Implementation of the Common Core

Earlier this month, I attended the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS) on Teaching Teachers in the Era of the Common Core.  Parts of the presentations are available on their conference website.

We all need to think about what we can do to help to grow the mathematical learning community that will help our students become the learners we would like them to be.  There were some interesting speakers.  Sybilla Beckmann, Aaron Orsick and others had some wonderful thoughts today about not only growing professional leaning communities pre-k to 20 and above around mathematics learning but growing teachers as professionals.  

It is clear we need to think well-beyond our own classroom and to think about how we can reach out and help others, collaborate with others, learn from others, ... the vision many folks mentioned were thinking well-beyond pre-k to 20 to include math educators and mathematicians.  In some communities, there is already collaboration between different grade levels (or levels of experience) of teachers and/or college professors of mathematics.  Collaboration between teachers and the mathematical community -- each  have something to learn from the other.  Is this something we can be doing here in Somerville?

The Somerville Mathematics Fund is looking for students to compete in the 7th annual Scrapheap Showdown

The Somerville Mathematics fund is repeating its successful creative problem-solving competition.  Head down to the Tufts University Cousens Gym, 161 College Ave. on October 30th, 2010 from 12:00 to 5:30 for a their sixth annual Scrapheap Showdown.  Teams of three students who raise $75 or more in total donations can compete for prizes by solving a creative engineering problem using salvage materials provided the afternoon of the competition.  The competition is open to teams of students who are all residents of Somerville and who have NOT graduated from high school.  Gather your teams now! The preregistration deadline is Thursday, October 20^th.

For more information and registration materials, please visit: http://www.somervillemathematicsfund.org or contact Erica Voolich at voolich@gmail.com

If you are unable to attend, please consider making a tax deductible donation to sponsor the event or to sponsor a team.

The award-winning Somerville Mathematics Fund was chartered in September 2000 to celebrate and encourage achievement in mathematics in the city of Somerville, Massachusetts.  In May 2011, they were named the outstanding Dollars for Scholars chapter in New England. 

The Somerville Mathematics Fund provides renewable mathematics scholarships to Somerville students (private or public school graduates) who have demonstrated outstanding mathematics achievement.  In addition, The Somerville Mathematics Fund offers grants to K-12 teachers of Somerville students for projects to improve or enrich mathematics instruction in the classroom or in after-school programs.  As of June, The Somerville Mathematics Fund has awarded a total of $160,000 in four-year mathematics scholarships to forty-one students and $47,921 in teacher grants to support one hundred four teachers’ projects and fifteen emergency grants to ESCS teachers after the devasting fire.  If you would like to learn more, volunteer, or make a tax deductible contribution please visit www.somervillemathematicsfund.org or write to Erica Voolich at voolich@gmail.com.