Whether watching a student graduate from high school or complete their first-ever year of school, May and June are often times of celebration as we reflect on the end of a chapter of our shared journey. While the school year ends, learning never does. This issue will focus on ways to continue learning, both summer learning opportunities for students, and professionally as educators. May this summer be full of the other 3 Rs – rest, relaxation, and reflection!
From all of us on the ODE Math Team, thank you for the courage and commitment to teach every day, the caring relationships you build with students, and the expertise to help mathematics come alive for students. Our newsletter will take a break for the summer, but we’ll join you again in August.
Photo by Khachik Simonian on Unsplash
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Summer 2023 Engagement Opportunities
The final stretch of the school year is a great time to look ahead to summer engagement and learning opportunities. Teachers and administrators can engage in any number of activities, including High School Mathways workshops and conferences organized by National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) affiliates. Contact Mark Freed, ODE Math Education Specialist, with all questions about any of these opportunities:
High School Mathways Workshops
Conferences
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Oregon Open Learning Featured Resource
The Oregon Open Learning Hub is a digital resource repository and collaboration space for educators, administrators, and other educational partners to curate, create, and remix open educational resources (OER). The Hub is a portal to over 50,000 openly licensed resources available on OER Commons, searchable by grade level, subject, and standard.
Check out this featured resource for an example of the content included in the Oregon Math Group on the Hub:
Illustrative Mathematics (IM) has provided a variety of instructional and assessment tasks, lesson plans, and other resources for teachers, assessment writers, and curriculum developers since 2011. Standards-level tasks are designed to be challenging and thought-provoking while still being accessible to all students, with over 1,100 resources identified within the Oregon Open Learning Hub. Tasks are now organized by Oregon clusters in grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12.
This summer, ODE will post an updated Math guidance document that will include references to major, supporting, and additional work within each grade, including links to specific example activities and lessons from Illustrative Mathematics on OER Commons. Here is a preview from Kindergarten to see what the updated guidance pages could look like.
Want to learn more about OER and the Oregon Open Learning Hub? Asynchronous learning options include the OER Professional Learning Group on the Hub and the User Guide for Oregon Open Learning.
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Funding Now Available for Educators to Enhance Equity and Subject Literacies in K-8 Classrooms
A new partnership between OSU and ODE will commit funding to support hundreds of teachers and teacher leaders like you, to co-design practical solutions and support teaching and learning for all students. Funding may cover costs for substitutes, stipends for teachers’ time, expert consultants, travel, and costs associated with meetings in Oregon, starting summer 2023 and continuing through Fall 2024. Working groups will develop solutions to reduce inequities and accelerate K-8 subject literacies with multilingual learners, learners experiencing disabilities, and all students served within Oregon’s public schools. Project supports are available to develop problems of practice, leadership capacities, connections, and networking. To learn more, submit an idea for a problem of practice working group, or indicate your interest to participate, please click here.
Photo by Alvin Mahmudov on Unsplash
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Oregon Math Leaders Conference
Oregon Math Leaders (OML) is the annual conference of the Oregon Council of Teachers of Mathematics (OCTM). This year’s conference will be July 20th-22nd at Linfield University in McMinnville. The theme is "Connecting the Dots” and will center on three strands:
- Ambitious Classrooms, or how students interact with the content of mathematics.
- Principled Instruction, or how teachers explain and present the content of mathematics.
- Authentic Mathematics, or how teachers and schools organize the content of mathematics.
OML is a fun, rejuvenating, “homegrown” conference planned by and for Oregon educators. It is a perfect opportunity to meet new people and reconnect with old friends. There will be sessions addressing Elementary, Middle and High School levels, each led by educators who use the techniques in their classrooms. Register now – scholarships and optional graduate credit are available. It’s not too late to submit a proposal to present a session!
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Early Math Symposium
Registration for the 2023 Early Math Symposium is now open! This virtual symposium will celebrate promising practices, activities, resources, and strategies, and will be held on Friday, June 23, 2023, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm PDT. The symposium is hosted by the California Department of Education and other partners and open to participants nationwide. The event is FREE – please share this announcement with other educators, care providers, and families as we grow our math mindsets!
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The “M” in STEAM
Oregon’s STEM/STEAM Hubs have been hard at work on facilitating the development of Mathways Core Two and Plus One courses over this school year. Much of that work is being shared throughout the state during summer workshops (see High School Mathways Workshops above). Many of you have heard about the work throughout the year, but did you know that your regional STEM Hubs have been the facilitators? We’d like to give a shout out to these Hubs for their challenging and amazing work on the development of Mathways lessons, units, and courses over this part year by these Hubs:
- Portland Metro STEM Partnership: Core 9 Algebra Aligned with Patterns Physics
- Central Oregon STEM Hub: Core 10 Data Science and Plus One Data Science Options
- Greater Oregon STEM Hub: Plus One Quantitative Reasoning
- Oregon Coast STEM Hub: Plus One Financial Algebra
- Lane STEM Hub: Core 10 Geometry
- Southern Oregon STEM Hub: Core 9 and 10 Math Applications
Look for open sourced resources from these projects later this summer in the Oregon Open Learning Hub!
During the 2023-25 biennium, Oregon’s STEM/STEAM Hubs will be expanding this work with most, if not all, of the Hubs involved. As you prepare to take a well-deserved summer break, we’d like to plant a seed for you to think about how you might want to be involved in this upcoming work. When we reconvene in the fall, we will have more information about how each of you can get involved with the Mathways work your regional STE(A)M Hub is doing, so stay tuned here and be sure to connect with your regional Hub, as well.
Photo by Jay Ee on Unsplash
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Summer STEM: Geocaching, Anyone?
In our last newsletter we briefly highlighted Blue Switch Day, the anniversary of the date on which GPS technology was made public. As we get closer to Summer Break, we wanted to let you know about the integrated STEM application/hobby/activity of geocaching. If you have never tried “caching” but like treasure hunts and puzzles, please check out the main geocaching website. There are many great educational aspects of geocaching, but for this avid cacher (Kama), solving puzzles to find geographical coordinates is one of the best things to do in the summer.
Most geocaches are containers that are hidden in the world, with coordinates provided on the geocaching website. These are called “Traditional” caches, but there are actually many different types of geocaches (EarthCache, Multi-Cache, Event Cache, and so many more). A personal favorite is the “Mystery” cache, which usually requires solving a puzzle or cipher to determine the true coordinates of a cache container. With strong ties to math, science, and history, these geocaches can be a great educational tool or just plain fun. If you’ve never tried this activity and would like to know more, check out the website or feel free to contact ODE STEM Specialist Kama Almasi.
Photo by Martin Lostak on Unsplash
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PSU: Deepening Understanding of Mathematics Teaching, Learning, and Leading Series
Registration is now open for Portland State University’s summer courses designed for PreK-12 teachers and teacher leaders in mathematics.
- CI 540 Representing and Modeling with Mathematics, June 26-20
- CI 516 Exploring Measurement Concepts, August 7-11
These classes meet from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm, with an extended lunch to support time for reading. You can attend anywhere, which means you have your choice about format – face-to-face, online via Zoom, or a combination of the two.
These courses are part of the Deepening Understanding of Mathematics Teaching, Learning, and Leading Series at Portland State University; they can be used for the Mathematics Instructional Leader Specialization from TSPC or a certificate of completion from PSU. Click here for information about scholarship opportunities (at the bottom of the page). Contact Dr. Nicole Rigelman for more information.
PSU: Graduate Course in Probability and Statistics for Teachers
Portland State University also offers mathematics courses for teachers as part of their Masters in Math for Teachers Program. In Summer 2023, PSU is offering a newly-developed online course that may be of interest to teachers interested in preparing to teach statistics or data science. Contact Rachel Webb, course instructor, for more information.
Join the Oregon Math Leaders Network
The Oregon Math Leaders Network is a community of math practitioners who work together to implement and support math teaching and learning in Oregon. Participants include teacher leaders, TOSAs, program administrators, college faculty, and math community partners. If you identify as a math leader, you are invited!
The final meetings of the network for the 2022-23 school year will take place virtually on June 15 (the third Thursday of each month), with both morning (8:30-9:30 am PT) and afternoon (3:30-4:30 pm PT) options. To receive a calendar invitation and Zoom link, please join the Oregon Math Leaders Google Group. If you’re already a member, you don’t need to sign up again -- you’ll get the invite and link.
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We’ll Be Back in August!
If you have an opportunity or announcement to share statewide, please contact the ODE Math Team.
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