2013-2014 Mathematics Workshops

• Alternative Assessments and Projects Designed to Enhance the Thinking Needed for the Common Core

  Date: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 (Code: W-02-19-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Neil D. Cooperman
  Audience: Grade 9-12 Teachers of Geometry, Algebra, and Precalculus

  Classroom learning has traditionally focused on basic content and skill acquisition and the ability to apply that knowledge to typical problem solving situations.  The Common Core, with its focus on narrowing the number of topics required and increasing the expected depth of comprehension, requires students to demonstrate their understanding at the deepest levels.  This session will provide you with multiple projects that will stimulate your students’ thinking at the levels demanded by the Common Core. Participants will learn about a variety of projects that they can use in their Geometry, Algebra, and Precalculus classes, and they will have hands-on opportunities to try some of them.  

• Are You Preparing for the Inevitable? Statistics and the Common Core

  Date: Thursday, April 24, 2014 (Code: W-04-24-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Neil D. Cooperman
  Audience: Grade 8-12 Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors

  The Common Core State Standards require all students to know the equivalent of three-quarters of a course in AP Statistics. Students will be called upon to demonstrate their knowledge of statistics on the assessments administered during the 2014-2015 school year.  Incoming freshmen, and possibly the current rising sophomores, will be the first assessed. Are you and your students ready? Do you have the knowledge and the pedagogical tools necessary to meet this expectation? This hands-on workshop will serve as an introduction and overview of what you need to know about Statistics and the Common Core and how you can teach it so your students will be prepared.

• An Eclectic Gathering of Algebraic Ideas at the Heart of the New Common Core Expectations for Algebra I and II

  Date: Monday, April 28, 2014 (Code: W-04-28-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Ira Nirenberg
  Audience: Teachers of Algebra I and Algebra II, Mathematics Supervisors

  At its heart, the Common Core is about how we help students to think about mathematics and the mathematical tools that facilitate that thinking. We’ll tackle some of the more challenging aspects/topics of the Common Core using unit analysis, generalizations in Algebra, and how algebraic thinking and algebraic constructions are used to illuminate scientific thinking. The workshop is composed of five major topics:

• The Joy of Unit Fractions and the Harmonic Mean
• Changing rates: Linear Functions, Quadratic Implications and the Acceleration of Money
• Character is Destiny: The Use of Units in Problem Solving
• The Generalization of Word Problems in Algebra: Some Oldies but Goodies
• The Beauty of Optimization: A Hands-on Mathematics Lab.
  
  Lots of material for use in class!
  
  
  
• Common Core State Standards and Assessments in Algebra, Grades 8-12
  

  Date: A Three Day Summer Program offered in two Sections:
  Section 1: June 24-26, 2014
  Section 2: August 5-7, 2014
  Presenter: Deborah Ives
  Fee: $495

  The first two days of the program focus on instructional strategies in algebra (that is, key areas in CCSS Algebra and Functions) and the third day focuses on assessment in algebra, although both instruction and assessment are discussed on all three days.  More specifically, the focus of the three days are:

  • Day 1:  Instructional Strategies for Teaching Algebraic Concepts and Math Practices
  • Day 2:  Instructional Strategies for Teaching ALL Learners
  • Day 3:  Strategies for Assessment: Important Transitions to PARCC

• Empowering Students Who Ask, “When Are We Ever Going to Use This Math?”

  Date: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 (Code: W-01-21-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Robin Schwartz, Adjunct Prof, College of Mt St Vincent; Founder, Math Confidence
  Audience: Grade 9-12 Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors

  When Math is presented as a life skill that broadens career choice and inspires critical thinking, students embrace the learning of reasoning and problem-solving skills while building confidence and persistence. While many students will not major in science or engineering in college, all students benefit from the challenge and discipline of Math. This positive attitude can help teachers, administrators and students to meet the challenges of ‘teaching to the test’ by viewing it as an opportunity to address common errors and misunderstandings without formally reviewing. In fact, the comparison of multiple choice answers can help students to “think on their feet” while increasing accuracy, logic and frustration tolerance skills – assets in high school, college and the workplace. Worksheets will cover common secondary content incorporating HSPA and SAT content (including algebra, geometry, trig and precalc) and will use multiple representations and technology to appeal to diverse learning styles creating a path to success for all.

• Geometer’s Sketchpad for High School Teachers

  Date: Wednesday, December 4, 2013 (Code: W-12-04-13)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Anita Schuloff
  Audience: High School Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors

  This workshop will be useful to high school teachers who would appreciate a clever and interesting way to teach the Common Core State Standards in mathematics. Geometer’s Sketchpad is a powerful program that will delight and involve your students with its colorful graphics, ability to present geometric shapes and coordinate axes for algebraic topics and a wonderful animation property. You will learn the basic keystrokes and menu functions so that you can start using Sketchpad as soon as you get back to your classroom. Please bring your laptop (with mouse) with you to the workshop so that you can start using this powerful program right away.

• Instructional Strategies to Meet New Common Core Standards: Performance Tasks for Middle and High School Mathematics

  Date: Thursday, December 5, 2013 (Code: W-12-05-13)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Deborah Ives, Assistant Professor, Montclair University
  Audience: Grade 7-10 Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors

  Come learn the new CCSS by engaging in a hands-on look at lessons and performance tasks with instructional strategies that focus on algebraic reasoning and sense making for middle and high school students.  Real world applications, including Hip Hop Music, Fashion Design, Videogaming, Special Effects, Restaurants, and Basketball will be provided through PBS/WNET fully-funded and Emmy Nominated multimedia resources that help students and teachers meet the new Common Core State Standards and Assessment expectations.

• Is That Your Final Answer? Developing Mathematical Thinking with Questions

  Date: Thursday, November 21, 2013 (Code: W-11-21-13)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Robin Schwartz, Adjunct Prof, College of Mt St Vincent; Founder, Math Confidence
  Audience: Grade 6-12 Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors

  Asking questions such as “Is that your final answer?”, “How do you know?”  and “Easy, Medium, Hard?” encourages students to increase their self-awareness along with their math confidence, performance, and comprehension.  This workshop will include CCSS Standards especially #1 (make sense of problems and persevere in solving them) and #6 (attend to precision).  We will design and demo inquiries using PARCC samples and other released items to inspire classroom dialogue, lesson plans and student learning.

• Major Themes of Statistics in the CCSS

  Date: Monday, January 27, 2014 (Code: W-01-27-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Angelo DeMattia, Rutgers Institute for Improving Student Achievement (RIISA) Consultant
  Audience: Grades 8-12 Mathematics Teachers and Supervisors

  Mathematics is about ideas and not just juggling numbers and letters.  Statistics should pursue that same intent.  This workshop will allow teachers and students to shift the typical emphasis from following number recipes to a focus on statistical concepts.  The bridge to those concepts will use real data, experiments, and simulations.  The embedded ideas will be explained – with pictures and words.  Ample hands-on lessons and activities will highlight the process that helps students attain a higher level of achievement on NJASK and other related assessments and helps teachers experience a new connection to the Common Core Standards.  Appropriate technology and software also will be used. Bring your graphing calculator!

• Making Statistics Real: How to Get Students to Actively Learn the Tools of Statistics

  Date: Friday, February 28, 2014 (Code: W-02-28-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Anoop Ahluwalia, Assistant Professor, Brookdale Community College
  Audience: Grades 9-12 Mathematics Teachers and Supervisors

  This workshop outlines how to get students excited about statistics by involving them in real life data and regular hands-on classroom activities. There will be several ideas shared about how to introduce and teach topics like central tendency, variation, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, goodness of fit, test for independence, correlation and regression using student-generated data and active student participation. Also, project ideas will be offered about how students can collect their own data as a part of the course and carry out data analysis to truly understand the topics learned in class. TI-83, Fathom and Excel will be used to demonstrate some of the ways to analyze the data using technology. Attending members are encouraged to contact the instructor prior to the workshop with any questions, suggestions or comments to make this session even more relevant to their teaching needs. This workshop addresses the following Common Core Standards: Interpreting Categorical and Quantitative Data, Making Inferences and Justifying Conclusions, Conditional Probability and the Rules of Probability, Using Probability to Make Decisions.

• Mathematical Forensics
  
  Date: Monday, March 3, 2014 (Code: W-03-03-14)
  Presenter: Eugene Fiorini, DIMACS, and Judy Rector, Professor of Mathematics Education, Berea College
  Audience: Grade 10-12 Mathematics Teachers and Supervisors
  

  This workshop outlines some of the mathematical methods used by forensic mathematicians to solve crimes. Teachers will be introduced to several activities that apply Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus to crime solving techniques. Some of the concepts used in the forensics activities include basic properties of probability; measuring the angle of impact using the inverse sine; law of sines to determine point of impact; exponential functions to determine time of death; ratio and proportion to determine characteristics such as height, weight, and gender of a person of interest; and basic graph theory and algorithms to identify and match fingerprints. Project ideas will be presented that demonstrate how students can collect and analyze their own data as well as develop and use their own forensics tools. The workshop will conclude with participants asked to solve a fake, staged crime scene using the techniques that were discussed earlier in the day. Teachers will be given materials and instruction on how to stage their own crime scene to test students' understanding of the material. This workshop addresses the following Common Core Standards: Interpreting Categorical and Quantitative Data; Making Inferences and Justifying Conclusions; Conditional Probability and the Rules of Probability; Using Probability to Make Decisions; Reasoning with Equations & Inequalities; Seeing Structure in Expressions; Modeling with Geometry; Similarity, Right Triangles, & Trigonometry.

• Physics for Math Teachers
  
  Date: Friday, April 25, 2014 (Code: W-04-25-14)
  Presenter: Ira Nirenberg
  Audience: Grade 9-12 Mathematics Teachers and Supervisors
  

  Historically, the basis for a good deal of secondary mathematics stems from the development of physics. In fact, Isaac Newton invented the calculus in order to solve problems relating to the gravitational force produced by extended bodies in space (namely, the Earth). Our focus here is very basic. Participants will gain a conceptual and mathematical understanding of the physics used in the secondary curriculum. The course is a basic physics college class with mathematics teachers in mind. No previous physics education is necessary. If you had physics a long time ago and remember little to nothing or have never had a physics class, this is for you! Stress level for this class is rated as ZERO! Knowledge of a TI graphing calculator is helpful but not necessary. Topics include: measurements and uncertainty, dimensional analysis, kinematics and dynamics. This workshop addresses CORE concepts!

• Precalculus and Astronomy: A Match Made in the Heavens!
  
  Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 (Code: W-04-29-14)
  Presenter: Ira Nirenberg
  Audience: Grade 10-12 Mathematics Teachers and Supervisors
  

  Where and when do you look for the moon? Can we model the motion of that "star"? Will that asteroid hit? How was the earth's position in space determined 2,500 years ago? Want to go to Mars? There's prep to every trip! This workshop will explore these and other questions. Why? Because they get students' attention! I’ve tried everything from temperature, to tides, to Ferris Wheels, and overall the response was lackluster. Then I started using astronomical ideas and things changed. No more inputting arrays of data and forcing out context; rather, we observe and model! This workshop addresses CORE concepts and will provide teachers with ideas and activities for their classes.

  
  
• Precalculus Conference: Good Ideas in Teaching Precalculus and….

  Date: Friday, March 21, 2014 (Code: PRECALC-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Fee: $165
  Audience: Grade 9-14 Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors

  A dynamic, annual, one-day conference for teachers and supervisors of high school mathematics, now in its 28th year. Attend up to 4 sessions on diverse topics, plus a sharing session and plenary session. Take some really good ideas back to the classroom! For more information, see conference website – http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/precalc-conf/

• Put the "Calculus" in Your "Precalculus" Class

  Date: Monday, March 10, 2014 (Code: W-03-10-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Ralph Pantozzi
  Audience: Grade 10-12 Mathematics Teachers and Supervisors

  In the Common Core Standards, we want students to work with functions in context, analyze them using different representations, and build new functions from existing functions. Sounds a lot like Calculus! All the functions you study in Precalculus are opportunities for students to think about the key ideas of calculus: rates of change, accumulation, and limits. From September to June, weave these ideas into your questions and see your students develop better skills, deeper insight, and greater interest in Precalculus and a thirst for their future studies.

• Strategies to Prepare Special Education Students for the State's High School Math Assessments

  Date: Friday, November 22, 2013 (Code: W-11-22-13)
  also given on Friday, January 24, 2014 (Code: W-01-24-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Karen Egan
  Audience: Grade 8-12 Mathematics Teachers, High School Special Education Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors

  Special education teachers are sometimes faced with enormous challenges when it comes to preparing their special needs students for the mathematics portion of the state assessments. This workshop presents ideas to help your students boost their performance on these assessments. Participants will learn strategies to make students comfortable with the vocabulary on the tests and increase their critical thinking skills through the use of open-ended questions. Activities will include differentiated instruction, cooperative games, and using a variety of manipulatives. Participants will take home a packet of all the workshop’s activities, as well as sample lessons that can be implemented immediately in their own classrooms.

• Using GeoGebra Software in High School Mathematics Courses

  Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2014 (Code: W-01-08-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Miguel Bayona
  Audience: Grade 9-12 Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors

  The GeoGebra Workshop will cover all tools and topics needed to enable teachers to use this magnificent piece of software right away. GeoGebra is a free dynamic and interactive package that allows teachers and students to create sophisticated dynamic applications for courses from geometry to calculus and beyond. GeoGebra provides a robust environment to create animations to enhance the teaching and understanding of mathematical concepts. An absolutely indispensable tool for any mathematics teacher.

• A Visual Approach to Algebra

  Date: Thursday, December 12, 2013 (Code: W-12-12-13)
  also given Thursday, February 6, 2014 (Code: W-02-06-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Angelo DeMattia, Rutgers Institute for Improving Student Achievement (RIISA) Consultant
  Audience: Grade 6-10 Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors, Special Education Teachers

  Too few students can demonstrate a deep conceptual understanding of algebraic relationships. This workshop will help teachers develop a more visually based lesson format. This will help students – including SE & ELL – make an effective transition from the concrete/visual to the abstract. The emphasis will be on applying the PAW process: P is for Pictures, A is for Algebra, and W is for words.  Ample hands-on lessons will highlight the process that helps students attain a higher level of achievement on NJASK and Algebra Assessments and helps teachers experience a new connection to the Common Core Standards.

• A Visual Approach to Geometry

  Date: Friday, January 31, 2014 (Code: W-01-31-14)
  also given on Thursday, February 20, 2014 (Code: W-02-20-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Angelo DeMattia, Rutgers Institute for Improving Student Achievement (RIISA) Consultant
  Audience: Grade 6-10 Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors, Special Education Teachers

  Too few students attain a deep conceptual understanding of geometric relationships. This workshop will help teachers understand this difficulty and develop a more visually based lesson format. This will help students, including SE & ELL – make an effective transition from the concrete/visual to the abstract. The emphasis will be on applying the PAW process: P is for Pictures, A is for Abstract, and W is for words. Ample hands-on lessons will highlight the process that helps students attain a higher level of achievement on future NJASK and Geometry Assessments and helps teachers experience the new connection to the Common Core Standards.

• Your Geometry Class – The Perfect Place for Learning More Algebra

  Date: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 (Code: W-03-11-14)
  Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
  Presenter: Ralph Pantozzi
  Audience: High School Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors

  Don’t let Geometry be that “year off” from doing algebra that leaves students “starting over” in Algebra 2. We can do more with algebra – and make algebra more meaningful – when we do more than make an angle measure equal 3x – 4 every now and then. Transformations, theorems about everything from vertical angles to the Pythagorean Theorem, similarity, and trigonometry, are just some of the topics where students can advance their algebraic skill with, and understanding, of variables, equations, and functions. Set Algebra free from the review sections of your Geometry book with engaging questions and tasks – many involving modeling – and unlock the potential of your students’ understanding of algebra.

  
  
  
  
  
  PROGRAM IN SUMMER 2014
  
  
• Common Core State Standards and Assessments in Algebra, Grades 8-12
  

  Date: A Three Day Summer Program offered in two Sections:
  Section 1: June 24-26, 2014
  Section 2: August 5-7, 2014
  Presenter: Deborah Ives
  Fee: $495

  The first two days of the program focus on instructional strategies in algebra (that is, key areas in CCSS Algebra and Functions) and the third day focuses on assessment in algebra, although both instruction and assessment are discussed on all three days.  More specifically, the focus of the three days are:

  • Day 1:  Instructional Strategies for Teaching Algebraic Concepts and Math Practices
  • Day 2:  Instructional Strategies for Teaching ALL Learners
  • Day 3:  Strategies for Assessment: Important Transitions to PARCC
  
  
  
  

Registration Information