Parent Math Night: On Tuesday, December 2, Woodland parents were invited to participate in an interactive math night to learn how students are being taught according to the new state standards. Parents learned the history of how the new math standards came to be and were introduced to an “area models.” An area model is a model for math problems where the length and width are configured using either multiplication, percentage or fractions to figure out the size of an area. Parents had the opportunity to work through exercises and discovered different ways to figure out problems just as students do. This effort is intended to help parents support their student’s mathematical learning and assist them at home. Heidi Rhodes our math learning specialist facilitated the evening and did an excellent job. We had a few parents that arrived extremely concerned about the common core math, however left feeling very excited and positive about math being taught in our classrooms after participating in our presentation. There was even an interest expressed by parents in having parent math classes offered to them as a result of the meeting. Plans to increase general parent involvement in math are being developed.