WI-AMTE Poster Session for Early Career and Poster Session at WMC Annual Meeting!

The Wisconsin Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators and the Wisconsin Mathematics Council are pleased to hold our 3rd Preservice and Early-Career Poster Session at the WMC Annual Meeting in Green Lake, WI May 1-3, 2019. The Poster session is an opportunity for new and future teachers to present their work and network with education representatives from across the state.

Examples of possible topics to present include: 1) an action research project 2) an analysis of your teaching 3) an illustration of a teaching strategy including examples of student solutions and 4) A mathematical task that you have used to address an interesting part of the curriculum and examples of student work on the task. Posters should be on a tri-fold board or a poster attached to a trifold.

If you are teaching preservice teachers in the fall or spring semester, we hope you will encourage your students to participate.  We are especially interested in adding students who have projects with elementary students. WI-AMTE will pay for one day of registration for all participants who present a poster.   The submission form for poster ideas will be available in early January and confirmation of poster acceptance will occur in early April.

If you have any questions, please contact Matt Chedister (mchedister@uwlax.edu).

College and Career Readiness: A Dialogue Series

April 17, 2018 • Mid-States Technical College, Stevens Point • 9am-3pm

The Wisconsin Mathematics Council (WMC) and Wisconsin Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (WI-AMTE) recently released a joint statement describing what college readiness in mathematics looks like for all students.
In addition, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics is set to release Catalyzing Change in High School Mathematics: Initiating Critical Conversations, a document which has the potentially to meaningfully reshape the landscape of high school mathematics.

Join us for a day-long dialogue about college and career readiness, designed to answer the following questions:
• What does effective mathematics teaching that supports college and career readiness look like in high schools?
• What innovations are being implemented in entry-level university mathematics teaching that supports reasoning and sense making?
• How can high schools be thinking about coherent mathematics pathways for students to support college and career readiness for all students?

We will engage in example mathematical activities from entry-level university mathematics courses, discuss innovative practices in high school course design, and identify questions for further discussion and study to be presented to state leadership at the WMC Annual Meeting in May.

Middle and high school teachers, curriculum directors and specialists, coaches, and university mathematics educators are all welcome to attend!

To RSVP, please fill out the following form no later than April 10th:
http://bit.ly/ccr041718
Registration is free. Lunch will be provided at a $5 cash cost.

Perspectives and Guidance Regarding the Implementation of New State Licensure Regulations

As many of you are aware, a number of changes are being made and/or proposed to licensure in the State of Wisconsin. In response to those changes and proposals, the Wisconsin Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators puts forward the following white paper regarding implementation of new state licensure regulations.

White Paper on Licensure Guidance (pdf)

College Readiness Webinar

On December 6th, WI AMTE hosted a statewide webinar to continue the discussion about college readiness.  You can find the recording of that webinar below.

College Readiness December 17 from Mike Steele on Vimeo.

Additional relevant resources:

Introducing your 2017-2018 WI AMTE leadership team

Thank you to everyone who participated in our 2017-2018 election.  We were electing six WI AMTE board positions this year, for 1-, 2-, and 3-year terms.  Going forward, we will elect two members of the board each year to 3-year terms.  I’d like to thank all the candidates that ran and everyone who voted in the election.

The results:
Elected to three-year terms (2017-2020): Lynn Schaal, Mike Steele
Elected to two-year terms (2017-2019): Matthew Chedister, Jennifer Lawler
Elected to one-year terms (2017-2018): Annette Nelson, Lori Rugotska
At our first board meeting, the leadership team will elect members of the board to the named officer positions.  When that meeting takes places, we will send updates to identify the people serving in those roles.
Congratulations to our new board members, and thank you to everyone who participated in the election!  We look forward to a great year of advancing the work of mathematics teacher education in Wisconsin!

Thinking about our Methods syllabi…

Hi folks – Mike Steele here from the leadership team.  The recent AMTE Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics have sparked a lot of conversation and debate recently.  There are a number of ideas that I find to be intriguing and have sparked additional thinking on my part about how I organize my mathematics methods courses.  In particular, candidate standard C.4 on the Social Contexts of Mathematics, and Indicator C.3.3, Anticipate and Attend to Students’ Mathematical Dispositions stand out for me as areas in which I could personally strengthen my methods repertoire.  I wondered what messages I am (or am not) sending to my students about what it means to know and do mathematics, how we structure the learning opportunities with respect to mathematics and the teaching and learning of mathematics in our methods courses, and what changes I might consider making to provide a more transparent and coherent message.  When we discussed this matter as a leadership team, it was suggested that we perhaps take a look at our syllabi as a starting point for this work.  As such, I’m providing the syllabus for my fall course – essentially the ‘middle’ course in a three-course methods sequence at UWM – as sacrificial analytic fodder.  I’ll reflect a little bit about what I notice in this syllabus with the lenses of the Standards, as well as some comments about edTPA and state licensure.  I invite you all to comment and engage in further discussion using my syllabus as a starting point. Continue reading “Thinking about our Methods syllabi…”

WI AMTE track at Green Lake

WI AMTE is pleased to announce a track devoted to mathematics teacher education at the WMC Annual Meeting in Green Lake, WI on May 5th, 2017.  Please see the flyer below for session information.

We are also pleased to announce the first annual Preservice and Early Career Teacher Poster Session!  Please encourage your preservice teachers and early-career colleagues to showcase their work at this relaxed, informal poster session on Thursday prior to Celebrate WMC.  Submit your poster proposal here!

2017 Green Lake Sessions

Significant changes proposed to WI state licensure

A DPI-commissioned task force (the Leadership Group on School Staffing Challenges) has proposed significant and sweeping changes to state licensure. Among these changes include the consolidation of licenses into two categories: Grades PK-9 generalist, and Grades 4-12 content specialist.  This move would eliminate a specific license for Early Childhood Education (no coverage for birth-PK) and significantly change the scope of the secondary mathematics education EAA license.

You can read a summary of the recommendations here. There is currently no mechanism for providing feedback to DPI on this matter.  WI AMTE’s voice was represented in letters that have gone forward from UW System institutions with stakes in teacher preparation, and from the Wisconsin Mathematics Council. We encourage WI AMTE members to make their voices heard by emailing Sheila Briggs directly.