NOYCE Scholars Journey to West Warrick to take part in ATMNE

Eight members of the Boston University Noyce Scholarship Program traveled to Rhode Island take part in the ATMNE 2011 Conference. The participants were Matt Chedister (Program Coordinator), Mary Feeley (Noyce ’12), Mark Leach (Noyce ’12), John Gilling (MfA ’12), Kate Harney (MfA ’12), Sara Carhart (Noyce ’09), Blythe Colyer (Noyce ’10), and Catherine Willwerth (Noyce Master Teacher).

At the conference, the participants had an opportunity to attend numerous sessions on a variety of mathematical topics. One of the highlights was a talk about turning closed form questions into open ended questions. This allows teachers to learn much more information about their students than simple computational problems. Another highlight of the conference was that the participants had the opportunity to hear from 3 past Presidents of NCTM including Hank Kempner who gave the lunch keynote speech about the Common Core State Standards.

In addition, the conference provided the participants an opportunity to talk to various vendors of educational materials. Mark Leach, a preservice teacher, appreciated the fact that he was able to examine the materials he might be able to use in his future work as well as how different resources related to the Common Core State Standards. He also said it was helpful to know what he might want to ask for once he began teaching. Of particular interest to him was a website that help teachers perform both formative assessment in their classrooms and online.

Overall, the scholars learned a lot and spent the car ride home discussing the many things they learned and resources they had gathered.

Click here to find information about Boston University’s BEST Noyce Program.