Top Ten Things I heard from Math Heroes while at #OCTMconnects, a Math Conference!

This past Thursday and Friday I had the privilege to attend our local state math conference.  This wasn't my first time to attend and it won't be my last.  It was so fun to see familiar faces and make new connections.  This year I attended a meeting for emerging leaders and what a fun session it was to see preservice teachers motivated and committed to their careers while inservice teachers shared passions and hopes for making the teaching of math more visible and helping each other.  Passion fosters excitement and the presenters I spent time with were passionate, positive, and became my heroes.  This list will just touch the surface from my two days, if you would like to know more about something let me know.

Top Ten Things I heard from Math Heroes while at #OCTMconnects, a Math Conference! 

10.  "Hey, you went a little more literacy this past year!"  I was shocked a math hero noticed what I was sharing and posting.  A little nudge to find balance in my sharing because I equally love literacy and math.

9. "Do we really want kids coming home and having a second shift?"  A question raised while discussing homework.

8.  If you live in Ohio, look at the new model curriculum for mathematics.  It states no timed test!  Fluency is being efficient, flexible, and accurate.  We need to look at structures to build and support fluency; fingers, flash dot cards organized and un-organzied, five grams, ten frames, twenty frames, and rekenrek.  

7.  I participated in my first Mystery Number Skype and what a fun way to use technology and think about numbers with friends from different places in our world.  Lisa Murray @lmurray has lots of experience and ideas or you can check out the hashtag #MysterySkype.

6. Zearn.org was mentioned in a few sessions and with positive teacher feedback.  I haven't had the time to explore it yet but looked back and realized this was a ten top from last year too.  Maybe it's a technology piece to explore.  

5.  I've never been to a conference where in multiple sessions one book is repeatedly mentioned.  Of course, I came home and ordered my copy of Principals in Action: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All is also in e-book format for a fraction of the paperback cost and of course, if you are a member of NCTM you get a small discount.

4.  Lots of coding learning for me.  There are four Pillars of Coding; variables, loops, conditionals, and functions.  There is current legislation to add coding courses and a teacher certification to the math departments.  

3.  While exploring coding avenues myself, the presenters said, "we want you to be comfortable with failing because that’s how you learn."  I had some fails while exploring coding and what a good feeling to have as a goal - get comfortable with failing.

2.  Not only was the book Principals in Action recommended lots there was a lot of discussion about the Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices

1.  OCTM is hosting a book group this year in a Google Community - Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You Had and twitter chats are going to be weekly for just 30 minutes on Thursdays.