Today, I got to attend GVSU’s Math in Action conference, both as a volunteer and as a pre-service teacher. My first session was with Karen Novotny, who helped design the Adventures with Mathematics books. We went through stations of activities directed toward high school students. These activities focus on students DOING mathematics and working on deeper, meaningful problems. I really enjoy the idea of students working through games and activities that are aligned with the common core, require deep thought, are complex, and use meaningful applications of mathematics.
The second session was with Tara Maynard, a high school teacher who has recently starting using the flipped classroom in her math classes. She has video lectures that students watch at home and she has activities and discussions while in class. I really love the idea of having a flipped math classroom. I think so many students could benefit from having the extra teacher interaction in class and the opportunities to ask questions. This also leads to more meaningful understandings of mathematics through discussion and deeper, complex problems. The only reservations I have about this is the applicability to all schools. Tara teaches in a school with a 1 to 1 ratio of students to iPads, which means that each child has the technological means to be successful in a flipped classroom. In my field placement, my students would not have this opportunity. I’m not even sure that all of my students would have any means of watching a lecture at home. So, though I love the ideas behind it, I really would be hesitant to implement it in situations where students do not have access to the technology needed.
After lunch, I attended a session led by John Golden and some of my teacher assisting peers about a math competition they helped create at Grand Valley. It’s for middle school and high school math teams and is modeled after one through GRCC. Since I don’t teach yet, I was more interested in the types of mathematics and questions they presented to these teams. All of the questions were complex and written so well. They really required thought and innovation. I want to use these types of questions for my students. I want them to think and see mathematics in a new way, in a way that is creative and fun and requires some thought.
The last session I attended was called Beautiful Mathematics and was all about the way that math is beautiful. Abe Edwards, the presenter, showed us a few different examples of how beautiful that math can be. One was of a Sierpinski triangle. Google it. I was so impressed by these kinds of mathematics. It just goes to show how we can get our students to be fully interested and impressed by the mathematical world. We want our kids (and ourselves) to do math for math’s sake, not as a means to an end. Math is beautiful and useful in its’ own right and these things can prove this. Math is beautiful. Such a great end to a great day.
Cassie Cooper's Blog 
It’s nice to see what you attended to at #mia14. I loved the last two sentences of your post, too!
So.. what are some of your takeaways that will inform your teaching?
Some of my takeaways:
1. Teach kids math for the sake of math. Show them ways that math is beautiful and interesting for its own sake.
2. Utilize activities that are fun for students, like the ones in Karen’s Adventures with Mathematics books. These can allow students to play, while still learning important mathematics concepts.
3. Incorporate elements of flipped classrooms as much as possible in my classes.
4. Ask deep, meaningful questions that make students THINK.
5. Make math fun. I had such a blast at Math in Action. I want my students to feel like that in my classes.