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Joining the Ignite! Club

by Suzanne Alejandre
December 6th, 2012

When I received an invitation in October from Karen Cowe to be part of the Ignite! presentations at CMC-North 2012, I was both honored and terrified! I had seen my Math Forum colleagues prepare and present at:

NCTM 2011 – Indianapolis

Max Ray: Why 2 > 4: A Proof by Induction
Annie Fetter: Ever Wonder What They’d Notice?
Steve Weimar: Why Did You Do That?

NCSM 2012 – Philadelphia

Max Ray: Fun with Trig Identities
Annie Fetter: The Teacher I Would Have Been
Steve Weimar: What do we ‘no’?

I wanted to be like them and give an Ignite! talk but I didn’t want to feel the pressure … so … I kept it a secret. It really happened, though, and I have the poster to prove it:

CMC-North 2012 Ignite poster

A PDF version of my slides are here and now (about 4 months later) we are able to view the video from Key Curriculum’s YouTube channel. Suzanne Alejandre at CMC-North Ignite Fun!

And recently, I made this page to keep track of the Math Forum Ignite Talks:

http://mathforum.org/math_talk_landing_ignite.html

Categories announcement
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An Opportunity

by Suzanne Alejandre
March 25th, 2012

On Friday, March 16, I had the opportunity to hear John Ewing’s keynote “Who Owns the Common Core Standards?” at this year’s Long Island Mathematics Conference, Limaçon 2012.

His message resonated with me for several points that he made:

  • describing the standards as having a focus on the practices as well as understanding mathematics
  • there are dangers if we only focus on data driven education because student achievement cannot only be measured in test score data
  • education is complicated with many goals intertwined (facts and skills, understanding, creativity, attitude, curiosity, lifelong learning) and it is that broad view of education that is important to us as teachers/students

He ended on a positive note:

“This is your opportunity to show…
…that teaching is a profession
…and that teachers are in charge of that profession.”

He encouraged us not to miss this opportunity.

On the blog The Opportunity Equation, you can read a post by John Ewing on this topic: The Common Core Math Standards: Implications for Teacher Preparation.

If you agree with Dr. Ewing and you are looking for opportunities — I offer you this one if you are a Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade teacher or if you work with teachers working with students at that level. Visit the Math Forum’s new blog:

Elementary Mathematics Practices

What do you notice? (leave a comment) What do you wonder? (leave a comment with a question). Don’t miss the opportunity!

Categories CCSS Mathematical Practices, announcement
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Asilomar

by Suzanne Alejandre
December 11th, 2011

Last weekend I attended and presented at CMC-North in Asilomar. This is the third year that I’ve been able to go to that conference and I just love it! It’s so different from many conferences because it is in a unique location and because of that the atmosphere lends itself to relaxed conversations. Asilomar is a California state beach and has conference grounds. The California Mathematics Council (CMC) reserves space and each conference participant who stays “on grounds” is lodged in one of the blocks of rooms. It’s like Math Camp for a weekend!

Here was the view from our room:

And we encountered this “Santa Claus” deer munching on breakfast early Sunday morning as we were walking from our room to the car to load our suitcases before heading to breakfast:

Marie Hogan and I presented Getting Your Students Hooked on Noticing and Wondering on Saturday. Sunday morning we listened to Alan Schoenfeld speak on Teaching Mathematical Sense Making: Assessment and the Common Core Standards:

My friend Elizabeth DeCarli included some details about Schoenfeld’s talk in her blog post, Musings from the Beach | Sine of the Times.

Before leaving the conference, Marie and I walked along the boardwalk and a passer-by took this photo for us:

Hope to see you next year in Asilomar!

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