NOT BASEBALL

AMATYC went virtual this year with a reduced schedule as an accommodation to the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference takes place on three consecutive Fridays. I will probably be able to attend the first and third weeks. Yesterday was the first week.

As far as specific content the first week I did not get much I could use. On the trivial, but maybe fun side, you can create a bingo game to keep interest in your lecture. bingobaker.com is one site where you can do this. I imagine there are thousands. On the more substantive side one speaker recommended less math intensive questions for forums if you want students to engage fully. Maybe include overview questions. This might work for group work in remote classes as well. This has not been going well for me.

My general feeling about the conference is it is fine for some things. I was able to quickly bail on sessions that were not what I expected and join others or go back to doing HFC work. It was very easy to share resources electronically. As a drawback if you were new and wanted to network nothing was set up for that this year. Also, a single publisher sponsors each week so you can’t browse the newer vendors as easily.

If I had czar-like powers I would probably reduce the main conference by a day and offer a second conference remotely in April or May. Or go to face-to-face every other year so that governance and networking can occur with a remote conference in the alternate years. Either would let part-time teachers and teachers at schools without large travel budgets participate without (probably) damaging the long term numbers of members. Given the contracts AMATYC has secured already it would probably be close to a decade before any major changes could be made.

Two final thoughts- I am not sure whether I include this on my list of AMATYC’s and if so whether to call the location Zoom or Livonia. And I do like the policy on Two Hearted Ale in sessions at this year’s locale.