Minutes of September 13, 2001 meeting at the Maret School

Ayana Touval of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School convened. Also attending were Karen Dee Michalowicz of the Langley School; Nancy Wright of the Washington Episcopal School; Yvette Yamagata and Betty King of Maret; Paul Penniman, a private tutor; Doug Adams of the St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School; Clay Kaufman of the Field School; Betsy Bennett of the St. Albans School; Joan Reinthaler of the Sidwell Friends School; Margo Dunlavey, an independent consultant; Judy Knight of the Georgetown Day Middle School; Harriet Scheuermann of the National Cathedral School; Syamala Chenulu of the Capitol Hill Day School; and Susan Lauffer of the Sandy Spring Friends School.

1. We discussed how school was resumed today following the terrorist attack. Many schools had prefatory teacher meetings to discuss psychological techniques, then an all school meeting followed by small teacher/student meetings. W.E.S., grades K-8, had students write down feelings and put them in a communal bin. Many elementary grades had “normal” school days. In general the older the kids, the more they wanted to talk.

2. What we did last summer. Karen reported on the International Math Olympiad, for which (I believe) she was the head coordinator of all volunteers. Paul also helped a little. The IMO was at George Mason University in July, and was preceded by a week of outings and activities for the contestants, of which there were 476, from 85 countries. 33 were girls. It was a “most wonderful experience.”

3. Clay returned from Turkey, where he had been teaching on a Fulbright grant, which paid him his normal Field School salary. Field, in turn, paid a Turkish teacher for a year to teach at Field. In Turkey, there is not much student-teacher interaction, and the students generally just converse with each other in class. On Saturday, they learn all their lessons from the past week all over again. There is almost no technology like computers or graphing calculators, although one teacher did notice the students did seem more engaged once introduced to the calculator. The square root algorithm is supposed to be taught for four days. There are also no critical thinking problems. To apply for a Fulbright, you put down three choices for countries. Foreign teachers like to come to Washington, so your chances of being accepted are good. Most countries involved are in the Americas, Africa, and Europe.

4. Topics for this year!

a. For our next meeting, Monday, November 5 at the Georgetown Day Upper School, we will discuss how math is organized in the overall schedule. We will discuss block scheduling and the homo- and heterogeneity of classes, including single-sex classes. Please bring your ideas of how you and your school has handled, both well and unwell, the above issues.

b. Our early December meeting, date and place TBA, will be technology-oriented. We will likely have an expert presider who will bring the latest in technological innovations in the classroom. You are invited to bring your own as well as the latest math-science technological connections. Bring a science teacher if you like!

c. We will discuss the Standards 2000, which a lot of us have not fully digested. Expert Steve Lawrence should be available if we can find him a suitable date. Bring ways in which your teaching has changed because of the new publications, or just bring your questions.

d. We will discuss rigor and how it has become rigor mortis. Books that teach proof are out of print. Perhaps this should be combined with the last meeting as we think about book ordering?

5. Tentative dates and places—Please send feedback about this

(b) (tech.) Thursday, December 6, at NCS??? Margo Dunlavey of T³ will preside

(d) (rigor) Thursday, April 25, at St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes???

6. Your loyal secretary is researching what AISGW topics are on the plate this year. I believe we have colleagues who are similarly researching the VCTM and MdCTM meetings, in Manassas and Clarksville, respectively.

7. The treasurer’s report was distributed. Nancy, can you send me the report via email?

8. The web site is accessible, but I have not been able to update it. Nevertheless you can still get access to the rules and expectations of math meets. The address is mathteachingtoday.com/ismaw.htm

9. The next (second) upper school meet is at the Jewish Day School on Thursday, October 25, at 4:15, not at 4:00. Directions at mathteachingtoday.com/jdsdirec.htm

10. The first middle school meet is on Wednesday, October 17, at Langley. Karen, can you send me directions?

11. We need a full-time upper school meet recordkeeper to replace Ron Umbeck. Please contact Betsy Bennett to relieve her of this duty! You don’t have to go to every meet.

12. Attached are the results of meet #1 (Thanks, Betsy) and the treasurer’s report (Thanks, Nancy).

--Paul Penniman