“Mathy” Things to Promote the Joy of Math
Last night, Looney Math Consulting hosted the 2nd Annual Nancy Davis Welch Memorial PD. The theme of the evening was the “Joy of Mathematics”. Over fifty attendees had the opportunity to explore math joyfully and hear a keynote from Dr. Susan Looney and then from three fantastic speakers (Drs. Kate Marin, Hilary Kreisberg and Matthew Beyranevand).
I didn’t know Nancy well, as I had recently joined LMC before she passed away. The majority of our interactions were over email, but once we met in person her love of learning was constantly evident. Nancy loved to do “mathy things” and according to some of my colleagues would often say “have a mathy day”. So instead of a traditional “ice breaker” activity for attendees to get to know each other and interact with some joyful math right from the start, we put out a different “mathy” activity for teachers to enjoy on each table.
I have recently started to include some opportunities for teachers to interact with math at the beginning of PDs even if we are working on pedagogy instead of content. I love using nrich math task and decided to use them for this PD as well. You will find a link to the activities we used below.
In Nancy’s honor, have a mathy day!
Heidi
