NCTM 2019 San Diego

It’s Monday night and my head is still reeling from all that I learned, experienced, and witnessed at NCTM San Diego.  Whenever I go to such a big conference, I just act like a sponge and soak it all in.  NCTM is a place where we all learn from each other.  I haven’t been to the NCTM Annual conference since 2015 in San Francisco.  That experience just left me inspired to be the best math educator I could be.  Sounds corny…right?  But it’s completely true.

I left with a bunch of take aways and would love to share a few of my favorites.

Graham Fletcher

• Do we want to be teachers who learn math to solve problems to solve problems to learn math?
• Speeding doesn’t get us to where we want to go faster
• Estimate = strategic choice of a number
• be intentional and purposeful with choosing tasks, don’t have a one night stand.

Kassia Wedekind presented a session on hands down conversations.

• Invest in turn and talk partnerships
• (can’t wait to try that in my classroom).

Sara Van Der Werf – The Matthew Effect

• “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”
• those who start school with a small advantage continue to benefit, while those with a slight disadvantage continue to lose ground.
• Teacher will LEAD the way to change structures so all students are successful.
• How will I support student who arrive to school without the advantages some students have?
• 

  Sara Van Der Werf – tall math girls stick together!

  One of my favorite quotes I saw was in Sara’s presentation.   And I left with much food for thought….how can I do better? How can I advocate for all my students no matter who they are, where they’ve been, or where they are going?

 At ShadowCon, I saw Bethany Lockhart, a kindergarten teacher who spoke about risks worth taking and trying a #BraveBoldMathMove.  She was a phenomenal speaker.  

I also saw Chrissy Newell speak about #MathGals.  As a matter of fact, I bought the book “Power in Numbers” because of this.  

Day 2 featured a great talk about PhotoTalks by Beth Barnes.  Also saw Jennifer Moffett do a session on Middle School Clotheslines.  Jennifer asked the question of “What do instincts have to do with math?”  Math inspires curiosity and we try to make sense of things.  

By Day 2 of the conference, my brain was starting to fill super saturated, so I didn’t take as many notes as I would have liked.

It was a bummer that I didn’t make it into the exhibit hall.  I would have stopped by the MTBoS table to get some goodies, but I was having a ball learning from so many great minds.

Until next time,

Kristen