Summary of NCTM Conference in Indianapolis, IN, February 11-13, 2026

I was awarded a travel grant that allowed me to attend the NCTM Spring Conference in Indianapolis with my registration, hotel, and meals all paid. I hadn’t attended a national conference for several years, because my institution of higher education hadn’t been able to provide professional development funds. This grant allowed me to learn more about current trends and research in mathematics education in this huge in-person conference. I strongly recommend that every mathematics educator needs to plan to attend an NCTM conference at least once, if not multiple times during their career!

My time at the NCTM Conference was wonderful and filled with networking and new learnings. When I arrived, the first session I attended was the opening session, “Navigating the Landscape of Mathematics Education: Making Connections Within and Across Research and Practice, by Robert BerryIII, Karen Karp, Peter Liljedahl, and Kari Kokka. I took away some great inspiration and ideas from this session that I was able to use to motivate my choices for attending sessions during the upcoming days. I particularly liked the contributions from these panelists along the idea of equity in education.

Another session that extended my learning from this initial presentation was on Priming by Karen Karp, Delise, Andrews, Latrenda Knighten, and Jennifer Suh. It gave examples for how a student in need of intervention can be primed with information, preliminary skills, and procedures ahead of time so that they can have the opportunity to be the person who knows what to do during full-class instruction on a task that is new for others in the room but has been primed already for them.

I also attended the lesson sharing lunch, which was something new NCTM tried at this conference. We chose a content strand or grade level and brought in a lesson example or activity example that was within that strand or grade band. Then we sat at a table for lunch with others who had brought lessons or activities from the same area and traded ideas. I was able to hear what teachers in k-12 schools were doing with regard to Geometry and also share some of my work with them. I felt validated that I have maintained my currency in the field as a teacher prep professor, and I was able to learn more about different curricula and different ways teachers approach certain geometry topics.

Another session I attended was about using games to promote mathematical learning, which gave me even more resources for use in my teacher prep classroom. I loved being able to solve problems and try out new games with my mathematics educator peers. 

Thanks so much for the opportunity to receive funding to go to NCTM in Indy!