Almetra Pierce (from left) Sherry Thompson and Diane Bowers work on a project Wednesday on the Nicholls State campus in Thibodaux.
Abby Tabor/Staff
Published: Saturday, July 21, 2012 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, July 21, 2012 at 2:24 a.m.
In a second-floor classroom in Nicholls State University's Peltier Hall, a group of teachers found their roles reversed Wednesday afternoon.
Under the watchful eye of the their instructor, DesLey Plaisance, they combed through baskets of construction paper and markers as they made colored sheets of paper showing their mastery of fractions through slices of pizza and other everyday objects.
The teachers weren't reverting back to childhood, smiles and occasional giggles aside. They were actually participating in learning exercises and developing strategies to become better math teachers, something local schools sorely need.
The teachers are participants in Project NUMBER, a new course Nicholls faculty have created to boost local math teachers' skills. The project is paid for with a $135,000 grant from the state's Board of Regents, placing it among the biggest grant-based projects the university earned last year.
Whereas many professional development courses only last a few hours or a day, Project NUMBER includes 72 hours of class time and classroom consultations.
“This gives us time to not just do superficial lessons and try to cram it all in,” Plaisance said. “It gives us a chance to really get to the root of things.”
The grant money comes as school officials both locally and statewide try to boost flagging math scores.
Student test scores on end of semester tests, which were released last week, show students perform significantly worse in Geometry and Algebra I than Biology and English. In Algebra I, for example, 21 percent of students failed the test.
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