21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM
Collaborating to understand advanced math
By EMMA TRAINER and SERENITY LOVE
8th grade students, St. Albans City School
ST. ALBANS — At St. Albans City School, every morning students from both 7th and 8th grade
teams come together for a class called Advanced Math. This class is the
equivalent to high school Algebra. The class has two teachers, Mr.
Cioffi and Mr. Laroche. They work together to teach and support the
students. Mr. Cioffi patiently helps us understand the work step by
step. Mr. Laroche asks questions along the way and helps to relate what
we are doing to things we learned earlier in our math career. Together
they make learning math understandable and intriguing.
Most of our lessons and homework are assigned through a computer
program called Haiku. Our scores are also there. Often our homework is
to finish class activities, and at times we get online assignments using
different programs like Kahn Academy, Manga High and Delta Math. We
often use Desmos Graphing Calculator to check our work.
This math class is a unique learning environment for us. At St.
Albans City School we have two 7th and 8th grade teams, USA and
Renaissance. In Advanced Math, 8th graders from both of these teams
work together. This creates an opportunity to collaborate with students
who we would not normally interact with. This allows the students to
broaden their views on the material that is taught. The teachers
encourage our working together by making us work in mixed team groups.
Group work is a big part of our class. We always sit in groups at tables. Sometimes they are
assigned and sometimes we can choose our own. Collaboration is a normal
part of our class. We talk to each other a lot, to check our work or to
share our thinking.
Our current project is Angry Birds. In this project we are using our knowledge to create parabolas
for different birds that all have different information and data that
are displayed in diverse forms. A requirement is to present in a
creative environment that will keep the audience interested and still
explain the concept. This is one of the more fun projects that we have
had to do this year because we get to do
things that requires skills and creativity that are not normally
associated with math. It helps bring out our artistic talents.
Above, Mr. Cioffi
works with students in advanced math at St. Albans City School to
understand their parabolas. Right, the advanced math class at St.
Albans City School takes place in the Learning Commons.
Courtesy of JOAN CAVALLO
