Transcript Math Teachers’ Circles: What, Why, How, When and Where Judith Covington Louisiana State University Shreveport Angie Hodge University of Nebraska at Omaha What is a Math.

Math Teachers’ Circles:
What, Why, How, When and Where
Judith Covington
Louisiana State University Shreveport
Angie Hodge
University of Nebraska at Omaha
What is a Math Teachers’ Circle?
The mission of the national Math Teachers’
Circle (MTC) program, developed at the
American Institute of Mathematics (AIM), is
to establish the foundation for a culture of
problem solving among middle school math
teachers in the U.S.
For more information visit:
www.mathteacherscircle.org
By fostering the confidence to tackle openended math problems, middle school
teachers become better equipped to initiate
more student-centered, inquiry-based
pedagogies in their classrooms.
Goals of Math Teachers’ Circles
• To engage middle school math teachers in
mathematical problem solving and involve them in an
ongoing dialogue about math with students,
colleagues, and professional mathematicians.
• To provide guidance, materials, and resources to
middle school math teachers that will enable them to
promote open-ended problem solving as a way of
learning, thinking about, and practicing mathematics
in their classrooms.
Components of MTCs
• Immersion academy
Teachers engage in various open-ended problem solving activities,
guided by mathematicians and teachers
• Monthly meetings
MTCs continue to provide a content-based enrichment outlet for
teachers but also have a more pedagogical focus intended to help
teachers bring problem-solving techniques into their classrooms
WHY?Judith
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I felt that my pre-service teachers did not have
strong backgrounds in problem solving.
This was a way to hopefully provide teachers with
the means to give their students more problems to
solve.
I wanted to work with teachers as a way to reach
students.
WHY?Angie
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The “creation of the team” challenge
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Opportunity to network with local teachers
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Opportunity for faculty and teachers to learn
from each other
HOW?
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We both first heard about Math Teachers’ Circles at a
RL Moore Conference.
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AIM holds a workshop titled How to Run a Math
Teachers’ Circle. These workshops are designed for
teams of five—two mathematicians, two middle school
teachers, and one administrator or other organizer—
who are interested in starting a Math Teachers’ Circle
in their area.
North Louisiana Math Teachers’
Circle
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Started with an interested mathematics faculty
member
Contacted two local teachers who were
graduates of LSU Shreveport and former
students of faculty member
Added a faculty member from Education
Contacted a third local school district to select
a third middle school teacher for the team
Math Teachers’ Circle of North
Dakota
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Started with a team of two math faculty and
two local middle school teachers
Applied for a state MSP grant
Added three faculty (education and math) and
four lead teachers
Received support from a consortium of
teachers in North Dakota to help promote the
MTC as a professional development
experience
WHEN
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NLMTC held two events after returning from the
training workshop in Washington, DC
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November 8, 2010 we had 40 middle school
teachers for our inaugural meeting
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March 7, 2011 we had 25 middle school teachers
for a second meeting
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Each meeting started at 5 pm with supper followed
by two and a half hours of mathematics
Pat Jones introducing the problem set
Teachers working and smiling!
NLMTC
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NLMTC will have a summer workshop July 1821, 2011
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22 teachers have already registered for the 30
teacher workshop
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The workshop will consist of several hands on
activities as well as time spent working on solving
a variety of problems.
North Dakota
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First summer workshop will be held during the
weeks of June 13th and June 20th
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25 teachers are signed up to participate
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4 more teachers will serve as lead teachers
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4 faculty and 1 graduate student will help
facilitate the workshop
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1 guest speaker will present
ND PRIME: Problem Solving, Reasoning,
and Inquiry for Mathematics Educators
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http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~kureczko/mtc/
Creative mathematical ideas to bring back to
the classroom
Free graduate course credit
Free travel, hotel accommodations, and meals
A stipend of $50 per day
Networking with ND teachers and professors
Content knowledge focus linked to the state
mathematics standards
NLMTC November 8 feedback
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“I have enjoyed participating in the North Louisiana
Math Teachers' Circle. I find the program to be of
immense value in enriching my understanding of
mathematics, so that I can then better instruct my
students.”
“I was able to figure out all of the problems, but I
most enjoyed working the abstract problems that
were beyond skills of my usual curriculum or where
pattern recognition was important. I used some of
the problems with my students, but others would be
a little beyond their reach. My students most
enjoyed the silliness of #4.”
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“The
kids were interested to know about where I got
the problems and what we did for the evening. They
were amazed that I would voluntarily spend an evening
doing math, but it allowed for a class discussion
about how solving problems makes me feel like a
detective on a case. It's sometimes hard to get kids at
this age to understand the beauty of mathematics,
but hearing about how I figured out some of the
problems and some of my missteps seemed to help
them understand how important it is to persevere. If
nothing else, they understood that I believe that
learning continues throughout life.”
NLMTC March 7 Feedback
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"Thank you for helping to implement such a
wonderful way for gathering math teachers to share
our "tools of the trade". I have used SET in my
classroom, and my students love it. They were very
excited to be able to play a game and learn at the
same time. I think it provides a great way for them
to understand different sets with different
attributes. Thanks again."
• "The March meeting was the first meeting I attended. I
learned a great deal from the presentations and taught the
activity to all three grade levels the same week. The
students grasped the concepts within five minutes because of
the power points presented during the in-service. I used the
game as a whole class activity and placed two cards on the
projector and the students guess the card that completed the
set. It became a competition, boys against girls. The
students had to respond within ten seconds. It was a little
wild at first, but the students look forward to the
competition. The game helped me to reinforce the
probability concept. Also, the meeting encouraged me to
search for more game activities to implement in the regular
curriculum."
Now it is your turn!
WHERE?
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That is up to you!
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There is support available from a variety of
sources.
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For more information visit:
www. mathteacherscircle.org