Over 50 math educators from greater Boston joined Milton’s math department for the Second Annual Milton Academy Math Teachers Conference on February 6. The department hosts the conference to consider new approaches, share good ideas, and learn from other teaching colleagues. Math teachers from Milton High School, Boston Latin School, Regis College, Groton School, St. Mark’s School, and BB&N were among those in attendance.
The day began with keynote speaker, Dr. Pooja Agarwal from HarvardX, a strategic initiative developed to enable faculty to build and create open online learning experiences, and to enable groundbreaking research in online pedagogies. Dr. Agarwal described the neuroscience behind the act of retrieval in the brain, as well as her extensive research on the science of learning. Her words set a foundation for the professional day; presenters later in the day referred regularly to her work.
The conference program is built around 15-minute sessions presented by conference attendees who had submitted proposals. Sessions included teachers sharing effective problems, such as the “one-boy policy” activity, in which students simulate an alternative to China’s one-child policy and calculate the expected family size and expected gender ratio under the alternative policy. From geometry, another problem asked, “Is the AT-AT falling over in Empire Strikes Back realistic?” Participants examined footage of the large armored vehicle toppling to discuss whether the timing matches what one might expect. Other presenters shared numerous technologies (software and websites) to assist with teaching and learning.
Feedback from attendees included comments such as, “I liked the pace and the opportunity to hear from so many teachers. A smorgasbord of talents and ideas!” and “Loved the way the talks were organized by content! “The Theory, Research and Application of the Retrieval Process” presented by the keynote speaker was very worthwhile. It invigorated me to continue checking for understanding, and even recall knowledge has a role!”
The math department is looking forward to hosting the conference again next year.
