Featured Speakers
Kristopher Childs

Dr. Kristopher J. Childs is an educator with vast experience at the K-12 and post-secondary levels in teaching and leadership positions. His experiences have afforded him the opportunity to gain hands-on practical experiences in a variety of educational settings working with diverse student populations.

Dr. Childs is currently a Mathematics Specialist. Previously he was an Assistant Professor of STEM Education within the Department of Curriculum and Instruction STEM Program at Texas Tech University. The STEM Education Program focused on developing pragmatic STEM education researchers and global STEM educators. He is the former project director for The Cognitively Guided Instruction Project at the University of Central Florida. He was responsible for the overall effective implementation of all components of data collection for the project. Prior to joining The CGI Project, Dr. Childs was the Lead Mathematics Instructor at Bethune-Cookman University and a public-school mathematics teacher in urban school settings at the secondary level. Dr. Childs has been recognized by faculty, staff, and students as a visionary and collaborative leader. He has a student-centered focus and believes in a teamwork approach of achieving common goals and improving student academic success.

His areas of research include classroom discourse focusing on teacher’s selection and implementation of high cognitive demands, assessment systems, and teaching mathematics for social justice. Through his research he seeks to enhance pre-service and in-service teacher mathematics education courses, describe the status of current curriculum and instruction, design professional development workshops, and determine classroom and school characteristics associated with student achievement. His lifelong goal is to improve student’s classroom mathematics experiences.

Dr. Childs makes it a priority to serve state and national organizations in mathematics education. He is an active member of the Association of Mathematics Teachers Educators, the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

EDUCATION:

  • Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL — Bachelor of Science, Computer Engineering
  • Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL — Master of Science, Mathematics Education
  • University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL — Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics Education

Marian Dingle

Marian Dingle is a veteran classroom elementary educator of twenty-one years. Always passionate about mathematics, her early career involved advocating for marginalized students and families. More recently, she has moved toward public advocacy, activism, and scholarship, fascinated by the intersection of mathematics and social justice. She has been a member of Building Leadership Teams, led grade level teams, served on district mathematics committees, elected to the Principal’s Advisory Committee, and mentors new educators.

As a Heinemann Fellow, she is currently researching the ways in which positive cultural identity affects student confidence, efficacy, and academic performance. She speaks nationally about culturally responsive teaching and pushes the conversation through her blog, Twitter, and in person. She has written for the new NCTM publication, Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12, the Global Math Department, and EdWeek, and has been featured on podcasts. She is a member of the NCTM Classroom Resources Committee and the Teaching Tolerance Advisory Board.

Megan Franke

Megan Franke is a Professor of Education at UCLA. Dr. Franke’s research focuses on understanding and supporting teacher learning for both preservice and inservice teachers. She studies how teachers making use of research-based information about the development of children’s mathematical thinking support students to learn mathematics. She is particularly interested in how teaching mathematics with attention to students’ mathematical thinking (CGI) can challenge existing school structures and create opportunities for students who are often marginalized to develop mathematical understanding. She has been engaged in a series of studies with her colleagues that link classroom practice and student outcomes in elementary mathematics classrooms. She is a member of DREME (Development and Research in Early Mathematics Education) where she is studying prek-2 coherence and designing resources for early childhood teacher educators. She is currently partnering with LAUSD to support teachers in preK-5th grade across 210 elementary and preschools. Her research work to support teachers, schools and communities was recognized with the AERA Research into Practice Award and she was elected to the National Academy of Education.

Robert Kaplinsky

Robert Kaplinsky has worked in education since 2003 as a classroom teacher, teacher specialist for Downey Unified School District, instructor for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and presenter at conferences around the world. He is also co-founder of OpenMiddle.com and created the #ObserveMe movement. You can find him online at robertkaplinsky.com and on social media at @robertkaplinsky.

Francis Su

Francis Su is the Benediktsson-Karwa Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, and past president of the Mathematical Association of America. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, and his research is in geometric combinatorics and applications to the social sciences. He also has a passion for teaching and popularizing mathematics and calling people to greater awareness of issues that contribute to inequitable mathematics education. From the Mathematical Association of America, he received the 2018 Halmos-Ford award for distinguished writing, and the 2013 Haimo Award for distinguished teaching. He authors the popular Math Fun Facts website and is creator of MathFeed, the math news app. He is author of the book Mathematics for Human Flourishing on which this talk is based.