I'm really loving the workshops this year.
I attended another one today called Big Muscle Activities for Math. The presenter was this crazy cool guy who apparently got 5 degrees in 5 and a half years or something like that and scored excellent on the math GRE even though he only took one math class in college...
He's a creative thinker. He now travels all over with this stuff he and his wife seem to have put together. Even though I was one of three secondary math people in a room full of elementary teachers, it was a lot of fun. I learned this way cool new version of Scrabble today and picked up a lot of really neat ideas.
He also talked about the differences in the methodology of teaching in America and Japan--America it's "Teach Practice Review Test". He told us about a video of a 5th grade classroom in Japan...students milling about talking. Teacher walks in and they bow. He writes a problem up on the board and leaves for 15 mintues. the students all go up to space on the board...some work in groups, some by themselves and they solve the problem. He comes back, has each group show their method of solving and discuss what they liked in each method and what not, what was the best way, he puts up a new problem and process starts again.
It reminds me of how much I'd love to study math pedagogy around the world--Europe, Asia, South America... For now, I have my dream. It's what I'd want to study if I ever get a chance to pursue a master's and/or doctorate.