ISMAW Meeting at the Field School, February 17, 2005

In attendance: Clay Kaufman (Field), Tiffany Lopez (Field), Jake Hirsch (Field), Patty Howie (NCS), John McMillen (St. Andrew’s), Dorothy Pratt (St. Andrew’s), Peter Aleksiewicz (St. Albans), David Johnson (Landon), Stan Smith (Norwood), Nancy Wright (WES), Betty King (Maret), Ayana Toval (JDS), Peter Kelley (St. Albans), Kathleen Glines (Burke), Beth Cole (St. Patricks)

Beth opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to Field (Field’s first time hosting an ISMAW meeting).

Nancy gave the treasurer’s report: we are in good shape for the year and should end with a balance of about $1000, which is what we aim for.

Nancy also announced that she has been named head of the middle school at WES, and will need to relinquish her ISMAW duties. She urged others to consider becoming treasurer, as the duties are not taxing (writing some checks and collecting dues). She also announced that WES is looking for a MS math teacher to replace her.

The meeting was then turned over to 3 technology presenters:

1. Betty King talked about curriculum mapping, which Maret is doing for all its math courses. They use Rubicon Atlas, a website and online server. Maret has been very pleased with it. It has allowed the department to track where certain topics arise in the curriculum and has helped them standardized their vocabulary. They find it useful to map every 8 weeks (and are given time to do so in the form of a cancelled faculty meeting), which allows them to remember all the details of how they taught and what resources they used.

She also showed us Blackboard, a server where teachers put the materials for their classes. Students can find the assignments and print them out, as well as print out old assignments, review sheets, etc.

2. John McMillen then showed us some highlights of Geometer Sketchpad by Key Currriculum Press. It now has a Calculus component (Calculus in motion), as well as features for other courses. It is great for constructions (as John showed us in color!), and has a great “explore more” feature for use in class when the faster students finish early. It is MAC and PC compatible, and there is a $30 student version. John uses the sketches for his tests as well. A discussion of the uses and limits of such technology ensued.

3. Peter Aleksiewicz then walked us through some handy features of the TI-84+ , including a great way to demonstrate transformations (of parabolas, etc) in class easily with the graphing calculator. He also showed us the feature that allows you to find a regression line easily. Many programs are downloadable from the TI website.

At 5:30 pm, after one more round of snacks, the meeting was adjourned.