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Anthony Meades wrote: //Had the oppertunity to attend the workshop on the art of problem posing. it was very interesting, god those smart boards are cool got to get me one of those. the animotor guided us through showing how seven different problems were essentially identical. i was most impressed by the use of "quizino rods" (spelt wrong i'm sure) to show how 1 cubed + 2 cubed + 3 cubed+ 4 cubed= the area of a 10 by 10 square.// //I have the hand outs if anyone wants copies see me in class, i have written on them though.// //Sorry forgot to mention that the animator Richard Hoshino proposed we challenge students to design their own problems based on ceratin guidlines (strand, expectation, number sentance, answer)to help engage other areas of our students brains. In his experience this reinforces and helps improve students problem solving skills. he also suggested as an extra insentive, to give a page of student made questions to the students (leaving it up to them to solve and figure them out amongst themselves) with the promise of including x number of these questions verbatum on an upcomming test.//

Alex Rassi wrote: //During practicum, I had the opportunity to attend the COMA Mini-Conference at the University. My associate teacher is the president for it, so I sort of had no option with the matter. After attending it I realized it was actually really valuable. Basically, there were about 10 mini seminars and everyone was to chose 2 of them they wanted to attend (one for the morning and one for the afternoon). The first seminar I attended was the SMART_TIPS_4RM for grades 7-12. The second one I attended was a seminar for the latest TI Nspire Graphing Calculators. By the end of it all I was given a lot of information and resources. What I will find especially useful is the SMART Notebook lesson plans and activities for every grade and course from 7-12 on a CD, and the SMART Mathemicatics Resource software. If anyone is interested in a copy, let me know. Also, keep an eye out for these conferences because they will help you with new things that are taking stride in a math classroom.//