Paradise Re-found

I'm in Washington, DC at an NCTM math teacher conference.  This is the fourth one that I've been to and every time I have to reminisce about my first conference and the embarrassment I felt there...

These conferences are extremely popular with math teachers.  The annual conference attracts over 10,000 math teachers from all over the US and Canada.  Each conference has an exhibit hall where vendors try to get the math teachers to purchase their textbooks, t-shirts, software or just general crap that they want to sell.  All the big names in textbooks are there: Pearson, Glencoe, Key Curriculum, Holt, etc.

So I was at this annual conference in Anaheim, California and at this time I was still an undergrad.  I was completely broke. To this day, I don't know how I managed to pay for airfare, hotel and all the other expenses on a part time job salary.  One thing that did help was the fact that I stayed at the cheapest hotel I could find - The Penny Saver Inn.  And yes... it IS as bad as it sounds.  I won't get into too many details but I refused to get under the bed covers.  I don't think they had been washed... ever.

At the conference, I ran into one of my two favorite math professors who is also the math curriculum coordinator for a school district in DFW.  He invited me to some of the 'special' dinners that he had invitations for.  After all the meetings for the day, I went upstairs to find the 'secret' conference room that was hosting one of these dinners.  When I got there, I realized that it was hosted by a textbook publisher and they were trying to get the 100 of us teachers to purchase their products.  I didn't buy any of their stuff but I sure as hell enjoyed being wined and dined. 

The next day, my professor gave me another invitation to a dinner.  I got all dressed up because he said that this one would be a 'big one.'  I met him in front of his hotel where the representatives from another publishing company would be picking us up.  A few minutes later, a limo pulls around - first time in a limo.  I was feeling high class now.  They took us to a restaurant called The White House which was amazing.  It was also my first 5 course meal (still high falutin').  There were about 40 teachers that they were treating to a five star meal.  I think I heard that the textbook company ended up spending about $5000+ on us that night.

After the meal, we got back in the limo and they took us all back.  Now I had assumed that they would just drop us at the same place where we were picked up.  But no... they wanted to take us back to our individual hotels. One thought rang through my mind: "Oh gosh... please don't drop me off at the Penny Saver Inn!"  I told my professor that I would get out with him and just walk the 4 blocks or so.  But the reps for the company insisted on asking me which hotel I was staying at.  I reluctently said, "The Penny Saver Inn."  The limo pulled up to the hotel and it was obviously out of place.  As I quickly thanked them for a wonderful evening and got out of the limo, I heard one of them say, "I bet this is the first time they've seen a limo here."  All I heard next was laughter from inside the car.  For still being a student and trying to pretend that I was high class, it was completely humiliating but definitely worth it. 

So my glimpse into the 'other side' of math teacher conferences ended in embarrassment.

It's been insane here.  I've been so busy with teaching.  The rest of the teachers and I are about to drop dead.  We've been having meetings almost everyday after school (it seems).  School ends at 2:30 but I almost never get to leave before 5 o'clock.  We've all been coming in on Saturday and Sunday as well and working 5-8 hours each day.  

We've been trying to get the International Baccalaureate system implemented at my school which is on top of the hundreds of other things that makes teaching stressful.  We are trying to get approved for both the Middle Years Programme (grades 7-10) and the Diploma Programme (grades 11 and 12).  This has become a HUGE endeavor and the teachers look like our brains are about to break. 

Right now, we have a five day weekend for Easter.  Yesterday, I took the ferry over to St. John for some hiking and beaching.  I ended up being at a beach with very few people for about 4 hours.  The sad part is that I didn't really feel relaxed for the entire time.  My brain has been in overdrive for so long that I have forgotten how to stop thinking about teaching.  I'm afraid that I'll go back to school on Tuesday without having properly rested.  I can't sleep in to save my life.

On another note, I'm totally pumped about going to the NCTM conference in 11 days!  It'll be three days of super math teacher ideas being crammed down my throat.  I'm also stoked about getting to go to Washington, DC again. 

Even before I became a math teacher, I have been a member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Yes, we have a group.  Yes, we have meetings.  HUGE meetings!

During my senior year of college, I would attend their conferences which occur twice a year.  There are three regional conferences in the fall and then the large annual meeting is in April.  I've previously attended three of them: two regional ones and one annual conference.  I attended my first two conferences before I even graduated college.  I paid for myself to out of my nonexistent college budget.  I wound up staying at places like The Penny Saver Inn which led to an embarassing moment involving my first limo ride.  People were very impressed that I would do all this work and attend the conferences before I even had to.  Also they were shocked that I was paying for myself.  It took me a while to realize that school districts would pay for teachers to go to these meetings. 

The last one I went to was during my first year as a teacher (2005).  I was excited to go because I would finally get the trip paid for by a school.  Unfortunately, the school didn't agree with my choice to go.  I used two vacation days and I told them that I was going regardless.  When I got back, I got to present some of the material to my coworkers.  They enjoyed it - everyone except for my assistant principal, of course.  Strangely enough - me attending this conference gave the school yet another reason to fire me.  By the end of the school year, my department head apparently changed her mind about how she felt in regards to the conference.  She couldn't believe that I had the audacity to miss two days of possible instruction time with my students to party it up in Denver.  My jaw hit the floor.  Last time I checked, teacher development was a positive thing.    

So today, I decided that I would be attending the annual conference this April in Washington, DC.  Will my current school be paying for me to go to this conference?  Probably not.  It's just my luck that we are feeling a huge budget crunch right now.  They did, however, pay for my IB conference trip to Baltimore last December.  Since then they have frozen the budget.  So I'll be finding a way to pay for it myself.

In addition to deciding to attend the conference this year, I have also decided something big. While I was searching NCTM's website, I found the page that mentioned presenting at a future conference.  I will be submitting a proposal to be a presenter at the Annual NCTM Conference in April 2010.  I forgot to mention that these annual conferences are attended by about 15,000 math teachers across the US (no pressure).  The proposal is due in May and I'll find out by September if I will be selected.  My topic:  The Mathematics of Sports.