November 2024 Message from the Board

Blown Away by the Evolution of Mathematics Education

Megan Korponic, NCTM Liaison 

This month our board message is by Megan Korponic, our NCTM  Representative. In her message, Megan shares about the happenings at the most recent NCTM Annual Exposition that took place in Chicago this past September .

Chicago, the Windy City, is one of lore, rich history, and excitement. There is something there for everyone from tales of old about Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicking over a lantern igniting the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 to embracing human flight with memories of The GOAT, Michael Jordan. A dream of mine was to take an architecture boat tour, learning about how the city was built upon a landfill from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and passing through the required loche system after the people of Chicago changed the flow of the Chicago River away from Lake Michigan toward St. Louis. And no trip is complete without a stop at The Bean at Millenium Park, a dog from Portillo’s, and your favorite deep dish pizza place, whether it is Giordano’s or Lou Malnati’s.

This September, though, Chicago was also the place to be to celebrate, embrace, and learn with others about mathematics education. At the 2024 NCTM Annual Meeting & Exposition we celebrated 10 years of Principles to Actions and launched High School Mathematics Reimagined, Revitalized, and Relevant.

In her opening Eugenia Cheng set the stage for building upon the progress we have made since the launch of Principles to Actions. She lifted up the idea that mathematics is derived in human curiosity and even simple questions lead to wondrous mathematical revelations. It is our role as educators to foster moments of beauty and wonder with our students. This sentiment was also restated in the closing address by Howard Y. Hua in which there was a call for better marketing of mathematics. The hope is to lift mathematics as fun, surprising, and powerful. We are called to learn about what attracts people to mathematics and then bring these very elements into the classroom.

These very notions are prevalent in High School Mathematics Reimagined, Revitalized, and Relevant. High School Mathematics Reimagined, Revitalized, and Relevant is a collective book brought forward by NCTM, NCSM, and ASSM, and it is a call to action to center our classrooms on student experiences and the development of mathematical and statistical processes which aim to make mathematics essential for every student. Within the text the authors explore mathematical and statistical modeling and an organization of content by course. Rising from the work presented in Catalyzing Change in High School Mathematics, NCTM has developed crosscutting concepts, finding connections among the standards, bringing together mathematics, weakening the notion of isolated concepts, and strengthening understanding. These crosscutting concepts are categorized as Patterns and Generalization, Variability and Change, Functional and Structural Thinking, Comparison, Difference, and Equivalence, and Making and Interpreting Predictions.

As our time came to a close we witnessed the passing of the torch from NCTM President Kevin Dykema to now President Latrenda Knighten. It is inspiring to see the vision for the future of mathematics education coming to life. Here in Colorado we also celebrated one of our very own joining the leadership of such evolution: Dr. Joe Bolz, Senior Team Lead and High School Mathematics Teacher at George Washington High School in Denver Public Schools, serves as a member of the CCTM Board as our Partnership Chair. Please join me in extending a special note of congratulations to Joe Bolz as he steps into his role as a NCTM board member. Thank you for your dedication and service, Joe.

I’m looking forward to next year’s NCTM Annual Meeting & Exposition as we convene in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta is home to rich civil history, birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr., home of the 1996 Summer Olympics, rich cultural experiences, and incredible food options. Who’s ready to grab a cold and refreshing Coca-Cola from its birthplace and talk about mathematics instruction?

Return to CCTM November Newsletter