Take your education seriously - part b

This fall I had the opportunity to go to one of the regional conferences for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Cleveland, Ohio, of which I am a member. The long drive was certainly detracted from the day's events; nevertheless, it was still a great experience. Ron Milne took the five math education majors who will be doing student teaching next fall as well as the two students who are currently student teaching. The day consisted of browsing the convention hall, which was set up with all sorts of booths in which vendors showcased math curriculum, math games, math T-shirts, and all sorts of other things, as well as attending several seminars. There was a wide selection of seminars available based on your interests and grade level.

The first seminar that we went to "Digital Imaging in the Mathematics Classroom" might have been right up someone's alley, but it wasn't for me. For someone who is supposed to be an educator, the presenter certainly did not do a good job of engaging her audience. She talked about using a particular computer program in combination with a digital camera to help students explore functions that are found in real life, like the line of a roof or the parabola created by a pencil point. It might be interesting for a few lessons, but I did not see an application beyond that of an exploratory activity.

The second seminar that I attended was a new and pre-service teacher workshop. Most people were just like me, anticipating student teaching, only a few had taught for extended periods of time. Each of us was given a blank chart with titles like "motivating students" or "online resources" and we were instructed to collaborate with the rest of the people in the workshop to fill up this chart with tips that fit in each category. Following our discussion and large-group sharing, the presenter went through areas that we were struggling with and essentially suggested ways that NCTM could help new teachers in those areas. While it was interactive and helpful to talk to other people who are in a similar position to me, I found myself wishing that the presenter had more actual content and suggestions for us as new teachers.

The seminar that I was least sure about, but ended up being most glad that I attended was entitled "Making Algebra SWELL: Success with English Language Learners." For one thing, the woman presenting was certainly the best of the lecturers in the seminars that I attended. Her perspective was also much different than I anticipated: initially, she had been a Calculus teacher who was against using funding for ELL students; currently, she is pushing for more funding and advancements in the ELL field. Though I am not specifically studying to work with ELL students, her seminar did provide lots of hands-on approaches for teaching math. The seminar was also interesting because she actually had us do several of the activities that she uses with her students. Some her work reminded me of Goshen Middle School's push to incorporate vocabulary. Even when students understand math, they often don't know the vocabulary, so she has short daily activities that have students interacting with mathematical words. She also has students make a lot of graphic organizers and foldables in order to group similar information. One example that she showed us was a game in which students grouped all terms that mean "add" together, everything that means "greater than" together, and so on. I thought that she had a lot of great suggestions both for making class more interesting for students, but also for working with students who may be struggling.