By Helena McSherry, Member, Board of Directors, The Bronxville School Foundation

Jun. 24, 2015:  School was barely out last year for the summer of 2014 when Bronxville High School math teachers Cynthia Maupin and Zhanna Cabrera packed their bags and headed to New Hampshire for an intensive learning experience of their own. 

Funded by a grant from The Bronxville School Foundation, the two senior educators spent a week at the Anja S. Greer Conference on Mathematics, Science and Technology at Phillips Exeter Academy. Their goal was to explore the potential application and impact of new technologies in the classroom and the math curriculum with other independent and high school educators from throughout the US and beyond.

The Bronxville School places a high priority on professional development, and these teachers clearly do, too, evidenced by the work they put into researching, writing, and discussing the grant that resulted in the foundation's funding the teachers' tuition and expenses for the conference. 

Both of the teachers attended this conference in the past and view it as the best way to learn about the newest technologies and how to integrate them into their own math classes. In fact, Ms. Cabrera stated that this is basically where she learns everything related to new technology.  

At the conference, each participant selects two courses that meet each day throughout the week. In addition to these two primary courses, participants can also attend a range of 45-minute workshops on a variety of topics.  

At last summer's conference, Ms. Maupin and Ms. Cabrera's primary focus was to learn a graphing application for the iPad called FluidMath and also to explore ways that e-book technology might be incorporated into the curriculum during the school year.  

FluidMath runs on the iPad and has a very powerful handwriting recognition feature; once an equation or function is written on the screen, the graph is created nearly instantaneously and can be projected from the iPad onto the Smart Board. It serves as a valuable teaching tool in that it enables real-time inquiry by the students as well as comparisons across functions and equations.   

Ms. Maupin and Ms. Cabrera have begun introducing the app in some classes already. Once it is fully rolled out, they expect to use FluidMath as a tool in teaching nearly the full range of BHS math classes, including algebra 2, precalculus, and calculus. 

Ms. Cabrera and Ms. Maupin regard the Exeter conference as an integral way to help keep the teachers and curriculum fresh and current and as a place where educators who are the best in their field go to teach and learn from one another. Ms. Maupin summed up this sentiment saying, "Exeter is where we regularly go to recharge our batteries as math teachers." Many conference leaders and participants attend regularly and have had the opportunity to establish relationships and candidly share their own experiences about the advantages and limitations of integrating certain new technologies into the classroom and curriculum.  

They also learn how other teachers at the best schools have been integrating the technologies, including practical applications and problem sets most suitable for reinforcing the concepts. Interestingly, the value in sharing information is sometimes the avoidance of adopting a new technology--which can save valuable time and resources as well as frustration.   

In sum, the conference proved to be a very worthwhile learning and networking opportunity with ongoing benefits that extend well beyond a single week last summer.  

Pictured here:  Math teachers Cynthia Maupin (L) and Zhanna Cabrera.

Photo by Nancy Yu Kochansky, Member, Board of Directors, The Bronxville School Foundation