The Washington Teachers of Teachers of Mathematics (WaToToM) is a group concerned with how best to prepare future teachers of K-12 mathematics. The majority of us are faculty members in mathematics and/or mathematics education departments, but some very valuable members are K-12 teachers and administrators who help keep us in touch with reality. We gather annually at the Sleeping Lady Resort and Conference Center in Leavenworth. Our initial gatherings, starting in 1998, were mainly devoted to community building – prior to that there had been absolutely no contact among the state's mathematics teacher-educators. By 2001, we began to feel that we had sufficient knowledge of ourselves and solid enough common views to begin to exercise our voice. After each of the next two gatherings we formulated position papers which we sent to the Office of the Superintendant of Public Instruction and/or the Higher Education Coordination Board. Since that time we have been invited to speak to, or work on a number of issues. We continue to work towards supporting each other so that together we can support Washington's K-12 mathematics education.

At this point WaToToM operates. It has functioned fine that way, but we are beginning to develop more structure as out mission becomes more focussed. "Becoming a member" consists of asking to be put on the (electronic) mailing list through which all communication happens. We have no outside financial support, so that anyone attending a gathering needs to be supported by his or her college or university. The University of Washington Mathematics Department supports us by regularly supplying the deposit for Sleeping Lady, and we have a strong commitment to repaying them. Registration cost is chiefly for room and board, with a little margin to be certain that reservation expenses are covered and in the hope of building up funding to help at times when it is needed. The 2009 cost was $425.

The 2010 gathering will take probably place February 26 - 28, but that is by no means cast in concrete.   What is certain is that we will welcome anyone who would like to join our conversation. This year is one of big transitions and big opportunities.

For more detailed descriptions of our twelve gatherings to date, and for the texts of the letters sent out by WaToToM, use the links to the left.