STREAM: Teachers Needed

MCTM Members and Math Teachers:

Please consider this opportunity for yourself or a colleague. The STREAM project is highly regarded, very rewarding, and lots of fun! If you can’t participate yourself, please send this to a fellow teacher with a note of encouragement. A personal endorsement from you is worth more than 10,000 words! Thank you for helping us recruit!

Jennie Luebeck

The STREAM project has been funded for a fourth year! Our new activities focus on high school teachers, but we are continuing programs for K-8 teachers as well. STREAM offers something for everyone who wants to  explore big ideas in mathematics, dig into Montana’s math standards, and gain experience with effective mathematical practices for teachers and students.

This year's STREAM offerings are listed below. Each program title links directly to more information on the STREAM Web site at www.STREAMmath.org. All programs are FREE and cover expenses for travel, lodging, and materials. All programs offer credit or OPI renewal units. Learn more about the benefits by linking to the program pages. You can also view a 5-minute overview video at  http://tinyurl.com/streammathvideo

The first three offerings require an online application, with a deadline of September 30^th. We strongly encourage rural, underserved, and high-need schools and districts. Don’t delay – jump in the STREAM!  Click on the links below to go to the STREAM website page for each program.

STREAM High School (secondary math teachers)

• A full year of professional learning with peers across the state
• Two 2-day workshops, four online modules, Summer Academy
• Investigate content standards and Mathematical Practices
• Design and teach mathematical modeling projects
• Identify and use high-quality resource materials
• Increase your mathematics content knowledge

GUIDE Program (cohorts of K-8 teachers)

• 4 to 6 months of school-based professional learning
• Three on-site workshops, three online modules
• Investigate content standards and Mathematical Practices
• Identify and use high-quality resource materials
• Work alongside colleagues with support from a Guide
• Develop a personal plan for implementing standards

MPATH Fellowships (under-certified HS math teachers)

• Earn 9 to 12 mathematics credits toward secondary licensure
• Fellowships cover tuition, travel, lodging, and other expenses
• Complete MSU courses (online and 3-week summer session)
• Develop a long-range plan for licensure in secondary math
• Requires application, interview, and administrator support

Individual Online Modules (K-8 teachers)

• Enroll individually in any 3-week online module
• Select from content areas for K-3, 4-7, and more
• Investigate the standards and Mathematical Practices
• Identify and use high-quality resource materials
• Increase your mathematics content knowledge 

Dr. Jennifer Luebeck, STREAM Project Director

Associate Professor, Mathematics Education

Dept. of Mathematical Sciences, MSU – Bozeman

406-994-5341

luebeck@math.montana.edu

Lisa Scott, STREAM Project Manager
Mathematics Education Consulting, LLC
1102 Anchor Ave.
Billings, MT 59105
406-860-7735
lisa.scott@mathedconsulting.org

MCTM Scholarships --- MONEY IS AVAILABLE FOR YOU!!

MCTM Scholarships

The Montana Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM) offers $3000 of scholarships for teacher members each year to pursue professional development opportunities.  The Karen Longhart Scholarship application deadline is October 12 and the MCTM Teacher Scholarship application deadline is November 30.

Upcoming professional development opportunities to consider include the annual MEA-MFT Conference in Billings on October 15 and 16, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) regional conferences in

Atlantic City • October 21–23  

Minneapolis • November 11–13  

Nashville • November 18-20

and the NCTM Annual Conference, Building a Bridge to Student Success in San Francisco, April 13-16, 2016.   And don’t forget the 13^th International Congress on Mathematics Education (ICME-13) meeting in Hamburg, Germany July 24-31, 2016.

Each of our scholarships have specific dollar amounts.  Each of the two annual Karen Longhart Scholarships are for $500; local professional development in-state scholarships are for $250, and all out-of-state scholarships are for $400.  

Our most recent recipient, Ryan Swenson, a Capital High School mathematics teacher, attended the NCTM Annual Conference in Boston this past April.

More information and application forms are available on our web page: http://www.montanamath.org/?p=awards  For those desiring to speak to a person, call David Erickson, 406-243-5318 or email david.erickson@umontana.edu Karen Longhart Scholarship applications due October 12; other teacher scholarships due November 30. Please apply today! 

NCWIT (National Center for Women and Information Technology) Award for Aspirations in Computing

Montana Contest for Girls

For a number of years, the NCWIT (National Center for Women and Information Technology) has given national awards to high school girls.  The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing is for young women with aspirations and achievements in technology and computing.

This year will be the fourth year that there also will be a MONTANA contest for Montana girls.  The time to submit applications is Sept. 1 through October 26 and the application is found at

http://www.aspirations.org/participate/high-school

There are many qualified high school girls that would apply if they just had a little push from a leader like you.  Any interested female high school student would need to fill in the on-line application, and get a parent and a school official to approve it to be entered into both the national and Montana contests.

We have had winners from Anaconda High School, Arlee High School, Beaverhead County High School, Big Sky High School, Bozeman High School, Capital High School, Cut Bank High School, Helena High School, Missoula Sentinel, Noxon High School and Park County High School.  We hope your school will represented on the winners list this year. But they have to apply.

We are looking forward to recognizing Montana's talent, and hope that you would encourage the young women that you know to apply. Sometimes all they need is a little encouragement and you are the person to provide that.

MEA-MFT Fall Conference in Billings!

This year's MEA-MFT Conference will be held in Billings on October 15th and 16th.  

Registration Fees Pre-Registration           August 15 - October 13 Onsite Registration October 14 - 16 MEA-MFT Member $30.00 $55.00 MEA-MFT Member - New Teacher their first 5 years of teaching $0.00 $55.00 Member of Curriculum Group $30.00 $55.00 Non MEA-MFT Member $60.00 $85.00 Student $5.00 $5.00 Retired MEA-MFT Members $0.00 $0.00 Presenter - earning renewal units $30.00 $55.00 Presenter Only - not earning renewal units $0 $0

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MCTM Sectionals

MCTM once again has several presentations for you to attend and get great new ideas! If you want to look at the Math Sectionals, click here for a complete listing! 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOTELS - Hurry and make your reservations. 

MCTM has also set aside blocks of rooms at 2 different hotels in the Billings area. 

The first motel we have a block of rooms in is the Northern Hotel.  Their number is (406) 867-6767

• 12 Classic King Rooms  blocked for both Wednesday and Thursday evenings.  $83.00 for a single and $129.00 for a double.  

• 3 Classic Queen rooms for Wednesday night. $83.00 for a single and $129.00 for a double.  

• 7 Classic King rooms and 3 classic Queen rooms for Friday evening if needed. $83.00 for a single and $129.00 for a double.  

When registering for a room you must identify as being part of MCTM to get these rates.  This block of rooms needs to have reservations  made by September 13th. Also this is where the Banquet for Teacher of the Year will be held on Thursday evening.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The other motel reserved is the BestWestern Plus ClockTower Inn.  This is about two blocks from the Northern Hotel.  Their number is (406) 238-1796.

• 10 Single Queen rooms at $99.00
• 15 Double Double rooms at $109.00

These rooms are reserved for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights.  When registering  please identify that you are a member of MCTM to receive these rates.  These room blocks are being held for MCTM until September 30.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

This year's keynote speaker is Eli Luberoff, CEO of Desmos

Eli began his programming life on his TI-83 graphing calculator in elementary school, culminating with a working version of Monopoly which was destroyed when he removed the backup battery by accident. He began working on the software that would become Desmos.com during a year-long hiatus from Yale University in 2007, returning to graduate summa cum laude with degrees in Math and Physics in 2009. Eli was also selected by Bloomberg Businessweek as one of the top 25 entrepreneurs under 25 in 2011. 

Here's a little information on Desmos, if you are not familiar with it. 

At Desmos, we imagine a world of universal math literacy, where no student thinks that math is too hard or too dull to pursue. We believe the key is learning by doing. When learning becomes a journey of exploration and discovery, anyone can understand – and enjoy! – math.

To achieve this vision, we’ve started by building the next generation of the graphing calculator. Using our powerful and blazingly-fast math engine, the calculator can instantly plot any equation, from lines and parabolas up through derivatives and Fourier series. Data tables open up a world of curve-fitting and modeling. Sliders make it a breeze to demonstrate function transformations. As browser-based html5 technology, the graphing calculator works on any computer or tablet without requiring any downloads. It's intuitive, beautiful math. And best of all: it's completely free.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRIVIA NIGHT IS BACK!

The 2nd Annual Trivia Night will be held Thursday, October 15th at Hooligan's Sports Bar - immediately following the Teacher of the Year Dinner (around 8pm)! 

Appetizers will be provided with a NO HOST bar. 

Want more information - Click Here! 

Statistic Problems

A Statistics Problem With Implications for Montana Mathematics

by David Erickson, University of Montana

As far back as the 1960s, the National Assessment of Educational  Progress (NAEP) nicknamed the nation’s report card began taking a snapshot on the nation’s students’ progress in mathematics. Fourth and eighth graders are tested systematically across the country and test results can be compared by states and the nation. For Montana, in 2013, 8^th grade teacher’s mathematics background (mathematics education major vs. no mathematics education major) was recorded along with his/her students’ average scale scores on the test.  Eighth grade Montana teachers with a mathematics education major had students average scale scores of 294 with a standard error of 1.4, whereas those teachers with no mathematics education major students scored 285 with a standard error of 1.3. 

8th Grade NAEP by Teacher Education
		Math Ed Major		No Math Ed Major
Year	Jurisdiction	Average scale score	Standard error	Average scale score	Standard error
2013	National public	288	(0.6)	281	(0.4)
	Montana	294	(1.4)	285	(1.3)

One interesting question would be, are these scores different and if so, how different? 

We know that the average scale score difference in Montana is 9 points (294-285). We can calculate the standard error difference of these two scale scores by taking the square root of  the sum of the squares of the individual standard errors, so  or a SE on the difference of 1.91.  To calculate the relative size of that over the 9 point difference, we divide 9 by 1.91 to obtain 4.71. A difference of 2 standard deviations would contain a confidence interval of about 95% of the data, and 3 standard deviations of about 99.7%, but this translates into almost a 1 in a million chance of obtaining a scale score of this difference due to chance alone.   So, the scores are different, very different.

Unfortunately, we have only a correlation, not a causation.  We know mathematics content knowledge matters and so it is tempting to assume that is the cause of the difference in scores, but it could be that the teachers with mathematics education majors were employed in districts that had better mathematics students and thus, the students in those districts were different from students in other districts, and the cause was not the teachers knowledge/background alone, but what district they taught in.  We don’t have access to that data from NAEP.

What other questions should we be asking?  What implications for Montana mathematics education are there?  Send me your comments/concerns/suggestions/questions. david.erickson@umontana.edu

Teaching Engineering Applications in Math and Science (TEAMS) Workshops

Hello Montana K-12 Educators!

Montana State University’s College  of Engineering is presenting the Teaching Engineering Applications in Math and Science (TEAMS) Workshops in which MSU Engineering and Education faculty members present new, exciting, and innovated ways to incorporate engineering into your math and science curriculum. TEAMS has been running for 6 years and has had workshops in on the Ft. Peck, Flathead, and Ft. Belknap Reservations, as well as in Bozeman, MT. This year we are holding 3 workshops: one in Pablo, MT on July 7^th and 8^th; one on the Crow Reservation on July 21^stand 22^nd; and one in Billings, MT on August 4th and 5^th. These workshop are one-and-a-half day workshops with presentations, activities, and demonstrations.

Participation is free, and participants receive $250 stipends and 16 OPI renewal units. Additionally, if TEAMSparticipants wish to enact an engineering lesson plan in their classroom during the fall, they can receive another $250 stipend.

For more information please visit the TEAMS website here: http://www.coe.montana.edu/TEAMS/ .

If you wish to sign up now, here is the link with the registration: http://www.coe.montana.edu/TEAMS/workshop-desc.html

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free call or email me, Julian Collins at (406)994-6723or julian.collins@coe.montana.edu.

Montana STREAM Project needs high school Design Team Members!

Dear Montana Mathematics Educator -

The Montana STREAM Project is seeking promising applicants for our high school Design Team!  

STREAM will offer a unique, yearlong professional learning experience for Montana high school teachers as they implement the Common Core Standards for Mathematics (MCCSM). We are looking for Montana educators with grades 9-12 teaching experience, mathematical expertise, and Common Core knowledge to create outstanding materials. The attached memo describes the STREAM professional development as well as the expectations and activities of the Design Team. Thank you for considering this opportunity - we hope you’ll apply! 

Apply by midnight Wednesday, August 5th by completing the survey at:http://tinyurl.com/STREAMHSapp 

Please apply if you are interested in the Design Team, regardless of complications! We will work on resolving potential date conflicts or limitations after reviewing all applications.

STREAM's K-8 Design Team members will confirm that this is an amazing professional growth experience for you as well as for our future audience. Don't miss out!

Dr. Jennifer Luebeck

STREAM Project Director

Associate Professor, Mathematics Education

Dept. of Mathematical Sciences, MSU-Bozeman

luebeck@math.montana.edu or 406-994-5341