MCTM Day 2 (the final sessions)

Saturday morning was the third act of the trilogy.  The climax of the action was my own session, mostly because I was so nervous about it.  I have presented on numerous topics to my own school before, but never at a conference of this magnitude.

Session 1: Bag of Math Tricks
I chose this first session because it was in the same room as I was presenting during the next time frame.  I figured this would help ease my nerves about being on time and getting set up and stuff.  It did seem to help, but not as much as a couple words of encouragement from staff from my school who were also in attendance.

The session itself was a very useful.  It was literally a bunch of small activities, tips and tricks for any age elementary classroom.  From getting to know you activities, to making booklets, to fun formative assessments, and brain breaks.  It was fabulous and very well done.  It is everything a session at a conference is supposed to be.  Fun, interactive and then sends you off with numerous activity ideas.


Session 2: My Session "Teach Like a Flippin' Pirate"
I have to admit I was extremely nervous about my session.  This was partly due to the fact that I am not an expert in flipped learning nor teaching like a pirate.  I was only trying to share how I mashed the two together.  My plan to help my nerves was to start with a humorous story about last year's MCTM.  The session was packed and the story drew some laughs and overall it went pretty well.  I had numerous teachers come up afterwards asking lots of questions and saying that it was "awesome."   The slideshow is below.




Session 3: Student Engagement in a Flipped Classroom
It was probably the fact that I has just finished, but this session did not engage me.  Although I am not sure any session would have.  I was just so relieved that my session was over.  The session was mostly about getting students to watch the video through Moodle tricks and class management.  It was mostly geared towards high school and none of the suggestions really applied to my classroom.


Session 4: Math My Pace
I was really excited about this session as it was Carol Mahler's session, who I had seen present 2 years ago about a self paced flipped classroom.  I took a lot of her ideas and ran with them.  So i was pumped to see what she had done to add to her idea.  I felt bad for her as she had some tech issues, but once she got going it was great!  Her ideas and resources are available at http://www.mathmypace.com/  I highly recommend stopping by this site, it is awesome.


Overall the last day was great.  My session went okay, I got some great ideas from other sessions, and I skipped out on the last keynote because my family wanted to grab lunch at a great local restaurant, walk the shores of Lake Superior, and go comic book shopping.  On a side note, free comic book day cost me $60 in comics...  Must be that new math they teach....