On Wednesday, November 15, over 40 parents gathered in our Cafeteria for a morning presentation about the math program at ISB. Matthew Stokes (ISB Math Coordinator and 8th Grade Math Teacher) was joined by Lauren Cantor (5th Grade Head Teacher and English Language Coordinator), Cristina Dominguez-Delgado (1st Grade Head Teacher) and Molida Khuon (3rd Grade French Head Teacher) to explain ISB’s approach to mathematics instruction from Lower School through Middle School. Cristina demonstrated how our younger students use colorful manipulatives to grasp concepts such as inequalities, while Molida showed examples of how her students learn to interpret and create graphs with data related to their units of inquiry. Lauren then talked about how students progressively build and reinforce their foundational math knowledge along with their problem solving skills, setting them up for success in Middle School and beyond. Matthew concluded with an overview of the Middle School math program, the role of inquiry in the MYP, and how we prepare our students to face the rigors of higher math. The session ended with a call to action for parents to think about how they can incorporate math into their children’s home lives, as well as lively question and answer period during which parents asked questions about everything from standardized testing to ISB’s homework philosophy. The slides from the presentation are available here. If you have any questions about ISB’s math program, please contact Matthew Stokes (mstokes@isbrooklyn.org) or Lauren Cantor (lcantor@isbrooklyn.org). We hope you will join us in the spring for a similar presentation about our science program.

Watch Matthew and Lauren discuss ISB’s math program below.