Reflections on my first Twitter Math Camp (better late than never)

Good morning, Cleveland.

Twitter Math Camp exceeded my expectations. It was undoubtedly the most welcoming group of educators I have ever seen (which is saying a lot - teachers are pretty nice on the whole). The conference is capped at 200 people, which keeps it small enough to facilitate a bunch of social meetups in addition to workshops and keynote speeches. I arrived on Wednesday for the Desmos pre-conference. I had signed up for this before I knew I was chosen for the Desmos fellowship (which was the weekend before!), and wasn’t sure if it would be redundant, but it wasn’t at all. I got a chance to  learn about the Desmos geometry tool and how to get the graph to do statistics calculations. These are two things I will definitely use next year in my quest to Desmos more in my 6th and 7th grade classes. The Desmos precon ended with a happy hour at a great local brewery, and then a bunch of us ended up playing games at a local game bar/restaurant (they had the biggest collection of games I have ever seen!).

Not a math game.

The next morning, I had my first of 3 consecutive mornings learning the math and art behind Islamic geometry design. This workshop was taught by Annie (@anniep_k), Megan (@veganmathbeagle), and Stephen (@sweimar). It was so relaxing and fun to create these 6-fold and 8-fold symmetric shapes!

6-fold symmetry with an extra point (oops)

8-fold symmetry with (sloppy) weaving

After lunch, we settled in for Marian Dingle's keynote called "Measures of Center." She spoke poetically and powerfully about her and her children's experience as black teachers, learners, and people. It was a call to action to all of us in the room and beyond, questioning who we truly serve when we teach, and begging us to consider the experiences of those who are not in the "center". By end, many of us were in tears. When she left the stage, Marian saw me crying and stopped to give me a hug!



The following day, there was a fun and empowering keynote from Julie Reulbach. She came bursting through a banner with pom-poms, as if we were in a pep rally!  She proceeded to be our cheerleader as she encouraged teachers with the following mantra (complete with stickers for each of us):

After Julie's keynote, it was time for my presentation on Social Justice Projects for Middle School. After Marian's call to action the day before, I was disappointed that only 6 people came to my talk! This left me wondering what I can do differently to get the message out to a broader audience about ways to incorporate social justice into our math curricula. I am still wondering about this.

Overall, the conference was extremely well-run. It really did feel like camp, what with all of the ways to connect with other MTBoS folks - speed dating, newbie dinner, and trivia night. I left on Saturday before game night and the writing of the annual TMC song! I definitely hope to go back next year when TMC is in Berkeley, CA.

Goodbye, Cleveland.