MCTM Foundation News

A huge THANK YOU to Kathy Cramer and Cheryl Tucker as they have completed their terms on the MCTM Foundation Committee. 

An enormous THANK YOU to Craig Rypkema for his advice and patience with the many financial questions he answered for our committee.

A big welcome to Judy Stucki  and Kay Wohlhuter as they start their terms on the Committee and to Becky Rud, the new Financial Secretary for MCTM.

Upcoming Deadlines for Grants from MCTM & the MCTM Foundation

See all the details at https://www.mctm.org/grants-scholarships

Cutler Scholarships for Middle Grade Teachers:  Are you a middle school teacher planning to take a mathematics course this year? Did you know you can get help with tuition – up to $1200!!! Deadline is Oct. 31st.

 

MCTM Teacher Incentive Grants: MCTM awards up to $1500 to Minnesota K –16 mathematics teachers to support educators desiring to implement innovative, standards-based projects in teaching and learning mathematics. Up to $1500 is available for each grant. Deadline is Oct. 31st

Excerpts From the Reflection written by 

2019 Arnie Cutler Scholarship Awardee, Megan Amundson:

When I submitted the application for this scholarship, I had never once considered the fact that this math would be difficult for me. I am good at math. I love math. I received my acceptance letter with a warning that graduate level math programs that are completely online are difficult and I blew it off. It never crossed my mind that it would be hard for me. Boy, was I wrong. 

This semester I learned more about myself and my students than I learned about math. Don’t get me wrong, I learned a TON about math. Math that I never even knew existed was introduced to me in a way that was both engaging and insightful. However, what I took away from the class and what I will be applying to my classroom has nothing to do with the amazing math that I learned about. 

When it comes to math, I did more proofs than I knew were physically possible. Permutations, subsets and multisets became my best friends. I solved recurrence relations, extracted coefficients, and decoded codes. I loved the practical application of these different strategies but I really struggled with the abstract ideas. 

The biggest takeaway I had from this course is knowing how it feels to not understand something right away, or at all in some cases. My students are introduced to completely new concepts almost daily and although some of them pick up on those skills right away, there are many that struggle. Although I have always empathized with those students, now I actually understand how they are feeling. I talked to my students about this course all the time. I explained how difficult it was for me and how hard I was working in hopes to get a C. 

My students were there when I checked my grades at the end of the semester and literally cheered for me when I told them that I got a C! They left class and excitedly told their peers that I got a C. It wasn’t just my accomplishment, it was theirs. Although this semester was difficult because of the level of math, it was also amazing because of the insight that I was able to get about my students and that I was able to give to some of my high flying students. I will never look back on this semester and wish it never happened, although I spent more hours than I’d care to admit at Starbucks working each weekend on it! 

Thank you so much for the opportunity to take this course and learn about myself and the students in my classroom every day. 

Support the Foundation by Donating On-Line? 
Go the web site:https://www.mctm.org/Donate
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