Summer 2009: Alternate Travel (1 of 2)
So the big trip with the ferries across the Adriatic and the Aegean, not to be. No coffee houses this summer in Sarajevo. No archaeology in Skopje. No cucumber-tomato salad in Thessaloniki…
Instead…?
This week, a math teacher conference in the Finger Lakes.
The Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State (AMTNYS) has a Summer Math Institute on Lake Cayuga…
It’s pretty up here. The lake is sort of like a broad Hudson, without buildings… or palisades. Lots of sun, light breezes, greenery, trees.
Tom Chapin delivered the keynote this morning. Strange choice, but compelling as he told and sang his story, about education and math and funding, but mostly just a feel good way to start the day.
And there’s math teachers to talk to. About donuts and Springsteen and state capitals and wineries, but mostly about math. That’s outside of the workshops.
I attended three today. One about blogging (run by someone in my blogroll! but up to them how they mention it).
Another about games to play with little kids. I love that sort of stuff, since it’s so easy to ramp it up and make the games appropriate for older kids. Everyone likes games.
And finally a counting polygons workshop that touched several questions I’ve touched on here, including “How many rectangles are on a chessboard?”
It all sounds geeky. And it is. But I like interacting with colleagues, and I enjoy the math. So there.
JD2718 
what the heck you’d actually seek out opportunities
to travel for i’ll probably never understand.
but i do miss math cons. i can’t hang out
with strangers of any kind sober with any comfort
but math people come about as close as any.
cartoonists actually top the list even though i
can’t draw. i suppose because i loved comics first
and for better reasons. (ego and money motivated
much of the math i ever learned; comics are just
flat-out fun to look at).
A week like that sounds like fun. I guess I am a geek too!