September 2025 Educator SpotlightIn this newsletter, we are spotlighting our CCTM 2025 Award winners, Katie Anderson and Regan Wilder. Katie and Regan were recognized during the June 2025 CCTM Summer Learning Institute, and we continue to celebrate them by sharing some of the ways they embody the CCTM values of creating community, commitment to professional learning, and recognition of others. Katie Anderson is a math interventionist at McElwain Elementary School in Thornton, CO. Katie provides math intervention for 1st and 2nd grade students and has been teaching for 30 years. Katie helps her young learners recognize the importance of taking risks in math and the importance of creating a safe and respectful environment to foster the sharing of ideas. Her classroom revolves around a growth mindset, and her students are quick to celebrate mistakes and use these mistakes as opportunities to grow their brains. Katie shared that some of her most powerful learning has been that she can’t tell students how to do math. Instead, they need to construct their understanding of mathematical concepts through carefully designed lessons and tasks. Katie is an expert when it comes to knowing her students, designing tasks tied to her students’ interests, and celebrating their contributions as collaborative problem-solvers. Regan Wilder is a 7th grade math teacher at Aurora Frontier P-8 in Aurora, CO. Regan has been teaching for 9 years and describes her classroom like a living room. She says it is a space that is warm, welcoming, and safe for taking risks and embracing vulnerability. She encourages her students to share personal stories to create moments of connection in order to build empathy, humility, and deeper understanding. Regan was one of the math educators who helped develop the CDE math intervention toolkits. She describes the lasting impact of this collaborative experience due to the connections formed with math educators from across Colorado. Because of the relationships Regan fosters, she helps students build their confidence in the math classroom and approach complex problems with determination. Congratulations to Katie and Regan! |