Giving Thanks – Wow: What an Amazing 2012!

This Thanksgiving, as is my custom, I’m again taking time to reflect on the amazing experiences that I have enjoyed over the past 12 months. It is so gratifying to have the opportunity to champion elementary math education and GET PAID to spend time in classrooms with teachers and students.  I want to extend heartfelt thanks to everyone who has played a part in making the year so special.

In my “Giving Thanks” message last year, I confessed that 2011 would be difficult to beat. Well…beat it I did. In 2012, my math training and consulting business more than doubled and I enjoyed some amazing professional opportunities… Where to start?

Training and learning on four continents

Cassy Turner with teachers in the Republic of Palau

How about Palau? In May, I was awarded a contract by the Republic of Palau to assist the Ministry of Education (MOE) with the implementation of the Singapore Math® Curriculum. I visited Palau twice in 2012, providing training and professional development for teachers and MOE Staff.

Cassy Turner with teachers at AIS, Ghana

Then there’s Ghana. The Association International School in Accra, Ghana, hired me to help teachers adopt Singapore Math®. I spent a week working at AIS in September 2012.

Cassy Turner with Korean Teachers at ICME-12

And Korea. I attended the Olympic Games of Mathematics Education, otherwise known as the International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME), in Seoul, Korea. Held only once every four years, ICME-12 attracted 5,000 participants from more than 150 countries.

These life-changing experiences in the summer of 2012 included mathematics teaching, training and learning on four continents. All told, I logged more than 60,000 miles. Incredible!

School Clients and BER

While international clients are energizing, I am extremely grateful to provide professional development services on a regular basis for more than a dozen North American Schools that are using Singapore Math®, the world’s best elementary math curriculum.

I truly appreciate my relationship with the Bureau of Education & Research (BER), now in its third year. Through BER, I presented more than 30 Singapore Mathematics seminars for teachers across North America in 2012. I’m very grateful that BER invited me to present at their “Helping Students Succeed in Math” conferences in the coming months.

Learning and Presenting

For the 4th consecutive year, my personal learning included attendance and participation at the 2012 annual conferences of both the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and NCSM. At NCTM, I was a speaker, presenting a session with Lauri Susi of Conceptua Math entitled, “Technology + Singapore Strategies = Number Sense” to a large audience of Math Educators.

Cassy’s badges from Math Educator conferences

I continue to conduct peer reviews of articles submitted for publication in NCTM journals and met my personal goal of reading at least 50 books for the third straight year.

Community Service

Despite a very busy work and travel schedule, I made time this year to serve several causes that are very important to me.

I’m entering my 3rd and final year as a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Common School, an award-winning K-12 Charter School in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Congratulations are in order for Liberty’s first high school class which graduates in May. This group of seniors earned the highest composite ACT test score of any school in the state. And the Elementary school was the first in the nation to be re-certified as a Core Knowledge Official School through the Analysis of Curriculum and Practices (ACAP) process recently developed by the Core Knowledge Foundation.

I’m proud that my after-school math club continues to be wildly popular with kids who have great fun while building math skills that last a lifetime. Special thanks to parents who help oversee the club when I can’t be there.

I’m also wrapping up my 4th year as an advisor to students in the award-winning International Baccalaureate (IB) program at Poudre High School.

Personal

Of course I’m most thankful for my wonderful family, which has also enjoyed a memorable year. As also is my custom, I’ll spare readers more details.

Once again, my sincerest thanks to clients, colleagues, partners and students for a wonderful year.