At Ballard High School math is more about solving equations- its about preparing for the future. With changes in teaching methods and technology, the math curriculum is evolving to keep up. How is Ballard making sure we can all keep up with it? I got a few answers from an algebra teacher here at Ballard, Mr. Kuehn a freshman algebra teacher also the head coach of the football team answered a few of my questions.
My first question for him was What his opinion is on the math curriculum at Ballard his response was; “I like the new curriculum for math. I think it is important to have something aligned across the district to where if students move schools, they are familiar with the content.” I definitely think that having the district being aligned in the math curriculum is important for a lot of students especially if they are just joining us here at Ballard.
My second question was what some of the changes he has noticed with the new curriculum this year? his response was “The big change is that the curriculum outlines all of our content. There are trials and errors with everything. One of the big things this year is trying to identify areas where the curriculum is deficient and make notes to hopefully improve the system.” For me as a student here at Ballard math is difficult most of the time, I know a lot of students could probably agree, Teachers and staff working to Improve our learning is probably a tedious and time consuming task, especially since every kid is different with the way they learn best, but knowing this year they are trying to make it better is good to know.
The next question was if it has been harder or easier to teach with the new curriculum? his response was; “It has been harder this year mainly because it is new. I am teaching the curriculum for the first time even though this is my 20th year of teaching. Like anything you do for the first time, it will never run as smooth as you like.” adding onto this question I also asked if there has been anything harder for the kids to understand he said; “I think the layout at first is a little difficult for the students and the fact that there is not a note area of the book to have a place where all of the main ideas from that particular unit are in one place, makes it difficult at times for the students to have a one stop shop of information.” i definitely agree, for me and a few of my friends here at Ballard the layout doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and its hard to keep up with everything new we learn.
My last question for Mr Kuhen was if there were any changes he would wanna make to the curriculum, his response was; “I would like to see a more favorable note layout embedded within the framework of the curriculum with more just general knowledge and basic skills practice.”
In short Ballard’s math curriculum isn’t perfect its not perfect for the teachers or the students, its something always being critiqued and changed in different ways, sometimes making it harder for students to keep up with the new material being thrown at them.
