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            Mathematics Professor Ginny Hamilton attended the 59th Annual Ohio Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference (OCTM) in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 11-14, 2009. The OCTM conference is a state conference and about 1,400 people attended the conference.
            “A lot of sessions were presented at the conference on an hourly basis,” Hamilton said. “I co-presented a research project on activity-based lessons with two fellow officers of the Ohio Math Education Leadership Council (OMELC) on the changes in the state of Ohio.”
            Hamilton put together three sessions that she presented at the conference. The research was on the changes in the state of Ohio on how people get their teaching license. Hamilton’s research project found that under the new system, first year teachers will be in a mentor program for the first three years of their teaching careers and will also have to pass the Praxis 3, an assessment on teaching abilities, in order to teach.
            “They can be dismissed for even the most minor things if they mess up,” Hamilton said.
            Hamilton, along with Brenda Boggs, eighth-grade Northwest Middle School teacher, gave a 90-minute workshop on PI Day, a day celebrated by mathematicians on March 14.
“PI Day is on the same date every year, so we presented different activities that they can do with the students,” Hamilton said.
            Krista Maxson, chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences) along with Hamilton did a research project on activity-based learning and if it helps students to succeed.
            “We had six teachers who had participated in the weeklong workshop,” Hamilton said. “In one class the teaching style was traditional and the other was activity based. The activity-based teaching was better in all of them.”
           Maxson was unable to attend the conference so Hamilton presented the research. Hamilton is the former president of the Ohio Math Education Leadership Council and was recognized for her service in the position as president and as a member of the OCTM board at the awards reception.