Minutes of A.M.A.P.S. Meeting

December 9, 2005

The Meeting was held at Moran’s and was hosted by Joni Selman of Prentice Hall.

1. Danny Jaye opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and thanking Joni Selman for sponsoring the meeting. He also thanked Linda Curtis Bay, Elaine Carmen, Miguel Cordero, Ron Schwarz, and J.C. Brizard for attending and for their support of A.M.A.P.S. A special welcome was made for Jill Levy who accepted our invitation to speak at the meeting.

2. Joni Selman spoke first and thanked A.M.A.P.S. for having the best attendance of all the subject areas. She also introduced the field managers for each of our ten respective regions. Jennifer is responsible for regions 2-5 and Stephanie is responsible for regions 6-9. Joni oversees the entire operation and serves the remaining regions. Joni then introduced several people from Prentice Hall who were at the meeting, including Rick Cull, President, Henry Anglin, Regional VP, Joyce Nur and Rose Primiani (author of the Math A Review book).

3. A student from Stuyvesant H.S. (Cindy Guam) performed a monologue from a recent talent show about importance of teaching math.

4. Jill Levy was then introduced. Jill spoke briefly about contract negotiations and then answered some questions. Jill explained that the pattern for wage increases is 11.4% and anything beyond that has to be “sold” in the form of givebacks. She also mentioned that part of the negotiations involves keeping the expertise of instructional supervision in C.S.A. and increases for A.P.s supervising multiple departments.

5. J.C. Brizard spoke about his role in the Department of Education as the leader of the secondary school division. He mentioned that there should be content area specialists on the middle school level as well as the high school. He also mentioned that students should have a strong background in mathematics and in particular, the need for trigonometry before taking physics.

6. Linda Curtis Bey spoke briefly about her trip to Albany with Danny. She explained that one of her goals in creating similar programs in all schools is to have consistency across the board. This helps to facilitate better conversations about student achievement. She also thanked Prentice Hall for their support and responsiveness to the many changes that have taken place in mathematics.

7. Michelle Montgomery and Leon Seitelman discussed the Moody’s Mega Math Challenge.

8. Char Lyn Yeakley, the featured speaker from Prentice Hall, spoke about doing math with the right tools. She suggested that activities are needed that engage students, give instant feedback and give a lot of opportunities for success. In this vein, she introduced Math Online Intervention, a computer program that students can access from home. Teachers can monitor student progress, administrators can monitor teacher’s activities and districts can monitor schools’ progress.

9. Danny gave a report about his recent visit to Albany. The rollout for the new Regents exam is now 2008, but N.Y.C. may petition the state to implement it sooner. He encouraged members to vote on this implementation the following day on the New York State Education Department website. He indicated that the new curriculum should not require a new textbook.

10. Ron Schwarz spoke briefly and discussed a mnemonic device for remembering pi to many digits.

11. Joni thanked the RIS’s who attended the meeting, and Danny thanked the Executive Board for their support.

Respectfully Submitted,

John Wolfe