2011-2012 Mathematics Workshops

Achieving Success in Meeting the Common Core State Standards in Algebra (Part I)

Date: Wednesday, December 7, 2011 (Code: W-12-07-11); "Part II - Functions" on Wednesday, December 14, may be takin independently of "Part I"
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: James Rahn
Audience: Grade 9-12 Mathematics Teachers, High School Special Education Teachers

New Jersey algebra teachers are challenged with meeting standards described in the Common Core State Standards and New Jersey Algebra I Core Content Standards. This workshop will share numerous activities that will help the students visualize and build understanding for many of the goals delineated in these two documents. The activities will show how students begin to think and use algebra skills differently when integrated into the learning are manipulatives, technology, and real world applications. Both Algebra tiles and graphing calculators will be integrated into activities throughout the workshop. (Part I can be taken independently of Part II.)

Achieving Success in Meeting the Common Core State Standards in Algebra (Part II -- Functions)

Date: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 (Code: W-12-14-11); "Part I" on Wednesday, December 7, may be taken independently of "Part II"
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: James Rahn
Audience: Grade 9-12 Mathematics Teachers, High School Special Education Teachers

New Jersey algebra teachers are challenged with meeting standards described in the Common Core State Standards and New Jersey Algebra I Core Content Standards. This workshop will engage the participants in numerous activities that will help their students develop the concept of function and its connection to expressions, equations, modeling, and coordinates. The activities will explore both linear, quadratic and exponential models. The graphing calculators will be integrated into many of the activities during the workshop. (Part II can be taken independently of Part I.)

Achieving Success in Meeting the Common Core State Standards in Geometry

Date: Monday, February 6, 2012 (Code: W-02-06-12)
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: James Rahn
Audience: Grade 9-12 Mathematics Teachers, High School Special Education Teachers

New Jersey geometry teachers are challenged with meeting standards described in the Common Core State Standards and New Jersey Geometry Core Content Standards. This workshop will share numerous activities that will engage the students in developing congruence, similarity, right triangles, and expressing geometric properties with equations. Throughout all activities participants will be challenged to focus on how students are using reasoning, making sense and developing an informal proof. Numerous geometric models will be integrated into all activities so students can visually see the geometry taking place right in front of their eyes.

Algebraic and Geometric Reasoning in Mathematics: Common Core Mathematical Practices for ALL Students

Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 (Code: W-01-25-12)
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: Deborah Ives, Educational Consultant
Audience: Grade 7-11 Mathematics Teachers and Supervisors

Come and participate in active learning about the new Common Core State Standards Conceptual Categories (CCSS) of Algebra and Geometry through lessons with a balanced combination of procedure and understanding.  Instructional strategies that incorporate explicitly-stated connections in the CCSS are highlighted.  Mathematical Practices, with an emphasis on reasoning and the CCSS six-step modeling cycle, will be embedded throughout.

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

Date: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 (Code: W-02-22-12)
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: Neil D. Cooperman
Audience: Grade 9-12 Teachers of Geometry, Algebra, and Precalculus

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.  Normal 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, but 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.

Assessing Students’ Ability to Communicate the Level of Reasoning Required by the Common Core

Date: Friday February 24, 2012 (Code: W-02-24-12)
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: Neil D. Cooperman
Audience: Grade 6-12 Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors

The Common Core State Standards not only expect students to be able to “Do the Math”, but they also require students to demonstrate that they understand what they are doing and why they are doing it.  This will necessitate an increased ability to exhibit that knowledge through written communication.  Your students will improve their performance on the Common Core Assessments if they have a better comprehension of the scoring process.  This mini-course is designed to enhance your ability to score using rubrics to insure that the scoring is fair, valid and reliable.  It is also intended to help you engage your students in the same scoring process to improve their ability in responding to the prompts demanded by the Common Core.

Date: Thursday, January 5, 2012 (Code: W-01-05-12)
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: James Rahn
Audience: Grade 9-12 Mathematics Teachers, High School Special Education Teachers

Are your students struggling with algebra? Are your students thinking algebraically or memorizing a set of rules and not really understanding why they work? Have you tried using algebra tiles to help you reach some of the goals in the New Jersey Algebra I Core Content Standards and the Common Core State Standards? This workshop will model how algebra tiles can be used to develop the ideas of number operations, equality, equivalence, representation and modeling, solving equations, and even solving inequalities. The tiles also provide students with a visual model for working with the distributive property, monomials, binomials, and polynomials. Investigative activities with algebra tiles can help many of the students who are struggling with algebra develop and understand the rules associated with variables, integers, and equation solving instead of just trying to memorize them.

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

Date: Monday, December 12, 2011 (Code: W-12-12-11)
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.

Enhancing High School Math Using Geometer’s Sketchpad

Date: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 (Code: W-01-11-12)
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: Anita Schuloff
Audience: Grades 10-12 Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Supervisors

In this workshop you will learn methods for teaching the New Jersey State Standards using Geometer’s Sketchpad. We will cover all of the commands and keystrokes needed to teach geometry (beginning and advanced), intermediate algebra, precalculus and beyond. Please bring your laptop (with mouse) with you to the workshop so that you can start using this powerful program right away.

Date: Friday, December 2, 2011 (Code: W-12-02-11)
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: Deborah Ives, Educational Consultant
Audience: Grade 7-11 Mathematics Teachers and Supervisors

Participants will engage in a hands-on examination of the new NJ DOE/CCSS Geometry Curricula that is a graduation requirement for all students.  Specific attention will be focused on the Standards of Congruence G-CO (transformations in the plane, rigid motions, similarity transformations and proofs) and Modeling with Geometry G-MG using real world applications.  Resources that are ready to use with any program will be shared, including assessment and technology considerations.

How to Teach Algebra 1 and Pre-Algebra for Success by Asking the Right Questions

Date: Thursday, November 17, 2011 (Code: W-11-17-11)
Also given Thursday, January 12, 2012 (Code: W-01-12-12)
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: Liz Marquez, ETS Mathematics Assessment Specialist; Presidential Awardee in Math Teaching
Audience: Grade 7-10 Mathematics Teachers and Supervisors

Asking the right questions can make pre-Algebra and Algebra 1 classrooms exciting, engaging and effective.  By knowing which questions to ask and how to ask them, we can get students to meet the CCSS standards, know what math is good for, realize the power of its applications, enjoy the experience and be well prepared for the standardized testing that New Jersey will require.

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

Date: Friday, December 9, 2011 (Code: W-12-09-11)
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: Anoop Ahluwalia, Instructor, 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 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.

Date: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 (Code: W-11-30-11)
also given Thursday, February 9, 2012 (Code: W-02-09-12)
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

Since 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 make an effective transition from the concrete/visual (modeling by drawing diagrams, pictures, etc.) to the abstract (variables). The primary emphasis will be on the PAW process.  That is, P is for Pictures (the visual part), A is for Algebra (the abstract part), and W is for words (the descriptive part).  Ample hands-on lessons will highlight the process that will help students attain a higher level of achievement on future NJASK/Algebra assessments as well as to help teachers to experience the new connections to the Common Core Standards.

Date: Friday, March 16, 2012 (Code: PRECALC-12)
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 26th 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: Friday, March 23, 2012 (Code: W-03-23-12)
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: Ralph Pantozzi
Audience: Grade 10-12 Mathematics Teachers and Supervisors

Your precalculus class can have more than a few limit problems at the end of the year! Explore the questions that led to the development of calculus in a few key activities throughout the year and engage students in developing "precalculus" skills while reasoning meaningfully with concepts of calculus. We'll ask why limits were invented in the first place, see how questions about calculating area connect with logarithms, use rates of change to study graphs, and find the number e in Pascal's triangle. Build your students' understanding and readiness for calculus by breaking down the wall between calculus and precalculus.

The Pythagorean Theorem in the 8-12 Curriculum

Date: Monday, January 9, 2012 (Code: W-01-09-12)
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: Ralph Pantozzi
Audience: Grade 8-12 Mathematics Teachers and Supervisors

Think inside, outside and on the triangle in this tour of "Mathematical Practices" using the Pythagorean Theorem as an organizing theme.   By examining both familiar tasks and hidden mathematical treasures, see how students can learn to make sense of problems, persevere in solving them, and reason concretely, abstractly, and quantitatively.  We'll see how the Pythagorean theorem can serve as a model for students to learn how to construct viable arguments, model mathematically, and make use of structure.  As you might expect, distance, area, similarity, the number system, equations and functions and number theory will be our focus.  Learn some math and feel more confident in leading your students to more independently see mathematical connections. 

Reasoning and Sense Making in Algebra: Instructional Strategies to Meet New Common Core State Standards

Date: Monday, February 20, 2012 (Code: W-02-20-12)
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Presenter: Deborah Ives, Educational Consultant
Audience: Grade 7-10 Mathematics Teachers and Supervisors

Participants will engage in a hands-on look at lessons with instructional strategies that focus on algebraic reasoning and sense making. Real world applications, including Hip Hop Music, Fashion Design, and Videogaming, will be provided through PBS/WNET Thirteen multimedia resources that help students and teachers meet the new Common Core State Standards and Algebra I Assessment expectations.

Strategies to Prepare Special Education Students for the Math HSPA

Date: Friday, November 18, 2011 (Code: W-11-18-11)
also given on Friday, January 20, 2012
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 sometimes are faced with enormous challenges when it comes to preparing their special needs students for the mathematics portion of the HSPA. This workshop presents ideas to help your students boost their performance on the HSPA. 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: Thursday, February 23, 2012 (Code: W-02-23-12)
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 for teachers to be able 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.

Dates: Monday, July 30 to Friday, August 3, 2012 (Code: NTI-12)
Time: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Instructional Coordinators: To be announced

Audience: Grade 6-12 Mathematics Teachers, with 0-3 years of prior teaching experience.

Week-long, content-based induction programs designed to better prepare relatively new teachers of mathematics for their teaching assignments in the coming year and give them a great start in their teaching careers. Alternate route candidates are welcome!

The institute will be from three to five days, depending on the interests of the participants.

Fee: $995 for five-day program; recuded fee if program is shorter. (Lodging available at a local hotel, at a special conference rate.)

For more information, please see our website -- http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/nti/