Today I went to a whopping 5 sessions - needless to say - it was a busy day.
1) Integrating Sum Fun into Math Class - HAHA! Nice pun! This one was lead by Dr. Poage from Blinn (who used to teach at A&M). She was absolutely HYSTERICAL. She taught us a bunch of different card tricks and games to use with the students. I even won a box of Nerds for losing - yep. You read that right - she beat me at a game, but I still won the candy. She won most every game she did, but taught us all how to use them with our kiddos. I think these will come in super handy!
2) New Approaches to Traditional Computation - this one was not what I was going to see, but the one I wanted to see - was cancelled. So this lady lead instead. She was discussing the different stages that students go through when processing math and learning skills. The first stage is the social stage where the kids can count, but don't retain the numbers and the whole counting thing is just like saying their ABC's - they have no concept or meaning. They have to count the objects when you ask them - so how many were there? They start counting again and they may or may not get the same number. The second stage is one-to-one correspondence, but the kids cannot retain the number that you ask them. They have to see the objects to tell you how many there are. So they'll count 5 objects and then they can tell you that there are 5 objects. But if you cover them up, they forget what number they counted to. When you show them, then they remember. The third stage is the trusting stage - this means that no matter how we arrange the number of objects - they stay the same. During these 3 stages, numbers are an adjective and nothing else. All of these stages are very visual using models. The last stage she presented was partitioning or decoding. This is where the student can reference numbers with a picture in their head, but don't necessarily have to have the models. These kiddos are able to break apart the number and put them together to add up to ten. So to solve the problem (43 - 18 = ___) The student knows that if they take away ten from 43 - they'll get to 33. From there, they take away 3 more to get to 30. And then they know that they have to take away 5 more to equal their 18 so they get to their answer of 25. OR - if they are asked to combine (19 + 13 = ___) they will say to themselves - if I move one of the ones from 13 to 19 it'll give me (20 + 12) well when you combine that 0+2 = 2 and 2+1=3 so the answer is 32. The whole time it shows that they know the basic understanding of the concepts. She stressed using math talk with them in small groups, pairs and whole class and even using all the problem solving strategies in order - visualize, understand, plan, solve, check and then explain. The last thing she said was - why do we tell kids that they need to add or subtract vertically in elementary school -
35 44
- 26 + 18
and then when they get to middle school we have them start solving problems horizontally. When you don't write vertically - you're getting them to focus on the concept and understanding and not the regrouping or borrowing. Needless to say - it was interesting.3) Math + Art + Architecture = Fun! - This one was pretty cute. It talked about using obviously art and architecture to show the kids that math exists in everyday life. They can go on field trips or even out to the playground to demonstrate that the kids math is EVERYWHERE! Then we created our own mathematical art that we had to include certain items - parallelogram, ray, line segment, shapes, angles - all sorts of stuff. It was pretty interesting and would be a great integration or extension for kiddos. This is definitely an activity that you could use cross-curricularly (and yes...I just made up a word)
4) Let's Talk Enrichment - ONE of the faves of the day! All we did was play extension games at this one and they stressed that extensions aren't just for your GT kids, but can be for everyone. We did lots of out of the box thinking and they even gave us project ideas - WHOOP! And as we were leaving they gave us a CD with all of the activities and websites they mentioned, PLUS some! So I will DEFINITELY be using this this year!
5) Focusing on the African American Learner - this lady was very informative and funny all at the same time. Obviously - she focused on the A.A. students and how to best help them. After she told us everything, she asked if it was anything we hadn't heard before - and honestly, it wasn't. Everything that she gave us and the teaching ideas and strategies - they are all just best teaching practices. She stressed that the same causal things that are associated with low performing A.A. students - are the same things that other sub pops experience. The gap between Latino and A.A. students and their white counterparts is decreasing, yet it's not anywhere near where it needs to be. Something else was interesting that she said - kids perform based on how fabulous their teacher is. This is something I've heard before and it totally makes sense. Teachers who are rockstars - will generally have rockstar kiddos because they are given the opportunity. Kiddos who have teachers that aren't rockstars - will generally not perform as well. All teachers can be rockstars, but they've got to put forth the effort. It's not just a job - it's all about the kids and getting them to grow. The better learner we are and the more we put into our instruction and getting things to make sense to the kids - the better learner they will be. It all boiled down to the fact that our A.A. learners aren't any different than the other kids - you've just got to learn about their culture to understand them better.
I am absolutely LOVING this conference. The girls are so much fun to spend time with and getting to know them better is amazing. I am definitely exhausted at the end of the day, but I am learning so much. This just makes my desire to go to grad school a bit stronger - idk though. We'll see.
I even got to spend some time with my wonderful family tonight. I miss them so much - so I'm glad that I got to spend the evening with them. We went to PF Changs for dinner - mmm GF Chang's Spicy Chicken with Brown Rice. Of course - my bro and dad made fun of the GF choice, but oh well. They're goofballs anyways. I am DEFINITELY a Daddy's girl and so I was thankful that I got to see him tonight and spend some time together. I can't wait for the fall when his schedule slows down so him and mom can come down and visit more often.
I feel like there is so much more to do now than ever to get ready for the school year, but I know it's going to be awesome! And I'm psyched to get started - but just not ready to go back quite yet.
