Best of...#TMC12

Best hotel goes to Drury because we actually had free Internet, a microwave and refrigerator, awesome breakfast, free dinner and drinks and still cost less than the Hilton :)


Best weapon of math destruction goes to Hedge's @approx_normal marshmallow gun because it's simple, awesome, fun, and actually works.


Best session idea goes to whoever decided we should do My Favorites because I'm pretty sure we could have an entire conference based on that alone and I felt like it was blog reading come to life...like a book of pop up bloggers....except real.

Best session goes to Geogebra because it is now accessible to me, the tutorials were great, and I learned a skill that I will use and which will make my life easier and my worksheets awesomer.

Best presenter goes to Bowman @bowmanimal because I have never seen anyone bounce and smile and talk simultaneously before.

Best new app I downloaded goes to Touchpad (although Educreations is a close second) because I have always wanted to advance my slides while I'm walking around and now I found a free way to do it.

Best moment goes to Roxanne @justagurl24 because she reminded us why we do what we do and how far we have come since our first [terrible] year.

Best ending goes to Rachel @rdkpickle and Sean @SweenWSweens because they awesomely serenaded us with their creative and twittery "Tweet Me Maybe".

Best surprise goes to the goody bag because we got free stuff!

Best new website goes to socrative.com student response system (Thanks Colin @colinmac10) because it's free, easy to use, awesome, and even aggregates data for you.

Best new brainstorm goes to starting the school year with students observing and writing down observations [from videos, demonstrations, measurements, charts, photos, rhythms, etc]. Notice and wonder. Compare answers. Think out loud. Uncover assumptions students make when translating from reading and translating to writing. Practice math vocabulary. Review units. Because students struggle with so many of these things, maybe I can address those right from the beginning and actually have something kind of fun to do at the beginning of school.

Best new product goes to the Fabric Wall-Mount Magazine Organizer from the Container Store because Megan @mgolding gave me the link and it is lime green and matches my classroom. Yayyyy.


Best thing I should have known about but didn't goes to Mathalicious lessons because Karim @karimkai is intense and because there are videos and handouts and standards, hooray!

Best conference location goes to St. Louis because I could drive my own car and do lots of shopping at all my favorite places and have a place to put it. :)

Best Dollar Tree goes to the one on Olive Boulevard because it was half a mile from me and had super cute colorful tubs that my store at home doesn't have.

Best plot twist goes to The Dark Knight Rises because I didn't see it coming and because some things are just true whether you want to believe them or not.

Best awkward moment goes to all the ones involving me because I felt so weird that people actually knew my name and especially that there are people who know me that I don't know.

Best realization goes to the fact that four years ago I didn't know you people but now I know you for the rest of my life, all because of Twitter.

The end.