Two weeks ago, I attended the NCTM Regional in Las Vegas. I took copious notes, and lots of pictures, and have sat on them since. I am going to do some posting tonight and tomorrow of the notes from the impactful sessions I attended.
First off, Peg Cagle and Diane Briars session on Resources for Teaching CCSS Math was excellent. It was a simple presentation to give, they put up a scavenger hunt of different books and websites the NCTM either has published, or will publish or the NCTM recommends.
Simple, but very full of content. I was trying to simultaneously tweet out the content so I ended up taking a lot of pictures of the posters. Most of the posters had QR codes on them so you could get the link on your phone and see the site.
I will post the best pics and links below the break. This will be a very picture heavy post. You can click in embiggen, but I did scan the QR codes from the smaller versions.
http://www.nctm.org/standards/mathcommoncore: This is a link to the Math Common Core Coalition (MC^3) which is an interesting group composed of ALL of the organizations who promote / encourage / support math education.
http://www.nctm.org/publications/content.aspx?id=14957 The Student Expolorations in Mathematics series is published 5 times a year for grade levels 5 – 10, and is free to members of the NCTM.
This is the link to the Amazing book, 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Conversations by Stein and Smith. I have read the book, I have recommended the book to my department members. It is worth the money 5 times over (I know, I am a ham sometimes). http://www.nctm.org/catalog/product.aspx?id=13953
I will be honest, I own this book, I read it, but I did not find it as useful or impactful as the 5 Practices book. Maybe I didn’t read it close enough, perhaps I didn’t try the exercises in it. I think I was reading it looking for something that it was not, and if I give it a try for what it is I will be happier with it. http://www.nctm.org/catalog/product.aspx?id=14329
An article from Mathew R. Larson and Steven Leinwand on Preparing for More Realistic Test Results. http://www.nctm.org/workarea/downloadasset.aspx?id=36586. The article is in the May 2013 Mathematic Teacher, and it is a good article to make sure you read so you can have intelligent conversation with your admins.
Okay, I apologize for the really blurry photo here. The link is good though (aren’t QR codes awesome, it works even in a blurry pic). The High School (blue) book is great. I own it (I think I see a trend here, buying all the books offered seems to be a problem of mine) and have read it. In fact, the department leads in my district are doing a book study with it. Very high quality material to get you thinking. http://www.solution-tree.com/products/common-core-math-plc-work.html I have not read the “Leaders” book, but from what I have heard, the best material is in the teachers book anyway.
And this is from the Parking Lot. Some resources that the audience proffered.
http://map.mathshell.org/materials/index.php There are a ton of resources here for assessment purposes. You could spend a long time working through these resources.
http://www.mathematicsvisionproject.org/ I second this resource too. There are so many great resources out there.
Finally, I have one of my own that I heard about at the conference, the NCTM’s Core Math Tools. http://www.nctm.org/resources/content.aspx?id=32702 If you have not played with these, you need to. I am working up some simulations right now to present to my AP group. They don’t have access to Fathom, and I think this tool could take its place. For Algebra, Geometry, Cryptography, and so much more, it is an amazing piece of software. For free. No membership required.