The incredible math team at East Grand Rapids Middle School attended the Middle School Math Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with the help of a grant funded by the East Grand Rapids Schools Foundation.
The team was able to learn from some of the best math educators in the country, including Howie Hua, who is a college math instructor at Fresno State, and Peter Liljedahl, who is the author of the book, Building Thinking Classrooms.
The team learned ways to help our students not just mimic the math being taught, but to independently think about the concepts, ultimately making them better mathematicians.
Teacher Tracy Packard shared that, "Since we have returned, we have tried several new strategies in our classrooms, all of which our students have loved and shown more engagement with the content. We continue to work as a team at the middle school to build on the ideas we learned while at the conference to push each other to become better math educators in our classrooms."
School operational budgets have limited funds for professional development. The Foundation is able to help our teachers bond as teams, grow as professionals, and ultimately stay in East Grand Rapids so our students can reach their full potential.
Thank you for your support in this endeavor!
