Last week I presented at and attended the Mathematics Educators Convergence, held at Columbus Academy. In addition to meeting some great math teachers and hearing presentations from Fawn Nguyen and NCTM president Robert Q. Berry, I left with a lot of great ideas and activities, some of which will take some time and planning to incorporate into my classroom, and some that I will be able to use this year. It's still fun (and a little annoying) to see an activity that sparks the question, "Where has this been hiding all this time?"
This will be my 30th year of teaching, and I can't imagine not spending at least part of my summer actively trying to get better. Whether it's reading some research, doing some math, or attending a conference, getting better is part of the job, and I honestly don't understand teachers who have to be forced to do professional development of any kind. PD that's imposed from the outside can be hit or miss; searching for and participating in relevant PD is on the teacher. We want the kids to become life-long learners, to have an inner drive that makes them want to improve for the sake of improving. They won't believe it's important if we just dust off old lesson plans we've used for years, lesson plans that require us to tell the kids to pretend Desmos and the internet don't exist, or lesson plans that include a daily worksheet with word problems that have gasoline selling for 89 cents per gallon.
If I ever honestly believe I have nothing else to learn about teaching, it will be time to retire. The kids deserve better than that, and I intend to work hard to improve every year. Even year 30. God willing, even year 45.
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