NCTM Virtual Conference Highlight
NCTM held their Virtual Conference Nov 17-20, 2021. The conference is structured with evening live keynote sessions, live daytime and early evening sessions and video-on-demand sessions. There are also Roundtable events where a person can meet in a Zoom meeting to talk to presenters or vendors. Vendors have exhibits. There are usually some social events or games. This year, you could sign up for a murder mystery event. Live sessions are recorded and those recordings become available within 10 days. The video-on-demand sessions are available immediately and all of the recordings are available until January 4 this year.
One of my favorite sessions this year was the video-on-demand “Build a Math Community through Social Emotional Learning.” The presenters were Rachel Mane and Ashley Taplin. You can follow them on Twitter at @ManelyMath and @AshleyPTaplin. Follow on Instagram at @ManelyMath and @TaplinsTeaching. They are both math specialists in San Antonio, TX.
The content focused on the 3 CASEL signature practices: Welcoming Routines, Engaging Practice, Optimistic Closure. They had designed a very effective recording for the conference participant. They shared some valuable resources for Welcoming Routines that you might take a peek at, such as Check-ins Compilatio and Weekly/Daily Check ins.
For Engaging Practice, they shared tools to support student discourse, such as, Try it-Talk it-Color it-Check it, Stand Talk Sit paired with Quick Write, Think-Ink-Combine & Refine, Jigsaw, Numbered Heads and Chat Stations.
They also shared some strategies for Optimistic Closure. These were Small Group One-Minute Accolade, 3-2-1 Summary, Reflective Questions, Roll your Roll, and One Word Whip Around.
Personally, I find some compelling advantages for hosting conferences virtually. Obviously, there are a number of advantages in terms of eliminating travel expenses for everyone and venue expenses for the organization.
A virtual conference sort of levels the playing field in terms of who can present in terms of available travel funds and release from work. Additionally, I do know some popular presenters who are committed to reducing greenhouse gases caused by aircraft. They have decided to decline speaking at conferences if they would need to travel by air. Another benefit is having the video recordings available for viewing during the weeks following the conference. A person does have to commit time to watching the recordings. (Pro tip: You can turn the speed up on the video to decrease the amount of time each recording takes to view.) I hope you consider attending future virtual conferences by NCTM.
