want” for more collaboration building and fostering a strong community within our K-8 program. Ms. Sheree used the idea of a reading buddy method that we had used as a community in the past to foster reading and community among grade levels, and the idea of Math Buddies was born.

Math Buddies involves older scholars and younger scholars working together to practice math facts by using a math game format. To pilot the program we had Middle School scholars teach a math game to an elementary grade (5th), who then taught that same game to primary grades (1-2). We wanted Math Buddies to be meaningful but not time consuming for planning or implementation. It was wonderful to hear the scholars teaching the game, learning the game, and discussing strategies and ideas with one another.

Ultimately our goal, as a teaching community, is to discuss implementation of math buddies next year to foster this sense of community throughout our grade levels. During our pilot, the collaboration between the grade levels, outside of math buddies, was incredible. Scholars were excited to see their buddies and say hi when they saw them throughout the school, promoting school community and fostering empathy toward others. One group of middle school scholars saw the elementary class teaching a game to the primary class and was super excited and asked the 5th grader if that was the game that they had taught them earlier. The 5th grader responded yes and now we get to teach it to the primary kids! School community accomplished.