WAUKESHA – The University of Wisconsin-Waukesha will host a conference March 31-April 1 on ways to prepare college students to teach mathematics in elementary schools. College and university faculty from across the state have been invited to come together to explore, “How can we prepare elementary school teachers to teach for the future rather than the past?” Dr. Peggy House, director of the Glenn T. Seaborg Center for Teaching and Learning Science and Mathematics at Northern Michigan University, Marquette, Michigan, will give the keynote address on Friday, March 31. On Saturday, they will critically review the content of the Math for Elementary Teachers curriculum and hope to hear from current elementary teachers, who can explain how their UW preparation relates to their classroom experience. In addition, they will discuss problems with transfer of required courses resulting from recent changes. Organizers Shubhangi Stalder and Kent Kromarek, both mathematics faculty at UW-Waukesha, are still seeking speakers who can address curriculum and pedagogy, equity issues in the mathematics classroom, assessment, the use of manipulatives, and the role of technology in the classroom. They also want to facilitate discussion on maintaining mathematical integrity amid educational reform and on ways students construct mathematical concepts and meanings. The conference is supported by a UW System discipline-based consortial grant and by the departments of mathematics at the UW Colleges, UW-Oshkosh, and UW-Whitewater. It is open to participants from within the UW System and from private institutions in the state engaged in elementary education.
The registration deadline is February 29. For additional information, contact either Stalder or Kromarek at (262) 521-5494 or by e-mail at sstalder@uwc.edu or kkromare@uwc.edu
