Focus on TUSD - July 2007

Math Science Partnership
A summer institute for elementary school math teachers sponsored by the Tucson Unified School District and the University of Arizona should add up to improved instructional strategies for the classroom.

The two-week Math/Science Program from July 9-13 and July 16-20 is at Wakefield Middle School, 101W. 44th St. About 130 fourth- through eighth-grade TUSD math and instructional coaches are attending the event, which is funded through an Arizona Department of Education grant of $505,362.

Participants at Project TIME (Teacher Improvement through Mathematics Education) will study numbers and operation, proportional reasoning, algebraic thinking and fractions. They will analyze the Arizona math standards, discuss instructional strategies and develop lesson plans.

Rebecca McGraw, the lead instructor in the University of Arizona mathematics department, along with the university, is providing instructors for the six groups of participants

This is the second summer math institute. In July 2006, 75 TUSD teachers and instructional coaches attended the institute and four follow-up sessions during the school year.

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations