Tag Archives: TMC16

Stars of the Week Vol 1

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Maybe it’s just me: I star A LOT of stuff in my blog reader and I star (ok, “heart” now) a lot of tweets, but then never go back to them! So I thought I’d try to post weekly things I’ve starred so (a) you can enjoy (b) I can remember and (c) the posters can get a shoutout. 🙂

PSA: You don’t have to make a fancy post to let someone know you’ve appreciated something they’ve done. A tweet, retweet, or blog comment can really mean a lot to #MTBoS newbies members! I’m going to try to keep these posting going weekly, as well as tweeting someone when I use their stuff! 🙂

My starred posts this week:

Not a post, but if you’re in the Southern US (we’re going ahead and defining that as “Tennessee-adjacent”), be sure to add your name & info to the roster! Hope to plan a mid-fall tweet up!

This first post from Hannah (@girl_got_range) is a great long form about vulnerability in teaching and in life.

Go ahead and read all of @Anniekperkins‘s first 5 posts, but be sure not to miss the latest one about how her “uncompromised beliefs” ended up being a bit, well, compromised.

For something a bit more lighthearted, check out Casey’s (@cmmteach) ABCs of TMC.

Getting a chance to hang out with Brian (@_b_p) at TMC reminded me yet again of his quiet succinct genius. Be sure to follow his blog for little nuggets of awesomeness, like this great way to introduce end behavior. I can see many ways to use this same setup, such as limit notation and his example of sigma notation.

Sarah (@mathequalslove) collected some great resources from 3 different blogs-I love the last one about asking what question each expression answers. And I love the cubic meter. And I love the crime scene. Ok, I guess I love all three!

Also check out her broken circles first day activity. And while you’re at it, Amy’s (@zimmerdiamonds) first day ice-breaker with a secret agenda (watch the periscope video here).  And then check out Beth’s (@algebrasfriend) entire collection of first day activities. Basically I need a month of first days.

If you’re looking for a one-stop shop for expert advice for a newbie or oldie, be sure to check out Elissa’s (@misscalcul8) new How To posts. She’s already made them for teacher moves, questioning, and building relationships (I also predict an organizational one soon). Even if you’ve heard some of the stuff before, I bet you haven’t heard all of it before!

Because Julie (@jreulbach) likes to mock me, she is going all gung-ho on Algebra II the first year in over a decade that I haven’t taught it! Be sure to join her blogroll and submit posts to her recaps! Also check out her post on reliving TMC16 through video!

In those TMC videos, I would recommend Joel’s (@joelbezaire) Math Game with the Lame Name and Gregory’s (@mathtans) genius cubic formula parody song (I’m still amazed how he was able to write that!!)

And now some of my starred tweets:

And as a reward for making it through, let’s end this first post with a song!

Category: Stars of the Week | Tags: ,

#TMC16 Twitter Session: Dot Replies, Convos, and Diving In

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At TMC16, while walking back from lunch with Hannah (@girl_got_range) and Tom (@trigoTOMetry), someone brought up the fact that even though we are at Twitter Math Camp, we still need some help navigating Twitter. After a few tweets, Glenn (@gwaddellnvhs) and Justin (@JustinAion) graciously offered to host a flex session on it Monday afternoon. I attempted doing sketch notes during the presentation, then attempted again when I got home, but, er….well, I’m just a digital gal, I guess!  So here are some of the major things we learned:

First and foremost, WTF is a dot reply?

WTFDotReply

Here is the word doc if you’d like to modify it or share it. 🙂

After four different attempts at trying to create something pretty, it’s just going to be easier to blog about following Twitter conversations–something with which I always struggle! I always have FOMO (fear of missing out) on part of the conversation!

Justin came up with the clearest way of describing a Twitter convo: imagine the original tweet is the trunk of a tree, and reply thread is a branch. If you are a leaf on the branch, you can only see that branch. BUT if you are at the trunk, you can see the whole tree.

For example, let’s say I see a tweet in my timeline from @AddieTheCorgi; I see it’s a reply, so I click on it and get this:

Capture

I’m only seeing the branch that @AddieTheCorgi’s leaf is on. BUT if I click the “trunk” of the tree (the first tweet at the top), I can see the WHOLE TREE!

Capture1

As long as you click “reply” (and not start a new tweet thread), a dot reply will still be threaded as shown above. Here is more of the tree:
Capture2

Well, almost the whole tree. Sometimes they sneak “view other replies” in there, so clicking on that will zoom into that branch:

Capture3

Also, see that hint from Megan right above? That does work, but only when replying to yourself. And turns out there’s also this issue with replying to yourself and taking out the mention:

Capture5

So certainly reply to your own “trunk” if you have more than 140 characters, but let people know it’s a continuation!

Just like it’s ok to jump into a conversation whenever you want, it’s ok to ask to be removed from a conversation as well. A “Please remove my mention, I don’t need to be in this thread anymore” should work (unless some people reply before they see your tweet, but it should get to it to stop shortly). It’s also ok (and appreciated) to reply to just one person if it only involves them, even if that person isn’t the original tweeter. I know I get lazy sometimes and just hit reply and start typing, but it would be beneficial if we all took a second to (a) click on the original tweet to see if someone already replied your exact thoughts (guilty as charged!!) and (b) @mentioned and #hashtagged with intention. It’s not cool to slap a popular hashtag (or person) onto an unrelated tweet just to try to gain audience. It IS cool to @mention someone when you’re sharing something they did or helped with.

Also worth mentioning is when the mentions in a thread start getting unwieldy: start a hashtag!

And just because I wanted to prove to myself I could make one, here is a “5 Top Tips for Twitter” infographic (made using Canva):

5 Top Tips for Twitter

For further reading, I recommend Hannah’s comprehensive gdoc of our flex session and also Michael Fenton’s (@mjfenton) post with great tips (where I first learned WTF a dot reply was).

And if you’re not on twitter yet, please join! Or if you are on Twitter but don’t feel a “part” of it yet, just like in real life, it takes time to build friendships and followers. Join in a chat, reply to a conversation, ask someone a question about their latest blog post. We need your voice in the #MTBoS!

Category: Tech Tips | Tags: , , ,

Important Things You Need To Know

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[Updated to add #SMPTargets and t-shirt link]
[Updated to correct TMC16 date]
[Updated to include latest #eduread information]

There’s been a lot of talk about keeping the TMC spirit through the year, and to that effect there were a lot of links and hashtags thrown around. Here are some of them:

Hashtags to keep an eye out for:

#1TMCThing Choose one thing from TMC to focus on. Find other #1TMCThings that excite you. Check back in with those on October 26. This is not an exclusive thing…even if you weren’t able to be at TMC, you can still choose one thing you want to work on through the year. Some people are choosing big conceptual items, some are choosing smaller goals. Do what’s right for you. Mine is working with Sheri Walker to create and use some Desmos awesomeness.

#TMChange A lot of TMCers are starting at a new school next year. New things are hard. Hard things are less hard when you have supportive friends. Thus, #TMChange is for those that are changing and for those who have recently changed and want to give support to others. @sophgermain is also starting a slack (like a private twitter) to give y’all a safe space to talk. DM her your email if you want to join.

#nahf  A conversation on twitter last night led to a lot of openness about how there are so many people struggling behind the scenes. Mattie came up with “need a high five” (#nahf) as a “bat signal” to send out. Sometimes you just need some extra love with no explanation as to why you need it. (Even if you think it’s something about which #nobodycares)

#eduread ok, ok, so I’m doing a little non-TMC promotion. If you’d like to keep having wonderful, thoughtful, applicable discussions about math, please join us for #eduread. We are going to start reading What’s Math Got To Do With It and we should be starting next week. will be starting the first chapter discussion next Thursday, August 6th at 8E/7C. (We just finished Make It Stick which I would highly recommend, even if you just have time to read the last chapter!)

#SMPTargets If you attended Chris Shore’s presentation about using the Standard Math Practices daily, you will remember that he wrote learning targets that included the SMP focus for the day (for example, “I will persevere while solving right triangle trig problems.”) I am making writing those my 2nd #1TMCpage and Chris came up with this hashtag for others that would like to collaborate and/or support each other.

Important links!

TMC15 Wiki Check for presentation materials and info here!

bit.ly/MTBoSsearch the MTBoS search engine. Tweet @Jstevens009 if you’re blog isn’t listed UNLESS your blog is already listed on the TMC15 list. If so, it will be added in the near future.  If your blog is not on the TMC15 list, then go ahead and tweet him to add.

bit.ly/MTBoSbank A searchable database of activities sorted by grade level and topic. Share your activity by submitting it at bit.ly/MTBoSactivity

bit.ly/desmosbank A searchable database of Desmos activities.

bit.ly/TMC15archive If you wrote or will write about your TMC15 experience, add it to the archive (note: the actual archive will be up this Fridayish)

Blogger Initiation BrainstormingIf you want to help build the #MTBoS, add your thoughts to the document. A mentor idea was discussed, as well as helping people restart their blogs. The actual initiative is planned for late October/early November to feed off of presentations at NCTM Regionals.

Bonus t-shirts: At approximately 6:45, a few of us mentioned how we wanted “Find what you love. Do more of that.” on a t-shirt. At approximately 6:50, Mark (@hfxmark) had created it on spreadshirt. Here is the link!

I’m sure I missed some other important links, so please let me know and I will add them!

Oh, also, one other thing that may be important to know: TMC16 will be at Augsberg University in Minneapolis, MN, July 16-19 2016. See you there!

Category: TMC | Tags: , , ,