More Math for More People
CPM Educational Program is a non-profit publisher of math textbooks for grades 6-12. As part of its mission, CPM provides a multitude of professional learning opportunities for math educators. The More Math for More People podcast is part of that outreach and mission. Published biweekly, the hosts, Joel Miller and Misty Nikula, discuss the CPM curriculum, trends in math education and share strategies to shift instructional practices to create a more inclusive and student-centered classroom. They also highlight upcoming CPM professional learning opportunities and have conversations with math educators about how they do what they do. We hope that you find the podcast informative, engaging and fun. Intro music credit: JuliusH from pixabay.com.
More Math for More People
Episode 3.11: Where Joel and Misty talk like pirates (Arrr, Matey!) and then get a sneak peek of the 2024 CPM Teacher Conference
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Arrgh, Matey! Are you ready to transform your approach to math education? Prepare to shake things up as we journey towards the much-anticipated CPM teacher conference in Los Angeles, February 2024. We unveil a host of exciting updates - the fresh venue, innovative format, along with seven options for the Friday pre-conference, promising to enrich your professional journey.
We'll give you some sneak peeks at some of the exciting sessions that will be a part of this engaging conference. Go and register HERE!
And we have another installment of Join Them on Their Journey for you!
Shiver me timbers!
Send Joel and Misty a message!
The More Math for More People Podcast is produced by CPM Educational Program.
Learn more at CPM.org
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Email: cpmpodcast@cpm.org
Well , hello everyone , it is the 19th of September 2023 . And this is episode 11 of season 3 of the More Math for More People podcast . So , cheers , hello there . I'm Joel and I'm Misty .
Speaker 2And you're listening to the More Math for More People podcast , an outreach of CPM educational program .
Speaker 1We have a lot of conversations about math and math education on this podcast . We're passionate about continually improving the way math is taught and we hope that you learn something in every episode that helps you become better at what you do .
Speaker 2And we hope that you have some fun and laugh as well . That always makes things a little more interesting .
Speaker 1Yep , we're pretty passionate about having fun Joel .
Speaker 2So please have a listen , and we think it'll be well worth it .
Speaker 1Boom ,
ARRRR!!
Speaker 1alright , joel Arrr , what is that ?
Speaker 2I'm celebrating the day already . Go ahead , ask me what day it is .
Speaker 1Oh , please tell me what day it is .
Speaker 2It's like a pirate day , arrr .
Speaker 1I'm not sure I can pull that off , yeah .
Speaker 2I'm not going to keep going with it If it's all I can do what else do pirates do other than go Arrrrr .
Speaker 1Maybe I don't know . There's a lot of other things pirates say . I don't know that Johnny Depp said that even once in Pirates of the Caribbean .
Speaker 2No . And it even says bring channel your anal jack sparrow . I don't want to be jack sparrow , I want to be like a black beard or something like that .
Speaker 1You want to be a bad pirate , not a semi-reformed pirate .
Speaker 2That's right , that is true . Well , let's see when a pirate's thirsty , where does he go ?
Speaker 1I don't know when does a pirate go ? To the bar ?
Speaker 2And when he wants to get there , how does he get there ?
Speaker 1Car and his car yeah .
Speaker 2And then , of course , what's his favorite letter then ? Arrr , no , it's the sea .
Speaker 1That's a good one . I didn't see that coming .
Speaker 2That's one of my faves . That's funny .
Speaker 1Yeah , you set up a pattern and then you change it . That is the quintessential thread of humor .
Speaker 2I also think it's interesting . On this day it's also national meow , like a pirate day .
Speaker 1Meow like a pirate day . Like what ? How do pirates meow ?
Speaker 2Well , it says , because pirates are rarely seen without a cat , and I don't know that I've ever seen a pirate with a cat .
Speaker 1But they have pirates .
Speaker 2That's about , about it too .
Speaker 1Sitting on their shoulder .
Speaker 2They're meowing like pirates now apparently .
Speaker 7I don't know what that is .
Speaker 2That's not very threatening or anything .
Speaker 7Prepare to be warned Meow like a pirate .
Speaker 1They just do that cat like .
Speaker 2Oh , that would be threatening .
Speaker 1Yes , I can't really do very well , oh , my goodness . All right , so you can choose to talk like a pirate , meow like a pirate or a pirate's cat .
Speaker 2That's right .
Speaker 1Apparently .
Speaker 2Or just one last thing . You could celebrate my birthday .
Speaker 1Or you could celebrate Joel's birthday .
Speaker 2Send all the love .
Speaker 1Happy birthday to Joel . Talk like a pirate . My birthday , all right . Well , that's plenty of that .
Speaker 2Thanks , and please enjoy your birthday , joel . Thank you , music playing Okay .
2024 CPM Teacher Conference!
Speaker 1So this is one of my favorite times of the year leading up to one of my favorite times of the year yeah , and I love that . So last week , if everything went according to schedule last week .
Speaker 5Yes .
Speaker 1The registration for the 2024 teacher conference opened up .
Speaker 3I love it so yeah , yeah , it's exciting .
Speaker 1So last weekend in February , the dates are February 24th and 25th 2024 . Music playing .
Speaker 2And it's in Los Angeles . We're going to be in Los Angeles next year , which is really exciting .
Speaker 1We have been in San Francisco for many years all the years , I think , that it's ever happened . So this will be the first time it'll be somewhere else . We're going to be at the Sheridan Gateway , which is near LAX . I'm pretty excited . So it'll be a new venue . It'll be a new little bit of a new format . It'll feel a little different , but I'm excited .
Speaker 2Are you still going to do poster sessions and things like ?
Speaker 1that . Yeah , we still have poster session , we still have five breakout session times , and then last year we tried the 30-minute sessions .
Speaker 2Oh right .
Speaker 1Everyone was like , well , there's a little bit too short , so we're making those 40-minute sessions this time Nice . And we'll have two sets of those and those will be alongside , concurrent with the poster sessions .
Speaker 8Okay .
Speaker 1It'll be great . And then we're going to do another little thing that'll be a little different . Some of our rooms are a little bit smaller . They hold about 20 or 24 people , and so some of those sessions will run twice . So there'll be more flexibility in some of the scheduling as far as , like , oh gosh , I want to go to both these sessions , and some of them will be . There'll be a few more of them that are running twice , so that'll be nice , because that always happens to me .
Speaker 2I wish I could see that one . Yeah , yeah , so that'll be good .
Speaker 1So , yeah , I think it'll be great , and so the registration opened up for the conference , the main conference , and for the pre-conference , the pre-conference on Friday loves seven options for the pre-conference , which will be exciting , including some stuff on building the classrooms . There's going to be an session on equity . There's going to be merging multilingual learners or trans-languaging session . There's going to be a follow-up session for inspiring connections .
Speaker 2Oh nice .
Speaker 1Also an inclusion session , a session on inclusion which went really well last year and then we'll have our queue .
Speaker 2I went to that one last year . It was really good , oh cool .
Speaker 1Yeah , and then there'll be foundations for coaching and leadership , which are all on Friday for pre-conference session options . So there's quite a few options for that . The early bird pricing this is the thing that's important for people , okay let's hear you . You want to save money , or save your district money , or whatever you're going to do . The early bird pricing goes through November 15th . Okay , and you will save like $75 to $100 for each thing .
Speaker 1It's like we really want you to get in there and get registered and then you'll be able to . There'll be a link to the hotel block to book your room at the Sheraton . The rooms are actually pretty reasonably priced , so hopefully we'll get a lot of people in there . So the registration is open early bird by November 15th and then it all of it closes the 19th of January . If you're not in by then you're on a waiting list somewhere .
Speaker 2Well , that's pretty close to the conference time anyway , yeah , it is so hopefully you do have your . At that point you should know what you're doing .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's good .
Speaker 1So , and as a little kickoff preview , we're going to , over the next few podcasts , we're going to do little mini blurbs , little mini sessions on each of the , on some of the highlighted sessions . We're going to highlight a few sessions . We're not going to give it all away . You have to come to the conference .
Speaker 2Yeah , we just said we want you to register right , exactly , exactly . So now I'm not going to like , we just told you the whole session and then that's silly .
Speaker 1It'll be like a little sneak previews of a few sessions , excellent .
Speaker 2So it'll be fun to talk to those folks .
Speaker 1Yeah , totally , so , yeah , so that's it . That's all I got , it's .
Speaker 2Announcements Over .
Speaker 1Exactly .
Speaker 2End of announcements .
Speaker 1That's what it was End of announcements .
Speaker 2Okay , all right .
TC Conference Session Sneak Peeks
Speaker 1So we are here today with Adam Barnes and the team of students and Laura Bain . They are two members of our professional learning team and they're going to be doing a session at the 2024 teacher conference titled SEL and the brain understanding their effect on student learning , and so we've invited them here today to give us a little preview of their session and tell us a little bit about some of the things they're going to talk about , without giving away the entire session , because you want to come to the teacher conference if you're going to know that .
Speaker 1So , oh , welcome Thanks .
Speaker 4Thanks for having us .
Speaker 1Thank you . So can you give us like , in a nutshell , like we heard the title , it's about SEL and the brain and learning , but what kind of particular things are you going to go into in your session ?
Speaker 4Well , sel is . It's a program that a lot of schools are trying to initiate or implement in some way , and what I realized is that , while these programs and policies , procedures are being implemented , it doesn't seem like a lot of schools are taking into consideration the brain development of students and where they should be at certain milestones as they're learning and as they're growing and developing , and so I just wanted to try and make that connection between how a child develops and specific parts of SEL .
Speaker 2What kind of a range in the development are you thinking of High school or all child brain development stages ?
Speaker 4Well , the research that I pulled from talks from everything from birth to what they call late adolescence or late adult adolescence , which is about that 20 to 24 year old range . But I think it's important that , even though teachers are in one specific grade level , that they understand where students have come from in their development , or where a child has come from in their development and where they still have to go .
Speaker 1Yeah , I think that was the part that really caught me when I was looking at your session description . Also was how it connects to the key brain development stages , because I think for me , particularly teaching middle school , there's such a key developmental change that kids go through and it really impacts in some ways , not necessarily their ability , but how they're able to conceptualize the path , in particular right , because their brains go through the ability to think more abstractly as they move into those later stages . Is that the kind of thing that you're looking at , you thinking about ?
Speaker 4Yeah , yeah , we want to make that connection or help participants make the connection . What are some important constructs and aspects of SEL and how does that tie into our students and where they're at in their development ? And as teachers , it's not always explicit that we're trying to , as an example , we're not trying to develop their growth mindset , but I think it's inherent in teaching that we want them to have growth mindset . So if I'm teaching at the elementary level or the middle school level or even the high school level , or before or after any of those , what does growth mindset look like at that stage of development and what are some things that in my classroom I should be taking into consideration ? What should I know about what they've done in growth mindset or where they're at prior to my classroom , where they're going to go after and how can CPM , specifically our new IC , how can that all tie it in together and help support that in the classroom ?
Speaker 6I think that was one of the things that made me interested in helping Adam with this session was I've been working with our new curriculum , inspiring connections , and I can see lots of ways that the authors of that had incorporated SEL , so I just wanted to join in on this experience and bring that perspective .
Speaker 2So when you're bringing up those things with inspiring connections , will there still be connections to the core connection series , like it's not specific to inspiring connections ?
Speaker 6We haven't worked that out completely . We talked about it a little bit this last week . I would love to make connections to core connections as well , for sure .
Speaker 2Well , will there be , like some takeaway strategies ?
Speaker 6That is our plan to end the session with thinking about takeaways that they can take back to their classroom Nice .
Speaker 4And I think it's dual purpose the teachers that are using IC or who are going to use IC . I think we want to show that these were intentional considerations for these different SEL constructs and if you're still using CC the core connections these may not have been considerations while that was being authored , but you can consider them now and it's not anything that has to be . I need to stop and teach them what a growth mindset is . It's just how can you use what CPM is already providing you and encourage the growth mindset in your students ?
Speaker 1I think that the thing that from what you said , that it really struck me , adam , is so many times working with teachers and being in schools as adults and our brains are more fully developed . You can get really frustrated with where kids are . Why can't they just look at this or think about this and they can't . There's that piece of understanding where their brains are developmentally and putting ourselves into that space and then thinking both learning wise , behavior wise , sel wise , like all those pieces I think are really important things to consider . So this will be a great place to make some of those connections .
Speaker 4Yeah , we're excited for it Was able to pull in a lot of research from my doctor program , but I'm really excited to have Laura on board and have her experience working with IC and the more behind the scenes . I know she's going to bring a lot of great experience from that aspect as well .
Speaker 1That's right . I should have introduced you as Dr Adam Barnes . I'm apologize .
Speaker 4Take some getting used to yeah .
Speaker 1Well , thank you for coming on the podcast and talking about your upcoming session and hopefully lots of people will get registered and check the program and find your session on SEL Absolutely . Laura Bain and Dr Adam Barnes .
Speaker 2That's right , we'll see you in February . Yeah , we'll see you there Awesome Thanks .
Speaker 1So we're here with Erin Kenney , who is a professional learning team member who lives in Louisville and works in a classroom , which is awesome . We're a classroom teacher , professional learning people and Erin works with students with exceptional needs and she's going to be doing a session at our teacher conference and the title of Erin's session is Implementing Vertical Learning with Students with Exceptional Needs , and so I'm excited to hear a little bit about her session here today . So welcome to the podcast here .
Speaker 2Yeah , welcome .
Speaker 5Thank you so much for having me Awesome yeah .
Speaker 1So I want to know what is vertical learning . We're trying to give people a little like pre-taste , a little bush , of what is that ? A moose bush ? Right Moose bush Of the teacher conference , but without giving away the whole thing . But I really I think that helping people understand what vertical learning is might be interesting , so can you tell us about that ?
Speaker 5Sure . So vertical learning is just a term that I used before I had heard the phrase vertical , non-permanent surfaces . This guy had explored something somewhere , possibly in a newsletter , before we read Building Thinking Classrooms and before I even knew who Peter Lilladoll was and we were coming back from the pandemic and coming back to in-person , full-time with our students . I knew , with regard to engagement and focus especially my students with exceptionalities that I was going to need to try some strategies that I had never done before in my career . I got some grant money and was able to purchase some whiteboards and to cover most of the walls , cover up the bulging boards that I wasn't doing anything with and decorating because you're supposed to . Vertical learning is just the coin term that worked for me and for my students . I abbreviated it to just VL and that's exactly what they're doing is working vertically at non-permanent surfaces , sharing their ideas on the whiteboard surfaces , as they're working collaboratively in teams .
Speaker 2That's awesome , nice . What drew you to that vertical learning ?
Speaker 5Well , I needed kids to not be behind the screen anymore . We had done what we called was non-traditional instruction in our district of our coin of NTI and students had been behind the screen for about a year and a half and I knew that it became part of their new lifestyle . I knew that phones have always been a challenge somewhat as an instructor in the classroom at facilitating learning , but I knew that I needed to be a little more radical in how it's going to go about that . Rather than , hey , put your phones away , let's try something where we really can't have our phones out because we need to be standing and learning and communicating .
Speaker 5I started doing a little bit of research about what I'd found about working at vertical surfaces , especially for students with exceptionalities of helping with focus , of helping with proprioception , crossing the midline , of engaging both sides of the brain . I just took a risk . I was very transparent with the students , like I don't know how this is going to look , especially in a geometry classroom with chapter one being so visual with the transformations and using different tracing papers , manipulatives and grids and so forth . So it was really a lot of risk-taking on my part and on their part and then trusting me , then it's just developed . This is my third year doing vertical learning in my classroom with exceptional needs students , so it's been really fun Cool .
Speaker 1Yeah , that sounds awesome . I love how you've incorporated , or talked about incorporating , so many of those other things like crossing the midline and using all those pieces that really engage brains . I think that's awesome . Well , I am excited . I'm going to try to see if I can get to your session and see how you've combined some of these things that we know and we've heard so much about vertical , non-permanent services , and to have started out with that and how you're working on it with your students with exceptional needs . I think that'll be awesome .
Speaker 2Absolutely .
Speaker 5There's definitely been an evolution from reading , building , thinking classrooms of using the visibly random teams of using only one marker at the board . So I've definitely made some modifications . But I have found students especially some of my students with autism , who have difficulty verbally communicating their ideas of being able to use that vertical surface to write down their ideas in that safe space , because if it's wrong we can erase it , if it's right we're going to move forward with it . And it just made a really nice , like I said , safe space for all of my students to be able to show their thinking to their classmates , if they weren't always able to feel comfortable sharing verbally .
Speaker 2I love that you said that it's a safe space , because oftentimes I think something on the board , something everybody can see , might not feel safe . But you framed it into a different way for your students . I love that .
Speaker 5Yes , especially my non-verbal students . It was amazing . It was the coolest stuff ever , because even students were like he doesn't talk or he's not going to work and I'm like , take a look , he's going to get in there because the marker is doing the talking for him , almost , so to speak .
Speaker 1So Well , that sounds great . So Erin's going to have her session at the teacher conference . So even if you don't have students with exceptionalities or in your classroom , I thought most of us do come and find out what she's doing with vertical learning . That sounds great , so thanks for coming on the podcast Erin .
Speaker 2Yeah , thank you .
Speaker 5Thank you so much .
Join Them on Their Journey
Speaker 1Here is our next installment of Join them on their Journey , enjoy .
Speaker 7It's Maggie again , and here is where I am on this journey . We have just concluded the Prelude chapter for inspiring connections and it was fantastic . I think whenever you are going through a new course , there's always a little bit of a question mark , regardless of how prepared you can be , and I was really , really happy with how it turned out . I was inspired by the curriculum and the lessons for showing the students what it meant to be a student in this classroom , what it meant to be a problem solver , a teammate , a collaborator , a mathematician , and it differed from core connections in that each lesson had more of a focus on the content and a focus on what topics were going to be covered , versus inspiring connections . I felt as though it focused primarily on what it meant to be in the classroom , with the incorporations of the big ideas . One of the memorable moments and I would say a very impactful moment , came on day two when we were going through an activity talking about scatter plots and being able to look at the trend , but it was specifically the launch activity that I want to share , because it was one of those teaching moments that I don't think I could have prepared for , but in the moment I was like this is a great opportunity and the students really , really benefited from it . So I'm going to share this launch activity from day two , inspiring connections .
Speaker 7So what it was it had for the launch . It had phrases around the room . So I was supposed to put up about six phrases . So they had these statements and underneath it was a line between almost never and almost always . So the students were asked to plot where they felt . So the phrases , the situations where I feel respected when working in a group , I feel accepted as a member of the math team or the class . I am a mathematician . I feel respected when I share my opinions . So there's six different phrases that they had to reflect on . When they came in , I handed them a marker and they had to plot their point . And in my head , when you're reading through the teacher description , I was thinking okay , most of them are going to feel that they almost always feel like a mathematician , that they always feel respected .
Speaker 7The students were here , most of them were here last year and I think we do a great job as a department , speaking to them as your mathematician . There's a process , it is okay we welcome mistakes and that everyone is accepted . And so , as I'm going through this is my first class that I'm specifically remembering , and there is one , or there's really two of the phrases , situations that jumped out at me , and I took the opportunity to take it a step further , like why do we think ? We feel this ? And so it was . I am a mathematician , or I feel as I am a mathematician , and what was interesting is that there is one sole one that did almost always , but then a majority of them were not at almost never , but close to it , and I was surprised . I was surprised because when I look at them , I see them as mathematicians and I speak with them as mathematicians , but that's not necessarily how they feel , and so it was an opportunity to think what does it mean to be a mathematician ? Does it mean that you always know the correct answer ? No , does it mean that you never make mistakes ? No , and it was a really good moment . I couldn't have predicted it .
Speaker 7That , I think , was really impactful , and so we also talked about what it means to be accepted in math , and we went on to the next activity , which took it to having a coordinate plane with different beliefs , and they were plotting it , and we closed the activity , and you know , when you're as a teacher , you're like oh , that was a good one , I felt that .
Speaker 7And then three students so it's a smaller class . Three students came up and they're like I just really want to thank you . I want to thank you for taking the time to make me feel like a mathematician . And one student specifically said that she wasn't here at our school last year but that she never felt like she was part of the class and even on day two she felt like she belongs . She felt like she was that mathematician . And so in looking at the prelude lessons , each one gave different element and I think by the end of this chapter , each student feels like they are a part of this class . So I'm thankful for laying that foundation and we will be moving on to our first chapter this week . So say tune .
Speaker 8Hey , it's Graham here Reporting on my third week of teaching with CPM . It's September 8 . And I would say things are going well . Just finished chapter one with secondary integrated two and plugging away with my integrated one students Some things that went well for me .
Speaker 8Recently I use a huddle for the first time and I was impressed with how well that worked when I shared information with students about a graph and asked them to take that back to their teams . It got me thinking about trusting students , something I've been reflecting on as students are working in groups . Trusting students to think through problems and figure things out with their teams , that they are capable of doing difficult problems . I just had a meeting with a parent who said that her student is feeling confused and feeling like they need more skill building before the lessons and I told her that I would reflect on that and try to make sure students have skills before entering problems . But also we decided that it would be beneficial if I expressly told students that it was okay for them not to know how to do a problem . That kind of brought up for me , maybe introducing a norm where confusion is part of learning , and I'm not sure how to phrase that . I know there might be some pushback , that people might disagree with that statement , so I want to think about how to sell that to students that struggle , when it's productive , is an important part of learning .
Speaker 8I like the analogy of learning how to ride a bike it's not easy , but because of that you learn how to do it . I also think being transparent with students is going to help me . I recently shared some tips that I got from one of the CPM teaching pages that encourages teachers to keep going that teamwork is worth it , even though it's not easy . I think that was helpful for me to hear and say , but also for my students to hear , that it's not easy but it is worth it . So I'm going to keep at it . I'm going to be thinking about how to communicate to students that it's okay if they don't understand things , but also be clear about my expectation for them to get started and maybe be clear about what I expect them to do for each problem . So that's where I'm at . I'm excited to get going with chapter two and see how this plays out . Thanks for listening .
Speaker 3Hello , this is my camera . I'm the teacher from Northern Rural School and the Northern Lower Peninsula , so I was asked to go through how the first couple of weeks of CPM have been going . Before I do that , though , I just would like to say that during the summer , all of my colleagues we have just implemented this CPM program , but all my colleagues and I we went to the three days of training that CPM offers . Some of the things that we really enjoyed about it is that it allowed us to see an overview of what the program is , but it also allowed us to work together as colleagues and it allowed us to just bounce some ideas off of each other and things like that . So it was that camaraderie piece in the summer that has springboarded us into what we're doing now and that's trying to implement CPM here at our little rural school .
Speaker 3So these first couple of weeks they've been good , but they've also had some tribulations and things like that . So we've had a few issues technology-wise having our kids access the books online , because we went with the system that we have some in-class books but then kids are using the online texts at home and we had some issues between our linking system between power school and CPM stuff and we were having a hard time getting the kids the textbooks and things , so that's been a little problem . This past week . It's been actually nice . Everything technology-wise about halfway through the week was able to get put together , and so now I am starting to do CPM the way that I've envisioned it . So my kids are doing the problems that they need . They have all their materials , like two notebooks and a folder Really fancy but we're able to set things up and move in such a way now that I think I can really see the advantages of CPM . So what I'd like to comment on them also is one of my colleagues just stopped by just the other day and she said I finally have done two of the lessons and she goes . The kids were so engaged , they were doing math and she goes . The conversations that they were having were absolutely amazing , and so me , having taught CPM at a different district , I knew that . But as a person who doesn't want to force his opinions on people , it was so nice to hear that she is seeing some of the same things in her kids that I was seeing years ago , with a very similar demographic of kids at my other districts , so it's been a really good experience .
Speaker 3I'm super excited to see how this thing unfolds this year and where our kids go and where they come from . My expectation is I always realize when you start a new program that there's always a little dip at first , because kids and teachers are all getting used to how the program works . But I am super excited to see how , in maybe a year , two years , three years down the road , how this program helps to improve our kids math skills and allows them to perform better on whatever assessment that we give them . So that's where we are at CPM right now . I think we've worked out all the kinks and I think we're just going to move onward and upward from here . So this is Mike Hammer from the Royal Northern Lower Peninsula . Thank you very much and have a great start to your school year . Bye .
Speaker 1So that's all we have time for on this episode of the More Math for More People podcast .
Speaker 2For more information and to stay connected , find CPM on Twitter and Facebook . You can find our handles in the podcast description .
Speaker 1The music for the podcast was created by Julius H and can be found on pixivaycom . Thanks , julius . Join us in two weeks for the next episode of More Math for More People . What day will that be , joel ?
Speaker 2It'll be October 3rd , national Wide Awakes Day , and when I was looking at this holiday , I find it so interesting . Wide Awakes is a youth organization that helped campaign for Abraham Lincoln and helped to get Abraham Lincoln elected in 1860 . And so there's a lot of cool things around elections , the group itself , what the Wide Awakes group and what that meant to our country and to world history , and how a group of young people together can make a difference in the world . So join us for National Wide Awakes Day . It's over . The third one , the third .