Regional Conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

The regional conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in November of 2009.

Minneapolis is only about a two and half hour drive from my hometown, and, as the conference was being held at a nearby location, my school's staff development department decided to take advantage of this unique opportunity to send teachers from every grade level to the conference.

I was asked to attend and agreed but I have to admit I was a little intimidated. I'm a first grade teacher and would be attending the conference with teachers of algebra, trigonometry and other advanced math classes. I wondered if I would have anything to add to the discussion...or if I would even be able to understand the discussion!

My fears were put to rest upon arriving at the NCTM conference. There were breakout sessions about a variety of math topics for math teachers of students of all ages.

Presenters ranged from a talented, tech-saavy young math teacher in Wisconsin who uses technology to enhance his teaching in ways most of us only dream of to college professors to a math expert from Austrailia.

Conference participants came from all corners of Minnesota in great numbers. There were people in attendance from South Dakota, Nebraska and other nearby states but also from Canada and as far away as California.

One session which was of particular interest to me was a brief introduction to Singapore math. Math students from Singapore generally understand the concept of place value at a much younger age than American students. Singapore math involves a different way of counting numbers past nine which makes it clear to students that, for example, 15 represents a very different value than the number 51.

A helpful tool I learned about in another session was the use of five frames, ten frames and twenty frames. That was something I could take right back to my classroom and use with not only with my struggling students but with all my students. The National Council of Teachers of Math website provides a five and ten frame computer game to use in your classroom or on your home computer: http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?id=74.

I recommend attending a National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference to anyone who teaches math, whether you are a beginning teacher or a teacher with years of experience. If you are looking for a world perspective on the teaching of mathematics or just hoping to renew your enthusiasm for the subject, this conference offers something for you.

In 2010, NCTM Regional Conferences will be held in Denver, Colorado, on October 7-8, Baltimore, Maryland, on October 14-15, and in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 28-29.

Source:

www.nctm.org

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?id=74

http://www.nctm.org/conferences/default.aspx?id=52