Math Ed Forum Meeting Minutes
FEBRUARY 19, 2000
PRESENT: Bradd Hart, Eric Muller, Nathalie Sinclair, John Kezys, Hans
Bastel, Eugene Silaer, Walter Whitely, Margaret Sinclair, Miroslav Lovric,
Doug McDougall, Lynda Colgan, Peter Taylor, Chris Suurtamm, Shirley
Dalrymple, John Rodger, Peter Harrison, Cheryl Turner
REGRETS: Myrna Ingalls, Elizabeth Pattison, Bill Higginson, Geoff Roulet,
Dave Zimmer,
1. Welcome and Introductions:
Bradd welcomed all participants, members introduced themselves around
the table.
Copies of "Teaching Mathematics in the Twenty-First Century", proceedings
from a Fields-Nortel Workshop were available to all members who did
not have a copy.
2. Minutes and matters arising from the minutes:
Approval of the minutes was moved by John Kezys, and seconded by Lynda
Colgan, carried
3. Report on April 27, 2000 "Meeting Ontario's Needs for Teachers of
Mathematics": Walter Whitely, Eric Muller
PLANNING: This meeting is planned to deal with questions regarding the
need for more teachers and teacher qualifications We each received a
hand out of the task force's planning report for the all day meeting
and Eric led a general discussion.
4. OMCA Report: nil
5. OCMA REPORT: John Kezys
Winter Professional development Meeting: Thursday, February 24 at George
Brown, assessing students mathematical preparedness using software package
"On Your Mark". The OMCA 20th Annual Professional Development Conference
2000 will be held at Kempenfelt Conference Center, Barrie, June 1 and
June
2. Topics Include: The Future of Ontario Colleges, Teaching Internet
Based Mathematics Courses, Classroom Teaching Strategies, On line Course
Delivery, Stress Management, Graphing Calculators. Anyone interested
should contact John Kezys for a brochure or the conference page at
http://www.mohawkc.on.ca/dept/math/OCMA/conf00.html
5. OAME REPORT: John Rodgers
Judy spoke to specialization committee about course descriptions, the
menu, paths, rationale, the development of the transfer courses (especially
from 10 Applied to 11UC), the Essentials course is being prepared for
grade 10 and will be locally developed, Grade 10 Course Profiles are
complete and will be available by the end of April on the website
http://www.curriculum.org.ca this has access to the MOE site.
6. Recent Developments in grades 11 and 12: nil report
7. A possible project for the Forum: Myrna Ingalls
included with the last minutes
8. Developing a prioritized list of activities:
Setting Priorities
1. Teaching the new statistics and data management course at the secondary
level, (computer science) Could use summer institutes-draw on faculty
from colleges and universities to develop case studies
This is not a standard statistics courses there is a lack of resources
Could be site based - fathom, stats canada - need qualitative writing
and communication, must consider audience, need to prepare effective
presentations
Could write profiles For discussions in secondary math classes, teachers
need good examples The pedagogical underpinings are critical and we
need to identify resources, (eg David Moore)
2. Future Forum Agenda Items :
Teacher support
Dialogue between universities and high schools around the grade 12 transition
to university mathematics, Celebrate schools that are exemplary, give
other teachers opportunities to see, visit or visit school, provide
this information on the web, make videos, Activity schools identified
by OAME program
3. Bring math to the public:
minute spots, bus posters, mall posters some precedence has been set
by NCTM
4. inservice generally
5. website
6. College of Teachers, professional portfolio, testing of teachers?
Activities will arise from these agenda items
9. Future meeting dates:
March 25, May 6, June 17 (at the call of the Chair, if required)
adjournment 2:00
