Hallmark does not have a card for this!

We here in Ontario are on March Break during the International Day of Mathematics (March 14) but there's always lots of math to find around the province! David Petro, (host of OAME's podcast series OAMETalks!) shares Ontario Math Links every week! And when you log in to the OAME website, you've got 50 years of Gazette and Abacus journal articles! Feel free to visit chatOAME under Member Links on the oame.on.ca website for other ideas. Share with us any other sources of Ontario Math you know!

The theme this year is Mathematics and Hope, which hearkens back to February's Counter and the JRME editorial by Lani Horne, and it echoes ISOMA's conference in April with Mathematics for Human Flourishing.

We wish you all an amazing March Break!  Enjoy the well-earned holiday.

Did you know? As an OAME member, you have access to the Abacus - a quarterly publication exclusively for elementary mathematics teachers. This month's issue is all about helping students make sense of symmetry: what paper folding and dynamic geometry can teach us.

Check out the March 2026 issue - as well as all the back issues of the Abacus - by logging into the members-only section of the OAME website, and looking under "Member Links" for the Gazette Archive.  And when using chatOAME, expect to see links to articles from the Abacus that might support or expand on your prompt or reply!

Voting is open for the OAME/AOEM Elections! All members can vote in the election. Log in to your account at oame.on.ca and select the OAME Elections link in the Member Links section. Voting closes March 31st!

chatOAME -- the AI chatbot found on the OAME website under Member Links and based on OAME knowledge -- now creates fraction circles, clock faces (analog), fraction strips and strip diagrams if you mention them in your prompt or chatOAME mentions them in its reply. So if you talk about a fraction exercise and chatOAME says "how about using fraction strips" and then talks about 1/3 and 1/4, then there will be fraction strip images for 1/3 and 1/4 at the bottom of the reply. And yes, the images will appear in your Word or GoogleDoc (or can be downloaded separately).

The diagrams are all mathematically, algorithmically generated NOT by AI, so they will always be correct representations.

Do you know a diagram everyone needs? Tell us at oame.ai@oame.on.ca!  

Peter Beens from the Association for Computer Science Educators (ASCE) has been working on several custom GPTs for various purposes. He shared that he has one for teachers preparing for the MPT.

https://chatgpt.com/g/g-Fnqk53R76-ontario-new-teachers-math-proficiency-mpt-guide 

Peter is a great computer science educator and programmer and his website is extensive. Feel free to reach out if you have any feedback about his MPT GPT: Peter Beens Website 

Join us on Thursday, April 16th from 4-8:30pm at Appleby College in Oakville for an evening of mathematics!  More information and registration can be found at this link.

We'll have teacher-led sessions throughout the late afternoon, followed by dinner and then a presentation by Francis Su, the author of Mathematics for Human Flourishing: 

I’ve aimed this book at a wide audience—especially those of you who don’t see yourselves as “math people.” Maybe the way for you to see yourself in mathematics is not for me to convince you that math is great or that math does lots of wonderful things, but for me to show you that math is intimately tied to being human. For then your deepest human desires reveal your mathematical nature—and you only need to awaken it. My friend Christopher Jackson, who discovered math as an inmate in a federal prison, has helped me see this more clearly than ever before. 

Dream Forward, STEAM Ahead! is a face-to-face conference bringing educators a dynamic, future-focused learning experience designed to reignite STEAM education across Ontario. This event invites educators to explore innovative practices that blend creativity, technology, equity, and hands-on problem solving—while showcasing authentic pathways for student success, including the skilled trades.

"This is more than a conference—it’s a movement to transform how we teach, learn, and dream forward together!"

The conference will be Saturday, March 28th, from 8:30am - 3:00pm in Milton.

Registration is now open! Visit bit.ly/dreamSTEAM_reg for more information.

Thanks to Amplify, we can now generate Polypad canvases based on your conversations with chatOAME. At the moment, we do algebra tiles only, but let us know what our priorities should be at oame.ai@oame.on.ca and we can add other objects! 

If your reply involves a linear or quadratic relationship, a small blue Polypad chip will appear and the background of the relationship will turn blue. Click on the Polypad chip and a new browser window will open with the algebra tiles corresponding to your expression or equation (you can even bookmark the page to return to it in class or copy and share the URL with others!). 

We'd like to thank Amplify for their generosity in letting OAME use their Polypad API to do this! (And Desmos for letting us use Desmos graphing for any graphs!)

The OAME2026 Annual Conference is now open for registration! Join us at Fanshawe College in London on April 30 and May 1, 2026. This year’s theme, “Let’s Talk Math” puts student thinking (and teacher learning!) right in the conversation.

It’s a hybrid conference, with both in-person and virtual options — so you can join the dialogue from wherever you are.

• Full program (PDF): Click here to check out OAME2026!

Looking for a place to stay? Visit the list of recommended accommodations for the conference, but note that many of them have a cut-off date for booking with the special conference rates as either the middle or end of March. Book soon to avoid disappointment!

For full conference details, visit www.oame2026.ca or email inquiries2026@oame.on.ca.

Stay connected and get updates by following @oamelearns on Bluesky and Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn.

explorAItion! 2.0 has its next evening of sessions Thursday, April 2nd! The virtual conference explores the use of Artificial Intelligence in Ontario education, running from September 2025 through April 2026. You can still register in time to join us! 

Each evening will offer a selection of 30- and 60-minute workshops between 7 – 9 pm. Workshops will be recorded so that registrants can access the entire proceedings - including all five previous evenings of learning - during and following the explorAItion! 2.0 series.

Visit https://ecoo.org/exploraition-2-0/ for more information, dates, and registration. Use code exai2oame for $30 for all live sessions and/or their recordings - that's half-off registration!