I’m on the organizing committee for Twitter Math Camp. If you don’t know what it is, you should know it’s the greatest professional development I’ve been to. And I have gone to it every year since it started. So check out the website (http://tmathc.com/). The key aspect is that it’s a grassroots conference that was started by math teachers for math teachers (and related educators). By people who were passionate about their classrooms and just wanted to get together with each other. Here are some fun pictures from TMC last year:

 

Below I have an invitation to submit a proposal to talk at TMC this summer. There are three options: a short 30 minute session, a regular 60 minute session, and leading a  6 hour multi-day session. If you want to come to TMC and haven’t considered giving a talk, I want you to take a moment and think “well… if I did put myself out there, this is what I would talk about… this is what I know.” If you’re a first year teacher, it could be a session called “If I could do it over” and talk about what you learned, to help other early career teachers. If you’re a math coach, it could be about how to wrangle your more challenging teachers and getting them on your side. If you’re an experienced teacher, it could be about how you design your quadratics unit or how you bring outside speakers to the classroom or … I’m just asking you to consider leading a session.

We in the online math teaching community and at TMC believe that everyone has things of value to share, and we can all learn from each other. TMC is a welcoming place, and if you’re scared of presenting, you’ll know that you’ll be doing it at a small conference to a small and friendly audience (anywhere from 5 to 20 people, usually). It’s a place to just put yourself out there! I personally am terrified of public speaking, but it was at TMC that I first put myself out there, and it turned out to be so much fun to design and implement my sessions, and just a lot less scary than I thought. And I did it with someone else, which made it more fun! So yeah, I’d love for you think about it. Think about what you know, think about what you have to say, think about what you’re strong at… and if you think you don’t have anything, I’d argue you’re being too hard on yourself. We all have things of value to share. And we all can learn from each other.

Now without further ado…

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We are starting to gear up for TMC18, which will be at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, OH  (map is here) from July 19-22, 2018. We are looking forward to a great event! Part of what makes TMC special is the wonderful presentations we have from math teachers who are facing the same challenges that we all are. 

To get an idea of what the community is interested in hearing about and/or learning about we set up a Google Doc (http://bit.ly/TMC18sessug). It’s a GDoc for people to list their interests and someone who might be good to present that topic. The form is still open for editing, so if you have an idea of what you’d like to see someone else present as you’re writing your own proposal, feel free to add it! 

This conference is by teachers, for teachers. That means we need you to present. Yes, you! In the past nearly everyone who submitted on time was accepted, however, we cannot guarantee that will be the case. We do know that we need 10-12 morning sessions (these sessions are held 3 consecutive mornings for 2 hours each morning) and 12 sessions at each afternoon slot (12 half hour sessions that will be on Thursday, July 19 and 48 one hour sessions that will be either Thursday, July 19, Friday, July 20, or Saturday, July 21). That means we are looking for somewhere around 70 sessions for TMC18. We are requesting that if you are applying to speak for a 30 or 60 minute session that there are no more than 2 speakers and if you are applying for a morning session that there are no more than 3 speakers.

What can you share that you do in your classroom that others can learn from? Presentations can be anything from a strategy you use to how you organize your entire curriculum. Anything someone has ever asked you about is something worth sharing. And that thing that no one has asked about but you wish they would? That’s worth sharing too. Once you’ve decided on a topic, come up with a title and description and submit the form. The description you submit now is the one that will go into the program, so make sure it is clear and enticing. Please make sure that people can tell the difference between your session and one that may be similar. For example, is your session an Intro to Desmos session or one for power users? This helps us build a better schedule and helps you pick the sessions that will be most helpful to you!

If you have an idea for something short (between 5 and 15 minutes) to share, plan on doing a My Favorite. Those will be submitted at a later date.

The deadline for submitting your TMC Speaker Proposal is January 15, 2018 at 11:59 pm Eastern time. This is a firm deadline since we will reserve spots for all presenters before we begin to open registration on February 1st.

Thank you for your interest!

Team TMC – Lisa Henry, Lead Organizer, Mary Bourassa, Tina Cardone, James Cleveland, Cortni Muir, Jami Packer, David Sabol, Sam Shah, and Glenn Waddell