Reflections is a monthly column for teachers, by teachers on topics of interest to mathematics educators: lesson plans, book/resource reviews, reflections on classroom experiences, and more. If you are interested in sharing your own ideas with mathematics educators in the province (and beyond), consider contributing to this column! Contact us at thevariable (at) smts (dot) ca.
10 things I learned at #NCTMannual
Amanda Culver
Last month, I was lucky enough to be able to spend a few days in San Francisco for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Annual Meeting and Exposition. This was my first experience at an NCTM Conference, and it won’t be my last! My days were full of sessions and I overbooked myself, because there were multiple sessions I wanted to go to that were scheduled at the same time. However, all of the sessions that I ended up attending were awesome (well, with the exception of one, which I walked out of because there weren’t enough materials for all participants; no big deal – I went teacher crazy at Target!). The amount of swag at the conference was ridiculous – my suitcase was bursting with all of the notepads, bags, pencils, pens, ribbons, pins, and t-shirts that I picked up. So many t-shirts!
Teachers love free merch!
Of course, the swag isn’t the only take-away from a conference like this. Continue reading
In a magic square, the sums of the numbers in the rows, columns and diagonals are all equal. Use a 4×4 grid to make a magic square for these numbers: 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, … 1.4, 1.5, 1.6.
Dr. Kathy Nolan is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in mathematics curriculum, qualitative research, and contemporary issues in education. Dr. Nolan’s current research focuses on mathematics teacher education, exploring issues of teacher identity and the regulatory practices of schooling, learning and knowing. Bourdieu’s social field theory and theories of critical mathematics education feature prominently in Dr. Nolan’s work. She is the author and co-editor of two books, as well as author of more than 40 published articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings papers. In 2012, she was awarded a Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant for her project entitled Reconceptualizing Secondary Mathematics Teacher Education: Critical and Reflexive Perspectives. Within this qualitative research program, Dr. Nolan seeks to strengthen connections between teacher education, curriculum reform and mathematics education research by studying the interplay of different perspectives, or dimensions, of teacher education. One such perspective includes research into the design and facilitation of a professional learning community approach to teacher education internship.
