Valerie Henry
KCET MATHLINE Facilitator
As this year's facilitator of PBS MATHLINE at KCET, I have had the pleasure of witnessing incredible results from the teaming that occurs in this electronic community.
Middle school math teachers in southern California are talking to each other night and day, seven days a week! They are talking about curriculum, instructional strategies, integrated units, block scheduling, hands-on activities to teach such topics as pre-algebra, and much more.
And they are doing it all on-line at their own pace and in their own time!
KCET, with support from the Toyota USA Foundation, is participating with over 3,000 math teachers in the largest teacher/staff development program in the country. Participating teachers no longer feel isolated and alone in their desire to empower students mathematically.
Today, teachers know that a couple of minutes on-line (to an 800 number, no less) can help them connect with hundreds of other interested and energetic math teachers.
Though KCET MATHLINE provides a unique electronic teaming environment, teachers are also provided with 25 video lessons. These classroom-based, NCTM standards teaching programs feature exceptional mathematics teachers from throughout the country.
Then, when teachers want to follow-up on a particular video lesson, they can go online to get the latest information and research, as well as expert, up-to-the-minute advice from teachers and facilitators around the nation.
Students are feeling the difference, too, because their teachers are testing and incorporating new lesson plans in the classroom, and those lesson plans further stimulate the classroom environment.
