In January of 2015, when I was deep in the throes of chemotherapy, I received an email out of the blue from Zak Champagne, Dan Meyer, and Mike Flynn, asking if I’d “give a highly provocative ten-minute talk at a special kind of session” at a rogue, after-hours conference at NCTM in April. That was the inaugural year of ShadowCon. Mike, Zak, and Dan selected a diverse group of six speakers, each paired with a live-tweeter. They left the topics open to us, but asked that we each end our talks with a “Call to Action,” something for folks to go and try in their practice after the conference. Furthermore, they asked us to follow up with people online as they tried out the Call to Action.
None of us really knew what to expect. I can tell you that it was a wild ride and something I was honored to do. I suspect it meant extra to me because of the timing–because it came as this much needed reminder that I had ideas. I had something to say.
Even while bald.
So ShadowCon has a very special place in my heart. In the years since, Zak, Mike, and Dan have experimented with different aspects of ShadowCon. It continues to be a venue to build community, to nudge the profession, to extend the conference experience, to press on thinking, to raise new voices, and to listen to people testify about their ideas and passions within math education. People have talked about play, race, humor, hints, empowerment, bias, teacher learning, collaboration, curiosity, storytelling, inclusion, representation, and so much more.
Check them all out–totally worth your time: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.
This year, Mike, Zak, and Dan reached out to Javier Garcia and me to see if we would join the organizing board. Mike wrote:
We want to expand the circle of people who are contributing to the ideas and organization of ShadowCon annually. Zak, Dan, and I have become particularly aware that as three white men we have massive ideological blind spots. Our identities may inhibit folks from presenting who might want to present and those identities may prevent us from seeing great ideas when they’re presented.
Thumbs up. We’ll keep bringing in new voices and perspectives going forward as well.
This year, we’re trying two new things. First off, this is the first year where applications are open. Literally anyone can apply! Here’s the form. The hope is that an open application is one way we can reduce bias in this process.
Second, we’re offering mentorship for the application process. There are three main reasons:
- Each year, we watch aspiring presenters receive rejections and express frustration that they didn’t get the type of feedback that would help them improve their proposals for future conferences. Proposals are a specific and challenging genre, and figuring out how to write them takes practice and feedback. We thought we could help with that.
- We are aware of the informal support networks that exist out there, where people who have learned how to write proposals will offer to read over or workshop new folks’ proposals. That’s great. But the problem is, that well-intentioned mentorship likely contributes to continued inequity in who is selected to speak because people help other people within their networks, and many of these informal networks are extremely white spaces. We wanted to disrupt that pattern.
- Finally, several of us have sat on conference committees and read proposals, and we’ve been struck by the number of people who submit proposals that had good ideas, but really could have benefited from revision. We hope that, through mentorship and explicit focus on proposal-writing, we can help colleagues learn how to write clear, clean proposals that meet professional standards and stand a higher chance of being accepted, both for ShadowCon and for any other future conferences. (As conference-goers ourselves, we selfishly want new and aspiring speakers to get their proposals accepted to state, regional, and national conferences so we can go to their sessions!) Therefore, we wrote a rubric to help proposal writers read and improve their work.
We reached out to the ShadowCon alumni–speakers and live-tweeters from ShadowCons past–to see if they’d be willing to mentor potential speakers. The positive and thoughtful responses started pouring in immediately. I was so moved, and I wasn’t the only one. Javier emailed the board:
Can I just say how amazing it’s been seeing the responses to the call for support the last couple of days… It’s like watching the Avengers assemble.
Heck yeah! So that’s where we are. We have assembled a remarkable group of people to help folks improve their proposals, and they are standing by, waiting to help. Now all we need is for you to start writing! And here’s our biggest challenge, I think. Can I be real a second? (For just a millisecond? Let down my guard and tell the people how I feel a second?)
That year, when Zak, Dan, and Mike wrote and asked me to present, I was floored. If they’d had an open application instead of that personal invitation, there’s no way I would have applied. I didn’t think I was ready for prime time. Hearing that they believed I could do it made a difference to me. Like, maybe if they thought I could do it, I could actually do it. I know other speakers felt the same way.
But this year, we have an open application. So in some ways, we have a bigger ask:
- We need you to believe in yourself and toss your hat in the ring. Take a chance to speak your truth.
- We need you to encourage others. Think for a minute about who you want to learn from. Whose voice needs to be raised? Who has something to say? And then go encourage that person to submit! If you believe in them, they might actually do it.
Details:
#ShadowCon19 will be Thursday, April 4th at 5:30PM in San Diego. You have to be able to be there, in person.
Applications are due by December 15th. Now that your regional proposals are in, it’s ShadowCon time!
You’ll be able to revise and resubmit up until December 30th.
That said, if you all wait until the 15th, we may not have enough mentors to go around. So the sooner the better!
Feel free to reach out to any of us with questions.
We are excited to hear your ideas!
~Tracy
