Last week, I had an awesome opportunity to learn with educators across the state of Texas at the annual Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching (CAMT). This year’s CAMT conference was hosted in San Antonio at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, right by the famous River Walk and Alamo! The theme, Viva las Mátematicas, was prevalent not only in the bright colors found around the event space, but in the focus of mathematics as something to celebrate as well.
Throughout the conference I noticed a few consistent threads of thought:
A session from Maria Franshaw at River Oaks Baptist School really stood out to me. It’s not necessarily that parents need concrete math education; it’s that we’re trying to change perceptions about how students should interact with math. The road to deeper conceptual understanding is a process built through many, many experiences—which can look very different to parents depending on how they learned math.
Many parents believe their kids should learn math the way they were taught - memorization, procedures. But we're asking for deeper understanding- and that process looks foreign to parents. @STMath @MIND_Research #CAMT19 pic.twitter.com/QaMC2ZucZW
— Calli Wright (@CalliWrights) July 10, 2019
Even when educators aren’t directly communicating with parents, everything that goes home is a communication with parents. Many parents are curious, and they want to help their children succeed. How do we give them the context and tools to help students when the process of learning math looks so different?
One of the key takeaways is letting parents experience productive struggle and the process of developing conceptual understanding through creative problem solving. Let’s give them those experiences then contextualize it, like with these math resources for parents.
My colleague Brandon Smith said it well in his presentation on personalized learning. Learning is an action, and helping parents understand this will give them the mindset to facilitate learning, rather than trying to impart knowledge.
“Learning is not something we impart to students, but something they do for themselves.”
— Brandon Smith, MIND Research Institute
There were a few sessions focused on social media, from introducing social tools to developing a plan to use the tools more for professional development. Educators were all over social media using the hashtag #CAMT19 to share their notes, takeaways, and insights.
One of my key takeaways included how social media is a tool that enables you to learn from other educators beyond the walls of your school and district.
Looking for some resources to take your social media activity to the next level? Check out my thread on Twitter:
Let's get more professional learning out of social media! Thank you to everyone who attended my session at #CAMT19! Here's a huge thread of resources so we can build great habits for this coming school year. #teacherpd
— Calli Wright (@CalliWrights) July 12, 2019
Visual models were a popular topic at CAMT this year! What I appreciated about many of these sessions was the focus on experiencing math as a student would. In “Building Mathematical Concepts Through Visual Models” with Carol Jean Wallace from the Math Learning Center, “Composing Meaningful Math Discussion for Grades K-2” with Brittney Goerig from Hand2Mind, and “Math Modeling Can Make You Filthy Rich” with Robert Kaplinsky, we did a lot of work with both concrete and visual models.
Experiencing the math at #CAMT19. Learning from Brittney Goerig from @hand2mind! pic.twitter.com/GUs9X480nB
— Calli Wright (@CalliWrights) July 10, 2019
It’s hard work though! It takes so many of these experiences to build those mathematical connections. It can also be a little discouraging, but many of the presenters acknowledged the need for patience instead of algorithmic shortcuts.
When students work over time to make mathematical connections, the stronger those memories become. @MathletePearce at #CAMT19! #tapintoteenminds #mathisvisual @STMath pic.twitter.com/3wzy4eAgeq
— Calli Wright (@CalliWrights) July 11, 2019
Opportunities like these are also where technology can be used to thoughtfully support the process. What if we could give students a high volume of interactions with concepts wherever they are in their math journey—with immediate and informative feedback at a much faster rate than in a whole class lesson?
At our booth, educators got hands-on experience with the visual and spatial-temporal models from our award-winning ST Math program. Using visual models, students are better equipped to tackle unfamiliar math problems, recognize patterns, and build conceptual understanding. Not only do visual models remove the initial language barrier to learning math, but later, symbols and language can be introduced with context in a way that deepens understanding.
Play games and experience spatial temporal reasoning with @STMath at our booth, 212, at #CAMT19! @Math_Man_Dan @CAMTtweets #txed pic.twitter.com/TDlO3ErEiM
— Calli Wright (@CalliWrights) July 11, 2019
Did you know there are grants available to support your blended learning goals at your school or district? The Texas Education Agency (TEA) funds Math Innovation Zones (MIZ) to help schools get both technology and software. This could include anything from technology infrastructure, to professional development, to software programs that are approved by the state.
I was excited to hear from one of our ST Math district partners, Kimberly Faircloth, the District K-12 Mathematics Specialist at Southside ISD, about how they used the MIZ grant to implement blended learning. Their “perfect storm” to take advantage of this opportunity? The combination of focus on teacher collaboration, teacher support, and blended learning. The MIZ grants will open for applications in the fall, so be on the lookout!
Did you know? There's funding to help support your goals for blended learning in math for your district! Check out Math Innovation Zones with @teainfo @STMath #CAMT19 #txed https://t.co/GB3w5iLgQY pic.twitter.com/BlKZDtc6cC
— Calli Wright (@CalliWrights) July 11, 2019
If you’d like to learn more about ST Math, we highly recommend experiencing the spatial-temporal models for yourself with our guided video tours and free games.
A big thank you to all of the educators who took time out of their summer break (or schedule) to share and learn with us at CAMT!
Calli Wright was the Marketing Manager at MIND Research Institute. She loves playing and designing board games, which she often talks about on twitter @CalliWrights.
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