Thursday, July 24th

8:30 9:00 am
9:00 9:25 am

Registration

Opening Session, Presentation Hall, 3rd Floor

9:30 11:30 am

Morning Sessions

Middle School Max Ray and Justin Aion, facilitators, Room 108
The Middle School Math Wiki has this section called "Number Sense Bootcamp" and it has one thing in
it. By the end of Twitter Math Camp, we hope to change that. Max and Justin are bringing some of their
favorite games and activities around fractions and integers, and hope you'll bring yours too. We'll play a lot of
games, invent some new ones, talk about the difference between games-for-practice and games-for-learning,
and think about how to make both kinds of games a successful part of your math routines. Also promised: silly
hats, extreme goofiness.
Algebra 1 James Cleveland and Anthony Rossetti, facilitators, Room 109
What exactly it is we need to teach in Algebra I? What are the assessments and the lessons/tasks that
work? Come to the Algebra 1 morning sessions led by James Cleveland and Anthony Rossetti to work on
answering these questions and even create some tools you can use in your classroom.
Work with other TMC peeps (tweeps) to flush out exactly how to get at a students understanding of a
topic. You'll collaborate on a few key topics that can use an assessment makeover, and come up with a variety
of formative, summative, exams, quizzes, projects, exit slips, ...whatever.... that we can all use with our own
students.
We'll also create some lessons and/or tasks to guide understanding. We'll spend some time focusing
on making interesting tasks for Algebra I. Do you have a laptop? Bring it! We'll be interacting with some cool
technology tools and even go over the basics of media editing that can be used to create clips and snippets to
enhance lessons.
Well work as a team to learn how to make our own such tasks and come up with new tasks and
lessons for those few key topics we feel really need them.
Our goal by the end is to have sets of tasks/lessons and assessments for various Algebra I topics that
we can all take home with us and use the next year.
- James Cleveland (@jacehan) and Anthony Rossetti (@aanthonya)
Geometry Michael Pershan, facilitator, Room 110
Formal proof is at the heart of many geometry classes, but kids often have a very hard time with it.
Why do kids struggle with proof, and how can we teach it more effectively? To make some progress on these
knotty questions I'll bring some good stuff: student work, textbook treatments, and interesting proofprovoking problems. If you sign up for this session, you'll be contacted in June for some pre-TMC discussions
and resource sharing, and one of our goals will be to produce a record of our time together that we can share
online.
Algebra 2 Glenn Waddell and Jonathan Claydon, facilitators, Room 117
Are you tired of Algebra 2 being boring? Would you like to take away lessons that are challenging,
enriching, and interesting? If so these morning sessions will be for you! Jonathan Claydon (@rawrdimus) and
Glenn Waddell (@gwaddellnvhs) are collaborating to help you create lessons for your classroom that will build
a culture and environment of interaction, exploration and connections from algebra 1 through calculus. Lets
make Algebra 2 the stimulating, thought-provoking and great class we know it should be! The materials will be
connected to the Common Core as well as NCTMs Principles and Standards (for the non-CCSS state
educators).

9:30 11:30 am

Morning Sessions

Statistics Hedge, facilitator, Room 118

The statistics group will spend a lot of time doing statistics labs/activities and looking for ways to help
make the course more applicable and interesting to students. We will look at a different area of stats each
day:
Thursday: categorical data, z-inferences and Chi-Squared tests
Friday: quantitative data, t-inferences and regression tests
Saturday: binomial/geometric probabilities, conditional probability and random variables
Those who sign up will be contacted in early July and encouraged to email best lessons, "my favorites",
rich assessment tasks/questions, lesson bonfire items (things we know are awful in our classes, but we need
help fixing), etc.
Pre-Calculus Tina Cardone and James Doherty, facilitators, Room 208
Current and future PreCalculus teachers! You are invited to join us for a workshop centered around
collaboration. There will be time for looking back (topics from Algebra 2 that need reinforcing), looking
forward (what will students need for Calculus) and looking side to side (topics students should study to be
proficient in math as well as appreciate the fun and beauty of the subject). Be prepared to rave about your
favorite topic and rant about your most dreaded one. After that's off your chest, we'll get down to work with
enthusiastic and creative colleagues. You'll win them over with your favorite lesson ideas and youll find some
exciting ways to present your dreaded topics.
Not sure if your course falls under the title of PreCalculus? Tweet us and ask!
Tina @crstn85 and Jim @mrdardy
Calculus Sam Shah and David Petersen, facilitators, Room 209
The Calculus Morning Session will be a small working group. Members who register will be working
together with the goal of amassing a small, useful set of classroom activities for a non-AP Calculus or AP
Calculus course. We (Sam and David) have found it challenging to find engaging calculus activities to mix up
the daily grind, and developing activities by ourselves is ever so lonely.
Solution: we all work together!
Participants should be committed to working a little bit over the summer before TMC to virtually (a)
share calculus activities and resources we already have/use with the entire working group, and (b) work with
another member or two from our group on developing a few new activities together to bring to TMC. When
we are together at TMC, we will share what weve created, maybe engage in a few of the activities, and
collectively decide how to make these activities accessible/useful to others.
PS. When we speak about calculus activities, we mean this broadly: anything that goes against the
grain of a traditional curriculum/presentation/practice. They can range the gamut from whiteboarding
exercises, to matching activities, to games, to projects, to applications, to anything else you can think of!

9:30 11:30 am

Morning Sessions

Writing Real-World Math Lessons with Mathalicious Karim Ani and members of Team Mathalicious,
facilitators, Room 210
Do people with small feet pay too much for shoes, and should Nike charge by weight? How many people should
you date before you propose?
In this session, we'll explore how to write narrative-based lessons around real-world topics. From identifying a
guiding question to determining which questions to ask (and which to not), members of the Mathalicious
content team will discuss how they come up with lesson ideas, and the criteria and process they use to
translate them into effective classroom tasks. Participants will then work in grade-level teams to plan,
develop, and practice teaching their own real-world lessons.
Thursday: Mathalicious lesson modeling, discussion of planning and development process
Friday: Break into grade-level teams (3-4 people), begin planning and writing lesson
Saturday: Continue writing lesson as team, group presentations to conclude session
Group Work Working Group Exploring Our Blind Spots Elizabeth Statmore, facilitator, Room 217
The promise of greater equity is one of the most compelling rationales for using group work in the math
classroom, yet even our most established implementations of group work remain unconsciously undermined
by blind spots those self-defeating, conditioned habits that cause us (and our students, and our community)
to bite the hook and fail to make the fullest and healthiest use of mathematical collaboration. As my great
teacher Dr. Fred Joseph Orr often said, Noticing shifts the energy. During this three-day investigation, we will
harness the power of noticing to explore the psychology of blind spots, inquiring together into ways of
bringing our blind spots into the light so that we can fine-tune our group work practices. In so doing, we will
also be exploring the hypothesis that, when we treat our blind spots with greater friendliness and respect, our
whole group work situation can become friendlier and more spacious too.
Our work will proceed along two interrelated levels. Each day, we will gently engage with blind spots using
psychodynamic practices drawn from insight and mindfulness meditation, restorative justice, depth
psychology, and other wisdom traditions. After sharing our inquiry using restorative practices and circles, we
will shift into exploring blind spots in a more hands-on mathematical way using tasks and activities in three
key areas (summaries drawn from the National Academies Press book, How People Learn):
Day 1 using group work to reveal and engage student thinking, both before and during concept
development
Day 2 using group work to promote development of a conceptual framework that enables students to
organize their knowledge for future use and application
Day 3 using group work to integrate metacognitive strategies in context.
Mathematical tasks and problem sequences will be engaging but accessible and will be drawn from a
variety of sources including the Shell Centre, Exeter and PCMI problem sets, as well as from the MTBoS itself.

9:30 11:30 am

Morning Sessions

Embodied Mathematics: Tools, Manipulatives, and Meaningful Movement in Math Class Christopher
Danielson and Malke Rosenfeld, facilitators, Room 218
This workshop is for anyone who uses, or is considering using, physical objects in math instruction at
any grade level. This three-part session asks participants to actively engage with the following questions:
1. What role(s) do manipulatives play in learning mathematics?
2. What role does the body play in learning mathematics?
3. What does it mean to use manipulatives in a meaningful way? and
4. How can we tell whether we are doing so?
In the first session, we will pose these questions and brainstorm some initial answers as a way to frame
the work ahead. Participants will then experience a disruption of scale moving away from the more familiar
activity of small hand-based tasks and toward the use of the whole body in math learning. At the base of this
inquiry are the core lessons of the Math in Your Feet program.
In the second and third sessions, participants will engage with more familiar tasks using traditional
math manipulatives. Each task will be chosen to highlight useful similarities and contrasts with the Math in
Your Feet work, and to raise important questions about the assumptions we hold when we do hands on
work in math classes.
The products of these sessions will be a more mindful approach to selecting manipulatives, a new
appreciation for the bodys role in math learning, clearer shared language regarding hands-on inquiry for
use in our professional relationships and activities, and public displays to engage other TMC attendees in the
conversation.

11:30 am 1:00 pm
1:00 1:30 pm

Lunch

Afternoon My Favorites, Presentation Hall, 3rd Floor

1:30 2:30 pm

Keynote, Presentation Hall, 3rd Floor

How to Shift Mindsets from Remembering HOW to Understanding WHY Steve Leinwand
Too much of the mathematics instruction I get to observe across grade levels is best summarized as
showing and telling and expecting our students to remember how to get right answers. The tendency for this
approach becomes more frequent as we progress toward, and into, high school. Alternatively, research and
the new NCTM Mathematics Teaching Practices argue that mathematical power emerges from the active
engagement of our students in their learning and a focus on understanding why the mathematics being
learned makes sense. Accordingly, this fast-paced, example-laden presentation will model, compare and
contrast these two approaches to teaching mathematics and make the case that sense-making, alternative
approaches, multiple representations and a focus on understanding why is the only way we will be far more
effective and induce much greater learning. We'll leave time for push-back and discussion.

2:45 3:45 pm

Afternoon Sessions

60 Formative Assessment Strategies in 60 Minutes - John Scammell, Room 217

(all levels, assessment)
This fast-paced session will give participants a (really) quick overview of at least 60 formative
assessment strategies that can be embedded into lessons. You will be sure to get some new ideas.
Classroom Routines: Counting Circles - Sadie Estrella, Room 109
(all levels, classroom routines)
Classroom routine to build mental math strategies and so much more!

2:45 3:45 pm

Afternoon Sessions

Making Awesome Activities Your Own - April Rogozinski, Room 210

(all levels)
Did someone give you a great idea or worksheet but the content doesn't fit your needs? Come see how
I have taken these gems from others and made them my own. We will look at the before and after of a few
activities, investigate about how they are constructed, and show how I made them my own. We will look at
other activities that are ripe for customization, then pick one to make it your own. Activities will include
Sudoku, Mysteries, Rounds, Lucky Lotto Six ...
Discussion of Intervention Strategies - Kathryn Freed, Room 117
(Secondary, Intervention)
Providing support for struggling learners is a major challenge, especially with the limited time we (as
secondary teachers) have with our students. Together we can create a list of strategies that are most likely to
help our students develop conceptual understanding, fluidity, and problems solving skills. We will discuss
strategies that can be used in the general classroom as well as ways to structure the additional time some
teachers may have with their students.
I will have some things to share from my experiences, but please bring your experiences and/or
questions to share with the group. A document camera will be available to share any materials.
Stats Basic Training: Algebra 1/Middle School Hedge, Room 118
(Common Core, Stats, grades 7-9)
Curious how to infuse the new Common Core statistics standards into your classroom? Worried that
you can't find any interesting labs for your students to hook them into statistics? Are YOU having trouble
finding that "stats love" as well?
Stats Basic Training will allow you to participate in a few of my favorite labs to collect and analyze data.
Most of these labs can be deconstructed for middle school students or extended for higher level Algebra 1
students. I wont give away all the details, but a certain Desmos CEO better be ready to defend his title.
iPads Out of the Spotlight - Jonathan Claydon, Room 208
(grades 9-12)
A demonstration of simple and extensible lesson ideas that can be done with a set of classroom iPads.
Focus will be on how flexible the built-in capabilities of the device are without a need for specialized apps or
kids staring at digital flash cards. How can technology enhance a lesson without being the lesson?
Demonstrations will focus on Photo Stream, Google Drive, and Dropbox as methods for deployment and
collection of student work. Student work will be available.
Debate That! Creating Argumentation and Reasoning in the Math Classroom Chris Luzniak, Room 209
(Debate, Argumentation, Math, Common Core Standards of Practice)
Want to get your students discussing and debating math?! Debate has often been a staple of the
humanities classroom, and now you can bring it into your math class! Studies have shown that incorporating
debate into the curriculum can significantly increase student achievement and engagement, increasing
grades and test scores. Furthermore, the Common Core Standards emphasize "constructing viable arguments
and critiquing the reasoning of others," skills involved with debate! So, come explore several debate and
discussion activities, both oral and written, that will help you bring this excitement to your classroom. We will
actively experiment with several structures and activities, with concrete examples for all grade levels. Join
NYC teacher Chris Luzniak (@pispeak) as we work together to discuss, develop, and debate classroom
activities we can all use! No previous experience necessary. This session will provide all the tools you need to
change the style of your classroom.

2:45 3:45 pm

Afternoon Sessions

New Ideas for Teaching Complex Numbers - Michael Pershan, Room 108
(grades 9-12, curriculum)
The math of complex numbers is absolutely stunning, but showing students their beauty is challenging.
At the core of this struggle is a difficult question: What are complex numbers? Are they solutions to previously
unsolvable equations? Are they the result of a wild leap of wishful thinking and mathematical imagination?
Are they just geometric transformations? In this session I'll present a sequence of tasks and problems that
offer a new perspective on this curricular problem.

4:00 4:30 pm

Afternoon Sessions

180 Blogging - Justin Aion, Room 108

How can your practice benefit the most from daily reflection? This discussion session will focus on the
pros and cons of various types of 180 blogs from daily photos to daily narratives. We will work to develop 5
questions to answer each day as we leverage the power of reflection toward being better teachers. Also,
there will be stickers!
Teaching From Your Couch Jason Valade, Room 110
(Snagit, Subs, Video)
You know you're going to be out of the classroom. You don't want to lose another day (or two or
three) just because you have a sub. I'll show you a simple way to keep your class productive while you're out.
National Board Certification and Recertification: How and Why - Lisa Bejarano and Pam Wilson, Room 109
(all levels, certification, professional development)
We will answer your questions regarding certification and renewal and develop a support system for
peer review of entries and the application process.
National Board Certification is a voluntary assessment program designed to develop, retain and
recognize accomplished teachers, and to embed ongoing improvement. The process of earning National Board
Teaching Certification helps teachers to look at their work critically. Becoming National Board Certified is
validating as a professional and it opens doors to further opportunities.
Their core propositions are closely aligned to the values expressed within the MathTwitterBlogosphere
& thoughtful teachers in general:
I. Teachers are committed to students and their learning.
II. Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students.
III. Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.
IV. Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.
V. Teachers are members of learning communities.
Math Maintenance - Ten Minutes to Success - Kathryn Belmonte, Room 208
(all levels)
Do you find that your students struggle to retain skills that they haven't used in a few weeks or
months? Plan your daily warm-ups in a weekly format that promotes long-term retention and reinforces key
skills that your students need. Learn how to plan effective weekly warm-ups for your courses, explore various
ways to assess the warm-ups, and choose how to organize them in your classroom. Templates and examples
will be provided so you can implement Math Maintenance at the beginning of 2014-2015.

4:00 4:30 pm

Afternoon Sessions

Enriching All Math Classrooms Through NRich - Megan Schmidt, Room 209
(all levels, Rich Tasks)
Have you struggled with integrating engaging, enriching, mathematics tasks into your classes? Megan
Schmidt, high school math teacher and blogger featured in Dan Meyer's Blogulty Lounge, wants to help you to
utilize Nrich in your classroom. This Cambridge based website believes in offering rich mathematical tasks to
all learners and is full of self-differentiating tasks that will help to develop problem solving skills for ALL of your
students. Megan Schmidt has tried these lessons in secondary settings of all levels of achievement and wants
to inspire you to share in this excitement in your classroom. She will help you work through examples using
factors and number operations as well as high-level algebra. You will see how the same task can be used in
basic, intermediate, and advanced classes and how these tasks help all learners feel they can be successful
engaging in mathematical thinking. Check out the website at nrich.maths.org and Megan Schmidt's blog
at mathybeagle.com.
Unfolding Student Understanding - Mary Williams, Room 210
(Middle School/High School, foldables, interactive notebooks)
Foldables are graphic organizers that blend visual and kinesthetic learning styles. They also provide an
excellent method for teaching students how to take a lot of data and condense it to key terms and information
they can review for application and assessment. In this session I will share foldables I use in the classroom, and
how students create a Foldable Book throughout the year that becomes a valuable resource as they build
Algebra skills. Foldables range from basic skills such as fraction and integer rules, to core Algebraic skills
including solving multi-step equations, parent graphs, and exponent rules, and also a fairly complex statistics
foldable. Although I teach Algebra I, the foldables are easily adapted to upper or lower grade levels. Attend
this session and learn how to make the coolest foldable EVER.

Friday, July 25th

9:00 9:30 am

Morning Announcements and My Favorites, Presentation Hall, 3rd Floor

9:30 11:30 am

Morning Sessions (same as Thursday)

11:30 am 1:00 pm
1:00 1:30 pm

Lunch (on your own)

Afternoon My Favorites, Presentation Hall, 3rd Floor

1:30 2:30 pm

Keynote, Presentation Hall, 3rd Floor

What's an MTBoS Good For Anyway? Dan Meyer

Do you feel a bit cult-y when you tell your department about your imaginary online friends? Do they
seem uninterested? A little scared? Perhaps they need an MTBoS for reasons you've never thought of. Dan
wants to answer the questions a) who is the MTBoS good for, b) how is it good for them, c) how should we talk
about it with our colleagues. So he's going to interview every single person in the MTBoS and tell you what he
learned.

2:45 3:45 pm

Afternoon Sessions

Hinge Questions - Nik Doran, Room 209

(all levels, questioning, formative assessment)
Hinge, or diagnostic, questions are a powerful method to formatively assess students, gauge
understanding and expose misconceptions, all within about 3 minutes of lesson time. In the time available we
will look at the theory behind the questions, examine examples and discuss how we might write them. As
much of the session as possible will be devoted to working with others to develop hinge questions for use in
our own classrooms, and to discuss how the information gathered from each could be used.
Hinge questions are suitable for use across all grade levels and subjects and are partially built on the
research findings of Dylan Wiliam. Cookies included.
Bringing Basic TI Programming to the Math Classroom: No Coding Knowledge Necessary - Jasmine Walker
and Amy Gruen, Room 208
(grades 9-12)
Bringing coding to the math classroom is exciting and gives students opportunities to learn problem
solving and iteration. Many teachers are nervous to try programming, yet Jasmine and Amy have very little
formal Computer Science experience, and have both helped students to appreciate the joy of the language of
Programming through small projects on the TI-83/84 calculators. In this workshop we will show you some
basic commands, walk you through writing a few programs, and give you time to play & write your own. We
will share projects weve done in our classrooms and give you some resources to get started. You will leave
with student handouts and a list of programs/projects. (Bring your own TI if you can. If not, well have some
for you to use.)
Algebra 1 and Statistics - Glenn Waddell, Room 118
(stats, Algebra 1, Common Core)
Dont be afraid of statistics! Embrace statistics! During this hour session, we will do a lesson on
collecting, analyzing, and displaying data for the Algebra 1 course. If you are wary of teaching statistics at the
Algebra 1 level, this session will help you embrace your inner stats nerd while also giving you resources to take
away and use in your classroom this upcoming year.

2:45 3:45 pm

Afternoon Sessions

Interactive Notebooks - Jonathan Claydon, Room 110

(grades 7-12)
A discussion on the various ways notebooks are used in the math classroom. Newcomers and
experienced users are welcome. If you have used notebooks before, you are encouraged to bring examples to
share, there is always something new to learn when using notebooks in the classroom. If you are new to
notebooks, we will discuss the many ways they can improve your classroom environment and how to
overcome the hurdles necessary to get started.
Reaching and Teaching "Those Kids" - Chris Shore, Room 108
(intervention, engagement)
"Those kids" used to get shoveled off to remedial classes, but now they sit in the same classes with
everyone else... and you have to teach them the same content to the same level of expectation. Even in that
environment, near 100% pass rates are possible. Chris will show specific ways to improve work habits,
engagement, and fundamental math skills. Practical intervention strategies will also be shared. Improve
student achievement by getting Demanding, Focused, Determined and Excited!
Powerful Problem Solving - Max Ray, Room 117
(all levels, Math Forum, problem solving)
Let's talk about, and do some activities from, the book Powerful Problem Solving. I'll bring some of my
favorite problems and activities, and you can bring some of your favorite problems to solve and problemsolving activities, and we'll play with math, talk about classroom implementation, and reflect on the role of
problem solving for teaching and for students.
Tired of Memorizing Formulas, Me Too. Try Transformations Jed Butler, Room 210
Come see how transformations (especially the rigid ones) make sense in CCSS math. We will look at
dynamic interactive math in hi tech and (some) lo tech formats to help secondary math students. Get a better
handle on how transformations lay the foundation for topics like angle relationships, congruence, and area
and see how similar dynamic exercises can help develop a better understanding for relationships with circles
and proportionality.
If you'd like to see a sample of some of the stuff that could be included check out:
bit.ly/transformulasGMD
How to Organize a Collaboration Event in Your District/City/State - Adrian Pumphrey and Jillian Paulen,
Room 217
Love learning from other Math teachers? Want to take the magic of Twitter Math Camp back with you
to your district/city/state? Learn how you can easily organize a low key event for math teachers in your area
to get together face-to-face and talk about how to teach math, better. We will discuss how you can put your
event together, how to promote your event and organize logistics with relative ease. Find out about where
and how this is already happening and how you can be part of a collaboratastic revolution!

4:00 5:00 pm

Afternoon Sessions

How to add Videos to Your Lessons Jason Valade, Room 110

(Video, YouTube, Timely Material, Teaching the YouTube Generation)
You want to use a portion of a movie, trailer or Youtube video (etc) in your lesson. I'll show you a
couple of ways and together, we'll start building an archive of math-related clips to share.

4:00 5:00 pm

Afternoon Sessions

Project-Based Statistics - Andy Pethan, Room 118

(stats, PBL)
I will share class projects I use in my Stats course (Ultimate Frisbee simulation, Minute to Win It,
Gapminder videos), independent projects students have done (involving topics from programming to politics
to bullying), and how I restructured the course to open up significant time for group and individual project
work. We will run through the competition where teams draft Ultimate Frisbee players based on their stats
and test their predictions by running the players back through a simulator. I am excited to share what is
working for me while looking for feedback on where to take the next iteration.
Nix the Tricks - Tina Cardone, Room 208
(all levels, strategies)
Do you cringe when a student's reaction to every problem involving fractions is "cross multiply!"? It
doesn't matter whether you teach elementary or high school, having a student yell out a trick without
stopping to think is painful. This presentation is based off the crowd-sourced book Nix the Tricks which is
filled with alternatives to the shortcuts so prevalent in mathematics education. We will discuss exactly why
the tricks are so bad for understanding math, how to avoid some common ones and end with a call to action how can we spread this resource to a larger community of teachers, tutors, parents and administrators?
Lesson Study: Learning and Teaching - That's What It's All About - Judy Keeney, Room 209
(lesson study, collaboration)
Lesson Studythe practice of gathering educators together to study and learn; a structured process
that offers educators an opportunity to collaboratively think about their work in new ways; a focused
conversation that examines learning and teaching from different perspectives.
The session is organized around the documents, videos, photos, and notes from work of the Canoe
Complex-McKinley High-School Lesson Study group. They spent 3 years working and learning together. As a
result of their collaboration, they developed a really nice process that organized their conversations around
content, pedagogy, students, learning, teaching, understanding, mistakes, mathematical discourse, and all
that makes a classroom a great place to be.
Each time the lesson study group met they studied and discussed content and effective pedagogy.
They designed a shared lesson and then taught the lesson to one or more classes. A structured process was
utilized to analyze the impact of the lesson design on students learning.
We will use the lesson study groups original work to examine the outcomes of their collaborationthe
joy, the struggles, the spectacular mistakes, the frustrations, and the learning. Our conversation will close
with a discussion of how their processes might be used to design, organize, and/or support the work of other
collaborative groups.
Magnetize the Minds - John Stevens, Room 210
(all levels, meaningful math, content creation)
This is NOT a presentation. Selfishly, I'm looking to bring together some great teachers to collaborate
around great lessons. The room will simply be a space for teachers to build the best lessons we can by way of
providing what we never get: face time with people who we respect and are inspired by. If you have a lesson
that you want improved, have ideas to improve lessons, or simply like messing around with other peoples'
math, this is the place to be.
Math Coaches & Specialists Discussion led by Chris Shore, Room 108
Join us for a roundtable discussion on the adventures of leading colleagues through the change process.

4:00 5:00 pm

Afternoon Sessions

Course Plans and Unit Blueprints: Supporting Coherent Curriculum Development Kate Nowak, Room 109
(Grades 6-11)
Many students learn mathematics as a collection of isolated topics and procedures, and the CCSS-M
provide an opportunity to correct that. The goal of curriculum should be to weave together the Mathematical
Practices and content through a variety of experiences so that students can understand and use the
ideas. The standards, however, do not spell out how this is to be accomplished, and all over the country,
states, districts, and schools are struggling with this translation process. Too often, curriculum maps are just
lists of standards that do not translate into coherent mathematical experiences for students. The objective of
this presentation is to describe some of the misconceptions about the CCSSM and their implementation, and
share recent approaches to address these problems. A collaboration between Illustrative Mathematics, High
Tech High, and Mathalicious is developing mathematical and pedagogical narratives for units (called Unit
Blueprints) and ways of arranging these units (called Course Plans) that scaffold coherent curriculum
development. I will describe what we mean by a curriculum plan and a unit blueprint and give examples of
both. I'll also discuss how these tools can support teachers, districts, and publishers in providing a structured
and coherent narrative of the mathematics and pedagogical pathways that supports students in meeting the
standards.
Take a Walk and Chat with People - Michael Pershan, Room 117
(all levels)
It's widely said that the best part of conventions are the conversations. Besides, you probably need a
break from more formal sessions. Meet up and take a walk. (If the weather sucks, we'll find some other way to
hang out.)

Saturday, July 26th

9:00 9:30 am

Morning Announcements and My Favorites, Presentation Hall, 3rd Floor

9:30 11:30 am

Morning Sessions (same as Thursday and Friday)

11:30 am 1:00 pm
1:00 1:30 pm

Lunch (on your own)

Afternoon My Favorites, Presentation Hall, 3rd Floor

1:30 2:30 pm

Keynote, Presentation Hall, 3rd Floor

It Takes a Village... - Eli Luberoff

... to build great digital content.
Come play with the latest classroom activities from Desmos. Eli Luberoff, founder of Desmos, will give
a guided tour of Desmos' vision for developing digital content. Central to this vision: the eye-to-eye
collaborations Desmos has undertaken with members of this community, guided by Christopher Danielson and
Dan "Christopherson" Meyer. We'll end by working through "Function Carnival" or one of its successors.
Depending on the mood of the room and the alignment of the stars, some new Desmos Calculator features
might make cameo appearances.

2:45 3:45 pm

Afternoon Sessions

Problems in GeoGebra - John Golden, Audrey McLaren and Jed Butler, Room 208
(grades 7-16, GeoGebra)
GeoGebra is a free open-source, multi-platform dynamical mathematical program. It is an excellent
platform for animation, math art, modeling and of course visualizing geometric and algebraic relationships.
In this session teachers will explore GeoGebraTube as a searchable instructional resource, learn to create
dynamic mathematical illustrations in GeoGebra, and discuss teaching application of what problems for
students look like in the context of GeoGebra, in middle school math, algebra and geometry, drawing on
examples from the MTBoS. Because of GeoGebraTube, this session may be of interest to teachers just looking
for an online resource that allows students to play, discover and conjecture. But the free and easy access also
raises the possibility of students making their own mathematical illustrations and creations in a tool they will
be able to access outside of school.
Princess Dido and the Ox Skin - Chris Shore, Room 108
(Geometry, perimeter and area)
Princess Dido was told that she could have as much land as she could enclose with the skin of an Ox.
Just how much land is that? Let's use some Geometry, scissors and a bed sheet to find out. This lesson won
the Presidential Award; come see why.
Spiraling Through the Curriculum - Alex Overwijk and Mary Bourassa, Room 209
(grades 9-12)
What happens when you let go of units or strands and introduce inquiry-based learning for your entire
curriculum? Students are interested in the mathematics and they learn! They see topics multiple times
throughout the course, make connections between the topics and understand the mathematics in context.
Student evaluations cover multiple curriculum expectations allowing students to demonstrate growth over the
semester. This session will allow you to try activities and answer your how questions.

2:45 3:45 pm

Afternoon Sessions

WCYDWT - Stats Edition Hedge, Room 118

(Common Core, stats)
After teaching AP Stats for a few years, I began to see stats labs in items that may not strike you as
"statistical manipulatives". My goal for this session is to allow you to try out some of the materials I use in AP
Stats labs and brainstorm ways to use them in your own classes. These manipulatives could be applicable from
the middle school classroom all the way to Algebra 2 (in combination with other variables).
You will rotate through probability and statistics stations to get some hands-on practice using different
items. In groups, you will be given some suggested uses for those items but will be encouraged to brainstorm
ways to extend those uses to specific Common Core standards for your grade/course. The goal is to inspire
you to think outside the box when planning your probability/stats lessons and give you some inexpensive ways
to increase student engagement.
Using Tech Tools to Facilitate Whole Class Communication - Bob Lochel, Room 117
(technology, classroom organization)
Technology tools allow students to share ideas, collaborate and organize information, helping teachers
encourage participation and facilitate discussions. In this session, a number of free online tools (Padlet,
Todays Meet, Poll Everywhere, Edmodo, Google Drive) will be presented and modeled, along with
implementation strategies for document cameras and apps. Well discuss best practices for engaging all
learners in online collaboration, and help our students to Construct viable arguments and critique the
reasoning of others (SMP3). Activities will include lesson examples from Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Statistics,
some featuring the Desmos online graphing calculator. Whether you are are a 1-1 technology classroom, have
limited technology options, or allow students to use their own devices, there will be something for everyone!
Inspiring Mathematical Curiosity Through Hands-On Activities - Sarah Hagan, Room 210
(all levels, hands-on activities)
As teachers, we know there is much more to mathematics than our various curricula cover. Curiosity
results from exposure, but how often are our students exposed to various mathematical marvels? Come and
learn creative ways to spark student interest in further mathematical explorations. Be prepared to cut, glue,
fold paper, and be amazed as we practice making predictions with tricky mbius strip puzzles and construct
hexaflexagons (warning - they're addictive!). Discussion will focus on opportunities to tie these fun
mathematical puzzles and creations into the standards we already teach.

4:00 5:00 pm

Flex Sessions, TBD

A place to add sessions as they come up during the week

Sunday, July 27th

9:00 11:00 am

My Favorites and Closing, Presentation Hall, 3rd Floor