I am behind on my grading, but I feel that right now I need
to reflect on the NCTM Regional conference in Kansas City.
First of all, if you are a Mathematics Teacher Educator, I
highly recommend that you take your preservice teachers to an NCTM regional or
state conference. These conferences are a
great place to get your students engaged in the culture of becoming a great
mathematics teacher. I am not downplaying the idea of taking them to the
national conference, but I think that they might be overwhelmed by the size.
State and regional conferences are smaller and allow for more interpersonal
interaction.
For me, one of the best parts of this trip was the
conversations in the minivan to/from the conference. Sometimes they were about math and sometimes
they were not, but these students bonded with each other in a way that cannot
be done elsewhere. If you really want to
get to know someone, you take a road trip with them!
Some of the highlights of the conference:
- Presenting with my wonderful colleague and friend, Dr. Chris Larson. Our presentations were well attended and our students heard some reviews of the one on Inverse Functions. They overheard some teachers talking about this great session on inverse functions they attended so the students asked them what time the session was—sure enough it was our session. The best part was that our students said to these teachers, “those are our professors!”
- Observing and listening to our @SDState preservice math teachers as they absorb lots of information, get excited about free manipulatives, and most importantly, start their journey in their profession. I always brag that we have the best math certification program at @SDState, but more importantly, we have the best students! They are what make our program great.
- Meeting people from #MTBoS that I have followed for years on Twitter in person, Justin Aion, Annie Forest, John Golden, and Heather Kohn! And meeting new people in #MTBoS, Joel Bezaire, Will Gunn, Pam Harris, and Cindy Johnson. This group has changed my life as an educator. I keep trying to convince my students of the importance of connecting with fellow math educators on Twitter—I think the conference may have helped those students understand what I mean.
- Seeing the interview that NCTM did with my amazing colleague, Dr. Larson. She knocked the interview out of the park. Check it out at https://twitter.com/NCTM/status/1058412868612186112
- Growing as an educator. Educators have so many wonderful ideas and listening to them share what they do in their classroom makes me better at my job. I always tell my students, “if you think that you are done growing as a teacher, then you should probably retire.” As a teacher, you should always be learning new things.
Thanks to the KC NCTM Regional committee for accepting our
presentations and thanks to my students for attending the conference with me
and making me think about what I can do to become a better math teacher educator.
