Board Members Present: Giny Christensen, Jackie Nissen, Chuck Peterson, Patty Sandoz, Cathy Bernhard, Jackie Cooke, Ann McMahon, Judy Johnson, Debbie Lindow, Marla Baber, Mary Bailey, Trudy Mitchell, Janet Echanis, Mary Ruth Stranz, Randy Mathson, Mike Gould, Damon Langley, Francie Bostwick, Nancy Rogers, Brent Freeman, Kayda Mitchell, Nancy Anderson, Deanna Reisman, Laura Lethe, Tari Querin, Jim Specht, Cathy Brown, Marge Burak, Nancy Swarat, Susan Fisher-Alexander, Ralph Schubothe, Phil Bartsch, Lynn Bonser, Lois Costine, Linda Parker, Becky Reed, Cheri Clausen, Molly Smith.

Guests: Tom Swanson

Call to Order: 9:14 Giny Christensen

~ Marge Burak--replaces Jacquie Gibbs who wants to spend her time helping Redmond with their math curriculum. Jim Specht--we've got him back. Tom Swanson--retired but was invited back. Dennis Shultz was invited (part of OPEN) but did not attend. Dennis is interested in the Retooling project.

~ During noon Giny needs to meet with Cathy Bernhard, Chuck Peterson, Jim Specht, and Jackie Nissen.

~ Two new rosters were passed around with any corrections noted.

~ One is attendance for the minutes and one is for Giny.

• Approval of Minutes:

~ Under Old Business add Writers' Retreat

~ Under Discussion add OCTM Board minutes on website

~ Under Discussion add OML, what it is, and what a profile of the attendees is, etc.

• Area Rep Reports -- Please refer to the end of the minutes for the individual Area Reports.

• EBSCO Letter to Phil Bartsch, dated Jan. 14, 2004

~ Giny asked for everyone's interpretation and understanding of this email.

~ Concern was expressed about the licensing to let someone take materials out of TOMT as we (OCTM) don't retain an attorney to guide us in these matters. One area of legal concern would be those articles that permission had to be sought to print in TOMT. Others said they don't see a problem with EBSCO doing this as it would serve to enhance our group although there should be a limit of usefulness. This limit might be an access to past years' materials rather than current year because otherwise the motivation for membership would be impeded. Could there be a process for EBSCO to seek permission as to which articles to lift? Are there still legal questions? Could an EBSCO rep attend the May 1 meeting? Should there be a list of answers to questions? Since EBSCO service must be purchased by schools they would be making a profit off our TOMTs. There is an index of five years' worth on the webpage. We would need to see the legal agreement between EBSCO and OCTM/TOMT.

~ A copy of this letter is included at the end of the minutes

• OCTM Minutes on Web Jackie Nissen

~ Should the minutes be available to all members including the Treasurer's report (though not the spreadsheet)? This would also help our NCTM rep, Mary Ann Stine. Discussion ensued about whether these minutes would be the approved minutes versus the pre-approved minutes with a qualifier that the minutes are UNAPPROVED. The question was raised about the President sending out a summary of the meeting as had been done in the past. (This is where the value of an Officers' Procedure Manual comes in--new officers would know in advance about these kinds of tasks.) This summary, or an abridged version, could go on the Web or out to the listserv. Or there could simply be a note that the minutes are available upon request.

After much discussion about the topic, including whether this is policy thus requiring a motion, a decision was made:

^ The listserv will receive a summary of the minutes by the President.

^ The Recording Secretary will send the APPROVED minutes to the Webmeister in Word 97/98 format (until a newer, more standardized format becomes available).

^ The Webmeister will post the APPROVED minutes to the OCTM webpage.

^ This is the final decision, ppppffffffffffttttttttt!!!!!!

~ Tari Querin restated the original question: Portland wanted to have membership for every school though a school would not have membership rights.

~ How does a school apply--as an individual member or in a school's name?

~ We have special rates for OSTA and OCTM dual membership and we have student rates.

~ We already have as policy that group membership does not extend all rights.

~ The question was asked if there is a list of policies. Chuck jokingly said it's on the web. The real answer: Yes, it's in the area notebooks.

~ The Recording Secretary will add the new policy on membership discounts to this Policy list. This duty also needs to be in the Officers' Procedure Manual that is currently in development.

• Writers' Retreat Cathy Bernhard.

~ OCEPT wants to do another retreat but a date needs to be set. Sunday of OML week will be the board meeting, Sunday night will be the opening. Retooling will take place the Friday and Saturday before OML so the Writers' Retreat will be the Tuesday evening and Wednesday after OML.

~ How does the information get out? The Writers' Retreat is not just for math leaders. Marj Enneking sent out a bulk mailing to the membership last time. Cathy Bernhard will contact Marj with a possible date.

~ What is a math leader?

^ Potential leaders will identify themselves because they will do something in their area that lets others know they have potential.

^ It was suggested that each person could make a group in their email program called "Math Interest." From that, those that respond can be targeted as potential leaders.

^ Francie Bostwick's process for identifying math leaders in her area started with a list of 111 people. With this process she eliminated about half. Then she looked at who went to math events. Those became the ones Francie contacted.

^ Concern was expressed about getting early career teachers to OML. Last year's OML had a small number of early career folks. Do we need a quota?

^ Some areas have had so many budgetary cuts that there are very few, if any, new teachers as they are the first to go when money is tight. A quota system would not address this particular problem.

^ There is also a concern about early career teachers simply being overwhelmed. Can the chronologically seasoned teachers encourage/mentor those newbies to help with the overwhelming feelings?

~ What is Math Leaders all about?

^ Do the Area Reps filter the names or invite everyone?

^ A concern was expressed that we are trying to serve more than one goal with OML. ^ Maybe the discussion we need to have is what purpose do we want the OML function to have. Retooling could play a role in this.

^ Becky Reed is coming to the end of her term as OML organizer. The direction OML takes will be the responsibility of the new OML directors. The number of people who attend is dictated by the Linfield facilities which is in the neighborhood of 200. The needs of OML have varied over time based on what we see it as. What is needed for the early career teachers is served by retooling but maybe we don't need OML to serve that need primarily.

^ OML is a coming together of math teachers from around the state.

^ For this year's OML there will be no quota for the people invited by the Area Reps.

^ A gleaning process could be utilized, similar to what Francie did. Or we could ask people who have attended any workshops who could/should receive invitations. Later in this year we could discuss a different format for early career teachers.

^ Giny doesn't think OCTM Board should dictate what the OML organizers do.

^ Can we change the name? Giny stated that that's the type of discussion that should take place in May.

• Strategic Action Plan Giny Christensen

~ See handout--Giny mooshed together the pink strategic action plan from the November 2003 Board meeting and the web's Mission Statement.

~ We are each to take this new Mission Statement to review and think about before the May meeting.

~ Cathy Brown wants to work on wording of Goal 2. But real focus is Goal 3.

~ The wording needs to be looked at closely. What is diversity? What is equity?

~ The part "and to support . . ." is more of a goal than mission statement.

• Retooling Report Mike Gould

~ Why was Mike late to today's meeting? Mike was on time warp or on vacation, whichever you want to believe.

~ April 2, 3, 4 will be meeting. Seventy plus people have identified a desire to be involved.

~ August 6 and 7 at OML will be devoted to the Retooling Workshop.

~ Giny will be meeting with the Ford Foundation and the Retooling efforts will be part of her report.

• Northwest Math Conference Phil Bartsch

~ Oct. 13 - 15 we will meet at the Jantzen Beach Hilton in 2005.

~ Theme is " Mathematics Reaching Every Child "

~ There is a good committee ready to go but they won't begin meeting on a monthly basis till next fall.

~ Jackie Nissen has a list of speakers already with a keynoter identified. Everything is on timeline.

~ Logo is also ready which can be described as "Cute little kids pointing to math symbols." The word Mathematics is above the cute little kids and the words Reaching Every Child is below the kids who are pointing to the math symbols. As of yet, nobody from our Board has been asked to speak at the Spokane conference which will be October 8, 9, 10, 2004.

• Anaheim Presenters Jackie Nissen

~ See handout from Giny

~ The majority of speakers' topics not accepted were in the areas of Geometry, Algebra, and TI (calculators). If you want to be a presenter, try to go out on limb with a different topic.

• Regional Award Applications Giny Christensen

~ Giny needs to receive two from each rep

~ The Recording Secretary has the compiled list, begun in 1998, and will send it out to all Board members.

• Funding for New Math Leaders Project Lois Costine

~ This report will wait till Lois speaks about grant part.

• OPEN Dennis Schultz

~ Oregon Public Educational Network

~ Dennis did not make it to today's meeting as he is flying in late this afternoon from the east coast. His email report said that OPEN will remain online. The survey that was put out did work.

• President Giny Christensen

~ Spring Leadership workshop will be in Portland. Date?

~ Giny received information from OEA that we'll receive $1000 this year for TOMT. If the funding situation improves they would be glad to give $2000 again. Giny wrote a thank you.

~ Returned a message to NW Regional Educational Lab which prompted Giny to ask if they would like to give us some moolah.

~ Nominations are still in the works.

~ Giny, Brent Freeman, Jackie Cooke and Trudy Mitchell will be attending the NCTM Annual Meeting in Philadelphia in April.

• Vice President/OMEC Trudy Mitchell

~ The FOCUS magazine from ENC has a new format.

~ INTELs science and engineering fair will be held in May. Math is one of the strands. If a student enters a project that is math oriented that student is likely to win.

~ OMEC took the initiative for teacher licensure--competencies. Also working on competencies for elementary teachers.

~ Problem Box books and other books are still continuing to sell relatively well. California has decided to go after sales tax for items sold in their state. Trudy took liberty of asking Math Learning Center to put these books in their catalog so OCTM will not have to deal with this issue.

• Past President Jackie Nissen

~ The annual meeting for the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics will take place July 12-16 in Portland. SIAM is hosting a Teachers' Day as part of their offerings. Charge is $25 including a full lunch and refreshments for teachers. They want to include a workshop on mathematical modeling within science. Are there things they can bring to the conference that our Board members would be interested in? There will be a link on OCTM website to SIAM. We need to encourage people in all our areas to attend. This is a wonderful opportunity for middle and high school teachers as well as interested elementary teachers.

• Treasurer Chuck Petersen

~ Chuck said to feel free to make editing suggestions to the Funding Application.

~ OEA used to give $3000, then it went down to $2000 and next year it will be $1000.

~ A little credit is given on cover of TOMT to OEA. There used to be a requirement that all OCTM Executive Board members had to be OEA members. Maybe it's time to revisit that agreement with OEA. This restriction was made way before Chuck was Treasurer (so that's going back a llllloooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggg time).

~ Is the money from those giving birthday money included in this? The money we see in the report is from the three people who give birthday money.

• Recording Secretary Patty Sandoz

~ The Area Reps are encouraged to give reports in any format (handwritten, electronic, etc.) as well as oral because all their information is valuable, interesting, and motivating.

~ The Fearsome Foursome made their assault on Clackamas Town Center this time.

• Membership Secretary Ralph Schubothe

~ We currently have 1435 members and will be getting 86 members from Portland.

~ Membership runs July to July. If someone applies now they will get back issues for the current school year.

• NCTM Rep Brent Freeman

~ Brent is looking forward to the Annual Meeting in Philly.

~ Brent is listening carefully so he can vote our thinking.

~ He is also looking forward to the Affiliates Conference with a focus on communication.

• Conference Coordinator Phil Bartsch

~ There has been one request for a workshop from Christmas Valley.

~ The OCTM Workshop is definitely a dying beast.

~ Little effort is being made to recruit workshop requests. The network is still there, however, as folks in southern Oregon know that Damon Langley is an NCTM person they can contact. ~ The net effect is that Phil is saving OCTM money!

• Grant Coordinator Lois Costine

~ Lois will meet with a representative from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that would allow OCTM to be part of being able to access their monies. Marj Enneking is convinced that she can write a grant that would allow this.

• Assessment Cathy Brown

~ If a person hasn't scored in last two years then the person must take the introductory course. It's now being offered as an online course. This could be opened to others if the first online course is successful.

~ Cathy made a request for folks to contact ESDs around the state to do an online item writing course. Area meetings do multiple choice item writing, then meet in Salem for less than a week.

~ Would there be training on how to facilitate an item writing course in your area? Cathy said yes. It would be handwritten locally then sent to ODE for any level you want to write it for. There is a definite need for benchmark items.

~ State Superintendent Susan Castillo is very serious about shifting from percentage of students who meet the standards to focus on percentage of growth. She believes in this so much that she is willing to fight with NCLB folks to make sure we still get funding, etc.

~ An English proficiency test will be added but not till next year. This summer targets will be set for grades 4, 6 and 7. There won't be standards until the following year.

~ In TESA the government did allow us to shift back to "Highest score counts." which is effective NOW. Same is true for Problem Solving. Those who met Problem Solving standard one year don't have to retest next year.

~ The grade level side by side tests are on the ODE server now.

~ In the future there will be TESA practice tests.

• Historian Jim Specht

~ Here is a copy of Jim's email to the listserv with his report.

Subject: Ancient Artifact

Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 14:25:55 -0800

From: Jim Specht

Hello Everyone,

You may recall that at yesterday's OCTM Board meeting, I shared Don Fineran's article from the Sept. 1992 TOMT issue about how our organization came to be, and why the birthday of OCTM is Feb 26, 1939.  For those who weren't there, on that occasion 40 teachers met on a Sunday afternoon, after church, at Lynotte's Coffee Shop in Portland.  At the conclusion of the meeting, nine teachers (six from Portland, one from Salem, one from Oregon City, and one from Rainier) met and signed a petition at the behest of Dr. Edgar DeCou, of the U of O, to start an NCTM affiliate in Oregon.  I would like to say that the first charter, received from NCTM, is among the archive documents, but it just doesn't seem to be there.  Sorry.

However, this morning, as I was filing the minutes and documents of yesterday's board meeting, I opened a very, very worn ledger.  Stuck between the first two pages of the front cover was the actual petition, on Dr. DeCou's personal stationary, signed by the nine charter members of our organization, each signature in their own hand.   So, although we don't seem to have the original NCTM Chapter charter, we do seem to have our "birth certificate", so to speak.

Thought you might be interested.

Best Wishes to You all,

Jim 

• TOMT Jackie Cooke and Cathy Bernhard

~ The March/April issue will be proofed and to the publisher within two weeks.

~ A new editor is needed for the middle level problem box.

• OML Becky Reed

~ Area Reps nominations need to be sent in soon. The first round of invitations will be mailed out beginning in March.

~ Judy Ferrari is responsible for programming.

~ A recognition ceremony will be put together for OMLs thirtieth year birthday.

~ Some grants require OML attendance so the OML organizers need to know about who the grant winners are so they can actually attend OML.

~ Let organizers know on the application form if you would be willing to mentor a new OML person so they can assign roommates.

~ Tom Swanson said there are dollars from OCEPT grant to pay the way to OML. Tom thinks we should advertise now. Area Reps, please send this info out to people in your area. This info can also go on the website and maybe in TOMT. Judy Johnson asked for uniform info about this dollar offer so the same info goes out to everybody. Interested early career teachers could email Marj Enneking. Nancy Anderson suggested putting this info in with the OML application. Giny will contact Marj Enneking to get specifics then send it out to all of us.

• Publicity Ann McMahon

~ Ann will have nominations soon.

• Scholarships Nancy Rogers

~ A scholarship recipient had to drop out from Philadelphia Annual Meeting so Nancy took that money and divided between the other two attendees to Philly.

~ The scholarship committee needs to meet soon about summer school scholarships applications.

• Contests Laura Lethe

~ The executive board for Pentagames wants to once again thank OCTM for their continued support. Many schools have requested assistance with the $25 registration fee because of budget cuts. Pentagames participation is down to 68 schools this year but other years we've had close to 90 schools. The only coast school is Tillamook Adventist.

~ This year's Oregon Invitational Math Contest (OIMT) will be held at Willamette University on May 22. Details are on the Willamette web page. They are considering having one individual event and team events where participants are placed on teams so they are not with students they know. There will be no Pre-Algebra and Algebra 1 categories.

• TOTOM Martha VanCleave

~ Martha couldn't be here today.

~ Since TOTOM meets only once a year we can consider that Martha has given her report for the year at our November 2003 Board meeting.

• Webmeister Jackie Cook

~ Index is broken down by topic then year.

~ Why is the OCTM logo not on the website? Instead there's a little blue Oregon outline. Jackie will ask Joe Spooner to do this.

~ How does Joe Spooner come up with the TOMT covers? Cathy Bernhard will bring Spooner's Christmas card to next meeting because it is so clever.

• Mailing Clerk Lynn Bonser

~ Lynn left but the TOMTs are available.

The agenda for the May 1 Board meeting will include:

• Rewrite goals

• OML rewrite

• Officers send procedures to Martha VanCleave before this May 1 meeting.

• Area 1 Jill Sumerlin

~ Randy Mathson may have gotten my report. Missed the meeting. Clutch

went out on the four wheel drive truck on the trip over. Frustrating, but safe.

1. Two more of our elementary schools have done "Math and Muffins" sessions with third grade parents. These workshops give a broad overview of reform mathematics including doing math activities. After the session students join parents or parents go into the classroom to do math together.

2. Gregory Heights and Abernathy Elementary have had Family Math nights.

3. "Developing Mathematical Ideas," a professional development program, will be offered. It is a thirty hour course which has modules by strands. The focus is on case studies.

4. A committee continues to work on planning an Expanding Your Horizon Conference for Middle School and High School girls. It will be April 17th at the University of Portland.

5. Middle school and high school reps will facilitate district articulation sessions (in small groups divided by high school regions) during our February professional development day.

~ Salem area: Nancy Anderson's Activities

1. Model lessons in an ongoing format for several schools in Salem - Elementary schools - Richmond (3rd yr), Eyre (2nd yr), Bethel (1st yr) and Houck Middle School (1st yr).

2. Bridges training for the MLC/Salem-Keizer Schools - started Nov. 22 and will finish Jan. 24.

3. Title One Math Nights at Richmond Elementary (Jan. 15) and Houck Middle School (Feb. 2)

4. Math inservices in the Salem district for both Bridges and Hands On Equations - Dec. 10, Jan. 23

5. Hands On Equations training for Mill City Middle School on Jan. 30.

6. Have contacted 5 out of 7 new prospects for math leaders.

~ Laura Lethe's Activities

1. Visiting each middle school in Salem, training 8th graders en masse on the problem solving test. She has visited 9 schools and spoken with over 2500 students in the past three months.

2. RJ Rohwedder (her elementary counterpart) has also been working with elementary schools on problem solving, including model lessons showing teachers how to make their problem solving more student driven instead of teacher directed.

3. Salem-Keizer math adoption committee begins meeting Tuesday, Jan. 13

~ Cheryl Klampe-Van Hess' Activities

1. Ongoing work with Cascade School District to help focus their math at all levels K- 12

2. Inservice day on Feb. 13 (in Cascade) with TBA sessions and activities to get teachers to think outside the box of traditional teaching.

~ Newberg area

1. Ongoing evening class for elementary teachers, tying standards to the new text materials.  40 teachers enrolled for credit.

• Area 6 Randy Mathson

~ Plans for the OCTM workshop have been put on hold. We would like to see the new program and jump on board as soon as possible.

~ OCTM membership pitch and opportunities will be presented at the Springfield district wide math teachers' meeting on February 16.

~ There is no report from Mari Radostitz.

• Area 7A Diane Kinney

~ The South Coast ESD is currently organizing two OCTM workshops (probably in Number Sense) for their district. They will probably be held in Coos Bay and Gold Beach.

~ The SCESD is partnering with Portland State University, Western Oregon University and Southern Oregon University to write a Title Two Grant through the ODE. The qualifying districts are North Bend, Port Orford and Central Curry. The grant hopes to provide training and resources to middle school math teachers trying to become "highly qualified." The first phase is an intensive summer training; three to four weeks, during the summer, targeted to help teachers gain greater understanding of math concepts. The participating teachers would then be partnered with a mentor. It is planned to have monies for tuition, housing and mileage for teachers wishing to pursue university credit.

• Area 7B Mike Gould

1. Douglas County ESD is offering a math class for paraprofessionals aimed at helping this large group of folks get their highly qualified status. The class is ten weeks long and is designed to not only meet the math needs of the participants but also help them improve their skills at teaching mathematics.

2. The UVEML (Umpqua Valley Elementary Math League) is rocking again. We have about 50 classrooms and 1000 students involved. The children do a set of short answer problems six times a year. UVEML works with grades 5 and 6 and will be expanding to include grades 3 and 4 next year.

3. Don Crossfield and Mike Gould are teaching a professional development class using VTEL and the Annenberg material for Probability and Statistics. The class is broadcast to four sites in Southern Oregon to 12 teachers who, within that month, inservice the staffs of eight different schools. This is a year long project and is fantastic.

4. Many central Douglas County schools are having Math Nights. The adoption of new materials has caused schools to look for ways to communicate with parents about how they can help their children with math.

5. Other than just keeping one foot in front of the other, we are chilling.

• Area 8B Damon Langley

~ The eastern half of area 8 has had a relatively quiet fall and winter. The Southern Oregon Math Cadre met on December 3 and discussed various offerings that Southern Oregon ESD is planning. They are offering an on-line class for educational assistants and planning for Math in the Construction Trades workshops that have proven very popular in the past.

~ Klamath County School District held a Connected Math pilot team meeting on November 13 to discuss how the pilot program was progressing. The team was very positive about the results so far and is hopeful of money to purchase CMP and Middle School Math (Scott-Foresman) materials in the fall. The pilot team, consisting of teachers from Brixner, Henley, Bonanza and Lost River Schools, will meet again in February.

~ Lake County ESD requested secondary level workshops in Number Sense and Geometry from OCTM. Sheryl Beverly and Damon Langley went to Lakeview on November 17 to present these to teachers from Paisely, Lakeview, Adel and Northlake schools. It was a great day and the teachers were very positive about the presentations. Lake County has requested inservicing on Problem Solving (both elementary and secondary) with a tentative date scheduled for February 11 and 12.

~ Klamath County will hold its district-wide inservice on February 13. On the schedule for this day is training in the use of math and science lab probes that interface with Palm Pilots and desktop computers. Math teachers at Brixner and Henley are excited about the potential this technology has for data collection and graphing applications.

Area 8A Francie Bostwick

~ The Southern Oregon Math Cadre is made up of teachers from Jackson, Josephine, and Klamath Counties and meets once per month throughout the school year to focus on the following goals... increase communication about statewide and regional issues related to math: increase instructional leadership within the region and districts; increase knowledge of the research in the content area; advise the Southern Oregon Curriculum Council and districts about professional development needs and presenters; and identify emerging issues worthy of study or policy recommendations to districts.

~ Cadre is drafting a proposal regarding the need for updating teachers on scoring guide training along with problem solving tips, strategies, and manipulative use in the classroom. Since we have gone to mega sites, the professional development for scoring has not been available, nor do districts or teachers perceive the need for it.

~ DJ Muller (Abraham Lincoln Elementary, Medford School District) is working on an online distance learning course for Educational Assistants on Number Sense. All together there will be four classes offered for paraprofessionals that will each last five weeks and will be offered statewide. The four classes will include Number Sense, Science, Special Education, and Test Taking Strategies.

~ Southern Oregon Math League is operated by Southern Oregon University and holds competitions once per month. Shaun Gross has been taking a team from Grants Pass High School to compete.

• Area 10 Cheri Clausen and Molly Smith

~ The staff at Ontario's May Roberts Elementary has voted math as one of the top two areas of focus for the coming year. A math cadre will continue to function with teacher and classified staff representation, meeting weekly to review school data, identify needs, formulate an action plan, and coordinate math activities.

~The staff at Ontario's Aiken Elementary is enjoying the use of a professional library made possible through Toyota grant funds obtained by one of the school's third grade teachers. Students are seeing a direct benefit of the grant funds in the form of manipulatives sent home each week in their "homework bags."

~ Several Ontario teachers attended training on "Fabulous Five," the math version of reading's "Super Seven," a method designed to target and teach to specific state standards. The newly trained Ontario teachers will train others throughout the district.  

~ North Powder School District is allowing the elementary staff to get together once a month for different in-services. So far, the in-services have been on writing, video-streaming, and dyslexia. In the future, we are working on a DIOBELS training and hoping for Mike Gould to do a Number Sense workshop.

~ Molly Smith is applying for a Hewlitt Packard technology grant that focuses on math

and/or science. If her team receives the grant, PDA's will be bought for each child in K-5th grade and the teachers will have in-services and on-line training for the technology.

~ North Powder has set up a new tutor math class. High school students now can take a class where they tutor children who are struggling in their own math class. This seems to be a positive program for all of the students involved.

~ Ginger Redlinger came to Baker City in November to talk about math. The Baker School District hosted the session, and the room was packed. She also was at the La Grande District that morning.

~ And, with all of the snow we've had lately, the area students have been doing a lot of math regarding the weather. For example, if you have one child on one sled, and an adult on the other sled, who will make it down the sledding hill first? If a dog is nipping at your shirt on the way down the sledding hill, how much does that slow you down? If we send the 200 pounder down the hill on the inner tube, how much faster will the rest of the sledders make it down the hill on the runner sleds?

• Area 11 Susan Fisher-Alexander and Nancy Swarat

~ Good Morning, We do have news from Area 11.

~ Washington School in Pendleton has 9 Eastern Oregon University CUESTE students (preservice) that are in the building all day two times a week. They will be organizing and presenting a family Math Night. Hands on activities are planned. This is coordinated with a Technology/Math grant that the Pendleton District received. Community members will be coming to the school and learning about the technological support for math, web sites that are helpful for parents, etc.

~ Pendleton School District received a grant that allowed for a Teacher on Special Assignment, 20 laptops per elementary building, and a wireless network. The TOSA comes to the classroom once a week for 4th and 5th graders to teach a math lesson that is technologically supported with web sites, etc.

~ Area 14 has nothing to report at this time