April 2025 CCTM Newsletter

Message from the Board: 

This month our board message comes to you from CCTM Secretary,  Manpreet Sandhu. In her message, Manpreet reflects on the powerful professional learning from last summer’s CCTM Institute, featuring NCTM President Kevin Dykema and inspires us to look forward to the 2025 CCTM Summer Institute featuring Joleigh Honey and Julianne Foxworthy Gonzalez. She highlights the value of coming together as a statewide community of math educators—a space where collaboration, shared experiences, and collective growth continue to strengthen our teaching and support student learning across Colorado.

Click Here to Read the Welcome Message  

Upcoming Events, Celebrations, Happenings, and Opportunities (ECHO)

Click here to view upcoming math events and happenings, including:

  • Register for the CCTM Summer Institute June 12 & 13, 2025, hosted at the Adams 12 Conference Center.  Join us in-person for keynote speakers Joleigh Honey and Julianne Foxworthy Gonzalez who will present strategies for supporting diverse learners in mathematics, including culturally and linguistically diverse students and students with disabilities.  Attendees will earn professional learning hours towards meeting the CLD and/or Special Education licensure requirements.  See the 2025 CCTM Summer Institute webpage to register.

Click HERE to view other math celebrations and opportunities, as well as to view additional information regarding the above CCTM learning opportunities.

Teacher Voice: CDE - Intervention Toolkits

Each newsletter we will highlight the voice of educators within Colorado to share some of their amazing work and ideas. In this issue, we highlight the new CDE Online Intervention Toolkits!

Click here to read more! 

Practical Practices- Happy Birthday Principles to Action! 

Engaging in these teaching practices is grounded in the belief that every student is a powerful mathematical thinker that knows things. When we elicit and build from student ideas, we communicate that each learner  is a capable mathematician whose voice matters. This creates a culture that values risk-taking, diversity of thought, and inquiry as essential conditions for authentic math learning. 

~ Amber Gardner, Region 3 Representative

In our Practical Practices section of the newsletter, we highlight practices that you can incorporate in your classrooms, including curated links to outside resources to build your knowledge of that practice.  For this school year CCTM has been elevating the High Leverage Teaching Practices and resources to support that practice in the classroom within each newsletter.  This month we focus on the last two practices in flow of planning for and implementing high quality math learning experiences for each student:

  • Elicit and use evidence of student thinking
  • Support productive struggle in learning mathematics 

Click here to read more!

Spotlighting Colorado Mathematics Educators and Teams: 

In this section of our newsletter, we celebrate the outstanding work of mathematics teams, educators, and leaders across our community.

This month, we're excited to spotlight a group of 18 dedicated educators who collaborated to develop the new CDE Online Math Intervention Toolkits—a valuable resource designed to support student learning and instructional success statewide!

  • Heidi Leonhard, Curtis Turner, Lisa Paulin, Ashley Armbruster

  • Ellie Bak, Christine Smith, Susan Hemphill, Parker Edingfield

  • Mark Koester, Amanda Austin, Juniper Dilker, Hayley Murphy

  • Lora McCabe, Nathan Boyd, Selena Lucero, Regan Wilder

  • Helen Johnson, Aidan Rooney

Please click here to find out about their amazing work  . 

If you want to nominate an educator, leader, or team, please use  this link to nominate an individual or a team!

Trivia - A History of Mathematics 

Each newsletter will have a trivia question. From those that answer correctly, five winners will be drawn and receive a CCTM Promotional Product.   

THIS MONTH’s TRIVIA QUESTION: 

As we honor the importance of mental well-being, we would like to highlight this mathematician who brought awareness and hope to many. He revolutionized the field of game theory with a concept that analyzes how people make decisions in competitive situations. While achieving academic fame early in life, he also battled schizophrenia for many years. His courageous journey of recovery, return to mathematical research, and eventual Nobel Prize win helped reduce stigma and sparked deeper conversations around mental health—especially in the academic and scientific communities. Who is he?

Submit Your Answer Here 

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CCTM Trivia and Recap

Last month, we asked you, the members of CCTM “This NASA mathematician pioneered the use of computer programming for performing complex calculations. They were also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Who is this mathematician?”

The answer to this question was: Katherine Johnson  Learn more about Katherine Johnson

Last month’s winners were: Zachary Weiss, Cheryl Clinger, and Kari Johnson  

Colorado Math Teacher Journal - Featured Article 

Are you passionate about math education and eager to share your experiences, insights, or questions with a vibrant community of educators? The Colorado Mathematics Teacher (CMT) journal invites YOU—practicing teachers, preservice teachers, researchers, instructional coaches, and anyone excited about math learning—to submit an article for publication! As a peer-reviewed, open access journal published by the Colorado Council of Teachers of Mathematics (CCTM), CMT is dedicated to fostering community, connection, and conversation in math education across Colorado and beyond. Whether you want to share a classroom innovation, reflect on your teaching practice, highlight equity efforts, or explore new tools and technology, we want to hear your voice. Articles should be 800–1200 words and accessible to a broad audience. Let’s grow together as a professional community, united by our commitment to powerful and equitable math teaching and learning. 

Questions? Reach out to me, Dennis DeBay, PhD, Editor in Chief, at [email protected]. We can’t wait to read your work!

Featured Article: Engaging Students with the Fold-and-Cut Theorem

Authors: 

Amélie Schinck-Mikel , California Polytechnic State University

Elsa Medina, California Polytechnic State University

Abstract: When students make geometric constructions through paper folding, it allows them to make geometric concepts come to life in their hands. In this article, we discuss a hands-on geometry activity based on the Fold-and-Cut Theorem that can help teachers enhance students’ engagement with geometry and deepen students’ geometric reasoning by paper folding.

(Read Full Article Here)

 

Get YOUR Word Out

Would 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.