Last weekend was the California Mathematics Council’s southern conference, CMC South, held in Palm Springs.  I love this conference.  I always leave the conference on a super math high.  It is just the energy boost I need to get me through November and December and it leaves me with enough inspiration to make big changes in January.  It’s like they planned it that way…or something.

I have been teaching for just over a decade and I have attended CMC South every year.  Even when it wasn’t in the school budget I would find it in my personal budget to go.  I started my teaching career in a small, all-girls Catholic high school and found I did not have many people to collaborate with on best practices so I came to this conference hungry for information and inspiration.  In my early years I came to get “stuff”:  lesson plans, handouts, worksheets, already made items or detailed instructions on something I could do on Monday.  Now I come for inspiration.  I come to be reminded why I am in this profession, motivation to continue teaching math in spectacular ways, and for affirmation that what I am doing is meaningful and worthwhile.

CMC South did not disappoint this year.  I have never felt more energized and inspired to be a math teacher.  In fact, this CMC was different and probably the most memorable for me in all my years of attendance.  I was selfish with my time;  I only attended the sessions that truly served me and I took time to unpack things I heard and reflected on things I wrote down.  I had great company with me;  fellow math teachers, administrators, math coaches, and mathlebrities that were more than happy to discuss math education all day long.  And I had the opportunity to break bread with some incredible people in math education…I mean, when Robert Kasplinsky invites you to a dinner with #MTBoS peeps and you’re rubbing elbows with The Classroom Chefs, Nanette Johnson, and Dan Meyers it really makes you feel like you’re in the right place doing the right thing, am I right?!

#MTBoS Dinner at CMC South.  Photo cred:  Meeeeeeeeeee!  Because I was there…NBD.

Now, I know this is not the experience everyone had at CMC.  This is not the experience I’ve had at every CMC.  Conversations during and after this conference with colleagues and friends confirmed this;  some have even said they wouldn’t come back because there’s just not value in the ideal picture that many of the presenters share.  The theory of math education just doesn’t translate well in a practical classroom (to put it nicely).  Some teachers walk away from these conferences with so little while my cup is overflowing.  Every experience is different, and that’s okay, but these conversations humbled me and made me wonder if I was really learning something from these conferences or if it was all just “fluff.”  Was my head was way to high up in the math clouds?  Was I going to come crashing down come Monday morning?

Then, I came across Matt Vaudrey’s blog.

He writes:

It’s easy to dream about big ideas, but some of the daily stuff is kicking my ass.

And worse than that; I’m feeling like the stuffed-shirt, overpaid, abstracted Educator that presents at conferences about ideas s/he hasn’t tried.

I’ve sat in those sessions and rolled my eyes and murmured to my teammate, “Aw, he’s a consultant.”

What can s/he possibly know about real teaching?

I am grateful for the experience I had at CMC.  I had the pleasure of attending Matt’s session at CMC and experienced a shift in my perspective about classroom culture.  It was very inspiring.  I can appreciate Matt’s vulnerability and humility in his post and I wondered if many consultants and math coaches feel this way often.  Especially the ones I’ve grown to respect and admire.

So, I wanted to write back to all the really good educational coaches and consultants out there:

Dear “…stuffed-shirt, overpaid, abstracted Educator…”,

You breathe new life into me every time I listen to you speak.  I need you to dream because I don’t always have time to dream.  If you don’t dabble in educational theory and share your discoveries with me, who will?  We need you to keep doing what you’re doing; because you’re good at it and you influence our classrooms in positive ways.

You’re what picks me up off the floor on the really tough days of teaching when everything feels like it’s going wrong.  You are who sets my gaze towards the prize of making a difference in my students’ lives.  You remind me why I got in this profession, renew my passion for teaching, and help me be the best for my students.  The ideals that you model are what helps me set goals for my own career and for my students.  I know I’m not going to reach those goals on the Monday after the conference but you motivate me to work towards them.

In short, thank you.  You make me think.  You make me wonder.  You make me great.  You make all of us great.