Summary of Education Sessions in DC

Wednesday, January 19, 200, from 10 - 12 Sharing Session

     Jessica Kim, kimj@trinitydc.edu
     Professional Development for Math Teachers in K-6: What they want and
     what they need

     Based on limited observation, K-6 teachers are seeking: concrete
     examples to explain the basic concept, hands-on activities, and
     teaching materials and resources.

     What the K-6 teachers need from professional development in
     mathematics: content(theory), traditional and newly developed teaching
     material, self-confidence in mathematical understanding, how to
     deliver the mathematical concept in a concrete way, and how to
     encourage students mathematically.


     Louise Raphael, lar@scs.howard.edu or lraphael@fac.howard.edu

     Louise shared with us a document titled, A Parents' Guide to Math
     Survival Skills Every Child Should Have: K-3. She shared with us her
     experiences in finding funding for the project and the difficulties in
     satisfying the requests of both parents and school administrators.


     Jennifer Hontz, hontz@neelix.udayton,edu,
      
     http://homepages.udayton.edu/~hontz/  look under MTH 204 and MTH 205

     Jennifer shared with us topics and techniques used in her courses for
     future elementary teachers. The courses are MTH 204 and MTH 205. The
     texts that she uses are Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers by
     Bassarear and Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers: Explorations
     by Bassarear, both published by Houghton Mifflin.

     What she used to do:
     Each class contained two sections and met each week for two
     fifty-minute classes and a hone hour fifteen minute lab. The lecture
     classes had 50 students and the lab met by section with 25 students.
     Undergraduate TA's taught the labs.

     Three important changes:
     1. Received internal funding for purchasing manipulatives
     2. Convinced department chair to allow a maximum of 25 students in MTH
     204 in a classroom with tables and chairs.
     3. She sat down with two different K-12 teachers whose job it is to
     train elementary teachers in how to teach mathematics.

     Now in MTH 204
     1. She is in the process of integrating the Explorations, textbook and
     manipulatives into the classroom.
     2. They are now investigating other bases. They use snap cubes that
     have been assembled into base 6 manipulatives to better understand
     base 6.
     3. Recommended manipulatives: Snap cubes, base 10 blocks, pattern
     blocks, Tower of Hanoi, SET.



     Anneke Bart, barta@slu.edu

     Anneke shared some of the activities she uses in her Informal Geometry
     course for teachers. She had two nice handouts, and one of them listed
     a web address of
     
     http://forum.swarthmore.edu/sketchpad/intro/gsp.introlab3.html also
     try changing introlab3 to introlab5. 

     Also try http://euler.slu.edu.


     Jeff Connor, connor@math.ohiou.edu,
     
     http://www.math.lhiou.edu/~sustain/#4

     Jeff talked about the mathematical education of teachers at Ohio
     University. He had lots of nice ideas about a program called
     SUSTAIN. He referred often to work done by Barbara Grover at his
     university (bgrover@math.ohiou.edu) Barbara works with courses for
     elementary teachers and Jeff has worked on a course for secondary
     school teachers. They offer three math courses for elementary school
     teachers. They also offer two junior-level courses that are designed
     primarily for prospective secondary and middle school teachers. They
     are foundations of geometry and Teaching of Mathematics in Secondary
     School. In addition to these courses for prospective teachers they
     also offer Topics in Geometry for practicing teachers through a
     project, Project SUSTAIN, which is funded by the Ohio board of
     Regents.


     Tomas Szabo, tszabo@weber.edu

     Tomas shared with us some posters and portfolios that had been
     prepared by students in some of his math classes. These were from
     courses that were offered for middle and high school future teachers.


     Kris Green, green@sjfc.edu

     Kris has an interesting position. He is in the Math, Science and
     Technology Education Department. He shared with us some of the
     integrated courses that they are able to offer because of this unique
     situation.