#CAMT13 Day 3

Today was the final day of #CAMT13 and, honestly, the day was a little disappointing.  Danielle and I were really stoked about our first session, which was described as multimedia in the math classroom.  The presenter did present some multimedia math conundrums (commercials, print media, tv shows, etc.), but I didn't find it to be something that I could just take back and use in my classroom.  The mathematics presented were at a pretty high level, almost as if he was teaching a college-level course.  I was looking for a list of multimedia sources that I could take back to and use in my classroom in lessons. 

From there we were supposed to go to a session on multiple representations.  We walked from one end of the conference center to the other (it felt like we had walked from San Antonio to Beaumont!) only to find out that the session had been cancelled.  Ugh!  So out the conference programs came and we quickly proceeded to our 2nd choice.  

We spent some time in the exhibit hall, grabbed some lunch, and went to session 4 excited to hear about organizational techniques.  We waited, and waited, and waited some more, only to be told at 1:00 that the speaker had not checked in.  Here's the rub...if the session was supposed to begin at 1:00, wouldn't they have known by 12:30ish that there was no speaker?  Had they told us earlier, we could have made it to a different session.  Given that we couldn't, we decided to call it a day and head home.

I love the opportunity to meet with other math teachers, but I think there have to be more efficient ways of doing these large conferences.  Sometimes you are forced to skip a session just to get in line for a session you really want to attend.  We don't pay large sums of money to attend (registration fees, hotel, food, and travel expenses) to mission sessions!  The organizers should have the email addresses of the attendees, and with that communication tool, they have the ability to contact attendees to update them on cancelled sessions.  This way attendees could plan and maximize their time at CAMT.  Third, it would be nice to have rooms set up for each grade level (or grade band if space does not otherwise permit) so that if you were unable to attend a specific session, there would be a place that you could go to meet other educators and where you could discuss topics of interest.  

All in all, though, I did enjoy the conference and I'm looking forward to next year.  See you in July 2014!