President’s Message
Another year is upon us! Although we know that time does not really move faster as the years go on, it sure seems that way. I hope all of us used the Christmas break to recharge our batteries and are ready to face the challenges of the new year. January and February in Alberta tend to be the longest and coldest months of winter. In schools, we are dealing with students who don’t spend as much time outside as usual and are starting to feel cooped up. High school students have finished writing either midterms or finals and diploma exams. Ideally, a new semester means getting to know a whole new set of students who are eager to tackle the rigours of learning fascinating new mathematical concepts.
The MCATA executive enjoyed meeting many of you at the MCPJA conference in October. I would like to take the opportunity again to thank our conference planning committee for putting together an excellent program. To those of you who returned your evaluation forms, thank you for your feedback; next year’s conference will benefit from your input. With the automatic specialist council memberships offered by the KJ’A, we are hoping to see more teachers becoming involved with MCPJA. If you have a colleague teaching math who is not an MCPJA member, please encourage him or her to join us. We all know that math teachers have the most fun!
Those teachers who are teaching the optional new curriculum in kindergarten or Grades 1, 4 or 7 are busy attending workshops and networking with each other to discover the best way to present new material to their students. If you are one of these teachers, please consider sharing your experiences, successes and challenges with your colleagues at our Mathematics Council conference in Jasper next October. Speaker proposal forms are enclosed with this newsletter and are also available on the website. From now until 2012, when the new curriculum is fully implemented, math teachers will be forming very strong professional learning communities. We will be helping each other reach the necessary depth of knowledge that our students will require.
The MCATA executive is working on your behalf to help make sure that the new curriculum is successfully implemented. We have sent out a needs assessment for Grades K-6 and 7-9 to help the math council in preparing for future conferences. Please send us your response, because this is information that we are also sharing with other stakeholders to ensure that teachers’ PD needs are being met. We are working closely with Alberta Education and the regional consortia to provide input.
Whether you are teaching elementary, junior high or high school, whether you are teaching new or old curriculum, take time to reflect on the passion that we feel about our students discovering our love of mathematics. May the warmth of that passion help us to get through the long Alberta winter!
Sharon Gach
President’s Message
Sharon Gach
New MCATA Executive Members Introduce Themselves
Tom Janzen
Rod Lowry
Mona Borle
Lori Weinberger
Kathy McCabe
2008 MCATA Conference
MCATA 2007 Fall Symposium
Mathematics Education in Canada: What Needs to Be Done?
Gladys Sterenberg
Award Winners
Mathematics Educator of the Year
Friends of MCATA
Dr Arthur Jorgensen Chair Award
Update on Acceptance of Applied Mathematics 30 for Postsecondary Education
Alberta Education Update
Edmonton Junior High Math Contest
Top Teams
Top 50 Winners
