Key Takeaways From NCTM Los Angeles 2022

by Jeff Linder 

1. Where are all the teachers?  The last NCTM had 12,000 attendees.  This year there are only 2,000.  This is at a time when there is substantial monetary support for professional development.  Is it due to the shortage of substitute teachers?  
2. Peter Liljedahl says:
   •  that thinking is a precursor to learning. 
   • diversity is a strength in group thinking.
   • students listen to teachers’ actions, not their words.
   • one way to show students that we believe in them is to put them in random groups instead of teacher-selected groups. 
3. Jay Meadows from Exemplars reminds us to build curiosity in the math class.  
4. John Felling introduced me to many fun math games that promote both thinking, strategy, and skill practice.   My favorite was Who’s In Between. 
5. Graham Fletcher highlighted the importance of a balanced math program with application, conceptual understanding, and procedural fluency.  He presented a 3-Act task for the application, followed by a tool talk for the conceptual understanding, and ended with a task from Open Middle for procedural fluency. 
6. Jennifer Lempp presented on the Math Workshop model.  Her presentation confirmed that all the principles of math workshop are alive in MUS classrooms. 
7. Christine Franklin from the American Statistical Association shared some great resources for teaching statistical concepts, such as mean and variability.
8. Jo Boaler presented on the new California Math Framework.  
   • The Framework was scheduled to get approved in 2021 but due to pushback it will not be approved until at least 2023.  
   • The three main areas are big ideas, all students having access, and data literacy. 
   • Currently, only 16% of students are taking Calculus in California high schools.  This is an example of institutional racism that the framework is working to change. 
   • Traditionally, passing Calculus in high school has been a prerequisite to attend top universities.  Harvard no longer require calculus for admission.  “Specifically, calculus is neither a requirement nor a preference for admission to Harvard.”
   • Data science is now an accepted replacement algebra 2 courses.  
   • Groupitizing 10 dots, for example into 4+4+2, is a predictor of math achievement.   My takeaway is to do more dot card number talks at all grade levels!  
9.  I am grateful for the opportunity to learn from so many amazing educators.  NCTM puts on a great conference, maybe next year more teachers will take advantage of it.