April is Math Month! As the temperatures warm and the flowers bloom, take a few moments to learn more
about the Common Core State Standards, choose some activities to engage your students, and look
ahead to summer and beyond. This month, the content of each section has relevance for everyone! Enjoy
Spring Break
Maryland Math Month
Join educators from around the state to
celebrate Math Month in Maryland. Activities
are provided in a calendar format and grouped
by grade bands to help you and your students
celebrate and raise mathematics awareness.
Teachers are encouraged to download and
send a copy home with each student.
Year of The Practices
2011–2012 will be the year of
Mathematical Practices in Maryland.
National Financial Literacy Month
Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE)
has joined the national effort to recognize the
month of April as National Financial Literacy
Month.
This month-long financial literacy
awareness campaign highlights the importance of
financial literacy and teaches how to establish
and maintain healthy financial habits. In an effort
to assist with local financial literacy education
efforts, MSDE Division of Career and College
Readiness (DCCR) has prepared materials for
your convenience to help you bring awareness
and resources to your local school systems and
communities. Among the Maryland resources are
the following:
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As primary teachers implement the CCSS in
the Elementary Integrated Curriculum and
the rest of us prepare for transition to new
curriculum based on the CCSS, an important
focus will be the eight Standards for
Mathematical Practice that are at the heart of
the CCSS. Read the Standards and think
about how they relate to the strands of
mathematical proficiency explained in Adding
It Up.
Personal Financial Literacy State
curriculum
Financial Literacy Flyer
Financial Literacy Myths and Facts
Links to National and State Financial
Literacy Advocacy Organizations
You can access the resources listed above by
visiting the DCCR webpage located on MSDE’s
website. Additional information about National
Financial Literacy Month is available on the
National Foundation for Credit Counseling
(NFCC) website. In addition, MSDE partners with
organizations such as the Family Economics
and Financial Education (FEFE), the Maryland
Coalition For Financial Literacy (MCFL) and
Junior Achievement of Central Maryland, Inc.
(JA) to provide educators with classroom
materials and teacher training.
Department of Curriculum and Instruction — Mathematics
850 Hungerford Drive Rockville, Maryland 20850
This “STEM Thing” Just Won’t Go Away!
USA Science & Engineering Festival
Get your Geek On
Building on the success of the
inaugural Festival in 2010, the 2nd
USA Science & Engineering Festival
will inspire the next generation of
scientists and engineers with school
programs and nationwide contests
throughout the 2011/2012 school year
and a finale Expo in Washington DC on
April 27-29, 2012.
The USA Science & Engineering Festival
Songwriting Contest has begun and we're
challenging musicians around the world to submit
your original song to the Festival! Depending on
your musical style, you can choose to enter your
song into one of the two categories below:
The Expo is the nation’s largest
celebration of all things science &
engineering and features over 1500
hands-on activities and over 75
performances. We have exciting new
programs including a Book Fair,
Featured
Science
&
Engineering
Authors and a Career Pavilion!
1. Create a song that gets kids (ages 2-10)
interested in science or engineering
2. Create a song that shows middle and
high-school age students how cool a
career in the sciences can be
All genres are welcome: Rock, Pop, Country,
Rap, Adult Contemporary, Modern Rock, Jazz,
New Age, Opera, etc. You can sing it solo or with
your friends, with your choir or band, in unison or
harmony, with accompaniment or a cappella, as
long as the words and music are your idea and
the entire Song is your original idea.
Song Entry Period: March 1 - July 31, 2011
Prize for the 2 winning Songs: $500 each (and
knowing that your Song will be heard and sung by
hundreds of thousands of science enthusiasts
across the country)!
To learn more and submit a song, Click Here!
Can Summer Math Packets “Go Green”?
Consider creating summer month calendars from the
activities in the Math Month calendars if you don’t use
them in April
Provide students with access to Math Forum@ Drexel.
Our subscription extends through the 2011–2012 school
year. That means that you will be able to access
Problems of the Week Library problems all summer
long! Details will follow in May.
Department of Curriculum and Instruction — Mathematics
850 Hungerford Drive Rockville, Maryland 20850
Desiring more from the Common Core?
“The CCSS is based
upon problem solving
and mathematical
thinking…..not answer
getting.
U.S.: “How can I teach
my kids to get the
answer to the problem?”
Japan: “How can I use
this problem to teach
the mathematics in this
unit?”
“You cannot just
take what you’re
currently doing and
“swap out.” You
must do things
differently to achieve
a different outcome.”
“Most standards
assume students have
learned 100% of what
came before, but this is
never true anywhere.
The normal condition of
teaching EVERYWHERE
is that kids are all over
the place every day.
Add to your understanding of the Common Core State
Standards for College and Career Readiness by
viewing some of the archived webinars from Pearson.
Featured Math Software
Microsoft has released a new version of its math education software — and for the first time, it's free.
Microsoft Mathematics 4.0, for students in middle school, high school, and early
college, shows how to solve equations while bolstering understanding of fundamental
math concepts.
It features built-in Ink Handwriting Support, which lets you hand-write math
problems and equations in a worksheet area on a tablet or ultra-mobile PCs
for immediate solving or later work. The software also includes a graphing
calculator capable of plotting in 2D and 3D, a movie editor, a library of
formulas and equations, a triangle solver, and more.
Department of Curriculum and Instruction — Mathematics
850 Hungerford Drive Rockville, Maryland 20850
A Message from Secretary Arne Duncan
“We all know that standards
aren’t a panacea. What is
tested usually becomes
what is taught – and today’s
tests don’t measure higherorder thinking skills or deep
understanding of subject
material.
American students deserve better than the
fill-in-the-bubble tests that are now common
across states. To address this problem, the
U.S. Department of Education is supporting a
state-led effort to write the next generation of
math and English assessments that will be
game-changers in education. They will
measure student achievement against the
new standards and track whether students
are prepared for success in colleges and
careers. These assessments are the ones
that you’ve longed for. They will measure
critical thinking skills and complex student
learning. These assessments will provide
you with timely, high quality information that
is instructionally useful and documents
student growth.”
For the full message, please see NCTM’s April
2011 Summing Up.
Opportunities for Students
NASA y Tú
NASA and You is a bilingual educational program
designed to motivate and inspire young Latinos to
pursue careers in science, technology, engineering
and mathematics (STEM). The program consists of
30-second educational video segments, interview
clips with Hispanic researchers and educational
resources for parents and teachers. The video
segments and the website expose students to
NASA advances and discoveries through the
contribution of Hispanic astronauts, engineers and
scientists.
NASA and You is a joint venture between NASA
and Univision Communications, Inc.
Google’s Computer Science
Summer Institute
Would you like to benefit from the technical
curriculum and the networking opportunities of the
CSSI? We are looking for students eager to spend a
few weeks living the Google life - tackling interesting
technical problems, working collaboratively and
having fun. We want students to leave empowered,
heading into their 1st year of college armed with a
unique learning experience that can only be had at
Google.
April Fools!
We may be a bit belated, but here are some
easy to implement ideas for next year’s April
Fools’ jokes. Just click the image to launch
the video. Yes, these are safe for work! (No
fooling!)
The program is open to all qualified high school
seniors, and is committed to addressing diversity in
the field of Computer Science. Students who are a
member of a group that is historically
underrepresented in the technology industry are
encouraged
to
apply.
Please visit www.google.com/jobs/cssi for more
information and to apply today! Have questions?
Feel free to contact us at [email protected].
Application deadline: April 22, 2011.
Department of Curriculum and Instruction — Mathematics
850 Hungerford Drive Rockville, Maryland 20850
Opportunities for Teachers
Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference and Banquet
The Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM) will hold the 2011 Annual Mathematics
Conference at Reservoir High School in Fulton, MD on October 21, 2011. The MCTM annual membership
meeting and Teacher of the Year banquet will be held on October 20, 2011 at Turf Valley Resort in
Ellicott City, MD. For more information, please visit https://www.marylandmath.org/events/conference.
Share Your Thoughts
Speaker submissions for the 2011 Annual
Mathematics Conference are now being
accepted. This is a time of tremendous
change
and
transition
for
Maryland
mathematics educators.
Please consider
sharing some of your teaching insights and
triumphs with others from around the state.
Please visit the Speaker Proposal website to
submit or the conference website for
conference information.
The MCTM/MSDE Academy for Grades 3-5 Mathematics
The Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM) in partnership with the Maryland State Department
of Education (MSDE) presents the 2011-2012 MCTM Academy. The MCTM Academy will focus on the Common
Core Standards for Mathematics, the pedagogy that supports the development of relational understanding, and
strategies to support the inclusion of manipulatives, technology, and differentiation.
Target participants: All Maryland teachers of grades 3 - 5, as well as special education teachers, teachers of
English language learners (ELLs), and instructional assistants are invited to apply. Since all activities in the
Academy’s program are designed to encourage participants to support one another in the teaching of
mathematics, participants are encouraged to apply as a team. [Note that the entire team may not be accepted].
Each participant on a team must complete a separate application. Applicants must currently be under contract
with a Maryland school system and have a contract with a Maryland school system for the 2011-2012 school
year.
Locations and times: There are two academies this summer – one will be located in Prince George’s County
and run July 11-15 and the other will be in Wicomico County and run July 18-22.
If you are interested in applying, the online application is available here.
ALL COMPLETED APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY April 15, 2011.
Department of Curriculum and Instruction — Mathematics
850 Hungerford Drive Rockville, Maryland 20850
Have a Question or an Idea To Share?
Contact us at 301-279-3161 or by email—email is usually quicker
Karen Roberts, acting supervisor
[email protected]
Cathie Peirce, admin. secretary
[email protected]
Brian Crane, content specialist
[email protected]
Jennifer Hallmark, content specialist
[email protected]
Heather Jones, content specialist
[email protected]
Ed Nolan, content specialist
[email protected]
Colin Reinhard, content specialist
[email protected]
Verna Washington, content specialist
[email protected]
Department of Curriculum and Instruction — Mathematics
850 Hungerford Drive Rockville, Maryland 20850