President’s Message

January 2008

State of MEGSL, its present and future

First and foremost, let me wish all of you somewhat belated best wishes for the holiday season! I hope the time was spent doing things you enjoy and being with those you love. Since we are now in the thick of the political season, I thought it appropriate to give a state of our union/organization and what will be coming in the future.

In early November we held our Annual Conference in conjunction with Texas Instruments and had one of our highest attendances in recent years. The people who helped organize, coordinate, and run the conference did an outstanding job, and we received many compliments about the quality of presenters and the great array of opportunities that were given to attendees. Tom Muchlinski was our featured dinner speaker, and he gave a great presentation titled Can Every Student Really Learn Mathematics? that was entertaining and thought-provoking, all that you could ask for in a Friday night presentation. The only small glitch was with the door prizes and that has been rectified. The list of technology items donated by Texas Instruments and the names of the winners is located is in the newsletter, and I apologize for the delay. Overall I thought it was an outstanding conference and I look forward to seeing everyone at next year’s conference: November 14th and 15th at Parkway West High School (Highway 40 construction affects everything…)!

Two weeks later I had the opportunity to help present the awards at our Excellence in Mathematics contest held at St. Louis Community College—Forest Park. Once again, the work done by Ev Corich and her compatriots was amazing and to look out onto 700+ students who had competed that day was a great scene and a tribute to all those that help organize the teams and encourage the students to participate. Special congratulations to our scholarship winners, Thuy Lan Lite from Ladue Horton Watkins High School and Zach Nahlik from Edwardsville High School.

And now to the future of MEGSL. On February 7th beginning at 6:00 pm we will have our membership meeting at Clayton High School. We will discuss the new job descriptions for officers and allow you to make comments. Pre-service teachers to learn about what Human Resource directors are looking for in candidates and classroom teachers will have the opportunity to hear about the new GLEs, the algebra test, and how these will impact your classroom. We hope you can join us. Also, we will have details about our May dinner to honor retirees and other award winners. If you know of a retiree that needs to be recognized and thanked or a teacher who has distinguished themselves to be considered for our Teacher of the Year award, please let us know with the forms available on our web site.

With that, I will close and hope to see everyone at the upcoming meetings and wish you all the best that the New Year has to offer!

Chris Moody
MEGSL President
Chris_Moody@clayton.k12.mo.us