7/30/2011 math workshop

There's really not a great way to capture in photographs all that we do all day long at this Institute. I actually took these photos for myself to remind me of things I wanted to remember later. But mostly I've been listening and taking notes and thinking. A lot of thinking. Oh, and talking with colleagues from around the country (and one new friend from Canada). They have us in sessions based on our breakout topic (my beginning algebra table includes Angela from Georgia and Shelby, a first year teacher, and the cool lady from Canada to name a few). They also put us in planning groups based on our roles--9-12 classroom teachers, supervisors/administrators, higher ed folks, etc. Pam and Luke were in randomly assigned groups for teachers of grades 9-12, and GJW and I were in a higher ed group together. But once we saw the resources they had for planning, the 4 of us left our assigned planning groups and formed our own planning group and used the time to do our own planning for the Dine and Discuss workshops.

This presenter is from Hawaii and it was all about "Equity for All." He used manipulatives to teach high level geometry concepts and had tasks that challenged all levels of math learners. Here he is demonstrating making a quadrilateral with folding straws.