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Oliver! Fall Musical
Update Hopkins Public Schools
The community’s guide to the District.
Eight Hopkins students named National Merit Semifinalists
October/November 2014
Hopkins High School’s Royal Productions presents Oliver! November 13, 14, 7:00 p.m. November 15, 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. High School Auditorium 2400 Lindbergh Dr, Minnetonka www.hhstheater.org
com m u ni t y Family Swim Saturdays! Make a splash at the Eisenhower pool! $10 per family/session. No sessions Nov. 29, Dec. 27, Jan. 3 Saturdays, Oct. 25-March 21 1:00-3:00 p.m. Eisenhower Community Center 1001 Highway 7, Hopkins www.HopkinsCommunityEd.org
Young People’s Concert The Hopkins High School orchestras will perform a free concert just for kids. Wear your pajamas, enjoy activities, an instrument petting zoo, and Disney movie music. October 28, 5:45-7:00 p.m. Hopkins High School 2400 Lindbergh Dr, Minnetonka
Learning to Love the Numbers
How Hopkins teachers are building energy and enthusiasm around math
Eight Hopkins High School seniors have been named National Merit Semifinalists. They are, Estelle Bayer, Matthew Carter, Samuel Greenwald, Simran Mishra, Robert Peng, Katherine Swenson, Benjamin Vaaler, and Gannon Youakim. To earn this honor, these students scored in the top 3 percent of all students who took the preliminary SAT in the country last school year. The students are among 16,000 nationwide chosen to compete for the reputable National Merit Scholarship.
World Café engages business and educational leaders
On Sept. 11, Hopkins Public Schools partnered with the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce to host a World Café, engaging business and educational leaders in a discussion on the needs of the future workforce. The long-term goal is to generate ideas where business and education can work together to provide our youth with the skills and attributes needed to compete in a global workforce. Part of the Hopkins School District’s strategic plan is to build partnerships, innovate, and be futuredriven.
When Regina Johnson tells people she is a junior high math teacher, she gets a common response: “oh, I never liked math,” followed by a groan. Despite its importance, math gets a bad rap in our society with many people claiming they are not “math people.” But Johnson and her math colleagues at Hopkins are not buying it, and counter that everyone is capable of learning math. “You would never say, ‘I am not a reading person,’” Johnson points out. “I don’t think there is anybody that is not a math person. There are only people who have not found the right connections to work that part of their brain.”
In an effort to generate buzz around math last year, Alice Smith Elementary hosted its first-ever Sixth Grade Math Night. Teachers, along with sixth-grade students, challenged families in strategy games, created geometric shapes, and sharpened their overall math skills.
My math homework didn’t look like that! Helping parents help their students Helping their children with math homework can be To help all students see themselves as mathematically inclined, Hopkins offers a math program that helps students particularly challenging for parents because the way it is taught has changed. At the junior high, teachers are focusing see, feel, and understand math using techniques their on making sure students have a deep understanding of math parents may not have explored in school. Getting kids rather than mastering a series of procedures. Students are interested in math when they are young is important, but no longer coming home with worksheets full of equations as any Hopkins math teacher will tell you, maybe the most to complete, but instead may be asked to answer one or two impactful thing we can do to solve our collective fear of conceptual questions. A variety of resources math is to stop bad-mouthing it. You would never exist to assist parents who are stumped. “We need a PR campaign around math,” said A quick conversation with the teacher say, ‘I am not a math curriculum coordinator Michele Luke. can direct parents to a variety of online “We need to work with parents to make sure resources, from YouTube tutorials, to reading person, ’ they have the resources they need to help helpful Web pages, and other hidden gems their child with math.” I don’t think there within the math community. The critical elementary years is anybody that is “The most important message is that we are Because math is a foundational subject, it asking students to follow a particular not a math person. not is especially important that students see algorithm or procedure, but to think about themselves as mathematically capable in the knowledge they have gained and how There are only the early elementary years. Any belief to the it fits together,” said Johnson. “You don’t contrary can quickly become a self-fulfilling people who have see nearly as many worksheets with 30 prophecy. At Hopkins, math coaches, not found the right equations; instead, you may see two or like Scott Stillman, work with elementary three questions that ask students to explain teachers to design learning experiences that how things are the same and how they are connections to are engaging, relevant, and inviting. Stillman different.” is also a former sixth-grade teacher at Alice work that part of Making math relevant at the juniorSmith Elementary and knows a thing or two their brain. high level about teaching math to students without Similar to the elementary level, junior high raising their anxiety. Through storytelling, teachers spend a great deal of time focusing on making visual aids, and interactive games, Stillman facilitated math relevant. Teachers might start a Monday lecture mathematical discussions with his students, placing more explaining how math applied to their weekend, or ask the importance on understanding the process than having the students to come up with their own examples. The intent is right answer. to make a variety of connections with students to help them “I value the errors as much as the correct answers,” said understand that math is not an isolated skill set. It has an Stillman. “Errors allow us to talk through the problem and underlying structure in a lot of different areas. discover how to talk mathematically. We want classrooms The junior-high curriculum is also full of hands-on, realthat can celebrate risk, and we want those classrooms to world assignments that are math-based. For example, in be as low-stress as possible so kids can feel comfortable seventh grade, students may be asked to create video game interacting with the concepts.” see Numbers inside