2025 MidSchoolMath National Conference

How can we make mathematics more engaging yet increase productive struggle?  How do we help students learn to believe in themselves?  How can we teach for understanding and still meet the state standards?  

In this hands-on session, you'll experience a wide range of inquiry activities designed to help students discover mathematics, build confidence, and transform their idea of what a math class is. We will look at math content you already know but from an inquiry lens, with activities that will help students discover the formula for the area of a circle, how to simplify polynomials and even why the Pythagorean theorem looks the way it does. You'll leave ready to introduce these activities in your classroom and with a deeper understanding of why inquiry works!

Note: Bring your calculator!

Join this interactive workshop designed to enhance math literacy in secondary math classrooms! You'll explore powerful strategies like Number Talks and Novel Ideas, which encourage students to verbalize their reasoning and deepen math understanding. Discover how Interactive Problem-Solving Guides can help students organize their thinking and work through complex problems collaboratively, while Debate Math fosters critical thinking through structured argumentation on mathematical concepts.

Through hands-on activities, collaborative discussions, and practical examples, you'll learn how to integrate these literacy-focused strategies into your lessons to support students’ mathematical learning journeys. By the end of the session, you'll leave with new approaches to cultivate deeper mathematical understanding, enhance student engagement, and improve achievement in your secondary math classrooms.

Note: BYOD: Please bring a device such as a Chromebook or laptop to this session.

In this session, we'll present a didactic sequence designed for Middle School students, focusing on various number bases such as base 3, 5, and 8, so you can learn how to initiate this sequence with an investigation using concrete materials, such as colored sticks, plastic pieces, or other readily available resources to equip your students with the conceptual understanding necessary for navigating these systems.

Through this hands-on exploration, students achieve several key objectives: they generalize properties of different number systems and learn to perform operations within them. This approach empowers students to transfer their understanding across diverse number systems. By varying the bases, they develop a more comprehensive grasp of the properties of operations and the functioning of mathematical algorithms. You'll leave with practical strategies and resources to replicate this sequence with your students.

In this session, middle school math educators, coaches, and school leaders will explore how to create equitable and thinking-centered math classrooms by centering the experiences of black female students. Using a real case study as the foundation, we will delve into the systemic challenges these students face and learn how intentional classroom practices can empower them to succeed in mathematics.

The session will focus on how educators can foster growth mindsets, encourage meaningful classroom conversations, and build thinking classrooms to support the unique needs of marginalized students. You'll leave with actionable strategies to transform your classrooms into spaces where all students - regardless of race or gender - can thrive.

Learn from the MidSchoolMath team as they share their learnings in applying Peter Liljedahl’s Building Thinking Classrooms Framework to MidSchoolMath’s multi-dimensional growth mindset curriculum!

Join us to immerse yourself in practical techniques, see impactful examples from real middle school classrooms, and discover how these practices can transform math instruction, making learning both meaningful and exciting for students.

Note: This session is specifically designed for educators who use Core Curriculum by MidSchoolMath with their students.