Election 2016: Jane M. Wilburne

Past Participation and Involvement in AMTE and/or AMTE Affiliates(s)

My involvement in AMTE includes serving as Chair of the Affiliate Connections Committee (2009-2011), Membership Committee (2006-2010), Conference Proposal Reviewer (2009–present), and Reviewer for the Mathematics Teacher Educator (2012 – present).

I have been actively involved in the Pennsylvania Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (PAMTE) serving as a Founding Board Member, President (2006-2008), Chair of the Membership Committee (2009–present), Nominations and Elections Committee (2014-2016), and Symposium Program Co-Chair (2011-2014). As Membership Chair, I maintain the organization’s listserv and membership directory and actively recruit new members and encourage member renewals.

What qualities do you bring to the AMTE Secretary position?

My background includes work in corporate business, grant management, and secondary and higher education teaching. Over the years, these experiences have enhanced my skills at project management, communication, research, and organization. I have learned the importance of being extremely efficient to be productive in handling the multiple layers of responsibility. I served as Chair of the Teaching Children Mathematics Editorial Panel in 2014-2016. I coordinated and facilitated meetings and reviewed the meeting minutes to be sure all details were addressed and action points highlighted. I currently serve as the Secretary on the Mortel Foundation Board that supports and advises the activities for both the Good Samaritan School and James Stine Secondary School in St. Marc, Haiti. In both of these roles, I recognize the importance of capturing the essential information at organizational meetings and recording the decisions made. As Secretary of AMTE, I will maintain accurate and sufficient documentation to meet legal requirements and ensure the board’s business is recorded, enacted, and maintained to keep the organization moving forward.   

What three goals do you think AMTE should make a priority?

I believe AMTE should make the following three goals a priority:

1. Enhance the Social Media Connections: Creating a monthly Twitter Chat would be one way to connect to the members and engage non-members in conversations regarding current topics or a recent publication. As Chair of the Teaching Children Mathematics journal, we are seeing a significant increase in the monthly Twitter chats and downloads for the free preview articles. Perhaps methods courses could have an elementary methods twitter chat, secondary methods twitter chat, etc. on different topics. The members would benefit from the collaborative sharing of resources and ideas, non-members may see the value of the organization.  The Twitter Chats would also be a way to engage the affiliates perhaps by having each affiliate host one of the chats.
2. Access and Equity: The need for up-to-date research and resources related to promoting equitable learning opportunities for all groups of learners should be a priority to help mathematics educators prepare preservice and inservice teachers. As national accreditation measures focus on diversity in the preparation of candidates for classroom teaching, teacher preparation institutions would benefit from the research and resources as well as descriptions of exemplar programs, field experiences, and instructional routines. Promoting these ideas at conferences, online webinars, and on the website would benefit all members.
3. Teaching through Technology Support:  More and more classrooms are integrating blended learning and becoming technology dependent. Ipads dominate many mathematics classrooms and many schools are going paperless. Thus, it is important to model this type of teaching in preservice classrooms and emphasize how the use of technology expands students’ opportunities for learning mathematics. AMTE promotes the effective use of technology and the need to enhance teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and has a position statement on the use of technology in mathematics classrooms.  Considering how AMTE can promote more research related to teaching through the various technologies, and engage mathematics educators in learning opportunities focused on the integration of technology, pedagogy, and content that they could then share with their preservice/inservice students would help keep AMTE members current with the changes in today’s classrooms. The AMTE webinars have been successful, so perhaps Teaching through Technology could be a strand of the webinars.

 

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