Five of our own Gilbert Schools’ educators spent time in Chicago last week to attend the 2024 Annual Meeting and Exposition of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Secondary Curriculum Coordinator Lindsey Good and four classroom teachers — middle school math educators Joel Franzen and Amanda Takes, and high school math educators Brittney Fredericks and Curtis Martinek — had the opportunity to learn and collaborate with other professionals from across the country.
This year’s conference theme was “The Math of Their Dreams: Illuminating Students’ Brilliance,” which captures the intent to center students and their experiences, while also being evocative.
Each of our conference attendees walked away with unique thoughts and highlights that they feel will enhance their teaching techniques for their students.
Lindsey Good, Secondary Curriculum Coordinator
My biggest takeaway was centered around Peter Liljedahl’s concept of Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC), which was integrated into many of the sessions I attended. I gained strategies for fostering a positive relationship with math, embracing failure, and learned about the neuroscience behind learning and mindfulness, and how these ideas can be applied to math education.
Amanda Takes, GMS Math Teacher
These last few days were all about boosting student learning through creative teaching strategies. A huge takeaway of mine was embracing failure and how those moments teach us just as much, if not more, about student learning and understanding. Additionally, there was a big focus on group work and effective feedback within a group setting. Feedback is a central art of the classroom, so I am excited to implement a few new feedback strategies between students and myself. I can’t wait to take the strategies I heard about and put them into practice with my students.
Brittney Fredericks, GHS Math Teacher
The NCTM conference focused on innovative teaching strategies like the “Building Thinking Classrooms” framework, which emphasizes student engagement, collaboration, and critical thinking. Sessions demonstrated the use of non-traditional methods, such as random groupings and open-ended tasks, to encourage deeper understanding. The sessions on algebra focused on real-world problem-solving and number sense, while the geometry sessions emphasized hands-on activities.
Curtis Martinek, GHS Math Teacher
A vibrant mathematics classroom gets students to think, communicate, and collaborate with each other. Each student is held to the high expectation of growing as a mathematician. While these are things I have always believed in, the NCTM conference reinforced that my goal should be to strive for continuous improvement in these areas. The conference also let me see creative and innovative ways other teachers are implementing the practices in their classrooms that I hope to include in my classroom in a way that makes sense for the classes and students I teach.
Joel Franzen, GMS Math Teacher
The NCTM conference covered many important concepts. Important ones for me were addressing math trauma and anxiety, highlighting that these emotional factors significantly impact students’ cognitive relationships with math. Peter Liljedahl and Vanessa Vakharia discussed the content of math therapy, which involves steps like myth-busting and motivating students to foster positive beliefs about their math abilities. Additionally, the integration of innovative teaching methods, such as Clothesline Math and Jo Boiler’s concept of “ish” thinking, promotes a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts. Overall, the focus is on transforming math classrooms into spaces that empower and engage all students.
Thank you to all of our educators for taking time away from their families to attend this conference. When they learn, our students learn, and we all win.
