An internet account
FOR NEWFOUNDLAND EDUCATORS
You can use your Stemnet account to send the email math problems but students cannot directly access your account because you are not allowed to share your password. The ideal situation would be to have a susie account. You must apply for this.Copies of the most recent application forms are available online on the SCHOOL RINGS PAGE.
A SUSIE account (as opposed to a CALVIN account) is for student use. It provides them with a restricted access to the internet.
DEFINING YOUR PROJECT
Decide on the following:
- Who will be involved?
- What students will participate i.e. the whole class? a small enrichment group?
- When will students work on the project? During class time? At home? After school? When they have finished their work?
- Where will students go (off to the computer room or Learning Resources' Centre) to work on their project? Do you have a computer in the classroom?
- What will be the theme of the problems? Pop culture? Your province? Dinosaurs? Will you try to integrate math with another subject such as Social Studies or Science?
- How will you coordinate the flow of messages in and out? You will need someone to set up a distribution list and organize folders.
HOW DO YOU GET PARTNER CLASSROOMS?
It's not hard to get classrooms around the world who are interested. Use the information provided in the folder for the IECC list. This is an online service which links up classroom groups interested in sharing projects and in being partnered. The list serves as a sort of bulletin board on which you can post a message for people to see all over the world. There are lots of people/classes who are interested in having projects.
Hint: When you post your message, be sure to define your project simply but clearly otherwise you will have to spend a lot of time reexplaining it to interested people. You should have worked out answers to a lot of questions such as how many problems will you send per week? What type of problems do you use? How hard/easy should they be? How soon do people need to send a reply to the problems etc..
WHY BOTHER HAVING A PROJECT LIKE THIS?
Email math is very easy for teachers and students. It is very motivating for students and gives them the opportunity to learn more about the computer as a tool. It gets them to use their problem solving strategies and to apply the skills they have learned to solve and create problems. It puts them in contact with their peer group in another geographic location. It links you and your students with other classes all over the world.
FOR WHAT GROUPS/GRADES IS THE PROJECT SUITABLE?
Age groups:
Grades four-nine are the ideal groups to do the project with because it's easier to do interdisciplinary work at these grades. Teachers often have the same students for math as they do for Social Studies and/or Language Arts.
Academic groups
This type of project is ideal for enrichment groups because it provides them with new challenges, flexibility to move at their own pace, opportunity to be creative, curriculum control.
Non-enrichment groups can also benefit from this project. Students who are challenged by math most often need extra motivation, extra practice, more work with problems and applications. You may however wish to specify in your request for partner classrooms that your group is not an enrichment group and that problems should be suitable for an average ability math group of this grade level.
Whereas the enrichment group might work on its project during regular class time, the regular or average math group might participate in the project during lunch hour or after school.
Return to e-mail math
Last updated March 3rd,1996 by
Elizabeth Murphy