Monday Sessions
Did you want to be in two places at once? Now you can go back and watch all the great NCSM virtual conference sessions you missed.
Session 1: 11:00 am – 12:00 pm EDT
Building Capacity In Statistics And Mathematical Modeling
Rachel Levy
With the rise of data science and interdisciplinary professions, the quantitative, computational and communication skills needed in the workforce are growing. This requires ongoing professional development to help teachers engage students in mathematical modeling and statistics in ways that teachers may not have experienced as students or in their preparation programs. To facilitate new practices in their classrooms, teachers need ongoing support, which can be provided through the powerful combination of professional development and learning communities. The Mathematical Association of America has developed several National Science Foundation (NSF) funded national-scale professional development mechanisms to build evidence-based teaching practices within professional learning communities. Through an institutional NSF grant, I have also partnered with a school district to build teacher-led professional development in mathematical modeling for elementary school teachers. I’ll introduce several of these programs and emphasize elements that led to sustained success and growth both of the professional development effort and of the community-building.
See It, Move It, Grasp It: Math With Virtual Manipulatives
Christine Newell
Manipulatives are important tools that help young mathematicians make sense of complex mathematical ideas. Technology provides opportunities for students to engage with virtual manipulatives alongside or in place of concrete ones, but what changes and what stays the same when students "drag and drop" instead of pick up and place? In this session, we will discuss opportunities and limitations of virtual manipulatives using a free virtual manipulatives app—bring your own device!
Utilizing Math History To Embrace Equity, Failure, and Authentic Problem Solving In Leadership Communities
Sunil Singh
In order to move forward in math education with clarity, conviction, and compassion for equity, we need to have a broader lens. Specifically, one that looks back at our past, and the multitude of interwoven stories from thousands of years of global contribution. The thematic development of mathematics, with all its historic struggles, human resilience, and collective journeys, must be braided into our equity goals and mandates for the math leaders of today and tomorrow.
6 Actions For Productive Struggle In The Mathematics Classroom
John SanGiovanni
For some, productive struggle has become little more than a buzz phrase with few strategies available to realize it. We know that it is critically important. Yet, how is it valued, provoked, and supported? In this session, participants will identify five actions for productive struggle. Participants will learn about strategies for developing these actions in the mathematics programs they lead. Practical and ready-to-use resources will be shared to support each of these actions.
Session 2: 12:30 – 1:30 pm EDT
Using A Variety Of Media To Lead Courageous Conversations Among Mathematics Education Stakeholders
Marilyn Strutchens
As change agents for ensuring that each and every student has access to a meaningful and relevant mathematics education, it is important that we are able to orchestrate courageous conversations around issues of equity and social justice among stakeholders. Participants will examine a variety of media that can be used as catalysts for courageous conversations around stereotypes and beliefs about particular groups of students and dangerous assumptions about their mathematics abilities. Strategies for conducting the conversations will also be discussed.
Supporting Professionals To Counteract Racism and Oppression in the Discretionary Spaces Of Their Work
Deborah Ball
This presentation will focus on ways to help educators learn to use their discretionary power to counteract patterns and habits of practice that reproduce racism and inequity. We will investigate how these patterns can be interrupted and replaced with practices that support justice and equity. Focusing on the important work of those who support teachers, this session will examine how to develop systematically and make possible instruction that deliberately disrupts inequity.
Be Both Author And Illustrator Of Mathematical Understanding
Jill Gough
How might we redirect the focus of teaching and learning to center on empowering each and every student as sense-makers and doers of mathematics as they develop their mathematical identities and become agents of their own learning? We want every learner in our care to be BOTH the author and illustrator of their mathematical understanding. Explore how to deepen understanding, promote productive struggle, and increase flexibility by using and connecting mathematical representations. Providing multiple pathways to success invites diverse learners’ ideas to the conversation. We will sketch and compute to develop a visual, vertical understanding of numeracy and how to connect learning between grades and courses.
Creating Interesting Ways For Students To Be Right and Wrong
Eli Luberoff
Correct math depends on right answers. But meaningful math celebrates both right and wrong answers, allowing students to intrepidly explore and express their reasoning in varied and interesting ways. In this session, we’ll examine high- and low-tech ways for teachers to celebrate diverse work and build on student thinking in every form.
Session 3: 2:30 – 3:30 pm EDT
How Mathematicians Play: Creating A Culture Of Ownership, Rigor, and Joy In Math Class
Daniel Finkel
Play is one of the most effective ways to explore new contexts and make connections. Still, play without boundaries won’t help us to achieve our teaching goals. We need to develop structures and strategies to connect meaningful exploration and develop true mathematical understanding. This session will focus on concrete methods to marry play and rigor in math class. Using conjectures and counterexamples, classroom openers, and other routines, we can build a classroom culture that motivates students to think more deeply and take ownership of their own mathematical learning.
Secondary and Postsecondary Mathematics Alignment At Scale—It’s A Big Job and Someone Has To Do It!
Katey Arrington andTed Coe
More than twenty state leadership teams are working toward greater secondary-postsecondary alignment for high-quality mathematics. The Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences (CBMS) in partnership with the Dana Center and Achieve are supporting the state level teams’ work as change agents over two years. This session will provide information about the goals of the work and partnerships between k-12 and higher education, the structures used to support teams’ work, and highlights of progress made.
Teaching Mathematics For Social Justice
Kris Childs
Do you believe every child deserves a high-quality mathematics experience regardless of their socioeconomic status, gender, and/or ethnicity? Do you want to learn how to create a mathematics educational community within your environment that ensures ALL students succeed academically? If you answered; yes, this session will provide you with the opportunity to make sense of students’ current mathematics experience, experience a reimagined mathematics experience, and learn the key components to recreate this experience in your educational environment.
Why Aren’t We There Yet?
Cathy Seeley
We’ve taken one bold step after another in mathematics education for decades. NCSM redefined basic skills in 1975, NCTM published a problem-solving-focused agenda in 1980 and standards in 1989. States created, then ramped up standards, with NCTM and NCSM providing resources to empower leaders and teachers. Why haven’t we seen the improvement we envisioned? Let’s look together at what’s worked, what gets in the way, and where we can go next.
Session 4: 4:00 – 5:00 pm EDT
Starting With Me: Transforming Mathematics Education From The Inside Out
Michelle Reinhart
How might we transform the organizations we serve by first transforming ourselves? In order to lead mathematics education forward, we must understand ourselves as leaders and learners, including our strengths, preferences, blind spots, and limitations. Without attending to these aspects of our leadership personas, we are likely to limit or undermine our professional effectiveness. In this session, we’ll explore how to effectively transform ourselves in order to transform mathematics education in our spheres of influence.
Where Am I In My Equity Walk? Where Will You Be In 2025?
John Staley and Julia Aguirre
How might we improve the teaching and learning of mathematics for each and every student? Mathematics Education Through the Lens of Social Justice: Acknowledgment, Actions, and Accountability(NCSM/TODOS, 2016),calls for "mathematics teachers and leaders to take multiple actions to create and sustain institutional structures, policies, and practices that lead to just and equitable learning opportunities, experiences, and outcomes for children." Join us as we reflect and discuss key actions to deepen and sustain your equity work.
The Five Practices In Practice: Successfully Orchestrating Mathematics Discussions In Your High School Classroom
Michael Steele, Peg Smith and Miriam Sherin
There are many challenges that teachers face when facilitating productive mathematics discussions in high school, including identifying meaningful mathematical goals and rich tasks, launching a task in ways to provide students with a path to success, and supporting students as they individually and collaboratively make sense of the mathematical ideas. This session will provide teachers and leaders with strategies for orchestrating productive discussions in high school classrooms in ways that support all students’ mathematical learning.
Leading With Kindness
Mary Kemper
The world and the mathematics community needs more kindness. It is possible to lead with high expectations while being compassionate and building relationships. I will share my intentional moves to lead with kindness (including oneon-one time, 2:00 pm coffee walks, and handwritten notes) and the benefits that result. I will challenge the participants to integrate loving kindness into their daily actions to help others feel worthy of the valuable job of teaching our children.