Field Notes
Field Notes is a publication of the Master of Arts in Teaching Program at Bard College. This magazine is intended as a window into the workings of teacher education, emphasizing the best practices in teaching and learning while supporting initiatives for change in public school classrooms. Visit the Bard MAT Field Notes website to download a pdf file of the latest issue and browse the archives.
The Bard College Master of Arts in Teaching would like to congratulate it’s new director of recruitment on being profiled in the Poughkeepsie Journal on September 18, 2010. The article, which was a follow up on Ms. Jackson’s receipt of the Dutchess County 40 Under 40 award, notes her strong dedication to serving others through community service. It also highlights her excitement at joining the Bard MAT team.
To read the full article, please visit the Poughkeepsie Journal website.
Bard College and the Master of Arts in Teaching would like to welcome it’s newest team member, Patricia “Trish” Jackson, as the Director of Recruitment for the Annandale-on-Hudson, Delano, and New York campuses.
Ms. Jackson a graduate admission professional whose experience runs the gamut from marketing, recruiting, event coordination, project management, and strategic planning. She is a tireless supporter of higher education and a strong advocate for fostering all aspects of diversity on the college campus and in the greater community. Ms. Jackson previously worked at Marist College as the Associate Director of Admission for the Office of Graduate & Adult Enrollment. In this position, she jointly authored several partnership agreements with national organizations to better facilitate the enrollment of underrepresented populations, and she played an active role in researching, designing, and implementing recruitment strategies to help expand the college’s visibility and ensure that enrollment targets were met.
Originally from Gay, Georgia, Ms. Jackson earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology & Psychology from Savannah State University where she graduated with Magna Cum Laude honors. She also holds a Master’s degree in Counseling from Argosy University-Atlanta. Continue reading
Mariel Fiori, editor of La Voz, was featured in the Poughkeepsie Journal’s Attagirl! on Sunday, April 11, 2010. The article discussed Ms. Fiori’s work to open doors for Spanish-speaking community members in the Hudson Valley, following her personal experience as an immigrant to the United States in 2003. The column commends Ms. Fiori for her efforts giving voice to the Hispanic community. The full article can be read on the Poughkeepsie Journal website.
La Voz is a monthly bilingual publication sponsored by the Master of Arts in Teaching at Bard College. Issues are distributed in Spanish in the Hudson Valley, and in Spanish and English in California’s Central Valley. La Voz may be read online via the Bard College website.
Director of Recruiting, Amber Hinds, in conjunction with the MAT Faculty and Administrators would like to announce Open House Week for prospective Master of Arts in Teaching students, April 5-9, 2010.
Talk Teaching with Bard
Not sure if teaching is right for you? Wondering if Bard’s program is the path you should take to certification?
Visit our Annandale-on-Hudson or Delano campus at your convenience the week of April 5, 2010 between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm local time for one-on-one advisement. There’s no group information session, just individual faculty advisement, admission counseling, and campus tours, so you can ask the questions important to you and visit campus when it works for you.
As an added bonus, students who complete their admission application by midnight Friday, April 9, 2010 will have the application fee waived.* Continue reading
Editor’s Note: The MAT Program at Bard College requires students in each discipline to complete a classroom research project. These serve to reveal how apprentice teachers pose and respond to daunting questions directly connected with their experiences in the public schools. The following article is a continuation of those published in the fall 2009 issue of the MAT magazine Field Notes and provides a close look at the kind of classroom research the program requires.
More than Words: Exploring the Disconnect between Verbal and Written Communication in Mathematics
By Kimberly Corum
When formalizing a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem, what are the difficulties that arise as students attempt to translate their ideas from a visual/verbal context into a written context?
Motivated by my interactions with students who are working with an experimental curriculum developed by the Algebra Project, I have observed many students who are able to articulate their thinking very clearly in conversation, yet are unable to effectively communicate their thinking through writing. The design of this experimental curriculum is such that students are encouraged to explore and experiment with a variety of topics in Euclidean and Non-Euclidean geometry and to effectively and clearly communicate their findings.
With the amount of existing research that presents the benefits of non-traditional forms of assessment, I feel that incorporating writing into a mathematics classroom is one form of assessment that allows students to approach mathematics in a manner that encourages and values the process of mathematical thinking just as highly as the end result. The question that guides my research is: “When formalizing a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem, what are the difficulties that arise as my students attempt to translate their ideas from a visual/verbal context into a written context?” The intent of this research is not to necessarily generate a solution to remedy the disconnect between verbal and written thought. Instead, its aim is to acknowledge that this disconnect exists and to hopefully reframe this disconnect within the context of student preference and facility. Continue reading
In May 2010, What’s Your Exit?: A Literary Detour through New Jersey c0-edited by Joe Vallese, MAT ’05, and Alicia Beale will be released by independent publisher Word Riot Press.
The anthology will feature new and previously published work from over 40 writers. Among the book’s contributors are Joyce Carol Oates, Tom Perrotta, Robert Pinsky, Jason Biggs (of American Pie), J. Robert Lennon, Alicia Ostriker, Paul Lisicky, Louise de Salvo, Donna Steiner, Joe Weil, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Lee Klein, Susanne Antonetta, James Richardson, Susan Fox Rogers, Gerald Stern, JC Todd, BJ Ward, and Sung J. Woo.
What’s Your Exit? will be comprised of contemporary literary fiction, memoir, and poetry about, inspired by, and representative of the Garden State. Themes of family, friendship, travel, culture, sexuality, love, fear, violence, nostalgia, and longing populate the anthology, which features writers and styles as eclectic and beautiful, and as unnerving and mysterious and bold as the place that unites them in this work.
An index in the back of the anthology will list the collected works by Parkway and Turnpike exits, an homage to the traditional way Jersey folk identify and relate to one another—the simple but loaded inquiry, “What exit?” Continue reading
