TEAM-Math Teacher Leader Meeting March 3, 2005

Agenda Announcements Mathematical Activity Promoting Collaboration in Your Building/District – Panel Discussion What’s Happening in Your Building? District Level Planning

Announcements

Quarterly Meeting – March 5, 2005, Auburn University 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. TEAM-Math Challenge is Pi Activity Door Prizes and Attendance Rewards Planning for Pi Day at Your School Fourth Quarter Acivities

Multicultural Literature As A Context For Mathematical Problem Solving: Children and Parents Learning Together Facilitator Workshop Wetumpka Junior High School March 8, :00 – 7:30

Administrators’ Debriefing Thursday, March 10, 2005 Auburn Hotel and Conference Center, Auburn, Alabama 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. Central Time Special breakout sessions for Cohort I and Cohort II administrators at 6:00 Buffet Dinner at 5:30 p.m.

Cohort I Counselors’ Debriefing March 17, 1:00-3:00 central time Grand National Lodge in Opelika

TEAM-Math Summer Institute 2005 Auburn High School 8:00 – 3:00 (Central Time )

Who should attend? Teachers at TEAM-Math Cohort II Schools Teachers from Cohort I Schools who did not attend Summer Institute 2004 School Teacher Leaders who did not attend Summer Institute 2004 However, you cannot teach the material from the Institute to teachers at your school.

When? Monday through Friday (two weeks) June 6 – 17, 2005 For Teachers Who Completed Summer Institute 2004: Monday through Friday (one week) June 13 – 17, 2005 Administrators: Thursday-Friday, June 16 – 17 Guidance Counselors: Friday, June 17

What will teachers receive? Lunch and Light Breakfast $50 per day stipend (half-day increments) (Teachers) Mileage for travel (following state guidelines) Professional development credit (must complete 8 of 10 days) An intensive professional development experience that is tied to the Alabama Course of Study and TEAM-Math curriculum Learn new ways of thinking about mathematics Receive materials and resources ready for classroom use An opportunity to plan with teachers from their school and school district to discuss how to implement TEAM-Math

AMES Mini-Conference Theme: Putting it All Together in Your Mathematics Classroom Sponsored by Students of CTSE 7520 and Auburn Mathematics Education Society (AMES) Date: April 28, 2005 Time: 3:45 to 6:45 Haley Center Room 2456

CTSE 7540: Evaluation of the Program In Mathematics Education June 20, 2005 – August 2, 2005 Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:00-7:00PM Auburn University, Haley Center 2467 Instructor: Dr. Marilyn E. Strutchens

CTSE 7970: Using Technology in Teaching and Learning Mathematics June 20, 2005 – August 2, 2005 Monday/Wednesday 12:00-4:00 PM Auburn University, Learning Resource Center (Haley Center third floor) Instructor: Dr. W. Gary Martin

Special Topics in Analysis Course Starts May 20 (the first day of the summer term). The course will meet in late afternoons until the public school year ends and then shift to a mutually convenient time. The course will break for the two weeks of the TEAM-Math Summer Institute (June 6-17, 2005) and then resume and end in mid July. This will be the first of a two semester sequence in calculus/analysis designed for those who may be teaching calculus in the near future. The first semester will focus on limits, continuity, and the derivative. Instructor: Dr. Phil Zenor

Data Collection Cohort I and Cohort II schools should have been (or will soon be) contacted about spring data collection Teacher survey Student survey -- Grades 4, 6, 8, and Geometry

AMSTI We are still working on this!

Mathematics Activity Crossing a River: Focus on Algebraic Reasoning

Crossing the River Problem Solve the problem in your groups. Show all of your work. Be prepared to share your responses.

Examining Students’ Work In your groups, please analyze the two students’ approaches to solving the Crossing the River problem. What do these students know about building rules to represent functions? Record your comments and be prepared to share them in a whole-group discussion. Sharing responses.

Article “Using Students’ Work as a Lens on Algebraic Thinking” by Mark Driscoll and John Moyer Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, January 2001, vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 282–287

Doing and Undoing Effective algebraic thinking sometimes involves reversibility, that is, the ability to undo mathematical processes, as well as to do them. This ability means that the mathematician not only uses a process to get to a goal but also understands the process well enough to work backward from the answer to the starting point.

Abstracting from Computation This ability enables mathematicians to think about computations independently of particular numbers used. One evident characteristic of algebra is that it is abstract. Thinking algebraically involves being able to think about computations apart from the particular numbers to which they are tied in arithmetic, that is, abstracting system regularities from computation.

Building Rules to Represent Functions Essential in algebraic thinking is the capacity to recognize patterns and organize data to represent situations in which input is related to output by well-defined function rules.

Questions to Ask for Building Rules Can you find a rule or relationship here? How does the rule work, and how is it helpful? Why does the rule work the way that it does? How are things changing? Is information given that lets me predict what is going to happen? Does my rule work for all cases? What steps am I doing over and over? Can I write down a mechanical rule that will do this job once and for all? How can I describe the steps without using specific inputs? When I do the same thing with different numbers, what still holds true? What changes? Now that I have an equation, how do the numbers (parameters) in the equation relate to the problem context?

Promoting Collaboration in Your Building/District– Panel Discussion

Panel Discussion Carol McDaniel, Tallassee Schools Tammy Culbertson, Valley High School Jerri Mattox, Jim Pearson Elementary Nancy (“Jeannie”) Riddle, Central Office (“Benjamin Russell”)

What’s Happening in Your Building? How are teachers collaborating in your building? Tell us one thing that you are working on as a school to improve related to mathematics. Tell us how we can help.

District Planning

District-Level Groups Review your “action plan” from the last meeting. What progress have you made on your plan? What remains to be done? What else might you do? Over the last two meetings, we have discussed increasing collaboration among teachers and leaders. What progress are you making along these lines, both at your school and at your district, to develop a community of practice? What progress is your district leadership team making? What particular problems might be addressed by an inquiry group at some level? BEFORE LEAVING, turn in a revised “action plan” for your district.