This workshop is for collegiate mathematics faculty and advanced graduate students seeking to improve their proficiency in teaching K-8 mathematics education courses. Participants will experience hands-on, lively lessons, view video vignettes, and receive sample course materials from Western Oregon University’s successful program for pre-service K-8 teachers. Participants will be guided in an experiential framework to create dynamic and appropriate activities, lesson plans, and course plans for their own K-8 mathematics education classrooms. Materials development will focus on hands-on visual methods and manipulatives, problem solving, and effective assessment techniques. Participants will leave the workshop with a well-developed Mathematics Education Resource Notebook.

Prior to the workshop, participants will share descriptions of the mathematics education courses they will be teaching and will be assigned readings selected to meet their specific needs from NCTM resources, the MET document, and Liping Ma's book. Participants will perform a warm-up activity exploring visual models for signed number operations and will work through a brief introduction to Geometer's Sketchpad. After the workshop, participants will discuss their personal mathematics education experiences via a web bulletin board, implement two workshop designed lessons (as resources permit), and attend a special sharing session at the 2004 Winter Joint Mathematics Meetings.

Presenters  Leaders   Speaker

Program Leaders

Laurie Burton has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Oregon (1995) and is currently a Mathematics Education Specialist and co-chair of the Mathematics Department at WOU. She has spent the last several years intensely focused on mathematics education for K - 8 teachers.

Maria Fung has a Ph.D. in mathematics with a minor in mathematics education from Cornell University (1999) and is currently a Mathematics Education Specialist in the Mathematics Department at WOU.

Both Burton and Fung have worked extensively in developing appropriate course curricula and materials for basic and advanced mathematics education classes in an outstanding mathematics education program for pre-service and some in-service K - 8 teachers. The mathematics requirements in this program exceed the MET recommendations for content hours and topic coverage. Burton and Fung are responsible for twelve 3-quarter hour mathematics courses designed specifically for K – 8 teachers. They create and select activities, design lesson plans, teach and oversee the courses. They are both proficient in implementing every aspect of a K – 8 mathematics education course and they have both created and gathered a great deal of appropriate curriculum resources.

• Participants will submit a personal introduction and brief descriptions of the mathematics education courses they are teaching or have an interest in teaching.
• Reading assignments will be selected that are focused to address the needs of the participants from among the following resources:
  • The NCTM Standards
  • The MET Document
  • Liping Ma's book: Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics (provided for each participant)
  • A selection of leader-provided NCTM journal articles that discuss pedagogical experiences in the Elementary or Middle School classroom.
• Participants will do the following warm-up activities:
  • Look through a provided Math in the Mind's Eye (MME) lesson, "Adding and Subtracting Signed Numbers," and work through the student work portion of the lesson with provided black and red tiles.
  • Work through a provided short introduction to The Geometer's Sketchpad (GSP) program. We will help participants download an introductory version of GSP if needed.
• Participants will have the opportunity to:
  • Discuss the assigned readings and how they relate to their mathematics education courses.
  • Reflect on their experiences of working through the warm-up activities.

• Participants will implement workshop-created lessons in their own classrooms
• Participants will interact with a supportive network of colleagues via email discussions
• Participants will participate in Web CT postings of lesson experiences.
• Participants will present updated lessons and course ideas resulting from work in their individual classrooms in a special session at the 2004 Joint Mathematics Meetings.

• Articles of particular interest to the participants (passed out before, during and after the workshop)
• Workshop created activities, lesson plans and class plans: In addition to self-created materials, we will have a computer/scanner/printer station set up in the workshop room to facilitate the easy sharing of all of the materials participants create during the workshop.
• Throughout the workshop, extensive course materials and student work samples will be distributed. These materials will exemplify the mathematics education courses in the extensive and successful Western Oregon University (WOU) K - 8 teacher education program.

Participants are responsible for the $100 application (registration) fee and for their travel to Salem, Oregon. The MAA will provide travel support for a limited number of participants from resource-poor institutions to attend a PREP program. Funding is available on a case-by-case basis through the MAA. To request funding contact Michael Pearson, Pearson@MAA.org. He will ask you for the information that he requires.

More details will be posted.

Please feel free to contact Laurie (burtonl@wou.edu) or Maria (fungm@wou.edu) if you have questions.