Welcome to the upper school math classes at New Vistas School. It took me almost 30 years of teaching high school mathematics in Virginia before finding the job I enjoy now and I’ve been at NVS for the past 16 years. I get to spend each day working with terrific students and an excellent staff. I get to talk about math all day explaining complicated things in a way that students can understand and be more successful. I get to play games, play with manipulatives, act out word problems, go on field trips, draw pictures and color them. Am I lucky or what?
NVS offers four classes for high school credit toward a standard diploma and the Life Skills Program for credit toward an IEP diploma. All courses are taught with each student’s learning style in mind.
Life Skills Math 1– This is the first course in the Life Skills Program. This course has students exploring place value, estimating, rounding and comparing numbers. They work with whole numbers and decimal numbers. They work on identifying and counting money, comparing measurements of time, length, volume and weight. Critical thinking skills are reinforced through real life word problems. Instruction tends to be very hands on and practical. This course is for one credit toward an IEP diploma.
Life Skills Math 2 – This is the second course in the Life Skills Program. This course builds and expands upon previously introduced skills in the area of number sense, money sense and measurement sense. Students work with whole numbers, as well as decimal and fractional numbers. Critical thinking skills are reinforced through real life word problems. Instruction tends to be very hands on and practical. This course is for one credit toward an IEP diploma.
Life Skills Math 3 – This is the third course in the Life Skills Program. This course continues to build and expand upon skills from the previous courses. Students work on skills in the areas of place value, estimating, rounding, and comparing quantities. They use whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and percentages to solve word problems. They become more fluent in measurements of time, length, and volume using both standard and metric systems. Critical thinking skills are reinforced through real life word problems. Instruction tends to be very hands on and practical. This course is for one credit toward an IEP diploma.
Algebra 1 Part 1 – This is the first of two courses designed to give students a strong foundation in algebra. In first semester, students focus on operating with integers and writing and solving multi-step equations involving rational numbers. During second semester, students study relations and functions. They focus on graphing and writing equations of linear functions. Critical thinking skills are taught and practiced throughout.
Algebra 1 Part 2 – This course is the second in a two-year series. The course is designed to expose students to linear inequalities, systems of equations and inequalities, polynomials and factoring. The students are introduced to quadratic functions as well. Critical thinking skills are taught and practiced throughout. This course is for one credit in math toward a standard diploma.
Geometry – This is a one-year course designed to introduce students to the basic concepts of geometry and how these concepts affect their daily lives. They explore congruent and similar polygons as well as circles and 3-dimensional shapes. This includes perimeter, area and volume. They also explore parallel lines, right triangles and basic trig ratios. Both algebra and logic are used to promote critical thinking skills. This course is for one credit in math toward a standard diploma.
Algebra 2 – This is a one-year course. It is designed to expand many of those skills previously introduced in Algebra 1 and to develop a working understanding of a variety of different functions and relations. They explore sequences and series along with rational and radical expressions. Critical thinking skills are both taught and practiced. This course is for one credit in math toward a standard diploma.
