Five Big Take-Aways from the Spring 2025 NCTM Conference(National Council of Teachers of Mathematics)

In a cold, snowy downtown Kansas City, MO, a few days before Super Bowl LIX, thousands of math educators, teachers, and administrators gathered at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics - NCTM annual conference to learn and enhance their craft. We were invited to speak in front of over 100 people on the topic "Using Stories and Pictures to Solve Multi-Step Word Problems," which was both fun and informative.

Here are a few of our favorite takeaways from our presentation and the conference.

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Relationships First, Math Second - The opening speaker was the 2023 National Teacher of the Year, Rebecca Patterson. Her entire opening presentation focused on understanding students, their journeys, and their struggles. Her quote, "Every day may not be good, but there is something good every day," emphasizes finding joy each day in the very stressful, undervalued field of education. She attributes investing in relationships—with students, colleagues, and oneself—to high-performing teams and student success. Note: Did she mention math in her talk? Not much.

Math Anxiety at a MATH Conference - In our poll during our session and in conversations with others, educators expressed significant concern about the lack of pedagogy and content knowledge among our elementary, middle, and, yes, some high school teachers too. It is not just about content but also about how to engage students so they want to do more than just 'get through math.' This is especially true when more and more students are absent and distracted.

AI to Save Time - The AI conversations were mostly focused on saving teachers' time. They used AI to create study guides, lesson plans, worksheets, scenarios, and emails to students and parents, which are great uses for the tool. We did not hear much about students using AI to cheat or do homework and how teachers or schools were addressing that issue.

Higher Ed Feels the Heat - We met with several higher education leaders who attended a K-12 conference looking for strategies to help their students catch up in math. When they lose students in a degree program because students can't get through the math requirements, the institution loses money, which is a big problem.

Math Teaching is Getting Harder - Undoubtedly, educators are carrying more, feeling tired, and needing validation. Themes such as "Joy and sadness are not mutually exclusive." and "Your students are more than just a rough moment." remind us that the teaching and learning journey is hard for both students and instructors. We must find those small joyful moments that are there each day.

The highlight of our trip was meeting a few educators randomly and going out for some famous Kansas City BBQ! We hopped into a car with someone we just met and ate with three people we didn't know. We found those moments of joy.