España
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Chile
Ecuador
Mexico
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United States
Location: Madrid, Spain / Number of students: 570
Grades using Innovamat: From PreK 1 to 8th grade/ Using Innovamat since: 2021
Mirasur is a bilingual international school whose mission is “to offer a unique educational experience to every child, guiding them towards the best version of themselves.” It is precisely this innovative and student-centered focus that has led them to choose Innovamat for the math classroom.
Recently, we went to talk to several of the school’s teachers and senior staff, so that they could tell us their experience first hand and what Innovamat is contributing to their teaching practices.
Colegio Mirasur has adopted Innovamat for the teaching of mathematics in kindergarten and elementary, and this year they have also begun to implement it in 7th grade with the intention of progressively moving up in to the other middle school grades.
The depth of the curriculum, continuous teacher training, advice and resources were what most impacted Miguel Ujeda, the school’s innovation director, when he first met us. “I met Innovamat at an educational congress, and what I saw was an incredibly detailed guide book. It made an impression on me and I wanted to know everything about it.”
For Carmen Cuevas, kindergarten teacher, Innovamat offers a curriculum that allows students to set their own learning pace and enables teachers to provide differentiated instruction in every classroom, while also offering “a fun way to make connections between math and everyday life.”
The approach based on developing competencies and not just content is what enables students to follow the class and consolidate their math knowledge regardless of their level, since they learn different strategies to access the content being taught.
This, according to Raúl Castillo, elementary teacher and coordinator, is “what enriches the learning process the most” and “allows each student to be able to reach the destination in the way they understand it best”.
Miguel highlights the high level of satisfaction felt by teachers “because they see that children explaining themselves better. There is a higher level of reasoning and Innovamat incorporates differentiated instruction by default.” Juana Corral, middle school technical director, adds: “Innovamat is very much in line with what math teachers are looking for, which is to make a difficult subject attractive, to engage students and get them to like it.”
And what about the teachers? According to Miguel, in this first year with Innovamat, “teachers have discovered that they are the main resource in the classroom.” This reaffirmation of the role of the teacher as a catalyst and facilitator, and not simply as a transmitter of knowledge, is what surprised them most about the program.
Another highlight is Innovamat’s experiential and manipulative approach, which makes mathematics attractive for both students and teachers, something that Carmen Cuevas especially values, “If we enjoy what we do, we will then transmit that to the students.” Juana also stresses the importance of giving meaning to what students learn and answering their questions about the purpose of what they are studying.
Colegio Mirasur also works with the International Baccalaureate’s PYP program, which they began to teach in 2021 in kindergarten and elementary, and they intend to continue the program in the intermediate years of middle school and high school. Incorporating Innovamat into the school was quite a challenge, because it had to fit within the educational project, but, as Carmen says, “[Innovamat] really has it all. It includes all disciplines, all the different areas”.
The International Baccalaureate Diploma is a program offered by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IB), whose focus is the student and aims to educate supportive, informed and knowledgeable young people, capable of contributing to creating a better and more peaceful world, within the framework of mutual understanding and intercultural respect.
The competency-based approach of Innovamat has been one of the most valued aspects by teachers. For Juana Corral, technical director of middle school and high school, “knowing how to apply everything they learn in mathematics to other contexts is the essence of the International Baccalaureate”. The students understanding why they are doing what they’re doing will be essential to learning in much more meaningful way, leaving traditional mechanization and repetition behind. Juana stresses that “it is much better to present another way of solving both calculation and problems: thinking and responding to a challenge. In the long run, it is a depth of learning and thinking that direct instructions do not give you.”
The school tells us that the essence of the International Baccalaureate is the students seeing the usefulness of what they are learning. As Juana says, “all that management and what you are learning, you can use in Social subjects, in Language subjects and in all disciplines”. The students have demonstrated a great capacity to apply what they have learned inside and outside the classroom thanks to Innovamat.
According to Raul Castillo, elementary coordinator and teacher, “It is very important that the students are able to take what they are learning out of the classroom.”
Lastly, Juana stresses that students are much more proactive thanks to Innovamat. “They are not afraid to be wrong,” she says, but, above all, we are stuck by one of the most significant changes she has observed: “the students are much more accustomed to approaching mathematical thinking in different, not so formulaic way. And they are much more daring.”
