I posted about Day 1 and Day 2 already. I also posted my notes.
Day 3: TMC Day 2
I got up early on Sunday to run around Minneapolis with some other tweeps. We went a little over 5K and saw a dam. There was a hill I struggled with, but it was great to get out and run. There wasn’t any pressure to keep up (Jennifer was way ahead of us), and everyone was welcome. Which is the same for everything at TMC.
The morning started with My Favorites and announcements. That’s where people saw my Sudoku dress. I’m hoping Jennifer’s mother-in-law will agree to take mathy fabric into dresses so we can all buy them.
During the My Favorites, Anna talked about Feedback Meetings. I would love to implement this. I just can’t imagine doing it with all of my students. I wonder if I can start with just one class. I have to work out some details, the biggest one being when do I meet with the students?
I ate lunch with Jennifer and Kathy after the morning session at a place that was very earthy and different. I had an Earth something…it was eggs with broccoli and cheese and I think potatoes – looked like I was eating the earth and it was pretty good. It took a little bit to get the food so Kathy and I left a little late, but still made it back in time for the My Favorites. Sam @samjshah talked about his Explore Math assignments that I definitely want to do some day. I think this year might be too soon with the new school, but I think it could fit perfectly with my Math Literature (college prep) math class. Will have to revisit this idea again.
Tracy @TracyZager gave the keynote this day and wow was it great. She talked about how we all have to learn from each other – elementary and secondary teachers alike. I loved this. I went to college thinking I’d become a high school teacher, then my first job was in 6th grade. I’ll admit that I wasn’t too thrilled that that was going to be my job, but I loved it. I learned so much about teaching in general, and then when I started teaching high school I was so surprised at the fact that I was the only one spending time getting to know students at the beginning of the year, or having students work in groups, or having students give me feedback regularly. These were all things that were standard at my first job in an elementary district for all teachers. I am now in a unit district (which I found out is not the same terminology in different states – it’s a district with elementary, middle, and high school in it). I am excited that this year I will have the opportunity to not only collaborate with teachers teaching the same course as I am, but also potentially collaborate with elementary and middle grades teachers. I could go on about this…maybe it’s another blog post.
I then went to Anna’s Make It Stick session. I haven’t read the book but I’d like to. I feel like this session mostly confirmed things I already believed, probably because I had read them from other #MTBoS blogs. Practice is important. I need to show students better ways to practice and study. I’m hoping that before our first assessment I will remember to have this discussion.
I then went to Lisa @lisabej_manitou and Jessica @algebrainiac1’s session about warm ups. I already talked about what I got from that a bit here. I am also presenting on this same topic on October again for ICTM. So this also helped me see how I could present this topic better.
That night there was a trivia night and Jennifer, Kathy, and I wanted to eat before it. We went to an Ethiopian restaurant – it was Jennifer and Kathy’s first time! Ethiopian is definitely an experience…and this was slightly different from my previous experiences. I made sure to let them know that, but it was refreshing to be with people who were willing to try new things like that. I’m used to people thinking I’m kind of weird for always wanting to eat different ethnic foods – I’m not really satisfied with eating the same thing all the time even if it’s great (which is hard for me because I barely know how to cook anything). They probably still thought I was weird, but they at least kept it to themselves 🙂
We didn’t do very well in the trivia night. We were a team made up of (mostly) TMC newbies so we named ourselves the TMC Virgins. I think I was able to contribute on a few questions but mostly couldn’t help – still had tons of fun, though! We all were contributing members on our team.
Afterwards, I met up with Bob @MrJanesMath to talk about playing percussion. We were trying to work out some logistics for a performance on Tuesday. It was really interesting to talk with him about teaching and music and band and percussion and how it was different or similar in Connecticut.
Maintenant, je ne veux que la cuisine éthiopienne.
La Vie Mathématique 
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