OAME 2026

I was so pleased to be selected to present at this year’s provincial math conference in London Ontario this past week. I attended some excellent workshops, met good math friends, and learned a lot of new strategies and problems to bring back to my classes.

We had a workshop based on a task which we played with and modelled (or tried to model) and then the workshop main topic of consolidation was introduced.

We were split into groups and tasked with organizing how we would consolidate the work if we were in a class. We talked about the approaches and communication that we would highlight, and in what order.

A big part of teaching through tasks is having good tasks that take some time and effort to work through, which can lead to a bit of a messy time consolidating, as not all groups will have had a similar journey through the tasks, and not all communication is clear and easy to follow. It is a good skill to work on: watching the groups, keeping an eye on all of the boards and having a good plan about how to debrief at the end in a way that validates the efforts of all, and the processes that were explored, and highlights the skills we are working on developing.

I led a workshop on cup stacking and the algebraic modelling that can be explored through these hands on activities. My slides are in the professional development section of this site.

I went to several problem solving sessions, with a goal of getting problems that I can use with my classes and with our grown up math club. One session was in French, and it was so nice to get resources in French for my immersion classes. It was a nice small group so we all worked together to explore the problems.

Another session I attended was all about the historical ways to calculate pi. It was all a bit over my head, as I’ve never thought about how someone might have done this way back before writing implements existed. One of the neat approaches was using rings of circles and ratios. Someone in the room had just bought some counters so we tried to build a model to help us understand.

I’m glad to have heard so many good keynote addresses, and attended such well organized workshop sessions. I’m looking forward to attending in Ottawa in 2028.