Reflections of 2017 and TMC17

Conferences, conferences ,and more conferences. EdTechTeam, CMC, CUE, and TMC. I counted 10 that I went to, or presented at this year. It’s probably too many, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I learned so much, and met so many amazing people.

But during the last week of school my mom got sick and everything came to a screeching halt. Reality set in. My brother and I took care of her for a month. We were really worried about her. I knew I was scheduled to present at TMC 17, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen. With much prayer and help from the family, my mom fully recovered!  I was able to go to TMC.

 I spent a week in Atlanta Georgia. It was very warm, and a beautiful place. I met a lot of great people, and went to some thought provoking sessions. A couple things that stuck with me were that I wanted to try Delta math, and although I didn’t attend Annie Perkins session, the name of her session “mathematicians are not  just old white guys “ stuck with me. My students are mostly of Hispanic descent, and I feel that it’s important for them to see people like themselves on my wall. I want them to see themselves as mathematicians.

I decided I wanted to put up a wall in my room with mathematicians of all colors and genders. I started a search on the Internet and was “shocked” to find that there was very little out there as far as posters of diverse mathematicians. How could this be true in 2017? Luckily a TMC participant showed me an amazing Google Drive file that had what I needed for my wall. I love catching my students looking at it, and reading it at random times during class!!