Speaker Proposal Form

Rationale: In the movie Hidden Figures Dorothy Vaughn, played by Octavia Spencer, recognized with impending advancements in technology, her staff’s current skillset would soon become obsolete thus losing their place at NASA. Re-imagining possibilities Dorothy not only trained herself on how to utilize the impending technology but also prepared her staff so that when those required skills were demanded they were ready. Mathematics teachers, like Dorothy Vaughn, are at those same crossroads. The demands of the world our students will enter are much different than the demands of the world we entered. Our challenge is to re-imagine possibilities for our students as they enter a world in which creative and analytical thinking, technological literacy, curiosity, resilience, flexibility, and agility are the skills that our current/future society demands. What do these demands mean for all of us as mathematics teachers? How will these demands shape what we teach as well as how we teach mathematics? This is an opportunity for each of us to share what it means to re-imagine possibilities both individually and collectively.