2001 Advisory Assembly
Illuminating the Standards

Linda White Gunnells
President-elect

The Advisory Assembly met on July 17, 2001 at E.L. Wright Middle School in Columbia, South Carolina. The topic for discussion was "Illuminating the Standards." Tom Gorski, chair of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Illuminations Advisory Panel, spoke to the group and facilitated exploration of all the facets of the NCTM e-standards and Illuminations websites. Mr. Gorski, a secondary mathematics teacher in Baltimore, Maryland was a member of the Illuminations development team and has been recently appointed to the NCTM Electronic Oversight Task Force.

Praising the strong linkage between the South Carolina Mathematics Standards 2000 and the Principals and Standards for School Mathematics, Mr. Gorski led the group on a quick tour of the NCTM electronic resources. The Advisory Assembly toured the e-standards looking at format, audience and examples. The next stop on the tour was the Illuminations website. Mr. Groski began by explaining the partnership between NCTM Illuminations and Marcopolo.

The group then viewed examples of the resources available from Illuminations.

• I-math investigations--- ready-to-use, online, interactive, multimedia investigations
• Reflections on Teaching---reflective activities based on vignettes of teaching and learning
• Internet-based-lesson plans---lessons designed by expert teachers that you can use in your classroom
• Selected Web Resources---the best mathematics education resources that have been screened by a panel
• Principles and Standards---Searchable, interactive version of the standards

Mr. Gorski showed the group that these resources are available in the same grade bands as the Standards K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. After these introductory tours, Advisory Assembly members were on computers exploring various aspects of the e-Standards and Illuminations websites at a level that was of interest to them.

The meeting concluded with members discussing ways that SCCTM could help facilitate South Carolina teachers learning about and using the these powerful electronic tools.

Among the ideas discussed, were

• Invite Tom Gorski to the SCCTM annual meeting for e-Standards and Illuminations Kickoff
• Provide link from the SCCTM website to the Illuminations and e-Standards
• Seek a joint venture between SCCTM and the Hubs to give teachers regional meetings to learn about and explore the website
• Seek a grant with the South Carolina Department of Education to provide a link from the state standards to Illuminations and e-Standards
• Encourage district webpage links to NCTM electronic resources.

 

Please visit the e-Standards at http://standards.nctm.org and Illuminations at http://illuminations.nctm.org to take a look at these electronic resources.