School of Education students and faculty present at NCCTM

Faculty and students from Elon’s elementary education program represented at the N.C. Council of Teachers of Mathematics state conference on Nov. 1 and 2.

Katie Baker, assistant professor of education presented with Montana Smithey of UNC-Greensboro around tools for reflection.  The presentation entitled Reflection to Action shared video-recorded teaching moments from both Baker and Smithey and viewing tools that helped set focused goals for instruction. 

Participants were charged with recording their own teaching practices to then set goals around their use of questions or discussion moves that facilitate students’ sharing of mathematical ideas.

Erin Hone, lecturer in education, presented twice during the conference. One presentation was in collaboration with a teacher from the Guilford County school system about Building a CGI Classroom and Why It Matters. The presentation focused on how to create a Cognitively Guided Instruction framework within a math classroom, with explicit connections to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics effective math teaching practices.

The second presentation was led by her undergraduate research student, senior Honors Fellow Molly Kearns, who presented findings from her Lumen Prize project, with implications from the data for teachers’ math practices. Their presentation was titled, “Math-itudes: Are We Making Math Scary?”​

Students from several courses in the elementary education program also attended the conference. Juniors from Baker’s EDU 312 Principles of Learning and Teaching I and students from Math 208 attended with seniors from Professor Hone’s Principles of Learning and Teaching II. The students were able to learn from prominent figures in the math education profession, further solidifying the high-quality practices they have learned about in their math education courses. 

For many, this was their first educational conference experience and the excitement was evident.