August 12, 2008
The American Institute of Mathematics (AIM), one of the leading math institutes in the U.S., announces the launching of eight new Math Teachers' Circles, as part of a new initiative that empowers middle school math teachers to bring new excitement and interest in mathematics to their students.
Math Teachers' Circles are collaborations between professional mathematicians, middle school math teachers, and school administrators. In a Math Teachers' Circle, teachers experience open-ended problem solving firsthand in lively discussion sessions led by mathematicians. By enriching teachers’ own experience of mathematics, the Math Teachers’ Circle program hopes to affect their classroom teaching so that it includes more problem solving, a key component in student learning and engagement in mathematics.
Earlier this summer, eight teams from around the country, including a team from Asheville, participated in a week-long workshop organized by AIM at the Mathematical Association of America’s Carriage House conference facility in Washington, D.C.
The Math Teachers’ Circle movement began at AIM in August 2006. The first Math Teachers' Circle brought together 25 middle school mathematics teachers and 5 professional mathematicians from the San Francisco Bay Area for an intense week of work at AIM. Monthly meetings followed, both at AIM and at the home schools of some of the teachers. Based on the sustained success of the original Circle, AIM sought to create Math Teachers' Circles throughout the U.S.
Barbara Ludlow, a middle school math coach for Buncombe County Schools and a member of the Asheville team who attended the workshop, commented, “Math Teachers’ Circles will provide teachers with the opportunity to increase their math problem solving skills—passing the love and knowledge of problem solving to the students in Buncombe County.
Members and affiliates of the newly formed Asheville Math Teachers’ Circle are Travis Hartley, math teacher at Enka High; Dot Sulock, math instructor at UNC-Asheville; Stephenie Jackson, math teacher at Reynolds High; Leigh Atkinson, associate professor of Mathematics at UNC-Asheville; Barbara Ludlow, middle school math coach for Buncombe County Schools; Randy Harter, mathematics specialist for Buncombe County Schools.
A photograph of the Asheville Math Teachers' Circle team is available at
http://www.aimath.org/images/teacherscircle/asheville.jpg
About the American Institute of Mathematics
The American Institute of Mathematics, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 1994 by Silicon Valley businessmen John Fry and Steve Sorenson, longtime supporters of mathematical research. AIM is one of the seven mathematical institutes in the U.S. funded by the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency that supports mathematics and computer and social sciences. The goals of AIM are to expand the frontiers of mathematical knowledge through focused research projects by sponsoring conferences and helping to develop the leaders of tomorrow. For more information, visit www.aimath.org.
