The #MTBoS Reach

Doing some curriculum work this summer and I had an amazing experience.  Besides learning in-depth about sixth grade standards and their role in the larger picture of secondary math, I gained a new perspective on how the #MTBoS is starting to influence the mainstream of math education.   Our charge was to help write learning progressions, complete with resources for teachers to use to help them move their students through though progressions to fully understanding the standards.

After our first day, we gathered to compile a list of common resources.  I was excited to see Illustrative Mathematics as a common response.  It was also exciting to hear people in our math office discussing Desmos, Andrew Stadel, Graham Fletcher and Annie Fetter.  We had some amazing discussions about the intent of the standards and making sure that we are progressing through them to help students truly understand the mathematics that they are doing, not just cranking through rote procedures.

I've been following the Twitter conversation recently about the direction of the #MTBoS.  It's interesting to see the evolution of a place that has helped me implement a lot of the changes that I wanted to occur in my class, but struggled to find the support and resources to pull off.  This collection of people has produced some amazing resources that are directly in line with my view of what math and math education are all about.  I moved out of the classroom a year after I discovered this wonderful community, and have since struggled with my place in it.  My (infrequent) blogging has centered around the place I do most of my math, which is at home.  Professionally, I find it tougher to find relevant work to blog about.

Then this came across my Twitter feed.

Leeanne helped me to more clearly define my post-classroom #MTBoS self.  A "redistibutor of others cool ideas."

This came after an incident in the previous week, where two teachers I was working with were discussing how much they love Desmos: Polygraph.  I am preparing a PD for our math office when we get back to school in August and was curious because this was a resource that I was planning on incorporating.  I asked them where they had first found out about it and it turns out it was from teachers that had attended a smaller version of the PD I'll be presenting in August.

So now, here I am, redistributor of others cool ideas.  Hopefully, the #MTBoS will keep them coming!