I was delighted to be invited to join the GeT community in Omaha this past February. As a high school teacher, this was my first time attending this type of gathering. Also, because I work in Massachusetts, I have not had the opportunity to attend local events in Michigan before. At first, I was worried that I might feel out of place, especially as the only K-12 educator at the conference. However, I was immediately and warmly welcomed by the entire GeT community. I was encouraged to participate fully and share my unique perspective as a high school educator. While my day-to-day context differs a lot from the majority of the people I spoke with, everyone shared a common goal: improving the capacity for teaching geometry. It was refreshing to learn about the unique experiences from the GeT instructors I met with throughout the conference.

In terms of the work around geometry, I attended the GeT Together pre-conference meeting on Wednesday, February 22 and the RUME working group the next morning. I found the work at the GeT Together so enlightening and impactful. I am currently a member of the ESLO working group. As members of that working group, we are tasked with providing feedback about the SLOs to the original authoring group. We have been meeting bimonthly since October, and so far, we have engaged mostly with the first four SLOs. Even though we are not yet finished exploring all the SLOs in detail, it has been great to engage with high school teachers and college instructors about the SLOs and secondary geometry in general.

My biggest takeaway was that it was fantastic to finally meet in person. This conference was the first time I met members of the ESLO group. I had also worked with some people in attendance a while back on some of the Lesson Sketch work. It was great to actually talk with people I have been on Zoom with for years! I was also able to meet the members of the original SLO authoring team. Being able to interact, share meals, and connect with these instructors made the work seem not only more personal, but also more enjoyable. I was able to gain valuable background information about the original formation of the SLOs and  learn more about the struggles and difficulties the authors faced in the process of constructing the SLOs and the elaborations that complement them.

Our work on Wednesday focused on what the GeT community has been working on. We also had time to connect about our chapters for the upcoming book. My authoring group had time to connect with another group, and ultimately, we decided to combine our efforts into one chapter. This time to connect and collaborate was critical in helping us all move forward with our writing. At the end of the day, we talked about what work we want our community to focus on in the future. I was really heartened to hear how much college instructors care about geometry. From the high school level, it always feels like geometry is the area we are trying to deemphasize. Due to time constraints and the loss of learning from the pandemic, we have cut a lot of geometry content from my school’s curriculum. While this loss is unfortunate, I left Wednesday’s meeting reinvigorated to promote the teaching of geometry in my school. Equipped with research, connections to university faculty, and arguments to help defend geometry teaching, I am hopeful my learning on Wednesday will lead to positive change in my school community.

Thursday’s working group was open to the entire RUME conference, and we had a few people join us from outside the GeT community. We broke up into groups and looked at how we can further the work of the SLO team. My small group worked on brainstorming potential areas of research to advance the scholarship around the SLOs. I enjoyed talking with three college instructors, learning more about the types of students they work with, which include pre-service teachers. I was able to share experiences from my own time as a pre-service teacher and think about experiences that would benefit that group of people.

Overall, I left Omaha thinking deeply about how I can work as a high school teacher to advance the teaching of geometry in my own school. I brought back some tools, including some of the software and resources the GeT instructors showed me throughout the week. At the ESLO meetings since my trip, I have felt a stronger connection to our work and the community at large. I look forward to meeting with the GeT community more in the coming months and years, and I am appreciative to be a member of this community.