elcome to Math Trailblazers at Dubuque Community Schools. This page endeavors to take you into the classroom to explain the new Kendall Hunt Math Trailblazers program of math learning that has been adopted by the Dubuque Schools for grades K-6. Our host for these programs is Shirley Horstman, Math and Science Curriculum Coordinator for the district. Shirley works with teachers in adapting to the new curriculum, and spends a lot of time in classrooms helping educators fine tune the program.

The curriculum relies what's called "math manipulatives," hands-on learning materials that go beyond the traditional "memorization" techniques many adult learners remember from their school days. Manipulatives take many forms. Students may build an abacus out of beads and string, grab handfulls of colorful buttons to determine seemingly complex laws of averages, or create geometric shapes from blocks to learn geometric equations. Essentially, Math Trailblazers teaches children that math is everywhere in their environment, and mathematics becomes less an abstract concept and more of an integral part of their lives.

The videos we've produced here tell the story better than anything else. You can see these children engaged in learning. Everyone participates, interacts with one another, and applies what they've learned in Math Trailblazers to other subjects such as writing, music, history, and science.

We have selected three different schools, classrooms, grades and teachers to highlight how Math Trailblazers work in our district. Mrs. Woodward's fifth grade class at Bryant School, Mrs. DeWeerdt's second grade class at Eisenhower School, and Mrs. Kruse's fourth grade class at Fulton School.

We are now providing a choice of RealPlayer applications for you to download and install on your computer to enable you to view the video and audio files. One is RealPlayer8 and the other is RealOne Player, which is an excellent player with many new features. It's easy to install, so just follow the on-screen steps. You will be required to register with Real.com, but these are free software applications (there are versions you can pay for if you choose, but they are not necessary for basic viewing and listening).

• Download RealPlayer 8 (for older operating systems including Windows 95, 98, and NT)
• Download RealOne Player (for Windows 2000, ME, and XP)

Which Player is Best for Me?

Of the two types of free players available, RealPlayer 8 is the traditional player that is free and will work beautifully to access Web based multimedia files from our site. There is also a new player available, which is also free, called RealONE. Either player will probably work for your operating system. If your system is older (Windows 95, NT), however, you may want to use the RealPlayer 8 software. If you are running a newer, faster system like Windows 98, ME, XP, or 2000, go for the RealOne player.

Macintosh Owners:

You can get a RealPlayer for Macintosh, Visit Real.com to download their free player options. Remember, look for the FREE players. They are sometimes difficult to find on their Web site.

Oh, and one more thing... sometimes when you click on a sound or video file in our Web site with the RealPlayer installed, you get a little commercial window that pops up on your desktop. It's annoying, but a small price to pay for the privilege of having the free RealPlayer on your system. Just click it off, and it will disappear.