California Mathematics Council Community Colleges

VOLUME 41, NUMBER 12011 Monterey ConferenceSusanne Gunther, PresidentIt seems funny that I am the one who will writethis particular article. Sure, I was at theMonterey Conference in the fall. I even chairedthe conference, so it made perfect sense for meto let everyone know what to expect at theconference in the article I wrote for our lastnewsletter.The truth is, however, that the conferencechair does not attend any of the talks at theconference, other than of course the two keynotetalks. As conference chair, one needs to put outany unexpected fires, or at least be availableshould any arise. So, there is no time forattending session speakers’ talks.I can comment firsthand about thekeynote talks. On Friday night, Wade Ellis gavea heartfelt presentation about mathematics he haslearned as a community college instructorthroughout the years. I am sure there wereportions of this talk which all of us could relateto. Watching Wade speak is always a pleasure,and having him as our Friday night keynote wasa wonderful way to start off our conference.Our Saturday keynote speaker, Jo Boaler,gave a talk very different from any CMC talk Ihad ever been to. For one thing, it involved nomathematics to speak of. It was entirely aboutteaching math, and her experiences whileresearching those who teach math. I found itvery engrossing, and an interesting perspective,although for those of you who were disappointedwith the lack of “real math” in the talk, I willadmit that as much as I liked this talk as arefreshing alternative, when some of us on theboard were discussing whom to have as akeynote next year, we clearly favor a return to amore mathematical oriented talk after this one,SPRING 2012rather than having two math-ed-related talks twoyears in a row. So, our fall conference this yearwas quite enjoyable but was a bit of an unusualone, at least as far as the keynotes wereconcerned.As far as the session talks are concerned, Ican only relay the comments which I heard, aswell as about the presenters more generally. Firstof all, considering the California budget, we didquite well attendance-wise. We were only downvery slightly from last year’s numbers, and thosewho attended appeared to genuinely enjoythemselves. The talks were all well reviewed,and it appeared that there was a reasonablerepresentation of different topics, as the attendeesdistributed themselves relatively evenly duringeach session slot.The remainder of this article will consistof information from personal experience withcertain speakers as well as information thatattendees let me know at the conferenceconcerning some of the specific talks andspeakers during the sessions at the 2011Monterey Conference.Ian Walton’s presentation on State andnational projects was particularly well received.Truthfully, I would probably enjoy listening toIan Walton reading a phone book, as he definitelyhas the best accent of anyone at our conference,in my opinion. Attendees of his presentation feltthat Ian did a wonderful job of informing themabout different programs happening around theState. CMC is fortunate to have such a talentedand informed presenter willing to give this typeof “state of the state” and/or “what’s new in CA”address to our members, and this will probablybe a recurring presentation at Monterey as it wasquite popular.The second speaker session included atalk by Lalu Simcik from Cabrillo College,PAGE 4

VOLUME 41, NUMBER 1entitled “Bubbles for Pre-Calculus andBeyond”. His audience enjoyed this talk quitea bit. Certainly the subject matter is morecreative, as apparently is the presenter. At apublisher’s dinner later Saturday evening, myhusband and I were fortunate to converse withLalu and we found him intriguing. He is both adancer and a rapper in addition to being a mathprofessor, and was very interesting to talk with.Another session presentation which gota lot of folks talking was during the last sessionof the day. Michael Eurgubian spoke about hissabbatical project. He is surveying faculty atmany of the California community colleges andhas found some interesting information relatedto how things are done at different collegesthroughout the state. As this was just a talkabout his preliminary results, and it was verywell received, it is likely that CMC will try tohave Michael present again at a subsequentconference, so you may want to make sure toget to this future talk if you are interested.Well, I will be happy not to be chairingthe fall conference next year. Not that I didn’tenjoy the experience, as it was mostlyincredibly positive. It will just be fun to be ableto enjoy and relax at our fantastic conferenceagain next fall! I also want to thank many ofyou for all of your suggestions and supportduring the last two years as conference chair.This organization really is quite magical and weare very fortunate to consistently have twoamazing conferences at Monterey and Tahoeevery year. Of course, I realize it is much morethan magic which makes these conferenceswork so well, but there are so many variablesinvolved at each conference and so manymotivated, positive, competent volunteerswhich help run and speak at these conferenceseach time, that it really does take on a sort of“continuing saga” of its own!SPRING 2012What’s a Past President to Do?Barbara Illowsky, De Anza CollegeFinally, I have the CMC3board position I havealways wanted! I am nowPast President!!! YAY!When I first joined theCMC3 board in the lastmillennium, I naivelythought that the pastpresident was just aceremonial position, maybesuch as one given out of respect for an elderlyperson who can no longer truly lead but has beenaround for so long that no one wants to hurt his/herfeelings, so a title is bestowed. At that time, I was inmy thirties, and it seemed to me that theorganization’s leaders were those elderly folks intheir fifties! A few of them were even talking aboutretirement. So, here I am, Past President, past fifty,and feeling oh-so NOT elderly. And I learned thatthe past president actually has board responsibilities(although the first one in the next paragraph I justmade up). Here I go .THANK YOU, CMC3 members, forallowing me to serve you as president for two years.It was really and truly a great joy. We have afabulous organization. I have been quite fortunate tolearn from previous presidents, boards and generalmembers. The president often gets the credit whenthe conferences and other functions go well.However, almost everything CMC3 accomplishes isthe result of great group cooperation. Without adedicated team, the organization would neverfunction well.Now that I am the immediate past president,I am still on the Board of CMC3. In this position, Iserve on the CMC3 Foundation Board, theorganization which raises funds to awardscholarships for students. I will also chair the next(see “Past President” on p. 18)PAGE 5

VOLUME 41, NUMBER 1Distinguished Service,President’s, and Special AwardsBarbara Illowsky, De Anza CollegeEach year, CMC3 honors several people.Katia Fuch’s article will discuss the TeachingExcellence Award. In this article, I am going tohighlight three people and the awards theydeservingly earned.The Distinguished Service Award is CMC3’shighest award. This annual award is given to a pastboard member who has dedicated years of servicein the CMC3 organization. The current Board votesfor the winner at theSeptember board meeting. InDecember, Randy Taylorvery deservingly receivedthis award with a unanimousvote. Randy has been amathematics instructor at LasPositas College for 22 yearswhere he has been a mentorto new full-time and parttime Mathematics faculty.Prior to that, he taught parttime at West Valley, San Jose City, and GrossmontColleges while working full-time in industry. Heserved on the CMC3 Board for 17 years asPresident-Elect, President, Monterey ConferenceSpeaker Coordinator, Past President, FoundationPresident, Membership Chair, and ScholarshipChair. He was also the Awards Chair. In additionto CMC3, Randy is also a member of AMATYC,NCTM, and MAA. In AMATYC, he served as theWest Vice President, a Foundation Board member,in the Technology in Mathematics EducationCommittee, the Education Committee, the ProgramIssues Committee, the Mathematics ExcellenceAward Committee, and the Nominating Committee.Randy was also a delegate to the AMATYCDelegate Assembly for 16 years.SPRING 2012At Las Positas College Randy has beenthe faculty advisor to the Alpha Gamma Sigma(AGS) Honor Society for 17 years. He foundedthe Las Positas College Math Club and thecollege's Mu Alpha Theta Mathematics HonorSociety and has been the faculty advisor. Randyhas received both the Las Positas CollegeAcademic Senate's Teaching Excellence Awardand their Outstanding Service Award. He is therecipient of the CMC3 President's Award, theCMC3 Teaching Excellence Award, the AMATYCTeaching Excellence Award, the Chabot-LasPositas Community College District Chancellor'sAward, and the AGS Outstanding Advisor Awardtwice.CMC3 thanks Randy Taylor for his almosttwo decades of service to our organization!The President’s Award is an annual awardgiven by the president to a current board memberwho has been particularly helpful over the pastyear. This year, I selected Larry Green of LakeTahoe Community Collegeto receive this award. Larryhas been both my mentor inthe president’s position,and has also become agood friend. The past twoyears, Larry served CMC3in his official role as PastPresident, as well as takingon several otherresponsibilities. He was andis our web master. He streamlined the presenterand presider online applications. He has addedfeatures to the web site as needed. Larry wasalways available to me for guidance andassistance with the various questions I had andneeds that came up. Larry has co-written grantapplications that would bring funds to ourcolleges. I can count on Larry to take care of(see “ Distinguished Service” continued on page 18)PAGE 6

VOLUME 41, NUMBER 1SPRING 2012Greetings from AMATYCBrain StrainBruce Yoshiwara, West Vice President,Joe Conrad, Solano CollegeAMATYC is the only professionalorganization whose goal is theimprovement of mathematics education intwo-year colleges in the United States andCanada. If you are already a member, thenyou know of the many activities andresources that membership provides, suchas free webinars, Traveling Workshops,Institutes, and networking through thevarious committees that discuss issues suchas assessment, dual enrollment, placementand teacher prep. If you are not member, Iinvite you to join AMATYC to takeadvantage of these opportunities and tosupport the national professionalorganization designed for two-year collegemath faculty.AMATYC’s annual conference isits best known single activity. If youattended the 37th Annual Conference inAustin in November, you experienced theenergy and excitement of joining

California Mathematics Council Community Colleges (see “Recreational Math Conference” on p. 2) VOLUME 41, NUMBER 1 SPRING 2012 PAGE 2 Executive Board & Special Committees Membership Chair: Joe Conrad, Solano Community