What makes math difficult? No(n)sense!

Wrap your brain around this picture. Makes perfect sense doesn't it? I just checked the figures on my calculator and the total is right. So that means that the Gold Hill folks were pretty good at addition. But unfortunately making sense out of things wasn't one of their strong points.

This sign - well actually one similar to it - gave me an idea for what I did (or you can do) with a 6th grade math class. (Click here.)

* See #WCYDWT on twitter.

Taking CLIME on the Road: Next stop Atlantic City (in October)

Clime will promote Math 2.0 in Atlantic City

CLIME will once again take advantage of NCTM's generosity* in order to share their vision of Math 2.0 with friends and colleagues at NCTM's regional conference in Atlantic City (NJ) this October at a booth in the exhibit hall. If you are planning to attend the Atlantic City conference and would like to help out or just spread the word about the vision we are promoting, let me know by email or sharing a comment below.
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Previous informative & influential posts:

• In search of math 2.0
• At the conference we can get by with a little help from our friends
• Retweet "NCTM thoughts aka we don't even exist!" - Last year at the fall regional meetings this statement resonated for me: "If I had to choose one thing that stood out that I learned from NCTM it's that a ridiculous number of math teachers are completely unaware of the online math teacher community." I assume this year things will be better. But progress is slow.

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*They offer a big discount to it's affiliate groups who would like to set up a booth in the exhibit hall.

More Takeaways from ISTE conference

Tom Petra sharing Google Earth ideas
(Poster session @ ISTE 2011)

My highlights
I've always been impressed with Google Earth as an amazing dynamic tool that lends itself to great math and science activities, but I haven't seen many examples that would be within the teacher's grasp to use. That's why it was a treat to discover Tom Petra's Real World Math activities which are the best I've seen so far.

From Tom's website:

Real World Math is a unique web resource for teachers that offers free math lessons and activities for grades 4-10. What makes these lessons so special is that they are presented on the virtual globe Google Earth. Real World Math contains downloads for over 30 interactive lessons, instructional tutorials, and other material that will let your students see Math in action. View our video below and explore the links on the side. Come and visit Real World Math! 

Using Google Earth in the Math Classroom (10:38)

ISTE Conference Reflections - My presentation - video available!

Click here for video of talk

In case you missed it, the title of my presentation at ISTE was Math 2.0: Scenes from the Dynamic Math Classroom. (My soon to be revised agenda page's link is here.) Besides promoting my vision of Math 2.0 and sharing some scenarios from potential dynamic classrooms, my personal goal for the session was to kick off my plan to write a "dynamic book" that is tentatively titled the same as my presentation "Math 2.0: Scenes from a Dynamic Classroom". It will include the five activities (stories) I mentioned in my talk:

1. Average traveler
2. Stock Market Game Jr.
3. Shopping Spree Adventures*
4. Measuring the Circumference of the Earth (In the spirit of Eratosthenes)
5. The Great Green Globs challenge

The first story I'm putting together is the Eratosthenes measurement activity/project which BTW is considered one of the greatest achievements of all time. (If you missed the video of Carl Sagan telling the Eratosthenes story before my session started you can see it at the Noon Day project** page here.) 

I will be chronicling my adventures in writing this book in my other blog. If you would like to be informed when I've updated this blog, please let me know by sending me an email: ihor@clime.org Of course, you can always sign up for an RSS feed at my other blog. 

Also if you would like to be on my emailing list please sign in at the agenda page for my session.

*See what Dan Meyer did at a grocery store that led to a great problem solving scenario. Link

**You can sign up your students for the Fall Noon Day project (not noted yet) starting on September 1st. Let me know if you are interested and I can help you with more details. 

My European Trip's Math Highlight

Benetton Store, Milan, Italy

I just got back from vacationing in Italy and Austria. While in a clothing store in Milan, I noticed the designation for what is on their three store levels. Maybe this is why some European countries do better in math than we do.

Speak at NCSM in April, 2012 in Philadelphia

Terri Belcher, Executive director of NCSM, reminded me that people sometimes confuse the two conferences (NCTM and NCSM) so to help clarify the distinction:

The National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM) is a mathematics leadership organization for educational leaders that provides professional learning opportunities necessary to support and sustain improved student achievement. It is also an affiliate group of NCTM.

Their conference is held every year at the same location and during the same week as the annual NCTM Conference. Next year it is in Phildelphia April 23-25, 2012. The NCTM meeting is from April 25-28, 2012. The speaker proposals for NCTM were closed as of May 1st, but it's not too late to apply to speak at the NCSM Conference. The call for 2012 Philly speakers closes June 3, so there is plenty of time to submit a proposal to speak and to encourage others to do the same. Link to proposal form.

Resources for NCSM
• NCSM - Link

• PRIME Leadership Framework - Link

• NCSM Newsletter - Link

• NCSM Journal - Link

Looking Forward to the NCTM Conference in 2012 (or Maybe Not)

Enlargement of circled area

I was excited to learn that the next annual NCTM Meeting in Philadelphia would have a technology theme. Then I saw an advertisement for the 2012 conference. Technology theme? You have to look past NCTM's other priorities to see something referring to technology. Major disappointment. Though I am not surprised. The lack of response (so far) to my email to the program chair Gladis Kersaint (see below) doesn't surprise me either. Now I'm looking towards Denver 2013 for some technology breakthroughs. I heard Jeff Shih (the conference chair) might want to do something with technology that will make people take notice. I will find out.

(Links not clickable in the letter.)