Thoughts from a first time TMCer after day 1

Day one is in the books from my very first Twitter Math Camp (TMC) at Augsburg College in beautiful Minneapolis, Minnesota.  It was a pleasure to put real, live people to the Twitter personas that I have seen over the years. 

I began my day by biking in from our rental home in Minneapolis.  I was pleased with the safe and well-kept bike paths.  The first-timers session for TMC was helpful and was well run by Glenn and Julie.  It felt good to see the abundance of other first-timers in the room - I was not alone in this new adventure.

My morning session was a continued affirmation of the friendliness of all of the TMC participants.  Chris Luzniak and Matt Baker provided a packed room with a number of useful strategies for getting our learners engaged in conversation centered around math.  Chris and Matt gave us the "My claim is...and my warrant is..."framework for student voice within the classroom.  I definitely plan on implementing this statement/justification model in the coming year. 

During the keynote address, Jose Vilson gave the whole TMC crowd a wonderful call to action to support marginalized students and to do so In a real, authentic manner.  Jose really spoke to the heart of what education should be.

During the one hour afternoon sectional, Julie Reulbach and Julia Finneyfrock did a nice job showing us all of the bells and whistles that Pear Deck has to offer.  I am intrigued by the platform.  However, I think I might need to have a bake sale or two to afford the annual costs for Pear Deck.  I really liked the way that Desmos could integrate within Pear Deck.

The half hour sectional I attended was led by Anna Hester and covered the progression and coherence of using the box (area) model for multiplication.  Anna brought a lot of energy to her presentation, especially when she brought it to a conclusion with using the box model for polynomial long division.  

The speed dating session was definitely the highlight of my day.  I had almost decided to leave before the session began, but I am very glad I did not leave.  I was able to make a number of wonderful connections during this session.  In one sense, I wish it was possible to do something like this again, where there is an organized interaction time for the participants on a quick basis.  

I suppose that is all from day 1 of TMC16.  As a newby, I felt welcomed, but I know that there are many  more people that I would like to meet.  Sounds like a challenge for tomorrow, right?

The Power of Patterns

My Number Sense (MATH119) students are taking their midterm for our course today.  A pattern problem was the very first question I asked them to think about.  I am a big fan of pattern work at all grade levels.  There is so much richness that can come out of pattern work.  Here's what I anticipate seeing from my students with this pattern.

There will be at least three different kinds of response.

• One group of students will identify a consistent pattern of addition and simply follow that pattern of sums until they get to the 50th stage.

• Another group of students will find a variable expression that connects the stage number to the number of blocks at a given stage.  These students will use their expression to find the number of blocks at the 50th stage.

• Yet another group will come up with a(n) approach(es) that I would never, ever, not in a
  hundred years had ever thought of on my own, causing me to smile, say, "That's cool!," and help me to appreciate the flexibility and beauty of math.

Pattern work allows the students to see the problem in a way that makes sense to them.  Problems like this encourage our students to see the math as more than a set of procedures to be followed, but rather as a puzzle to be solved.  Jo Boaler calls problems like this ,"low floor, high ceiling."  I really like this idea.  While there are varying levels of sophistication within the solution strategies of my students, it allows me to continue the conversation with my students about the math after the assessment occurs.  This particular pattern is quadratic in its nature.  This grounding of quadratics within a pattern allows me to have my learners connect and use representation of the mathematics in a variety of forms.  When my learners can see and make those connections on their own, that is where the real power of mathematical thinking emerges.