summer CAMT

wednesday night i headed off to san antonio with 2 other teachers for what i suppose is my first business trip. yes, we were headed off to one of the largest math teacher conferences in the country, about 8000 teachers strong, at the convention center on the san antonio riverwalk. this was a last minute request from our principal so the nicer hotels on the riverwalk were basically booked so we stayed at the ramada limited not too far away. sometimes limited means rare, expensive, and valuable because there aren't very many of them. this was that other type of limited.

the conference consisted of 1 hr conference sessions all day thursday, all day friday, and saturday morning. there were hundreds to choose from. some were more popular than others. thanks to the fire marshall, the conference for the advancement of mathematics teaching (CAMT) was extremely interesting. once all the seats in the room were full, no other teachers were allowed into the room, they would need to find a different conference. no big deal, right? wrong. the conference periods had a 15 minute break between. but everyone was in such a big hurry to get to the next conference, they would begin leaving early. the conference leaders knew this, so their conferences started becoming shorter and shorter, so their attendees could get to the next session. they would then wait in hordes outside the classroom and start rushing in as soon as the doors opened. this means if you happened to go to a session that merely let out on time, or if you happened to need a drink or restroom break, you were definitely not making it to a popular session. unless you did the ever popular, sneak up on the side and work your way through the crowd of people that have been waiting twice as long as you have. rumor has it one lady got removed from CAMT because she could not control her anger towards these people. perhaps you think you would cleverly attend the session before the popular one held in the same room? no problem, they've already thought of that. everyone must leave the room between conferences to make it fair. this means if the one you wanted to go to was in the same room as you were already in, no chance of you getting back in the door because so many people are already waiting. it was crazy!!! i went to boring conferences to avoid the madness. i mean seriously...its a math conference?

despite all of that, the funniest part was actually the materials, or lack thereof. most conference leaders would hand out a CD or some handouts that were pretty useful to bring back for your classroom. but a lot of leaders did not have enough handouts. people would get downright nasty, demanding teachers from the same school share, or those that came in a little late did not deserve one, or storming out of the room when they didn't get a handout. my personal favorite moment of the conference was when a lady sitting next to me did not get a handout and seemed very upset. another lady nearby gave her one, and shared with another teacher from her school. the lady promptly got up and left. she just wanted the handout, not the lecture. even funnier was how angry the ladies at my table got about this, and spent the next 45 min talking badly about her.

all in all, i learned a few things, got some interesting ideas. also i got to meet up with friends from usaa at the riverwalk 2 of the 3 nights, and had a great time. CAMT 2007 is in the books.