Thursday, October 21, 2010

News from Algebra Forum III

The 3rd statewide Algebra Forum concluded last night to much praise and optimism. Over 100 math educators gathered for the past 2 1/2 days at the Santa Clara County Office of Education to hear presentations by William McCallum on the Common Core Standards, Margaret Smith on high cognitive demand tasks, Lena Licon Khisty on increasing the instructional effectiveness with Latinas/os and many others. There were many opportunities to network with colleagues, reflect on the presentations, and discuss next steps in the regional teams. Several themes emerged from the forum. Among the most important are that the Common Core Mathematical Standards of Practice are front and center to everything we need to do and students need to be actively involved and engaged in problem solving and high cognitive demand tasks in which they are discussing and reasoning using the language of mathematicians. The Algebra Forum has developed a public website full of resources, research, and many of the presentations from the previous two forums. Visit http://www.cacompcenter.org/cs/algebrap/print/htdocs/algebra/home.htm to access these resources and for more information about the forum.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Common Core State Standards for Mathematics--Implementation Support from NCTM

Source: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)


URLhttp://www.nctm.org/news/highlights.aspx?id=26084&blogid=6806


The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has posted a PowerPoint file on its Web site "to inform teachers and to support them in implementation of the Common Core State Standards [(CCSS)]. Other presentations for grade bands are under development and will be made available soon." Download the file from the Web page above.

Also on this Web page is a link to the joint statement in support of the CCSS issued by NCTM, the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics (ASSM), and the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics.

For more information about NCTM's initiatives related to the CCSS, read NCTM President J. Michael Shaughnessy's report located athttp://www.nctm.org/about/content.aspx?id=26483