Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Dr. Valerie Camille-Jones
Keynote Topic: “#Math Esteem”
#MathEsteem is more than just a hashtag. It’s making math rewarding, memorable, fashionable, and real. Hear from Presidential Award winning Mathematician and comic-con enthusiast, Dr. Valerie Camille Jones, as she takes you through her two-decade career inspiring mathematicians of every age.
Feature Topic: "Change Math Anxiety into Math Esteem"
A student’s performance in math can be heavily related to how they feel about mathematics itself. A person believing that they are not good at math can have a profound and lasting negative impact. This workshop is designed to help teachers find creative ways for learners to develop a positive intrinsic feeling about math. It will focus on math esteem, building a curiosity in math, and instilling a genuine enjoyment of math problem solving.
George Couros
Keynote Topic: “The Innovator's Mindset"
Carol Dweck’s work has focused on the ideas of “fixed” and “growth” mindset, yet educators will need to go a step further with these notions to create the learning opportunities and that our students and schools deserve. We need to focus not only what we know, but what we do with what we know. In this talk, George will discuss the idea and characteristics of “The Innovator’s Mindset” (as discussed in the book of the same title), and share powerful examples on why this is so crucial for all educators. George’s presentations are known to be emotional, humorous, all while pushing your thinking, and will definitely connect to your heart first, in a way that will last with you long after this keynote.
Feature Topic: “Your Digital Footprint"
We all have a digital footprint, as do our schools and organizations. “Googling” ourselves makes this apparent whether we have had any say in it or not. As individuals and as schools, what can we do to actually shape this footprint? With open sharing of our learning, a digital footprint can easily be developed for either an individual, school or organization. This is not about branding as much as it is about modeling for our students that we are learners along with them.
Featured Speakers
Fawn Nguyen
Topic: “Visual Patterns, Math Talks, and Problem Solving"
We will work with the routines of visual patterns and math talks to develop algebraic reasoning and flexible thinking. We will experience a productive struggle through rich and challenging tasks. We will implement a curriculum that endeavors to make math social, one that values collaboration and encourages play and risk-taking. We’ll intentionally implement our mathematics curriculum to cover a range of “critical thinking demands” to invite all students into a program that is relevant and challenging, one that values procedural skills as well as conceptual understanding.
Dan Meyer
Topic #1: “Three Uncommon Messages About Mathematics That Every Student Should Know"
Students often leave their K-12 mathematics education having internalized the false messages that math doesn't make sense and that they can't make sense of math until an adult explains it to them. We'll propose three messages to counter those false messages – math is POWER, that power makes SENSE, and students ALREADY HAVE that power – and discuss concrete strategies for helping students learn them.
Topic #2: Connected and Creative Classes with Free Desmos Technology
Desmos Activities will help you build social and creative math classrooms. In those activities, students create representations of their mathematical thinking that go beyond multiple choice responses. Students share those representations with their entire class, not just their teacher or laptop. Come experience a Desmos activity as a student, learn the teaching moves that contribute to its success, and get access to more free activities just like it.
Ian VanderBurgh
Topic: "Adventures in Problem Solving"
Problem solving lies at the heart of mathematics. In this session, we will talk about and solve some problems that are accessible across a wide variety of levels and have lots of extensions. We will also talk about teaching problem solving in a systematic way and look at some problem solving resources. Come prepared to do some math!
https://fauw.blog/2019/02/13/meet-the-faculty-ian-vanderburgh/
Kamau Bobb
Topic: “STEM Education as a Cornerstone of Modern Citizenship"
The modern economy is increasingly dependent on people with technical skills. From direct technical roles to culture production, technical skills are ubiquitous. The ability of people to remain viable, to be able to contribute and participate in civic life depends, in part, on the development of their technical skills. The ability to participate as full citizens in the future is dependent on the strength of our current education. Dr. Bobb will discuss the nature of modern citizenship and it dependence on strong STEM education. He will focus on the importance of making sure that the kind of education necessary for relevance in a modern world is not delivered to only a privileged few.
Mary Bourassa
Topic: "The Other Sides of Teaching"
As mathematics teachers, we all strive to be experts at the content we teach and we continue to expand our expertise in this area. But teaching is so much more than this. We will explore what makes a teacher more than just a content expert. How can we meaningfully impart the content to our students? How do our pedagogical approaches affect our students? How can we build community in our classrooms? How can we foster positive relationships with our students? What tools allow us to better learn about our students and about their mathematical understanding? Let’s begin a conversation about the other sides of teaching.
Richard Van Camp
Topic: "Stories That Bring Math into Question”
Tlicho Dene best selling author and storyteller Richard Van Camp loves math. He's crazy for it. But he has a few jaw dropping miracle stories that he will share where you question math and its reach. Come join us for a storytelling session that will dazzle you and inspire you.
Marian Small
Topic: "A Focus on Teaching to Essential Understandings"
It’s not enough just to teach curriculum expectations as one-offs. What our students deserve is our help in bringing connections, relationships, and the underlying essential mathematical understandings to their attention in engaging and deep ways.
We will look at the Ontario curriculum and will uncover some of the big ideas lurking beneath the surface. These are not, in my mind, the overall expectations. We need to learn to bring out, not to leave below the surface, those essential understandings by appropriate lesson focus. This session will delve more deeply into how to do this at the K-8 level, although what we discuss will be directly applicable to high school as well.
@marian_small