Area 14 Elizabeth Warren
Area 5 Gail Gerdemann
Publicity Francie Bostwick
• Introductions by name, OCTM job, and where you live.
Present: Winnie Miller, Molly Smith, Giny Christensen, Mike Gould, Dana Marlia, Cheri Clausen, Laura Lethe, Stephanie Legard, Nancy Anderson, Jill Sumerlin, Marge Burak, Leslie Graham, Lois Costine, Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Rogers, Sheryl Beverly, Brent Freeman, DJ Muller, Francie Bostwick, Kim Clary, Debbie Lindow, Jane Osborne, Jennifer Cox, Marna Knoer, Inga Perham, Gail Gerdemann, Kristin Lavy, Ann McMahon, Judy Johnson, Kathi Eisenbeis, Charlotte Ogle, Shawna Dehler, Vickie Rooks, Jon Weins, Cathy Bernhard, Jackie Cooke, Trudy Mitchell, Martha VanCleave, Cathy Brown, Tari Querin, and Patty Sandoz.
Special thanks to Kathi Eisenbeis and Judy Johnson for making motel, meeting room, and food arrangements.
• Community Agreements Mike Gould
- Note cards were passed around for each person to record their ideas to the following:
Question 1: My personal needs for a productive meeting, working, learning environment.
Question 2: What do I need from a group to have a productive meeting, working, learning environment?
- A Go Around Once Protocol was used where each person in a pair shared one idea, without interruption. Then the next person shared one idea without interruption. And so on till all ideas are shared.
- During this process, the distinction between the two questions was blurred so the consensus was that we continue with that blurring. In small groups, consensus was reached about these ideas, recording them on post-it easel pads.
- Each group then shared with the large group. Following the sharing, we had a chance to ask clarifying questions of the ideas.
- Each person will get two votes to use on all the post-its. Mike will summarize, synthesize, and share at our August meeting.
• Approval of Minutes
- A correction on page 4 was identified: Trudy Mitchell will be moving to California, not Arizona.
A motion by Vickie Rooks, with a second by Cathy Bernhard, was made to accept the minutes of the January 28, 2006 Board Meeting. The motion passed.
• Proposed Additions to Agenda
- Under Board Member Reports, Trudy Mitchell has topics to share from the NCTM Board.
- Under Old Business, add Writers' Retreat
- Under New Business, add calendar dates
- Under New Business, add Grants.
- Noon meetings
Constitution update
Math Education awards
Scholarships
Eastern Oregon fall conference, Inquiry Outside the Cube
•Area Rep Reports
Area 10 Dana Marlia
- Molly Smith just finished teaching an Annenberg algebra class in Haines with six people
- Patty Sandoz will be doing a Pizza, Pop, and Problems (P^3) in North Powder
- Molly is an Area Rep Awardee.
- Our fall conference planning is moving forward.
Area 14 Elizabeth Warren
- P^3 went well. People are looking forward to more.
Discussion Items
• Revisit Action Plans
- Early last fall we read the book Good to Great.
- At our October meeting, we wrote out our ideas for moving from good to great.
- At the January meeting, these definitions were put into 4 groupings: financial concerns group, fact finding group (which was absorbed by the other three groups), mission/vision/goals group, and people/leadership group.
- We broke into those three groups to further our discussions.
Mission/Vision/Goals Group Giny Christensen
- We're leaving the mission statement as it is.
Proposed Strategic Action Plan
• Stimulate and foster interest in the learning of mathematics in instructional strategies, best practices and effective and appropriate assessment tools.
• Provide guidance for the teaching of mathematics and learning.
• Encourage and support educators in the process of implementing current mathematics standards as envisioned by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
• Support and achieve diversity and equity within the Oregon mathematics education community.
• Develop and encourage leadership and service in the mathematics education community
• Develop and maintain communication and coordination of services between OCTM and related educational organizations, Oregon Department of Education, public agencies, and private sector agencies.
People/ Leadership Group Jennifer Cox
1. Identify an OCTM member in each school district
2. Area Reps should contact building reps about OCTM memberships
3. Each public and private school library should have an institutional membership to OCTM.
4. Increase TOTOM awareness
5. Increase OCTM presence in Oregon
Financial Group Winnie Miller
- Maybe we need a constitutional amendment to approve the budget in May rather than August.
- Winnie shared the old format, the budget reflected over four years, and the new format. It was suggested that the seed money for the State of Jefferson Conference, Northwest Math Conference (NWMC), etc. be reflected in the new budget format.
- It was suggested that OCTM purchase accounting software.
"Guiding Beliefs
There are two philosophies on spending OCTM monies. One thought is to spend most of our total income; after all, we are a non-profit organization. Why should we have a quarter of a million dollars in our coffers? The other thought is to not spend very much so that our resources will continue to grow and last an eternity, even when we can no longer generate any income. A compromise would be to allow the monies in CD's ($284,158.95 as of April 2006) to continue to grow. Than you very much, Chuck Peterson. However, we could spend the monies made through NWMC and any other grants to accomplish our mission. In other words, if NWMC makes $100,000, then we can fell okay about spending that amount over a 3-year period. That is the rationale for a multi-year budget.
Budget Assumptions
Approve the 2006-2007 budget in May and consider approving the 2007-2008 in August. Project the next two years but not actually "approve" them yet. The current proposed budget runs from July 1 to June 30. If you wait until August 2006 to approve the 2006-2007 proposed budget, one may be unaware of expenses incurred between July 1 and the August Board meeting. In other words, you may be already spending money that has not even been approved yet. Approving the 2007-2008 in August provides us with more direction and allows for flexibility in making adjustments of current spending. The bylaws state: Section 2. The annual budget for the next year shall be submitted for approval to the Executive Board at its first meeting of the year.
Historically, TOMT expenses increase approximately $1500 each year. There doesn't seem to be any pattern as to which line item(s) causes this change. For purposes of simplicity, this increase is shown in the mailing and postage only. In reality, the TOMT editors should be allowed to propose their own line item budget but stay within the yearly $1500 increase.
Under Conf Contests & Workshops, OCTM workshops have been replaced with Professional Development. PDC advocates district wide, long-term, sustained professional development; $6000 is a rough estimate for making this happen for one district per year. The goal is to fund one district scholarship the first year, two the second year, etc. The hope is that by the second year, we will be able to apply for and receive grant monies to fund additional district scholarships. We will be more successful in receiving grants if we demonstrate growth and progress, and we can't do that until we start with at least one district. The ultimate goal would be to be working with at least 14 districts, one from each area. Recent VTel meetings have shown that PDC trainings can be successfully accomplished with little or no cost; therefore, it may not be necessary to budget any more than the $6000 in 2006-2007.
Under Income, conferences will show $100,000 on years we have the NWMC in Portland, $700 the following year (from the Jefferson conference), and $0 for the year NWMC is in Washington.
Under Income, contributions include $5000 from OCEPT II, $3500 from MLC, $1000 from OEA, and $300 from royalties.
You will see a new format for the proposed budget. Beginning balance will be shown at the top of the first column, which will include CD long term monies as well as liquid assets, income, expenses and ending balance. The next column will then begin with the ending balance from the column before. It is proposed that we purchase an accounting software program.
In an attempt to clarify the proposed changes, we will show both the old proposed budget side and the proposed multi-year budget in the new format."
Budget as of 4/30/06
Proposed Multiyear Budget
Old Business
• Eastern Oregon Math Conference Molly Smith and Patty Sandoz
- Inquiry Outside the Cube is the name of the conference scheduled for Friday, October 13, 2006 at La Grande Middle School.
- We are still accepting applications for speakers.
• OML/OCTM Relationship Cathy Brown
- A history is being developed by following the money.
- We began to develop this history of OML by gathering information about Presidential Awardees, OCTM Presidents, and professional development opportunities that were offered.
- OML and Professional Development Cadre (PDC) and NWMC are part of OCTM.
- This history is not yet ready for publication. Many people have little assignments to do before a completed document is made available.
- The OML leaders will meet to develop a budget following OML this August.
• Writers' Retreat Cathy Bernhard
- The eleven people who applied to attend are equally distributed across the grade bands. There is also a balance with new teachers and veteran teachers in attendance.
- $3600 is the proposed budget. OML has offered to pay for the rooms.
- Budgeting for this is a concern.
- It was proposed that an evaluation system be put in place for this retreat.
- There was a large pot of money given by Marj Enneking to OCTM by the Oregon Collaborative for the Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers II but that money had to be given back because of an accounting error within the OCEPT II grant.
- It would be helpful if our Treasurer could give us an accounting of the ebb and flow of money during the time between our Board meetings. Also, we should set amounts or percentages that will be earmarked for each category.
- Writers' Retreat is one of the aspects of OCTM that helps develop leaders.
New Business
• Election Results Molly Smith
- We received 89 ballots, more than double the votes from the last election.
- The new President-Elect: Patty Sandoz
- The new Treasurer: Ross Eeells
- The amendment to the Constitution passed. Article VI, Section 7 now reads:
"Appointed officers shall serve for a period of two years except
Area Representatives who shall serve for three years."
- Online ballots may not be possible without another Constitutional amendment.
- However, it was pointed out that email is just another form of mailing! That is going to be the interpretation we'll go with.
- Also, the Constitution does not allow a person to hold two offices so we have a conflict with Patty being elected President-Elect as she has one more year of Secretary.
- What is the recommendation that the Executive Board members want to do with this situation? A noon meeting till take place on this issue.
• TOSAs Cathy Brown
- Cathy wants to provide support and build networking for Teachers on Special Assignment (TOSA) and math coaches.
- Who are the TOSAs in each area?
- Can we have a meeting of the TOSAs at OML? It was suggested that they meet during the Swap sessions?
• Grants Nancy Rogers
- See handout in the Recording Secretary's notebook about the grant proposal.
- Comments and suggestions: include the substitute costs; include a grant facilitator with a stipend; need an evaluation of the process; encourage diversity and equity; collect data about current membership, Board (gender, ethnicity, age, number of years of teaching, etc.);
- It was suggested that the grant proposal should be focused rather than making it broad-based.
- Include a tool from Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute (OMLI) about Student Discourse
• Calendar Dates Winnie Miller
- Sunday, August 6, 2006 in McMinnville
- Saturday, October 14, 2006 following the Inquiry Outside the Cube conference in La Grande
- VTEL meeting for January 20, 2007. Please think about this. Do you have a site available? We need to limit it to 8 sites. Will there be support people available on a Saturday?
- Saturday, May 19, 2007 at the Redmond ESD. A social will take place the night before at the Eagle Crest Club House.
Lunch 12:00 to 1:05
• Lunch Report by Vice President, Molly Smith
- Constitution states how a person is replaced.
A motion by Molly Smith, with a second by Lois Costine, was made to have the Executive Board make a decision about the election procedure. The motion passed.
A motion by Molly Smith, with a second by Lois Costine, was made for Jennifer Cox to finish the term of Recording Secretary. The motion passed.
- There will be several proposed changes to the Constitution that will be put to a vote of the membership for spring 2007. Molly will email these to Winnie who will then email to all.
• Please give Expense Reports to Stephanie Legard who will then give to Ross. A question was raised about receipts for motels and how to handle this with the electronic format.
• Go to cutepdf.com to get free software for converting documents to PDF format.
Board Member Reports
• President Winnie Miller
- Winnie shared information about a speaker system.
- OPAS grant was denied. One of the comments was that the OCTM website lacks a counter. Jackie Cooke will check into this.
- Winnie thanked everyone for working hard this year. Umbrellas were given out as a token of thanks.
- Affiliate Leaders Conference will be in July in Reno. Winnie wants to bring more people to this as the Denver conference was so powerful. She would like to bring elected officials, TOMT editor, and membership. Look for package deals to go to Reno. The value is that you get to meet with job-similar people from other states. You begin to realize how great OCTM is.
- Giny has accepted Winnie's invitation to be the NCTM representative.
- Winnie had thank you cards for Giny and for Trudy.
"One of the discussions at the Presidents’ meeting on Saturday morning in St. Louis involved the possibility of NCTM subsidizing the attendance of a young leader from each of the affiliates to attend next year’s NCTM meeting. We may want to consider OCTM subsidizing a young leader, too. I will send around copies of many of the sessions I attended so that you can indicate which of these you would like copies of and which ones you’d like me to elaborate on.
In March, I received materials from Wendy Hausotter, Public Health and Gambling Coordinator that could be used by math teachers to help students understand the true risks of gambling. Although some of the materials are free and downloadable, and for others there is a cost, they would be happy to purchase materials for any math teacher who will make a commitment to using them. I’ll pass those around, too.
I also received some materials on Math Standards from Jim Carlile, Center for Student Success, at PSU. Shawna Dehler, one of the contributing authors, may want to elaborate more on this for us.
In April, we received a thank you note from Nikki Squire, Chair of the State Board of Education thanking us for our response. They are currently developing preliminary proposals and hope to have that task completed by spring or early summer. At that time, they will ask us again for our feedback on specific concepts.
Last but not least, is the Affiliate Leaders Conference in Reno, Nevada, on July 7-9. Since this is all about leadership training and I can’t say enough about the quality of time Giny, Trudy and I spent on strategic planning for the year, I would really love to have all elected officers attend, plus TOMT, membership, and any one else who is passionate about moving us in the direction of “good to great”. I will share with you the action plan that the three of us came up with in Denver last June, so that you can see for yourself how valuable this time could be. OCTM policy is to pay for only President and NCTM Rep travel expenses but perhaps we could brainstorm ways to get more there. By the way, when this topic came up at the Western Regional Caucus, one of the affiliates remarked about how productive last year’s “Good to Great” conference was and that having Oregon there was a good example of great!"
The following is the action plan developed at the 2005 NCTM Leadership Seminar in Denver.
Denver's Strengthening My Affiliate Action Plan
• Vice President Molly Smith
"In the past few months, I have been working on elections. Once the ballots came out in the March/April issue, I spent an entire Sunday morning e-mailing our current membership to remind them to vote. There were several e-mails that bounced, but I got some thank yous from a few people, as they appreciated the reminder. I also e-mailed the OCTM.org listserv two times, and our Area Representatives two times, reminding them to vote, or send reminders out to vote. One suggestion I would like to make for next year’s election would be to put some sort of reminder on the cover of the TOMT.
Keeping in mind that even our State elections don’t get a wonderful turnout, we got a whopping 89 votes this year. That is more than double last year’s votes. However, with a membership that is over 2,000, I would like to shoot for a higher percentage of voter turnout.
I need a committee to help me at lunch look at the constitution and make some constitutional recommendations regarding voting. If we are to pursue on-line voting, our constitution will need changed.
Patty and I have a great committee helping us on the conference in Eastern Oregon for Statewide Inservice, next October 13th. We have enough speakers lined out to hold our conference, and will be sending out the flyers to the Eastern Oregon communities this week."
• Past President Giny Christensen
"1. Continual work being done on the PAEMST Awards and using this application as a professional development tool.
2. Attending and supporting the Professional Development Cadre through VTEL.
3. Attending and supporting the Southern Math Cadre through VTEL.
4. Through the teaching of the Van de Walle class for instructional assistants as well as certified teachers, I have been able to talk about the usefulness of a membership in OCTM. Considering teaching a class in our district for parents - using some of the same techniques. I would like to reach the Home-School parents and ask them to join OCTM.
5. Beginning to put together a class using literature - through my background as a Media Specialist/Librarian and my membership in NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English). Possibly getting some English teachers to look at our OCTM pages that are dealing with literature, etc."
• Treasurer Ross Eells
"This is the treasurer’s report as of April 30, 2006
As you can see, we are over budget in all major categories except two. The good news is that we have only two months left in the year. Conferences category for now is over by less than $300. With a healthy variety of conference receipts, grants and donations, our income has far exceeded our expenditures, but remember, that has to last until the next NW Conference.
All TOMT expenses include the May/June issue so these items should not change much to the end of June.
In the Executive Board category, we have overspent for travel expenses, but are under for food, and we still have this meeting to pay for.
In Conferences, we have spent close to $3000 on Presidential Awards, but should be reimbursed for that from NSF.
Looking at Income, our membership projection looks like it will miss by about $3000. As stated earlier, unexpected grants and contributions with the addition of conference receipts have more than made up for that loss.
OCTM is monitoring $118,004.59 in funds, of which $37,782.40 is Don Fineran Scholarship money and $26,222.19 is the Schaaf/McFadden Scholarship fund."
• Membership Ralph Schubothe
"Membership for this year is 1714.
The membership mailing is stuffed and ready to go. I will take the letters to Mailright later this week."
• NCTM Rep Jackie Nissen
"The 57th NCTM Delegate Assembly met in St. Louis at the annual meeting. We enjoyed an informative introduction by Cathy Seeley. She introduced new affiliates and the new members of the NCTM Affiliates Leadership Circle. As a requirement of eligibility for Leadership Circle membership, local affiliates are required to send in the names of all their members. If 65% are NCTM members, the affiliate qualifies. As a result of this requirement, the following resolution was brought forward from the caucuses and subsequently passed:
Be it resolved that the Delegate Assembly recommend to the NCTM Board of Directors
that any policy or requirement entailing the sharing of Affiliate membership lists and
information be amended to provide alternate criteria.
The NCTM Board’s response to this resolution will be posted on its web site in August. This resolution directly affects OCTM as we do have a policy concerning selling our membership list.
In another discussion, the Western Regional Caucus had an extensive discussion on encouraging NCTM to continue to be politically pro-active in states that are dealing with well organized groups that are advocating a very staunch back to the basics agenda. As an example, one California educator stated she could not deviate from her basil textbook and was required to follow it from lesson to lesson. Using out of the book activities could result in termination. The caucus group drafted a statement encouraging NCTM to continue their active and enhanced involvement in encouraging all groups to consider best practices in mathematics education. Apparently, both Seattle and Spokane (both are in the adoption process) have been dealing with strong opposition to any of the NSF programs.
It has been a pleasure serving as your NCTM rep. Thank you all again for your support of both NCTM and OCTM. I look forward to working with you all for many years."
• NCTM Rep Trudy Mitchell
- Trudy handed out buttons which say "Math Teachers Multiply Options for All Students" and highlighters.
- Information on membership was shared. See the pink brochure in the Secretary's notebook.
- Flyers were shared about Jackie Cooke's class this summer and Cathy Fostnot's class.
• PDC Coordinator Mike Gould
- The Professional Development Cadre flyer is available through Winnie.
- A P^3 training will be offered at the end of this meeting.
• Publicity Ann McMahon
- We are almost out of Presidential sweatshirts. Do we want to continue with this? Or do we want something more subtle like a pin, or vest or something else? Ann and her committee will continue with this discussion later.
- An idea was presented to include in the TOMT information about the high school awards. Also, include the certificate. This is another good use of TOMT. We will talk more about this in August.
- The cost of doing it the current way is about $300.
• OML Leslie Graham, Marge Burak, Jill Sumerlin
- Thank you to all Area Reps for helping to get the books out. (Leslie)
- Thank you to all who have volunteered to lead book discussion. Leslie will email the book discussion leaders about her vision. (Leslie)
- People will be asked for ideas about rich problems for K-16 for Bridge groups. Will also try to cover all strands. (Marge)
- Research: Maria Fung will do something with Geometry. Each day there will be a keynote speaker. (Jill)
• Contests Laura Lethe
- Pentagames took place a couple weeks ago with seven sites.
- Outgoing funds are more than incoming funds.
- Next weekend is the Oregon Invitational Contest for high school. This year there will be a team problem solving event.
- We funded medals for this.
• Historian Judy Johnson
- Thanks for reading the articles and giving feedback.
• Scholarships Brent Freeman
"At lunch, the Scholarship Committee met and selected Jessica Dowdy of McMinnville, Carol Wyatt of Portland, and Joni Fineberg of Lake Oswego to receive Schaaf-McFadden Scholarships to attend college courses this summer.
Also, it has been mentioned that perhaps we should include Don Fineran's name on the application of one of the scholarships that is used to attend a conference. This could look much like the Schaaf-McFadden application, with his name and a brief description of his contribution to the math community. The only possible complication is that we combine the Fineran Fund with the OCTM Memorial Fund (in memory of other math community members who have passed away) when we award conference scholarships. Perhaps we could put Don's name on the fall conference application and some sort of "In Memory..." statement on the spring conference application? We'll discuss this and other ideas at the August board meeting in order to come to a decision at that time."
• ODE Assessment Cathy Brown
- On the topic of how to help parents help kids: People emailed Cathy about suggestions. Somebody sent kudos to Susan Castillo about what OCTM put together. Cathy will try to get this to us.
"If you each remember, during our last meeting I explained that I'd been contacted by a member of the press who had been contacted by a parent that was interested in helping at a local school. The parent was told that there was "nothing" s/he could help with related to mathematics - even though mathematics is the weak area for students at that school. I requested you send me suggestions for how the parent could help. You did. I shared them with the member of the press. The response (which was cc'd to Susan Castillo) was extremely thankful that OCTM could come through with such a thorough listing of ideas! ;-) Good job team!
One of the topics that is gaining strength from a national perspective is the notion of a national mathematics curriculum - to be followed by a national test. Cathy Seeley (President of NCTM) said that would be fine with her ---- if she could pick the curriculum! Currently, College Board is refining it's "college ready" standards (which are quite high); BHEF (Business Higher Education Forum) is interested in designing standards for all students departing high school; NAEP (National Assessment of Education Progress) is revising the grade 12 standards to be "readiness" for the military, the workplace, and college. At the same time NCTM is definitely aware of the need to focus the PSSM standards as a way to help with the "mile wide and inch deep" reputation of US mathematics programs. What NCTM has decided to do is to identify the big focus areas for each grade level -- but to purposely NOT communicate them to teachers, parents, or district personnel. The big focus areas will be shared with state level people -- to help them with the revision of their standards -- and to NOT come across as a National Curriculum. Each of you needs to think about how each of these would impact your curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices. Stay tuned.
Many of you will be attending the mathematics item review panel meeting later in May. If you are interested, but hadn't been previously invited, just let me know - there is room. If you have been invited, but have not yet RSVP'ed, please do so. One of the agenda topics for Friday will be to review the current grade level standards and to prioritize them at each grade level - within each strand. This will impact the test design and will be a first step in the revision of the content standards.
Bob Robinson, our colleague that used to be from B.C., and now is from the Puget Sound Council of Teachers of Mathematics is going through some extreme health issues. The cancer in his sinuses is extremely aggressive and more than likely the radiation will cause a disintegration of the bones that hold the teeth in the mouth. I have contact information for him if any of you are interested.
Starting Monday, Jon and I will have new phone numbers! These will not include extensions, but will ring directly to our desks. Cathy: 503-947-5832; Jon: 503-947-5764."
• ODE Content Jon Wiens
- All of the content standards will be reviewed instead of just the problem solving standards because it was too difficult to separate them. Targeted finish date is April 2007.
- Textbook adoption process will be ready by 2009.
• TOTOM Martha VanCleave
- Teachers of Teachers of Mathematics (TOTOM) will meet in the fall.
- Martha is pleased that OCTM is reaching out to pre-service teachers by giving them free TOMTs.
• TOMT Editor Cathy Bernhard
"All subscribers should have received their final TOMT of the school year (YIPPEE!!) I talked casually with Joe last week and he indicated that he hopes to continue working on TOMT for about ten more years, if we still want him (the answer should be YES, WE DO!)
Here is a brief report on the Writers' Retreat. We have had a better response this year and at this point it appears that we could have the full allotment of ten people attending, plus the two TOMT editors. We have already received a number of articles and may receive more in the next couple of days. Those who are accepted to attend will be notified by June 1 in time to take advantage of the lowest registration fee by June 15, and we will be able to let the OML folks know who they are so that they can be housed together for the extra night. Again, we are very appreciative of their willingness to help us make these arrangements!"
- We have a nationally-published author in our group: Kim Clary has been published in NCTM's Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School journal, April 2006.
- A future agenda item is how many TOMTs should be printed as we are planning to give away TOMTs at P^3 and other places.
• TOMT Editor Jackie Cooke
"Successfully completed my 5th year of editing. OMLI articles and MLC’s Bridges articles will continue for sure. We may need a new Primary Problem Box author. We were thinking it might be a nice idea to add some math that’s Just For Fun (e.g. puzzles, games, math jokes). Is there someone interested in being the features author on something like that? We’re switching over from Quark to Adobe Suite. Joe and I have been talking about my buying a copy of this new software so that I’ll be able to house backups of each issue, send out electronic article request files, and so on. He had major computer problems this year. That is what got us started thinking about this. Also, we often have little leftover white spaces. We’d like to fill them with tips for teachers. We’re going to collect ideas at the Board meeting so please be thinking about your best tip."
- We don't need a primary box editor at this time.
- Could Irving Lubliner do the Just for Fun? He'll be asked.
- Need more Tips and Tidbits for Teachers. We were each given a lime green post-it note at the beginning of the Board meeting to use for this purpose as it will be a new feature of TOMT for next year. Please include your name.
• Webmaster Jackie Cooke
"I had to purchase a new computer so have been a bit challenged getting everything up and running. For some reason I’m having trouble getting my new computer to load System 9 which means I can’t use Classic. That means I can’t use my scanner so I may have to purchase a new one that runs with System 10 if I can’t figure this out. I’ve been working on writing a new set of curriculum maps for GBSD K-5 that are aligned to state standards and also literature lists matched to each unit. These are now linked from my web page to the OCTM links page. I’ve added the nomination form for the Math Education Awards so that it can be downloaded and Winnie and I are going to be creating a President’s Notes page to tell about math events she’d like to highlight."
• Mailing Clerk Lois Costine
- Future discussion item is how to do the high school certificates.
- Include in this mailing how to subscribe to the listserv.
• Meeting Adjourned 2:35
Respectfully submitted,
Patty Sandoz
Area Representative Reports
Area 2 Tari Querin and Vickie Rooks
Portland continues to have strong district leadership in math working with many individual schools. Many of the activities were reported in our October and January area reports.
As area reps we have spent a great deal of time updating our Oregon Math Leaders list. Because many teachers had changed schools or their home information wasn’t current we made phone calls and e-mailed them to try to get current information. We basically started a new list. We continue to try to have one math contact person for each building. Communication with Portland District TOSAs for middle school and high schools has been a priority this quarter.
Portland area OCTM members helped with the Expanding Your Horizons Conference at the University of Portland on March 18. About 270 middle school and high schools girls attended the conference which encourages them to take more math and science.
Area 2 supported the two Clackamas county Pizza, Pop and Problems workshops by sending flyers to the Portland schools on the eastside of town.
Area 4 Nancy Anderson
Newberg School District: from Kayda Mitchell
In Newberg we just had a great 24 competition with ninety 4th and 5th graders from the 6 elementary schools competing and 50 high school students acting as their equation monitors.
In March we finished up a two quarter WOU graduate class on Differentiating through Mathematics with a focus on algebra and measurement. We loosely used the Annenberg materials and tied the differentiating piece into it.
Cascade School District: from LuAnn Kresvich
After months and months of sampling math materials, Cascade School district has decided on a K-2 Bridges, 3-4 Everyday Math and a 5th Scott Foresman math adoption. We are in the process of ordering all materials and setting up training dates.
5 teachers attended a Kim Sutton workshop in Portland on April 7th.
Houck Middle School, Salem-Keizer Schools: from Debi Francis
Very exciting for our building is that all math classrooms have new Smart boards, and we are working within our teams - training, along with a planned training for our next building inservice.
Other news, we are soon to be getting new Document Cameras (along with all of the buildings in Salem Keizer School district) for all of our math teachers. It is exciting times for our students ... New Curriculum, as well as great new technology resources, in all of the classrooms.
Also, with the changes we made this year .... new Flex Schedule and small learning communities, we have 5 new math teachers.
Curriculum, Salem Keizer Schools: from Laura Lethe, Kathy Cheval , and Kathy Bowers
Kathy Bowers and Kathy Cheval had their last Math Rep meeting of the year for Salem Elementary teachers. At each meeting this year, they provided the math rep from each building with a quality in-service they could bring back to their buildings for professional development. Each in-service has a PowerPoint that goes with it and can be accessed off of the Salem website at:
http://is.salkeiz.k12.or.us/StaffResources/Math/TeamLeaders/PwrPntPrsnttns/ProfDevelPwrPnt.htm
Both Kathies also completed 18 support sessions each throughout the school year to help with Bridges and Investigations.
Laura held 4 Math and Munchies sessions for parents in the evening and is still trying to figure out how to get the word out to parents so that more attend. Middle school math teachers in Salem will all be receiving document cameras next week to support their implementation of the Connected Math Program.
Math test scores are ahead of where they were last year at this time - 6th grade is already 10 points ahead of where they were in May of last year. This is great, especially in the first year of a math adoption.
Salem is planning an "Academy for Teaching and Learning" on August 2nd for Salem teachers, with topics that will continue throughout the school year next year.
McKay High School: from Teresa Grindy
On Saturday April 8, 2006, McKay High School hosted the annual 24-Challenge Competition. 175 Salem area fourth and fifth graders from 19 elementary schools competed in the tournament with 125 McKay students facilitating the event. The tournament for 4th and 5th graders is based on the 24 Challenge card game. The object of the game is to add, subtract, multiply, or divide four single digit numbers together to obtain the number 24, using each number exactly once. Each 4th grade or 5th grade participant played three ten-minute rounds of 24 Challenge. The top 50 players with the most accumulated points advanced to the semifinals. In the semifinals and finals, the rules of the tournament were similar except the qualifiers had to add, subtract, multiply, or divide the four numbers on the card to come up with different designated numbers ranging from 0 to 48. Ribbons and/or trophies were awarded to all qualifiers of the semifinals and finals.
The next 24-Challenge will be on Saturday April 7, 2007 from 9 am to noon.
Making Math Count, Salem, Oregon: from Nancy Anderson
I have been working in and out of the state, doing seminars for Hands On Equations and demonstrating Bridges for the Math Learning Center. I have been to Idaho (Moscow), Michigan (Grand Rapids), and Washington (Seattle and Gig Harbor). Another trip to Stevensville, Michigan for the MLC is planned in May.
LuAnn Kresevich and I have been working together on the Cascade School District math adoption. I will do the Bridges training for them in August.
Two elementary schools in Salem - Swegel and Four Corners – requested Measurement inservices, which I provided in March and April.
Part of May and June will give me a new perspective– working on a panel for the Office of Educational Improvement & Innovation – Support to Districts at the ODE.
Area 4 Stephanie Legard
I planned a second time this year, “Math Leaders’ Get-Together” (this time at Starbucks) in McMinnville. While enjoying iced drinks, coffee, and tea, we discussed math happenings and questions from our schools and districts. We also each brought a favorite math activity and/or a math summer read. It was really great to connect!
Sheridan: from Carol Clark
Faulconer-Chapman School received a Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) grant. It is a two year grant and currently they are using it to bring teachers together to look at K-12 math alignment. Carol reports that it is so powerful to have the time to get teachers of all grades together talking with each other about math.
Using a NASA slot, Faulconer-Chapman sent a 7th/8th grade math teacher, Keith Hasbrouck, to the NCTM conference. He returned with great enthusiasm and many ideas to share.
McMinnville: from Stephanie Legard
Mike Loretz, McMinnville’s Curriculum Director, Michael Fisher, a middle school math teacher and I attended the Teachers Development Group's Leadership Seminar on Mathematics Professional Development. The hands-on experiences, presentations, readings, and dialogues were incredible. Even more incredible was the time we had to sit down together and begin outlining an action plan for math education in our district. I look forward to providing updates as we begin implementing our plan.
A committee of kindergarten teachers and myself put together a “Kindergarten Math Assessment Kit” that will be piloted this spring and used in all McMinnville Kindergarten classrooms next year.
Several 4th and 5th grade advanced math students at Columbus Elementary School, with the help of Stephanie Legard, organized and facilitated a very successful Family Math Night with a geometry theme.
The 4th grade team at Newby has decided to pilot the 4th Grade Bridges program next year. Newby will now be using Bridges K-4.
Ross Eells from Grandhaven Elementary School went to St. Paul and led a mathematics standards-based teaching and learning training. They spent time looking at the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) Teaching and Learning Resources website. Together they found sample lessons, assessment items, and content background information that matched their Oregon content standards.
Area 6 Inga Perham
This is a late area 6 report. Bethel School District has a math initiative on the most recent levy. We will know if it passes soon. Pleasant Hill Middle School and Roosevelt Middle School traveled to Lake Oswego Junior High for Pentagames. Bob Curtis at the ESD hosted monthly meetings for math professional development in our area. Alla Blanca White from Cottage Grove High School hosted a session in St. Louis NCTM using her movie clips and math presentation. She did a practice session for one of the ESD monthly meetings. Her session in St. Louis was very well received. Maybe she wants to share at Math Leaders this summer. Marna may add more information for area 6.
Area 7 Diane Kinney
Coastal side, Coos and Curry Counties
Math/Skills Day was held at SWOCC Coos Bay. The math portion of this event was the Regional math competition that qualifies students for invitations to the State math competition. The first and second place finishers of each level were given invitations to State. There were about 12 schools from the south coast area in attendance at the competition.
Brookings is hosting its second Family Math night for the year. The high-school students are planning and facilitating about 15 activities.
Most schools are finishing up state testing via TESA.
Area 7 Kim Clary
OMLI is finishing the first full year. The Roseburg Schools have had 45 teachers and administrators involved in this 5-year project of on-site professional development. The NSF grant has provided 3 full days of professional development for each member of the team. The teams have worked countless hours with their school staff on improving mathematical discourse, content knowledge, instructional practices, collaboration, and developing "community agreements." The folks are gearing up for another 3 weeks of summer classes at OSU.
Giny Christensen has just finished a 10-week paraprofessional and teacher class modeled around the Van de Walle material. The 25 folks were involved in both learning and teaching math.
Don Crossfield and Mike Gould are finishing up the 4th year of VTEL and Annenberg, a model of video broadcasting and ongoing professional development. This year the group, which meets once a month, has worked in the area of measurement. The program involves 2 teacher leaders, who work with 4 VTEL sites, with 20 teachers, who work with 5 to 10 teachers, who work with about 25 students. Do the math. The student impact is in the thousands.
Quick hits: Sutherlin Middle School sent a team to Pentagames. Becky Willhite at McGovern Elementary in Winston-Dillard is using games and integrating science with math in her classes to make learning fun. Roseburg High has over 30 students attending the state math tournament on May 13. Melrose Elementary had a big turnout for Family Math Night.
Area 10 Cheri Clausen and Dana Marlia
Molly Smith has been teaching the Annenberg math series to six teachers/assistants from Powder Valley and Haines Elementary Schools in Haines, Oregon. They meet on Fridays at the Haines Elementary School to work through different algebraic lessons and discuss how to apply what they have learned to their elementary classrooms.
Patty Sandoz is teaching a Pizza, Pop, and Problems workshop in La Grande (May 4th) and North Powder (May 9th) later this month. The first literature-based mathematical adventure comes from Aesop's fables, The Tortoise and the Hare.
Many people continue to work on the math conference that will be held in La Grande in October during the state inservice day.
Area 11 Nancy Swarat and Jennifer Cox
Umatilla High School: from Nancy Swarat
We continued to monitor and forward information. Apparel was ordered and received for OCTM board members. We are working toward the October mini conference that was begun in cooperation with area 10 and others. Pizza, Pop and Problems was discussed, but calendars have not yet allowed any implementation.
Morrow County Schools: from Jennifer Cox
Morrow County recently held their annual math contest. Students in fourth through eighth grades gathered to take a thorough math test to determine the top performing math students in Morrow County. Approximately twenty students in each grade took a rigorous fifty-question multiple choice test designed specifically for advanced math students. Students are chosen based upon their most recent TESA scores. The top 8 kids from each grade level at each school were chosen to attend.
Morrow County School District recently announced a new para-educator professional development program to begin in the fall of 2006. Often referred to as a “Grow Your Own Teacher” program, MCSD will help offset the tuition costs for classified staff who wish to pursue a para-educator certificate, associate of applied sciences degree, or a teaching degree. We are working in cooperation with Blue Mountain Community College.
Echo Schools: from Pauline Sherbalm
Here at Echo we have managed to use our laptop lab to supplement our math curriculum. The kids appear to really enjoy this unique form of instruction. They get really excited when we pull the computers out during math time. They have managed to grasp some of the concepts better after experimenting with the computers.
Pendleton School District: from Chris Roop
The Pendleton School District has been doing math mapping, using a site put up by the UMESD to track what teachers plan to teach and what they actually taught. This is used to fine tune the amount of time spent on each of the curriculum goals and to make sure we hit all of the curriculum goals. http://teacherapps.umesd.net/
Area 14 Jennifer Bell
I sent the following e-mail to our school contact list of administrators and teachers:
What is going on in math teaching in Clackamas County?
* What have you done to improve math education in your school or district this year?
* Have you had any math specific professional development or are you planning any?
* What activities are planned for students: clubs, competitions, extra help, etc?
* Are you or other teachers in your district coming to the Pizza, Pop, and Problems (P^3) workshops on April 20th or May 4th?
--Jennifer Bell and Linda Parker
OCTM Area 14 Representatives
Our First Pizza, Pop, and Problems (P^3) was a great success. We held it at Round Table Pizza in West Linn. We had about 15 attendees from a variety of school districts and grade levels. Ann McMahon introduced the problem and got the groups working. Winnie continued facilitating the group work and discourse. We gave away 10 prizes from the Math Learning Center—including 3 OCTM memberships. We passed out TOMTs and Phil shared the brochure from the PDC and praised OCTM. Winnie really spearheaded this event, but it was a team effort and lots of fun. We have another P^3 scheduled for May 4th in Clackamas.
Here are the responses to my e-mail:
Estacada School District: from Sally Wood
We are working on our last round of TESA testing. (fun! fun!)
Elizabeth and I have held three Family Math Nights so far and have our last one Thursday night. These have been so much fun. We invite families to come from 6:30 - 8:00 pm, once each month. They start off with a warm up activity while they are arriving. It is usually a puzzle to solve or make or a partner game to play. They we do a whole group game, such as Pico, Fermi, Bagels or Reject. Then we finish out the evening working in small groups or individuals creating something - towers, pentominoes, unit origami. Considering we have less than 400 students and they are middle school age, we are getting a wonderful turnout each month. We usually have at least 80 people, if not more. We have to hold it in the library. We also provide snacks for them. They like that. This has probably been one of the best public relations activities our school has done in a long time.
On May 3, the entire math department will be going to a workshop in Portland put on by Gary Tsuruda, called "Math is Not a Spectator Sport". We are looking forward to some new ideas. Elizabeth and I are planning to attend the May 4 workshop. We have talked it up with the elementary teachers, but I haven't heard anything from them.
Elizabeth was chosen for the research group for the problem solving research project being done by NWREL. However, due to prior commitments this summer, she won't be able to attend the training, so she had to withdraw from the project. I was chosen as part of the control group for the project, so they will be coming in and collecting data from my classes.
Elizabeth and I have sent in our registrations for Math Leaders. We even got our district to pay for it this year. Yeah!!
Frank is organizing our annual Math Fest for incoming 6th graders. It is loosely based on PentaGames. It will be held near the end of May.
I continue working with the Department of Ed on the Math Content and Assessment Panel. This is a great opportunity to work with colleagues from across the State.
Estacada School District: from Elizabeth Warren
Sally Wood and I have had a Family Math Night once a month for the last 4 months. We have had between 70 and 90 people I would say. We start each night with a warm up activity, a game, and then the main activity. The parents keep coming back and many people bring their whole family. We have had younger siblings and even grandparents. In fact, this is why we are missing the April workshop. It falls on our Family Math Night. Cindy K, Sally, and I are planning on coming to the May 4th one. Boje Safforest (sp) is planning on coming to the April 20th one.