Doing the math: Teachers’ convention addresses federal standards, technology

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, April 24, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

Those in the overflow crowd at the Sands Expo Center Tuesday likely counted their change a little more carefully than usual conventioneers -- and they probably knew more about statistics than even the most seasoned bookmaker.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics wraps up its 80th annual meeting today, after four days of workshops, seminars and special events attended by nearly 20,000 teachers and administrators.

Eager educators hustled up and down the Venetian's escalators as they rushed between workshops with titles such as "Glorious Graphs' and "Giving Slope Meaning Through Density Experiments." John Glenn's keynote address drew a crowd of 2,000 in the main hall plus another 1,000 watching his speech on big screen televisions in an adjacent ballroom.

The exhibition areas were crowded with more than 200 vendors, and the most popular booths were those offering what math teachers refer to as "manipulatives" and their students probably call "fun stuff to play with."

Many teachers said they were paying for the supplies out of their own pockets -- shrinking budgets in school districts across the country leave little money for extras like graphing paper and puzzles.

"I haven't even put a quarter in a slot machine yet," said Cheryl LeFevre, who teaches in Tropic, Utah, near Bryce Canyon. "Everything I've bought is for my students."

Weighted down with shopping bags stuffed with freebies, teachers rummaged through bins of colored wooden blocks for learning fractions, oversized neon foam shapes for geometry projects and puzzles incorporating logic and algebra. Math teacher attire was also selling briskly, from the neckties bearing complicated equations to the T-shirts reading, "Got Math?"

Not far from a display of high-tech graphing calculators was "Ballman," the alter ego of Washington State math teacher Bruce Baguley, who came dressed like a low-budget super hero to hawk his own invention.

Baguley, clad in black tights, blue shorts and a red cape, is the inventor of the "Math Engine," a clear plastic grid that can hold colored balls to illustrate basic math equations and fractions.

"People come over to laugh at me," Baguley said as he adjusted the prescription eyeglasses he wore over his black mask. "I don't mind, because they end up staying and talking to me and usually decide I've come up with something pretty good here."

In the hallways of the Venetian's conference center, hundreds of teachers sat on the floor or leaned against the walls as they waited for the start of the next session. The biggest crowds turned out for workshops addressing proposed federal standards for education, techniques for teaching students who are not fluent in English and the impact of technology on classroom learning.

Bernedette Turner of Jefferson City, Mo. said she was looking forward to a roundtable discussion on whether it's appropriate to use calculators in elementary school classes.

"Do we make sure the students know three times four is 12 or do we let them use calculators?" Turner asked. "It's something we're all thinking about these days -- are we letting our students become dependent on shortcuts and actually impeding their development?"

John Gillett of Salt Lake City pronounced the convention a success even though there were not enough seats at some of the more popular workshops, proving that even math teachers can occasionally miscalculate. Tempers flared when late arrivals learned they would be shut out, Gillett said. Two women actually began shoving each other over the final seat in one seminar, Gillett said.

"I was surprised it got physical," Gillett said. "We're math teachers, we're usually a placid bunch."