Finally, at long last, the wait is over!  This October, everyone from seasoned bloggers and tweeters to math teachers who have never even used twitter before, are invited to jump on board and Explore the MathTwitterBlogosphere (also know as #MTBoS) with us!

What is the MathTwitterBlogosphere?  It is the world of dedicated math teachers that create and share resources every day through Twitter, blogs, math chats, websites, online webinars and more.  It is the most amazing professional development that you will ever experience as a math teacher!

You should come and explore with us because as soon as you jump in, YOU become one of the many math teachers that make the MathTwitterBlogosphere more and more amazing everyday.  You will also meet other like minded teachers, who are just as passionate about their field as you are.

We know that you are all crazy busy math teachers.  But, Exploring the MTBoS should only take about an hour of your time each week.  And it is a zero pressure zone, so you don’t even have to participate every week.  Fair Warning:  The MTBoS is pretty addictive, so once you are in, you will probably want to do each and every week!

To learn more about it and sign up, just visit the Exploring the MTBoS website and add yourself by commenting at the bottom.  If you sign up for the “Weekly Missions Via Email”, your first mission will arrive in your inbox on October 6th.

The MTBoS has changed my teaching and enriched my life!  I hope that you can make the time to jump in and join in this adventure with us!

The math chats for each subject area, middle school through Calculus, have all officially begun!  Here is the list of chats.

Helpful Hints:

• If you have never participated in a Twitter chat before you are in for a treat!  To participate, you just need to include the hashtag (example: #msMathChat) in your 140 characters.
• The moderator will ask a question and then everyone can answer it and discuss.  (The format for chats is usually a question, Q1 from moderator, then you will answer with an A1 at the start of your answer.)
• Don’t feel intimidated, because you don’t actually have to “chat” if you do not want to.  You can simply log into twitter and watch the conversations.  To do this, follow the hashtag.  To follow a hashtag, simply perform a search on Twitter.
• If your Twitter account is private, you may want to unlock your tweets during the math chat.  This will allow people who do not follow you to read your chats for the hour.

If you can’t come to a chat, but want to catch up on the conversation, the math chats are archived on the Math Chat Wiki.

You don’t just learn at TMC (Twitter Math Camp), you get revived.

This past year has been an especially busy year for me, professionally and personally.  It was also one of the most amazing teaching years I have ever had.  I love my job, I love my students, and I’ve been able to participate in so many new and exciting things this year.  I helped Sam with the New Bloggers Initiation, I started and maintained MS Sunday Funday, I hopped on the Desmo’s and the Mathalicious train as well.  I spent as much time learning and helping as I did teaching this year.  Oops, I never slept enough.  By April, I was exhausted.  By June, I was comatose.

Somehow, I never realize how exhausted I am until the second week into summer.  Until at least the second full week of summer, I maintain my frenetic pace, even revising and revamping lessons for next year.  I think that it takes me that long to decompress and get out of “school mode”.  And this summer, once I was finally out of school mode, I was OUT.  I couldn’t even read the blogs in my reader!  I was having an immensely difficult time planning for my TMC13 session with Sam and Tina, I just couldn’t think.  I was even worried that this year, I would not be as enthusiastic, or learn as much, as I had at TMC12.

So, what did I look like at #TMC13?

Yep, I’m the insanely happy person.  Just look at poor Sam in this pic.  Love him, he put up with me for 5 full days!  The point is that even though I started off pretty slowly at #TMC13, it didn’t take me long to get fully into the swing of things!   These people are the most passionate educators I have ever met.  The people at TMC get me excited about learning again, make me want to be a better teacher, and give me the tools to be successful in the fall!  They fixed me.  This is why I go to TMC. 

The hardest part for me was not getting to spend as much quality time with everyone as I did last year.  ( ? WHO ? ) said to me one day, “The good thing is that there are so many more people here this year, the bad thing is that we get less time per person.”  I loved meeting so many new and amazing people, but I didn’t feel like I got to spend enough time with anyone.  I agree with Anne, we should never cap TMC.  I want more people AND more time!

On the last day of TMC13, when we were all teary eyed and hugging new and old friends goodbye for another year, my dear friend Megan said to me, “This is the only conference that ends with a ‘hug it out’.”  As other bloggers have said, it is not just about the math, or the teaching, it is about the people.  It’s about people that are my dearest friends, even though I have just met them.  They don’t just know me, they are just like me.  This is why I love TMC.

I am still working on my #TMC13 recap.  I hope it gets finished (fingers crossed but no promises).  There is just so much to say and everyone else has already said it better than I ever could!

So for now, I am going to focus on the favorite sessions of some of the marvelous middle school teachers that attended #TMC13.  I believe we had well over 30 middle school teachers in attendance, out of 107!  That’s not only a great number, but a big improvement from the three middle school teachers we had last year.  So, I sent out an email to the educators that attended the Middle School Morning Session requesting their top three sessions (or “My Favorites”).  If you teach middle school, went to #TMC13, and want to add your 3 favorites, throw them in the comments!  🙂

Almost all material (lessons, Powerpoints, pdf’s) can be found on the Twitter Math Camp wiki.

Justin Aion, @justinaion
http://mraion.edublogs.org

Adrienne Shlagbaum, @shlagteach
http://shlager.wordpress.com

1. My Favorites: 4 to 1 – As a lover of all things whiteboard, Jen Crase’s favorite was right up my alley! Students simultaneously solve questions, each answering in one of four sections on the board. The sum of the responses is then recorded in the center box. Simply check the center box. Groups with an incorrect sum work together to find and fix the error. What an awesome way to engage all students in practice!
2. MS Math Session – Aside from making some great connections and meeting some incredible people, my biggest take away from the session (thanks, Fawn!) was the importance of incorporating problem solving into the classroom routine and not making it an afterthought. Relevance to the current concept or topic not required!
3. I Notice, I Wonder – Who knew that two little questions could lead to such rich discussion?! Max demonstrated that regardless of the simplicity or complexity of the problem, everyone has something to contribute. Furthermore, by recording every response, everyone’s ideas are valued. Use at the beginning, middle or end of a task, and is a rich feedback opportunity.

Mitzi Hasegawa, @mmhasegawa

Lydia Kirkman @lydiakirkman
Blog – coming soon!

1. Max’s “I notice, I wonder” – even if they have no idea how to solve a problem, EVERY student can notice and wonder.
2. Megan’s INB session – I’ve used math notebooks for the past few years but Megan’s hints, tips and suggestions have made me so excited about the power student’s notebooks can have. I can’t wait to try out her ideas and to collaborate with others on #inbjamboree!
3. Fawn’s problem solving! – Thanks to her I’m determined to have problem solving take a front position in my classroom this year! Looking forward to incorporating Mathalicious and Math Forum resources!

Judy Keeney, @judithkeeney
www.3yellowsandpails.com

1. MS morning sessions: The small group break out sessions-where we could dig into an interesting topic. Would have loved to have had a bit more time.
2. Number Lines with Ashli Black. The push to move into variables and support for kids to experience variables at a more concrete level.
3. Christopher Danielson’s talk on 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions. It was great to participate in a session about a practice that I use (and have for awhile), and have my thinking stretched about other possibilities.
4. Fawn’s problem solving-the tasks, the protocol she uses with kids—fabulous

Julie Reulbach, @jreulbach, Me!
http://ispeakmath.org

You don’t want to miss it! Come tonight to the Global Math internet seminar to hear math teachers explain their favorite things.

Click here to come tonight!  It’s the best hour you’ll spend all week!

https://www.bigmarker.com/globalmathdept/mar5#.UTaVdqXMefQ

Math tweeps are the best tweeps ever. This video is proof – and pure fun. Thanks so much for all of your hard work Kate in making this video. I’m incredibly lucky to be part of a network of math educators that are brilliant AND amazingly creative!  Enjoy!