Cliff Petrak
"Don't Slow Me Down with that Calculator"
Cliff Petrak of Chicago holds a B.S. degree in mathematics from DePaul University and an M.S. in mathematics from Chicago State University. Now retired, Cliff enjoyed a 40-year math teaching and coaching career at his alma mater, Brother Rice H.S. in Chicago, where he graduated in its first class in 1960. For his academic and coaching accomplishments in math, baseball, bowling and hockey during that time span, he has been recognized by his induction into six different halls of fame. Cliff has been giving presentations and workshops in speed and mental math since 1996 at schools, libraries and math conferences in 16 states and Canada, now totaling 151 such presentations. He has presented at 2 NCTM national conferences and 5 NCTM regional conferences.
He is author of 3 books including Don’t Slow Me Down with that Calculator(2005), in which he details 62 little-known, super-shortcut computational techniques and strategies. He will demonstrate how these speed math methods will always prove faster than the old fashioned algorithmic methods with which we all grew up. He’ll also show how these methods are often faster than with the use of a calculator!
