November 2025 CCTM NewsletterBoard Message: What Will Your Legacy Be?
Click Here to Read the Welcome Message
Upcoming Events, Celebrations, Happenings, and Opportunities (ECHO)
Click here to view upcoming CCTM math events and happenings! 
Practical Practices- Back to School PracticesIn our Practical Practices section of the newsletter, we highlight practices that you can incorporate in your classrooms, including links to outside resources to build your knowledge of that practice. In this issue, we focus on Keeping the Momentum: Routines That Empower Student Voice Partner Spotlight: IXL
This newsletter will spotlight IXL Learning! IXL’s goal is to connect with math educators from across the state of Colorado to learn more about their current priorities and needs. IXL’s platform is fully aligned to the Colorado Academic Standards and is currently used in 59% of districts across the state. We at CCTM value our partnership with IXL as they support us in making an impact in math education. In this issue, we have the opportunity to explore Formative Assessments through the IXL lens. Every teacher has goals for their students - whether they are collective goals for the entire class or individual goals for each and every student. For teachers to assess their students’ progress towards these goals, the most powerful tool is formative assessments. Read more about formative assessments here. Spotlighting Colorado Mathematics Educators and TeamsThis section of our newsletter allows us to recognize the amazing mathematics teams, educators, and leaders in our community.
If you want to nominate an educator, leader, or team to be featured in an upcoming CCTM newsletter spotlight, please use the following form. Those selected to be featured in the spotlight will receive an educational care package (and the person nominating will also receive a care package). Use this link to nominate an individual or a team! Trivia - A History of MathematicsEach newsletter will have a trivia question. From those who answer correctly, five winners will be randomly drawn to receive CCTM swag, which may include a water bottle or a T-shirt. This month’s trivia question is in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which was observed in October. This individual received a prestigious award in mathematics for her work in complex geometry and dynamical systems. She also helped to establish the Magic Wand Theorem. Her first name is almost a palindrome.
Last month’s winners were:
Colorado Math Teacher Journal - Featured ArticleKeep it REAL! Introducing a four-part framework for real-world math teaching in the secondary classroomAuthor: Patrick McGuire Abstract: Drawing upon research-based best practices and previous literature, this article introduces a four-part “REAL” framework (Relevance, Equity, Application, and Leveraging Technology) to help secondary math teachers integrate real-world activities in their classrooms. The article provides an example of a REAL-world activity, “The 8th Billion Baby” (Yummy Math; https://yummymath.com/post/the-8th-billion-baby/) further demonstrating how secondary mathematics teachers can move from theory to practice. The article concludes with a curated list of recommended resources designed to support real-world teaching and learning in secondary mathematics classrooms. Interested in contributing to the CMJ? Contact Dennis DeBay, PhD, Editor in Chief, at [email protected]. We can’t wait to read your work! Get YOUR Word OutWould you like to advertise or elevate an upcoming mathematical opportunity happening around you - in your school, district, region? Do you want to celebrate successes in your mathematical community? Share your happenings in the CCTM’s next newsletter? Click HERE to submit your events, news or celebrations and be included in the next CCTM Newsletter’s ECHO (Events, Celebrations Happenings, and Opportunities) Section. |
This month our board message is by Megan Korponic-Tram, our NCTM Representative.. In her message, Megan shares about the happenings at the most recent NCTM Annual Exposition that took place in Atlanta this past October.
In each newsletter, we will highlight one of the amazing partners that collaborate with the CCTM. This will be an opportunity to not only learn from our partners about effective teaching practices, but also about what they offer our math community as a whole. 
In this newsletter, we are spotlighting the Thunder Ridge Middle School (Cherry Creek School District) math team. This team was nominated by Chelsea Shearer because they are always thinking about their mathematical routines and how these routines support student learning and discourse about math. The team is strong in their implementation of the math workshop model, and they utilize a variety of strategies to incorporate mathematical discourse among students. 
In our last newsletter, we asked you, the members of CCTM, “This South American mathematician, known for their work in functional and harmonic analysis, served as president of the Association for Women in Mathematics in the early 1990s and was a professor at Howard University. Who is this mathematician?”