General

Course Description:

The purpose of the Advanced Mathematics Institute will be to prepare educators to work with a target population of advanced learners in the field of mathematics. Participants will develop their own portfolio of lesson plans, instructional materials, and resources that they can use in their classrooms. Each of the lessons and related materials in the portfolio will reflect the specific mathematical theme involving a branch of mathematics, on which that day of the institute will focus. The focus of these materials will be the use of reality-based application problems.

Participants will be encouraged to have the materials in their portfolios reflect a variety of teaching and assessment models, so as to demonstrate knowledge of a variety of pedagogical techniques. The use of student-guided explorations, small group activities, as well as stressing the role of technology in the classroom will be implemented. In addition, with each lesson, participants will design assessment items, including open-response questions, to use with their students. These types of assessment items will be modeled through the use of a mathematics journal that participants will regularly respond to as part of the institute.

Course Delivery Information:

The Institute will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 AM - 3 PM for three consecutive weeks in July. The dates for Summer 2005 are July 5, 7, 12, 14, 19, 21, 26, and 28.

In addition, four follow-up sessions will be held during the fall. They will take place on Saturday mornings from 8 AM - 1 PM. The dates are September 17, October 1, 15, 29.

All sessions will be held at West Springfield High School located at 425 Piper Road in West Springfield .