Thursday, July 26, 2018

Twitter Math Camp Round 2: Electric Boogaloo

I've been putting off writing this summary post because I feel like I am still processing TMC18. This year just felt like a lot.

The thought that keeps circling around my brain is this: TMC17 made me a better math teacher. TMC18 is going to make me a better teacher. And human, I think.

I didn't stay in the hotel last year and so I didn't participate in any of the social activities. It stands to reason then that the workshops would have been my focus. I revamped my planning and teaching methods because of going to Anna's sessions last year.



This year I did stay at the hotel and got to experience the crazy. :) Coincidentally or not, this year was personal. Full of hard questions and reckoning with what my answers had to say about me.

Eli's talk at the Desmos Preconference got me started thinking about the politics of math education.


 Marion's keynote the following day continued that theme and hit me hard. I was still struggling to find my composure 20 minutes later. If you haven't gotten a chance to watch it, you should.




That night, I was lucky enough to snag a ticket to Hamilton.
In case you've been living under a rock (or just don't like it), Lin-Manuel Miranda describes Hamilton as "...a story about America then, told by America now." How Lin-Manuel Miranda Shapes History It's amazing but heavy, especially when you're primed to see the themes of race and immigration woven throughout the musical. I'm still working through my thoughts on this but I'm so grateful I finally got a chance to see it, and especially in the context of TMC.

The next day, Julie had us all crying for a different reason.

(The actual talk kicks in at about the 4 minute mark). You may have seen the #TeacherLeader hashtag come across your twitter feed on Friday. Julie gave us three prompts to answer embedded throughout her talk.



I cannot even begin to tell you how hard it was to push send on that first tweet. Seriously. Julie discussed her fights with Impostor Syndrome and you could see the nods of recognition going around the room. We all fight these battles and she wanted to remind us that we are enough and our work is valid and should be shared. It was cathartic for many people, myself included.


Julie gave us all stickers as a reminder. Mine now lives on my planning/ideas book where I'll see it almost every day. Thanks, Julie!

Sessions on coaching adults and changing school culture raised more hard questions and ideas that I'm still sorting through. More thoughts on those to come, I think. Which brings me to my #1TMCthing that totally ended up being three things, because I'm me.

 So this is my attempt at my first thing and really also an attempt at the third. Baby steps.

Thanks to Julie, Taylor, and Joel for giving me the push to write this, whether you knew it or not.

I'm so grateful to my #MTBoS and #TMC families for giving me space to learn and grow along side of you. Thanks for making me a better human.

See you in 357 days.
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And now for something completely different...

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