I need a math blog in the MTBoS: TMC13 Recap

I am still kind of star struck after spending 3 days with some of the most brilliant, talented, and enthusiastic math people I have ever met. This post is my tmc13 recap from a newbie to the Math Twitter Blogosphere.

I am about to enter my fourth year teaching. I still suck pretty bad. Before last December, when I joined twitter, I was pretty sure teaching was not a good profession for me. I am not outgoing, and being in front of a group of people is way outside my comfort zone. My classroom management skills are also in need of improvement.  I discovered the MTBoS six months ago and signed up for TMC13 as soon as I realized it was in Philadelphia. As a Pennsylvania teacher it was not a huge investment, and I just hoped that being around the people whose blogs I was reading there was a chance I could absorb some of the greatness. I also hoped that I had something to contribute, but I was not sure what that might be.

I am so grateful that this community was open to expanding. As I read your tweets about the high council and the sets and subsets of community members I felt the need to contribute from a newcomers perspective. Think of me as your student who is way behind the class. I am the lowest kid in a heterogeneous group. I am still learning the language of the MTBoS, but I came looking for solutions. I discovered very quickly that how I was taught in a traditional mathematics classroom was not how I wanted to teach.  Twitter is where I discovered ideas for how I could change. I don't care what you call yourselves; founders, originals, high council, I am just glad I found you!  I would have spend my entire career trying to be a good teacher, and now I actually believe I will be.

Twitter Math Camp was an inspiring experience for a new teacher. When I go back to my school for the start of the year I will be surrounded by a small math department whose members care about the students they teach but are resistant to change and growth.  It is a place of stagnation, negativity and blaming the struggling student for his or her lack of success. Thank you MTBoS for showing me that this does not have to be my future.

I still feel like I won the golden ticket. How was I invited to experience TMC13 and I don't even blog about Math!  (I started blogging about nutrition and farming a year ago). I look forward to continuing conversations online with some of the twerps I met with and worked with face to face and making connections with others in the Math Twitter Blogosphere.