Okay so Igniting is a doozy. \u00a0Seriously. \u00a0I was sitting at a table with my fellow Igniters, in the front of that huge room buzzing with math educators from across the country, and we were all nervous. \u00a0Robert Kaplinski and Laila Nur had done this before – didn’t matter – nervous. \u00a0Blue Taylor had flown across the country to be here, done two talks earlier in the day and was completely fried – still nervous. \u00a0Even NCTM President-Elect Matt Larson (who was about to completely crush his talk) was nervous. \u00a0We all talked about what a challenge preparing an Ignite had been and how many hours we had put in trying to get it right. \u00a0And then we were off.<\/p>\n
And I gotta say – We rocked it. \u00a0Everyone was awesome. \u00a0It was fun, it was funny, it was informative, and it was inspiring. \u00a0I’m so proud to have been a part of it. \u00a0Kudos to everyone and thanks to the Suzanne, Annie and Math Forum for making this happen!\u00a0 You can catch all the Ignite Talks from CMC-South here<\/a>.\u00a0 Watch them all!<\/p>\n As for myself I felt surprisingly fired up when I stepped on stage. \u00a0It was cool to have Brian Shay up there to roast me a little to calm the nerves\u00a0(I knew he would) . \u00a0Once I got rolling, despite the fact that I was about 60% blacked-out, I felt like I was going to get through it, like it was going to work out.<\/p>\n And then the dry-mouth set in. \u00a0I saw it coming actually. \u00a0I kept looking at my empty water bottle as the people ahead of me were speaking, wishing it would magically fill up on its own. \u00a0I even went to try to get some water in the back.\u00a0 But there were hundreds of folks in the room and one little jug so that didn’t work out for me. \u00a0I wished I had followed Robert’s lead and brought a Heineken up there with me. \u00a0Anything would have helped.\u00a0 As soon as I started talking my mouth started significantly drying up.\u00a0 About halfway through I\u00a0realized\u00a0I had to say something before it was too late, before I just stopped talking altogether and no one could figure out why.<\/p>\n So I did. \u00a0And thank goodness for Suzanne. \u00a0She had a cup with some ice in it. \u00a0Which was funny, because my initial reaction was, “This is ice.” \u00a0I said it right into the mic. \u00a0I think it was hard to process anything besides what I was supposed to be saying in talk. \u00a0Like, “Hey, there wasn’t any ice in my slides. \u00a0What am I supposed to do with this?<\/em>” \u00a0And I remember thinking, “Should I take a whole piece? \u00a0Won’t that make it hard to talk?<\/em>” \u00a0But the thing about ice is – it melts. \u00a0So there was a little bit of water at the bottom. \u00a0Like the tiniest amount.\u00a0 It was all I needed.\u00a0 Problem solved.<\/p>\n So I got right back to it and only missed about a half a slide worth of words. \u00a0I didn’t get to show Christopher Danielson as much love as I had planned. \u00a0I mean “Find what you love about the Mathematics you teach.\u00a0 Do more of that with your students.” was pretty much my whole message and I pretty much got it from him. \u00a0So yeah. \u00a0I was going to tell everyone to look up his keynote from TMC<\/a>.\u00a0 It was awesome.\u00a0 Go look now.<\/p>\n Anyway, the second half was a bit of a race against my slides, and I lost by a narrow margin. \u00a0Fortunately my last slide, which was my call to action, was still there and I got to tell people to share their mathematical experiences and adventures. \u00a0Cause adventures are super fun, and I want to see what other people are doing! \u00a0#AME<\/p>\n Igniting was a lot of work, but it was crazy awesome.\u00a0 I’d do it again.\u00a0 Maybe someday I’ll get that chance.\u00a0 Until then I look forward to seeing what other Igniters come up with.\u00a0 My words of advice – Have fun and bring a drink!<\/p>\n