September 2025 CCTM Newsletter

President's Message: 

This month our board message is by Kim Smith, our new CCTM President. In her message, Kim appreciates the leaders who preceded her in this role, elevates the hard work of math educators in Colorado, and values the connections and collaboration CCTM supports.

Click Here to Read the Welcome Message  

 

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

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

  • Are you interested in presenting at the NCTM conference in Denver (October 2026)? On Thursday, October 2 CCTM is hosting a workshop to help people brainstorm and create proposals.

  • Did you know that Colorado is currently going through a high school math standards review and revision process? Committee work began in April. Math Standards Review Committee webpage. 

View additional math celebrations and opportunities on the full ECHO webpage.

 

Teacher Voice: We are CCTM

Each newsletter we will highlight the voice of an educator within Colorado to share some of their amazing work and ideas. In this issue we would like to hear from all of you. In Juliana Tapper's book Teaching 6 - 12 Math Intervention she suggests building community by building a Great Wall of Inspiration. In this activity she asks students who or what inspires them to come to school every day.  We would like to build the CCTM Great Wall of Inspiration. In this newsletter we are sharing inspiration from our board around the question, "What inspires you to teach math?” 

Check out our wall of inspiration and add your own inspiration in the comments. 

Practical Practices- Back to School Practices

In 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 cover the practices teachers of mathematics can incorporate as they head back to school. The first week of school is such an important time to establish expectations, develop standard operating procedures, and solidify how learning and math happen in the classroom. With that being said, we have curated a few resources to support this strong start.

Click here to read more!

Spotlighting Colorado Mathematics Educators and Teams: 

This section of our newsletter allows us to recognize the amazing mathematics teams, educators, and leaders in our community. 

In this newsletter, we are spotlighting our CCTM 2025 Award winners, Katie Anderson and Regan Wilder.

Learn more about Katie and Regan in this full profile.

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 Mathematics 

Each newsletter will have a trivia question. From those who answer correctly, five winners will be drawn and receive CCTM swag - either a water bottle or a T-shirt.

This month's trivia question is in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 - October 15.

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?

Submit Your Answer Here

In our last newsletter, we asked you, the members of CCTM, “This mathematician worked for NASA and 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 is Katherine Johnson. Learn more about Katherine Johnson.

Colorado Math Teacher Journal - Call for Submissions

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!

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.