MathsFest and Dinner

Written By:  Amy sitting in Kerry’s chair in the living room in Bettystown

I went to MathsFest at University College Dublin held on Saturday 10/11.  I couldn’t convince Ker to come with me.  I think he may have thought it was boring. Now, I don’t know why anyone would think a gathering of secondary mathematics teachers talking about math would be boring—we’re the life of any party.

It was far from boring.  I was a little late so I rushed into the huge campus looking for the building MathsFest was using.  After some stumbling around, I found the building just as the registration table was being broken down.  I got my bag of swag and proceeded to sign up for the much-anticipated Millennium Maths Project that the lady at the registrations table said was filling up quickly.  This turned out to be a collection of very rich math problems for students with manipulatives to play with.  I had a blast, but I felt that my time would be better spent looking at the line up of presenters and deciding which sessions I would try and catch.  As always happens at any math conference I've been, there were so many interesting talks and workshops going on at the same time.  And, just like the ones at home, I had a difficult time choosing my favorite. 

But, first before I could really settle into the talk, I had to look (and get!) some free textbooks and other math teaching stuff.  Shopping for nerds is so amazing!

Let me first say that the mathematics taught to students who are of similar age to our 9 – 12 graders is MUCH more rigorous both in content, notation and theory than the mathematics we teach these same aged students in the states.  No matter what your mathematical background is, it would blow your mind to see the types of mathematics students are being testing on here.  I attended one session where students in what would be our sophomore year were expected to be able to prove whether or not a function was bijective (injective and surjective, one-to-one and onto) either with a counterexample or an actual proof of the kind I had to produce in Calculus. 

My first presenter went through a typical lecture from his junior level maths class on the topic of complex numbers.  He went so far into the subject of complex numbers, I even learned something.  It was humbling to know that these students are being exposed to mathematics I have yet to really delve into. 

I’ve got a paper in the works that goes into depth about the reasons I think Irish schools are able to achieve such startling mathematics topics so I won’t go too far into that right now.  However, I have to say that the level of mathematics and mathematical thinking a teacher here has to have is so much higher than their American counterparts.  Stepping into the sessions and listening to the Irish teachers present topics related to teaching and learning math here was like going back to college for me.  I realized just how much I dumbed the math content down in my classes so I could reach all students.  Not only did that affect my students, but also I’m finding that the dumbing down of our curriculum affected my familiarity and level of comfort with my own subject. 

I think it is safe to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the conference.  I paid my €30 entry fee and that even included a terrific lunch.  I chose the vegetarian option.  I’m always surprised at how sophisticated Irish kitchens are.  In most places we’ve eaten there are gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, and diabetic options available.  It’s really great.  However, when you chose the vegetarian option, you do get a look.  You know, the look like: “What the hell is wrong with you?”  That look.  But, this was the only lower fat option.

If I would have coughed up an additional  €50 I could have had dinner with the other attendees.  The guest speaker was the President of Ireland.  THE FREAKING PRESIDENT OF IRELAND cares enough about the state of math education that he comes to MathsFest, eats diner and gives a speech.  I’m thinking I’ll never see the American President at a math conference.  Probably not even a Governor. 

Sorry Michael D. Higgins, I’m sure we could have had a good time, but I got to go because a very sexy man is picking me up from the conference to take me out on the town in Dublin.  Ker swept me off to a brewery just a couple of blocks from St. Stephens Green. 

Ker ordered a flight of beers from Galway Bay Brewery.  Only one was I able to swallow—the porter. The other two beers tasted like Kerry likes em.  Think kitchen cleaner, sweat, and motor oil.  I don’t know why he enjoys watching me retch after trying them but he never seems to tire of my bitter beer face. To balance out the amount of deliciousness that was dinner, I ordered an ice water from the bartender and received my second of the day what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you look.  I’m getting used to that look by now.

After our dinner we decided we needed to walk off our early dinner.  We headed right into the Saturday early evening crowd on Grafton Street.  People watching is one of my favorite ways to get to know a city.  So, we walked for about an hour going into the stores still open and watching all the people enjoying their Saturday night.  After we felt we’d walked off as much of the guilt from eating such a great dinner, we spied a gelato shop. Naturally, Ker had to buy me some gelato.  He gallantly got the scoopers attention when it appeared the pushy (and tiny!) woman who came in after us was trying to take cuts and gave our order.  He stayed to pay when the shop so crowded, it was standing on each other feet only.  I was out of there the second person who stepped on my shoes. 

We headed back to the house after the delicious gelato was all gone.  I had such a nice time.  MathsFest and then Dublin are sure to be highlights of my time here.