Danforth Presents at National Conferences

Heather Danforth (AIM MTC) presented on Math Teachers’ Circles at two conferences this fall

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Heather Danforth (AIM MTC), a math teacher and co-director of curriculum at Helios School in Sunnyvale, Calif., presented on Math Teachers’ Circles at two conferences this fall. At the Expeditionary Learning Conference in Detroit, Mich., in October, Danforth presented on math circles as a structure for engaging students in mathematical inquiry. Danforth led teacher participants in the “1-100 problem,” and then discussed how math circles can be used in the classroom to help students get excited about math. In November, Danforth presented at the National Association for Gifted Children conference in Orlando, Fla., again about math circles, with a focus on how the math circle structure can be particularly useful for gifted learners.

“I know that Math Teachers’ Circles changed the way that I think about math and, by extension, the way that I teach it,” said Danforth. “When I started as a teacher, I saw myself as an ‘English person,’ and I was a bit nervous about math. I think that many, many teachers share this feeling. Since then I have led many math circles with both students at teachers at my school, and I have seen this transformation happen many times, with both adults and students.”

This article originally appeared in the Winter/Spring 2017 MTCircular.