A number of years ago, a colleague and I obtained a Dwight David
Eisenhower grant to use calculators toenhance mathematics instruction
K-12. The first year it was easy for us to identify junior high school
and high school teachers with expertise that could do the instruction.
It was difficult to identify K-3 and 4-6 grade teachers with the same
expertise so we relied on college faculty. The instructors of the K-6
groups received poor evaluations in part because they assumed the
teachers knew the mathematical concepts and because they were unfamiliar
with the grade specific curriculum of the workshop participants. We read
these evaluations and a number of them were signed by the elementary
teachers who stated that they thought they could have taught the workshop
better. We hired those participants as teachers the following year and
addressed the idea of teaching both the calculator use and the
mathematical concepts to the elementary teachers. It worked well.
These elementary teachers started asking for continuations of the
workshops which we did for 4-5 years and for a list of other possible
workshops. We supplied a list of the state's NCTM affiliate meetings and
elementary teachers started attending and presenting more sessions at
these meetings. How do I know? Because I also go to those meetings and
present. If we have identified the problem, have we consulted all the
groups involved in working out a solution? It was a lesson that I had to
learn.
Len
+====================================================================
===+
| Len Malinowski Finger Lakes Community College |
| malinolt@snyflcc.fingerlakes.edu Canandaigua, New York |
+====================================================================
===+