TGC Monthly - January 2016

TEXAS

GRADUATE

CENTER Monthly

JAN 2016

IN THIS ISSUE: University Student Tour 2016

Spring 2016 Harvard Classes Introducing Cohort IV

INTRODUCING

COHORT IV

JanuaRY

TEXAS

GRADUATE

CENTER

About Us: The Texas Graduate Center (TGC), a component of the Texas Valley Communities Foundation, has been established to support programs in higher education that will guide new and emerging leaders in education to implement transformational change that will impact schools and communities. TGC will offer distance learning graduate programs from outstanding universities in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The TGC will make available the latest telepresence technology and virtual classrooms with direct connection to world-class undergraduate and graduate programs from across the country. TGC will also serve as a college and career readiness facilitator offering assistance in selecting, preparing and enrolling in nationally recognized graduate programs.

Monthly

President Dr. Roland Arriola Executive Director Dr. Mary Alice Reyes Associate Director/ EDITOR Adriana V. Lopez Designer/ PHOTOGRAPHER David Alvarado TGC OFFICES 1098 W. Expressway 83 Mercedes, Texas 78570

2 | Texas Graduate Center

TXGRADCENTER.ORG

In this issue...

Harvard University Extension School

TGC has partnered with the Harvard Extension School to provide a graduate program created specifically for teachers of middle and high school mathematics. Harvard University believes that teachers with a solid foundation in mathematics are most capable of communicating the essentials, guiding students around mathematical pitfalls and avoiding potential misunderstandings.

05 Spring 2016 Harvard Spring Classes

A brief overview of the instructional courses Texas Graduate Center Scholars will be taking during the Spring 2016 semester.

06 Get to know the newest member of the TGC

Nereyda Puente is an aspiring social worker attending Our Lady of the Lake. She is now an intern at the Texas Graduate Center helping make a difference in her community.

TGC has partnered with Washington University in St. Louis to provide a master of science in Biology for Teaching.

The two-year program is designed to fit the schedules of working teachers. It will consist of two summer institutes, three weeks each, in residence at Washington University. The remaining coursework during the academic years will be completed online at the TGC.

08 University Student Tour: District Rep. Meeting

The TGC is planning for another successful student university tour this summer and have added two tours to our summer itinerary.

10 Introducing Cohort IV

The Texas Graduate Center is proud to welcome Cohort IV into our Harvard Mathematics for Teaching Graduate Program.

JanuaRY

FROM THE EDITOR

I

t’s going to be a great year here at the Texas Graduate Center (TGC). We welcome our fourth cohort into our Harvard Math for Teaching graduate program. Five Rio Grande Valley (RGV) teachers begin their program this month, and even though they’re our smallest cohort, we are confident they’re going to do big things. And as we welcome five new teachers into the program, we say goodbye to seven from our very first cohort. Cohort 1 completed their program and will be participating in commencement ceremonies at Harvard this summer. We are very proud of their accomplishment and confident they will continue to positively impact math education in their schools and community.

This year we also welcome a new partnership with Washington University, St. Louis. We will begin offering a masters degree in Biology for Teaching for local RGV Science teachers. The program begins this summer, July 2016. It is a blended program with Fall and Spring courses here at the TGC via distance learning and summer residency in St. Louis. With this partnership we take another step in fulfilling our goal of increasing the number of RGV teachers attending outstanding universities across the nation.

Along with our program offerings for local teachers, we’ve also expanded our university tour offerings to area high school students. Last summer we took a group of 46 RGV students to visit universities in the Boston area including Harvard, MIT and Brown University. This summer, we will visit not only Boston area universities, but Washington University in St. Louis as well as universities in the New York area including Princeton, Columbia and Yale.

We continue to work to empower and transform communities through education and innovation by providing advanced studies to educators and by exposing local students to new opportunities. We’re confident this will be our best year yet!

ED I T O R - I N - C H I E F

4 | Texas Graduate Center

TXGRADCENTER.ORG

SPRING 2016 Harvard Courses A brief overview of the instructional courses Texas Graduate Center Scholars will be taking during the Spring 2016 semester.

MATH E-6 Mathematics & the greeks Instructor: Graeme D. Bird, PhD In this course we seek to understand how the ancient Greeks thought about mathematics by focusing on three activities: finding solutions and proofs for simple numerical problems, drawing geometrical constructions using compasses and straightedge, and reading brief historical abstracts by and about early Greek mathematicians. Students also learn the Greek alphabet to enable them to read a few common mathematical terms.

Graduate-credit students prepare a series of lesson plans showing how a section of the course material could be taught in high schools.

MATH E- 16 Calculus 2 with Series and Differential Equations

Instructor: Eric Connally, BA

This course covers integration, differential equations, and Taylor series with applications. It covers most of the topics in a second-semester calculus course with the emphasis on applications as well as graphical and numerical work. The use of a graphing calculator with the capability of computing (approximating) definite integrals is required. Students enrolling for graduate credit participate in weekly pedagogical seminars designed for current and future K-12 teachers.

Math E-300 Math for Teaching: ALGEBRA Instructor: Srdjan Divac, MA This course examines the mathematical underpinnings behind what is taught in secondary level algebra courses. It considers what, why, and how we teach what we teach, and investigates different strands of algebraic competence with particular emphasis on how we assess the students’ proficiency in these various strands.

PROFESSOR SPOTLIGHT: Srdjan Divac studied computer science and applied mathematics, then pure mathematics at Harvard University, Tufts University, and Boston University. He has been teaching math at various levels for more than 25 years at Harvard, Tufts, Boston University, and Boston University Academy, and has collaborated on a number of textbooks and educational projects.

Divac is a many-time recipient of the Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching.

He was nominated for the Levenson award, the highest teaching honor at Harvard. He also spent about six years helping to inflate and then deflate the dot com bubble.

JanuaRY

Get to know the newest member of the

Texas Graduate Center!

I come from a deep-rooted Mexican family.

Both of my parents are from southern Mexico, a small town in San Luis Potosi called Matehuala; they’ve been here for over 30 years. I was born here in the Rio Grande Valley, McAllen to be exact. After being born, my parents went through very hard times getting through so they decided to move north to Texarkana, TX were I lived until 2nd grade. In second grade I came back to the Valley where every following summer I migrated with both of my parents and sister to Michigan.

my whole perspective changed, that is when I changed my major to Social Work. I decided to go into this field because there is high demand for social workers and the change social workers make in the community is incredible.

What really attracted me to this career was how social workers pull communities together and find solutions to those who need them.

Also, social workers promote and emphasize change in social policy, promote social justice, and foster human and global well-being. I know after receiving my bachelor’s degree more opportunities will be open to me. My future goal is to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. My ideal work place would be working with children and families in providing emotional and mental health counseling. I currently found out as a future Social Worker I can also work with refugee’s which would also be an ideal work place for me.

I became a migrant for about eight years. In the summers my parents would take me to work in the fields to pick blueberries. Even though I never complained about working in the fields I understood I needed to get an education to not have to work in the fields the rest of my life. My parents have always encouraged me to get an education and to take advantage of the opportunities I have. I hope to one day make them proud. With their support I graduated from Donna High School in 2012 and graduated with an Associate’s Degree in Social Work on December 12, 2015.

One of my favorite things to do in my spare time is volunteer. The place I volunteer more frequently is at the Sacred Heart Church in McAllen. Since the mass influx of refugee children and mothers from Central America back in 2014, I’ve continued to go and sponsor families as they go through the process of receiving food and clothing, to helping them make a call either to their homes back in Central America or to family in the United States. I first started volunteering there because my Intro to Sociology course at STC required 30 volunteer hours, but after seeing the high demand of volunteers needed, I kept going back. I have met so many wonderful people coming from El Salvador, Honduras and other countries where poverty and crime are the main causes they are leaving there home towns.

Coming from a community where drop out rates are very high and very few attend college, I decided that would definitely not be me.

When I first started at South Texas College I wasn’t sure what field to go into. I started in the medical field but after taking a sociology class

6 | Texas Graduate Center

I am currently attending Our Lady of The Lake, La Feria, TX for my Bachelor’s Degree and hope to graduate in the Spring of 2017.

- Nereyda Puente

TXGRADCENTER.ORG

GIRLS ENGAGED IN MATHEMATICS

Building CONFIDENCE and reducing MATH ANXIETY The notion that only boys can become scientists and engineers has persisted over time. Studies have shown that negative stereotypes about girls’ abilities in mathematics and science have impacted their performance in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and math) areas.

to schedule a gem camp at your school, contact: Executive Director, Dr. Mary Alice Reyes 956.903.4231 | mareyes@tvcof.org

Girls Engaged in Mathematics is a public-private initiative of the Texas Valley Communities Foundation

JANUARY

UNIVERSITY STUDENT TOUR

DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE MEETING 8 | Texas Graduate Center

TXGRADCENTER.ORG

W

e are planning for another successful student university tour this summer and have added two tours to our summer itinerary. In addition to our Boston Ivy League University Tour, which includes visits to Harvard, MIT, and Brown University, we will also be travelling to New York to visit Columbia,

Princeton and Yale. We’re also excited to add Washington University, St. Louis to our university tour roster. This month, representative from eight Rio Grande Valley school districts joined us for an informational meeting to discus logistics for the upcoming tours.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN ATTENDENCE: DONNA ISD EDINBURG CISD LA JOYA ISD

LYFORD CISD MERCEDES ISD MISSION CISD

PSJA ISD WESLACO ISD

JanuaRY

INTRODUCING

COHORT IV

The Texas Graduate Center is proud to welcome Cohort IV into our Harvard Mathematics for Teaching Graduate Program. Teachers in the three-year masters program through Harvard Extension School learn new strategies that dramatically improve their ability to teach middle and high school students the math skills needed to succeed in life, work, and academia.

Cohort IV begin classes this spring and will travel to Cambridge for their 7-week summer residency in June. Cohort IV includes Joseph Alanis and Manuel Rodriguez from La Joya ISD, Doni Fernandez and Oscar Santos from PSJA ISD, and Tiffany Ochoa from Edinburg CISD.

C

hallenge has been common in Tiffany’s life; nonetheless, she has learned to emerge from it triumphantly. At Moody High School, in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tiffany succeeded in graduating in the top ten percent while being very active in various varsity sports including volleyball, basketball, track, and cheerleading. At Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, Tiffany was the only female to receive her Bachelor’s Degree in Science for Mechanical Engineering for the 2009 graduating class.

Furthermore, while attending the university, she was receiving a scholarship for making the Islander cheerleading squad, a position that is very difficult to acquire.

Tiffany’s goal as an educator is to continue to help guide her students. Tiffany Ochoa She wants to be the mentor and role Edinburg CISD model that her parents were for her so that her students can accomplish their goals, just as she did. The challenges Tiffany has encountered as an athlete, mechanical engineer graduate, Texas State Trooper, mother, coach, and educator have made Tiffany the person she has become today.

10 | Texas Graduate Center

TXGRADCENTER.ORG

I

was born on April, 1978 in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Graduating from High school in 1996, I enrolled and spent the next four years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I majored in mathematics and history, while playing college football for the Badgers. In 2001, I graduated and began my career in education via Teach-for-America. As a member of Teach for America, I was placed in E.L. FURR High School in Houston Texas. As a first year teacher, I quickly realized that my passion for teaching involved working with “At-Risk” youth. For the last 15 years I have dedicated my craft as an educator Manuel Rodriguez to help students see their true poLa Joya ISD tential and I have worked hard to push them to aspire for greater levels of education.

M

y name is Oscar Servando Santos. I was born in Laredo, Texas and moved with my family to the Rio Grande Valley at the age of 3, where I have lived most of my life. My passion for mathematics dates back to my childhood when I was learning multiplication tables. I initially pursued an undergraduate degree in actuarial science but ultimately changed to Social Work in 2009. I spent the next 4 years working with children for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and Tropical Texas Behavioral Health. Throughout this time I returned to school to obtain a Master’s of Science degree in Social Work. In 2013, I decided to pursue a career in education and obtained my teaching certification Oscar Santos for High School Mathematics. My first two years in the classroom PSJA ISD provided me with wonderful learning experiences. In my third year, I look forward to further advancing my knowledge in the field of mathematics as well as my skills in the classroom, so that I may provide a quality education to my students in helping them prepare for college.

JanuaRY

I

M

y name is Doni Fernandez. I was born and raised in Iloilo, Philippines and I moved to the United States after graduating college. After working in the retail industry in California for a couple of years, I felt that I needed a change of environment and with a degree in Electronics Engineering, I was encouraged to teach mathematics in high school. After a couple of months, I found myself moving to the valley and teaching my first Algebra 1 class. I had a hard time adjusting at first, primarily with the language and culture, but as I went along, I was able to learn from my coworkers how to handle my classes and teach better. I can’t believe that was 8 years ago and I can say that teaching Doni Fernandez is a rewarding experience and I want to keep improving. It’s very fulfilling PSJA ISD when students thank me for helping them pass their exams or just saying that it’s the best class they’ve ever had.

I feel privileged to be in this program and I’m looking forward to learning how to make my lessons more relevant to my students and inspire them to become better thinkers and solvers in the future.

was born in July, 1990, in Chicago, IL, and am currently a 2nd year Mathematics teacher at Juarez-Lincoln High School where I teach both Algebra 2 and Geometry. Although a native of Wisconsin, I attended Upper Iowa University where I obtained a bachelor’s of science in mathematics and minors in information technology and general business. During my time at Upper Iowa, I served as a student representative for the INNSPIRE-LSAMP Steering Committee, which developed faculty peer groups that collaborated across the alliance to share inclusive pedagogy and mentoring practice that lead to greater success for minorities. As an underrepresented minority being raised within a low economic family in Wisconsin, I have overcome a vast amount of disadvantages, such as discrimination and poverty in order be successful. Therefore, I am an advocate for education as the leveling field for all individuals and my goal is to enlighten and guide minority populations to appreciate the enhanced Joseph Alanis opportunities that education provides La Joya ISD for both themselves and their family.

Ultimately, I would like to help shape the future of higher education for Latino/ Latina minorities because I believe, collectively, the Hispanic population is not ready to be leaders of tomorrow.

My ambition is to become a president/ chancellor of a university.

12 | Texas Graduate Center

Master of Science in Biology for Teachers APPLICATIONS DUE FEB. 26 • Earn a Master of Science degree in two years (online and 3-week summer residencies) • Learn from renowned life science faculty at Washington University St. Louis, one of the most prominent research universities in the country.

• Participate in action research and laboratory work in state-of-the-art research facilities on campus and within the city of St. Louis.

• Participate in professional networks with teachers from across the country.

• Develop and apply skills in curriculum innovation.

Texas Graduate Center is a public-private initiative of the Texas Valley Communities Foundation.

1098 W. Expressway 83, Mercedes, TX 78570 | 956.903.4231 | alopez@tvcof.org

JanuaRY BUILDING THE CAPACITY TO MAXIMIZE IMPACT

MISSION

The mission of the Principals Academy is to build the capacity of principals to lead for instructional improvement within their schools and districts by creating the conditions for building a collaborative culture of efficacy and high performance expectations focused on results.

• • • • • • •

PROGRAM COMPONENTS

8 Training sessions with Resource Guide Book: The Principal: Three Keys to Maximizing Impact External campus visits Speakers to enhance curriculum On-site and On-line support Principals Academy shirt Certificate of Completion

PROGRAM MODEL

Each meeting will consist of training based on the work of Michael Fullan, Lyle Kirtman, Keith Leithwood, Robert Marzano and other leading authorities in educational leadership.

1

Roles and Responsibilities of the Principal

5

Building System Coherence

2

Urgency and Drivers of Change

6

Principals as Agents of Change

3

Transformational vs Instructional Leadership

7

Change Challenges and Strategies

4

Building Professional Capital

8

Designing a Maximizing Impact Plan

LEAD FACILITATOR

Dr. Mary Alice Reyes, Vice-President of the Texas Valley Communities Foundation, has extensive years of experience in educational leadership as a campus principal, district-level administrator and superintendent of schools. Her expertise will lend to developing a personal and practical learning community environment that will build on the principals’ strengths and address their unique needs.

“The role of the principal needs to be balanced between content and organizational leadership. The educational leader is the overall leader of instruction, but he or she needs to have time and skills to motivate and build teams and develop leadership capacity in his or her school for change.” – Kirtman, 2013 Texas Graduate Center is a public-private initiative of the Texas Valley Communities Foundation | 1098 W. Expressway 83, Mercedes TX, 78570 | 956.903.4231 | for more info, contact Mary Alice Reyes at mareyes@tvcof.org

14 | Texas Graduate Center

TXGRADCENTER.ORG

MATHTEACH Collaborative James Tanton

Mathematician and math educator, founder of The St. Mark’s Math Institute, scholar at the Mathematical Association of America, author of over ten books on mathematics, curriculum, and education.

Febuary

5

2016

Workshop# 49184

JUly

Harvard Graduate School of Education

2016

Leadership: An Evolving Vision

10-16

Superintendents Leadership Series

JanuaRY

Thank you to our MATHTEACH Collaborative Partners:

The Texas Graduate Center is a public-private initiative of the Texas Valley Communities Foundation.

16 | Texas Graduate Center