#TMC Day 3

The last full day of TMC. Let me say that TMC is the best PD I have ever had the opportunity to experience, but at day 3, your brain goes into overload and you are really, really tired. However, I learned a bit on day 3!

This was the last day of the morning session, and we discussed about the barriers and the benefits to implementing the system of intervention that Michelle Naidu (@park_star) was discussing. Her method of intervention dealt with centers that were constructed out of science fair board and the various activities that went along with the intervention. I need to review these in more detail. I liked the ideas so much, but creating all of the resources was overwhelming. Michelle stated that it took about three years to fully implement her system. Here are the barriers and benefits.

Barriers

·      Time

·      Admin support

·      Additional resource costs

·      Some students still don’t get done

·      Attendance

·      Cognitive Issues

·      Photocopying

·      Budget/materials

Benefits

·      Deep understanding of curriculum/standards

·      Everything is planned

·      Ability to respond to student need (almost) immediately

·      Better understanding of student thinking

·      Increased resiliency

·      Student ownership over learning

·      Attendance

·      Behavior

·      Mathematical language

After lunch, we had My Favorites again, and I really enjoyed Joel Bezaire's (@joelbezaire) Variable Analysis game, Gregory Taylor's (@mathtans)Musical Mathematics, and Denis Sheehan's (@MathDenisNJ) I See Math. Joel's presentation talked about a game that he created to use in his classes which required students to think. I was especially entertained by Gregory Taylor's song to the tune of a number in Sister Act, and I liked Denis's idea of a three-slide presentation: a title, image, and a vague guiding question. Denis also mentioned his book Instant Relevance: Using Today’s Experiences to Teach Tomorrow’s Lessons, which is now available on Amazon. 

I attended a session by Andre Verner on Directed Discovery Mathematics. I liked his ideas, and I am glad I went to the session, but I would have liked to have learned how to write these style of lessons. I thought that Andre was a very good speaker, and I liked how he had several examples of his activities and shared his link to his website, which is above. 

Monday afternoon was flex sessions, which were optional. I went to Elizabeth Statmore (@cheesemonkeysf and Jasmine Walker's (@jaz_math) session on Exeter Math problems. I really learned a lot in a short amount of time, and one of my future goals is to work through one of the problem sets. That may have to wait until winter or next summer.

After the session, I had to go to the Mall of America to get some dress clothes. I found out the night before that my grandfather in West Virginia had passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer's. So, I went to the mall for the evening, tried my best to find some decent clothes, which I did, thankfully. Then I returned to campus. During lunch, I had to call the airlines to get my flight (sort-of) rerouted to Charlotte. My original flight went from Minneapolis to Charlotte then from Charlotte to Knoxville. I found out that my grandfather's funeral was at 12:00 noon in WV on Wednesday, and my flight didn't get back to Knoxville until 11:15 that night. My cousin, who lives in Charlotte, said that she would pick me up at the airport there, and we would ride to West Virginia together to the funeral. I had also mentioned this idea to my girlfriend the previous night as well. Therefore, I called American Airlines, and I explained the situation. They agreed to let me change my flight and get off at Charlotte, but the problem was that I had a big suitcase, and I had to pay to tag my suitcase to Charlotte instead of Knoxville. What a stress!