Message from NCSM President, Paul Gray
|
Journeys and Explorations I love the metaphor of professional learning as a journey. Our professional lives follow pathways that are a combination of things we create, things we learn, and how we respond to changes in the environment around us. It’s sort of like when Thomas Jefferson asked Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to take a hike, so to speak,
|
and leave the comforts of St. Louis in May 1804 to figure out exactly what the land the US acquired through the Louisiana Purchase looked like. After all, President Jefferson had just spent a fortune on all this territory, sight unseen, so it seemed like a legitimate question.
|
Lewis and Clark knew that they needed to head west, and they started out along the known path of the Missouri River but did not know exactly what they would find along the journey or where it would take them. Sort of like how we start a new school year. We know where we need to be at the end of the year but how we get
|
there is not always predictable. We have a guide (curriculum documents), some tools (instructional strategies and instructional materials), and some resources. While we have no way to predict all of the things that will happen along the way, we do know that we need to be able to respond to them.
Texas Governor Ann Richards once said, “We’re living in a whole new social and economic order with a whole new set of problems and challenges. Old assumptions and old programs don’t work in this new society and the more we try to stretch them to make them fit, the more we will be seen as running away from what is reality.”
She was not talking about the COVID pandemic but she sure could have been. The old assumptions and old programs that we knew worked before COVID (or as I call it, BC times) may not be as effective anymore. They worked for the social and economic order we once knew, but the new one? Not so much. As math leaders, our job is to help teachers, administrators, parents and families, and other community stakeholders find the new programs and strategies that fit our new AC (after COVID) times. The more we try and force-fit all of our old ideas about structures that support student success into this new world in which we find ourselves, the more it seems, as Governor Richards said, that we are running away from what is reality.
The good news is that we are not starting from scratch! NCSM, NCTM, and ASSM collaborated to develop the Continuing the Journey guidance for how to support good mathematics instruction that focuses on the humans in our education systems - students and teachers. If we are steadfast in our commitment to on-grade-level content, equitable and effective teaching practices, and advocacy for what teachers and students need, then we will be able to navigate our changing pathways. Like Lewis and Clark, we have enough knowledge and tools with us to make it through the unexpected things we find along the way.
Lewis and Clark eventually made it to the mouth of the Columbia River in November 1805, 18 months after their departure. We will also reach our destination at the end of the school year in May or June. And then next fall, we’ll do it again. We’ll be a little older and a little wiser, and the professional journey will continue.
Y’all be careful. We’ll touch base again in February!
Paul
|
A HUGE thank you goes out to all who submitted proposals!!!
All submissions are currently under review!!!
|
Call for JMEL Manuscripts!
More information HERE
The editors of the NCSM Journal of Mathematics Education Leadership are interested in manuscripts!
The editors are particularly interested in manuscripts that bridge research to practice in mathematics education leadership. Manuscripts should be relevant to our members’ roles as leaders in mathematics education, and implications of the manuscript for leaders in mathematics education should be significant. At least one author of the manuscript must be a current member of NCSM.
|
Click on any IMAGE below for more info!!!!
|
Latest NCSM Podcast - From Mona Toncheff, NCSM Past President & John SanGiovanni, RD for Eastern Region 2
|
Virtual Coaching Labs - From Jenny Novak NCSM 2nd VP, Erin Lehmann NCSM PL Director & Ian Shenk RD
|
NCSM Inspiration! - From Kim Romain and Judy Dunmire, NCSM Inspiration Co-Editors
|
NCSM Journal of Mathematics Education Leadership - From Erin Lehmann & Paula Jakopovic, NCSM Journal Co-Editors
|
Essential Actions: Culturally Relevant Leadership in Mathematics Education
|
NCSM Virtual Leadership Seminars. Sign upTODAY!
|
Of Interest to Our Members
|
The NCSM INSIDER is published monthly.
Please consider forwarding this to a colleague—let's get everyone involved in the conversation!
Subscribe to the Insider All NCSM members are automatically subscribed to NCSM's Insider. Anyone can subscribe to this electronic newsletter (members and non-members).
Encourage others to subscribe. Forward this issue to your friends and colleagues who work in or have an interest in mathematics education leadership - or have them click here where they can subscribe themselves.
Advertising in the Insider
Email the NCSM Sponsor Liaisons, Tom Stricklin and Sheila Holt, to learn more about advertising in the NCSM monthly Insider.
They can be reached at:
Additional information about our Sponsors, other advertising opportunities, and becoming a Sponsor can be found HERE.
|
NCSM...Where Mathematics Leaders
Go To Learn
NCSM is a mathematics education leadership organization that equips and empowers a diverse
education community to engage in leadership that supports, sustains, and inspires high quality
mathematics teaching and learning every day for each and every learner.
When you become an NCSM member, you join a network of leaders in mathematics education from around the United States, Canada, and abroad, which works to ensure every student in every classroom has access to effective mathematics teachers, relevant curricula, culturally responsive pedagogy, and current technology.
JOIN TODAY!
Visit us 24/7 at mathedleadership.org to explore ways to actively engage with NCSM.
Insider Editor - Rebecca Angus is pleased to be the NCSM Insider editor. Please feel free to contact Rebecca [email protected] with news, feedback, or suggestions.
|
|
|