Morrin School mathletes are competing on a national stage, showing their prowess with numbers.
Harvey Salty’s Grade 6 Class at Morrin School participates in Mathletics. This is an online program where students can participate and earn points. This has levels of achievement and your class can compete provincially, nationally, and internationally. In June the Grade 6 class was ranked number 2 in Canada.
“Some of our students have been really actively involved in solving math problems and their achievements have resulted in this,” said Saltys.
While Morrin School has dropped a couple of places in the last few days, the competition is close, and very few points are dividing the top classes.
“If we have a couple of students working hard, it makes a difference,” he said.
These results demonstrate that while Morrin is a relatively small school, the instruction and engagement can be just as strong, if not more so, than larger schools.
“Rural schools can be adaptable and flexible. I prefer to think of us as nimble and not weighed down by heavy bureaucracy,” he said. “We can find ways of making things work.”
With the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have had to move to online delivery. Morrin School was ahead of the curve with this as they have been actively using Google Classroom and online delivery, and the students are getting used to using the computer for work.
“It has been a steep learning curve for kids, but for the most part it has been good,” said Saltys.
“In some senses, we have been early adopters, in other ways it is part of our make up as a school. I have been teaching kids computers for 30 years and we have made inroads. As the digital revolution rolls out throughout society, it permeates every aspect of it. Big things have happened.”
