The icon on my airplane’s wifi signal indicates I’m somewhere over Wyoming right now, en route to Washington, D.C., for collaboration and conviviality with thousands of math teachers from all around the United States. I’m looking forward to reconnecting with old colleagues and meeting new ones so let me tell you where we’ll find each other. If we’ve met, let’s catch up. If we’re just meeting, let me know what you’re working on or wondering about.

Wednesday

Desmos Preconference Workshop

My team will be running a morning workshop and an afternoon workshop on our newest, hottest technology and activities.

Also: Emdin’s opening session; NCTM Game Night.

Thursday

ShadowCon

Zak Champagne, Mike Flynn, and I have recruited four interesting speakers — Lauren Lamb, Javier Garcia, Nanette Johnson, Andrew Gael — each offering their own variation on a similar theme. The presenters and the organizers collaborated on these ten-minute talks for the last several months. The process was a joy and the resulting talks are really exceptional. We’ll also introduce a new way to continue the call to action of those talks long after they have ended.

Desmos Happy Hour & Trivia

Beep beep! Right after ShadowCon, I’m speed-walking straight to NCTM’s Top Rated Happy Hour Event. Then we’ll commence NCTM’s Highest Grade Trivia Competition. I can’t divulge any of the categories but if you were to brush up on your naughty words that rhyme with math vocabulary, I don’t think you’ll regret the effort.

Also: Sessions with Stiff, Rosen, Briars, Usiskin, Cirillo, Pelesko, and time at the Desmos booth, trying to convince people to buy our free calculators and free activities. (Pretend you don’t see me, friend. Pretend you’re on the phone with your mother. Pretend I didn’t invent those exhibitor-dodging moves. We are having this conversation, friend.)

Friday

Full Stack Lessons

I know my talk is at 8 AM. I know that. But I’ll be bringing coffee for at least me and one other person in the room. Maybe three more people if I can find one of those coffee carrier trays.

Here’s the description:

Two teachers can take the same idea for a lesson and experience vastly different results in class. This is often because one teacher taught from the full “stack” of questions and the other taught from just part of it. We’ll look at the contents of that stack and learn how to put the full stack of questions to work in your classes.

Also: Zager, Martin, United Airlines.