#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!

    

#CAMT13 Day 1 & Day 2

#CAMT13 Day 1 -

Capturing, Sharing & Resolving Perplexity - Dan Meyer!  His stuff is so good and I loved the opportunity to hear him speak.  He's so inspiring... I want to be a student in his class.  We really loved the "What if Everybody in Canada Flushed at the Same Time" problem.

http://www.patspapers.com/blog/item/what_if_everybody_flushed_at_once_Edmonton_water_gold_medal_hockey_game/

Meyer took out the labels and had the students analyze and interpret the graph.  My hockey-player son would be so into this problem!  Meyer shared other perplexing problem examples after which Danielle (my aforementioned former teaching partner :( ) and I were noticing "perplexing" problems all day.

Fantasy Sports in the Math Classroom - This was a very intriguing session.  I believe it would be very engaging for the kiddos, and the presenter said that in all the years he's done this, he always has 4 out of the top 5 kids being girls.  I would love to do this with hockey because the NHL season almost spans the school year (if there's no lockout!)  I'm thinking, though, that since the Houston Rockets just signed Dwight Howard basketball could be interesting next year and something that all of the students will be talking about.  Can't wait to sink my teeth into this and see how I can make it work in my classroom.

Interact With Me and Engage Me (Jennifer Smith-Sloan @ 4mulafun) - Jennifer shared with us her interactive notebooks and how she uses them as a tool in her math classroom.  We used Mead 5-Star notebooks (Thanks, Mead!) and Jennifer provided us with lots of ideas for flippables and organization of the notebook.  I am intrigued by the idea of using spiral notebooks as opposed to composition books and am trying to decide if I want to make the switch.  My biggest concern is whether or not the students will be tempted to tear pages out of it and then they end up not having enough pages in their notebook.  What do you think?  If you've used interactive notebooks before, I'd love to hear your thoughts.  You can check out Jennifer's great products on her TeachersPayTeachers store.

Designing Cognitively Demanding Assessments - In this session we discussed the features of high cognitive demand assessments by looking at NAEP assessment items.  It was interesting to look at actual test items and discuss what about them made them high, moderate, and low on a cognitive demand scale.  If you're interested in looking at some of the questions and their cognitive demand, click here.

#CAMT13 Day 2

The 100s Chart - Last year we heard Brad Fulton speak and we used his homework management ideas to streamline some processes in our classes.  Our adaptations of his system worked brilliantly.   We were equally impressed with his use of the 100s chart to help build algebra skills using arithmetic.  We were introduced to "algebra man" (see below) and after working with him for a while, we learned how to extend "algebra man" into something that the kiddos create on their own. I know my kiddos are going to love this!

http://www.tttpress.com/webinars-and-seminars/download-conference-materials/

Achieving Numeracy Through Texas History - I think this session would have been really good for our 7th grade teachers, but it did give me some ideas that went along with Dan Meyer's perplexing problems.  I wonder what other ways we can incorporate what's going on in other classes into our math classroom?

Building Powerful Numeracy - This session took me back to my elementary roots!  There was so much in this lesson that reminded me of things we did in elementary school.  I still use many of these strategies in my 6th grade classroom, but it was nice to hear someone talk about how important they are (and know that you use them!).

In my elementary school, we called them cluster problems; Harris refers to them as problem strings.  Essentially they are related problems that build upon one another to make the work easier.  For example, if you know that 23 x 10 is 230, then it should be easy to find 23 x 5 because 5 is half of 10.  So...23 x 5 is half of 23 x 10.  I love helping students develop these skills because, as Harris points out, it takes the pressure off the student to "remember".

Algebra Readiness - I am excited to share a resource I found at CAMT.  We were unable to make the session about this resource, but stumbled upon it in the exhibit hall.

This book is an essential skill builder and I think it would be great to use as homework.  Each page has problems covering a variety of skills.  The great thing is that there's a little bit of everything on each page, including vocabulary.  

While we were looking at the books and debating about purchasing, several teachers came up and started talking about how they used this resource and what a difference it made in their classroom.  I can't wait to really take a look at it and decide how I want to use it in my classroom!

So, I'm off to see how I can roll all of this into the neat little package that I call my classroom!

Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!