CMC North Conference             

Program - Friday Mini-Conference 1:30 - 4:30 PM

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Level	Presenter	Title	Description
PK - 2	Sherri Willebrand	Common Core Standards K-2: How are they different?	The Common Core Standards are more coherent and with fewer standards, more focused. How can they inform curriculum and teaching? How can they support children’s learning?  Follow several learning paths across the primary grades.  Experience how the mathematics develops a firm foundation in concepts while building skills and problem solving competencies.  Rich activities that build depth and understanding will be highlighted.
3 - 5	Roddick, Cheryl	Fractions, Fair Trades, and Pattern Blocks	The teaching of fractions is one of the major emphases in grades 3-5.   Students often experience difficulties when fraction concepts and procedures are taught too abstractly and without meaning.  In this session teachers will learn how to use pattern blocks to develop a hands-on approach for understanding the concept of fractions.  Teachers will also use pattern blocks and pictures, as well as the use of fair trades to determine equivalent fractions and to give meaning to the algorithms for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of fractions.  Real-life problems will also add a context to the operations.
6 - 8	Paul Giganti	Algebra: Concrete to Abstract-Blocks to Formulas	Algebra is abstract, but it needn't start that way. In this workshop, we begin with blocks, and by investigating geometry growth patterns, slowly move from hands-on building to visualizing algebraic function generalizations. If you take your students on this "tour" of functions in algebra moving gradually from concrete to abstract, more students will understand the power of algebra and its connections to real situations.
6 - 12	Dan Brutlag	Getting Algebra Into the Adolescent Brain	Why does algebra often seem to go in one ear and out the other?  Recent brain research has some answers.  Come learn about engaging, classroom-tested, easy-to-use techniques for algebra that work for all students.  The mathematical focus will be the big ideas of linear relations.  Both the “how” and “why” of mental math, problem solving, student presentations, posters, and classroom management/discipline will be discussed.
8 - 12	Michael Serra	Problem Solving Featuring Polya’s Problem	This mini-course warms up with some of the classics of problem solving.  We will explore the classic problems as a whole group, recognizing the importance of thinking “out of the box,” using models or diagrams, perseverance, and visual thinking.  Participants will work in cooperative groups on new problems from a list and present their solutions.  Finally, we’ll finish with a famous problem posed by George Polya.
Leadership	Cathy Carroll	Developing & Supporting Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching	This session examines issues and challenges PD leaders and coaches face in developing learning communities focused on deepening teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching. Video clips of teachers engaged in doing mathematics provide a concrete “case” to ground examination and discussion of some of the issues involved in supporting teachers’ mathematical and pedagogical content knowledge. Participants will consider these ideas in terms of their own work through analyzing a set of teacher work.