Knowles at NCTM, October 28-31, 2026

Join Knowles Staff at the NCTM Annual Conference in Denver, CO, October 28-31, 2026. We look forward to presenting and connecting with mathematics teachers.

Presentations:

Math is Everywhere: Using Math Practices to Expand Student Understanding of “Doing” Mathematics

Knowles Teaching Fellow Ashley Gans | Thursday October 29 at 8:00 am

Attendees will delve into a method that helps students recognize and describe how they are doing math using the Math Practices. Attendees will engage in non-traditional math tasks to present the Practices to students and invite them to verbalize how they use math in daily life. Attendees will also learn methods to incorporate the Practices into their classroom culture to keep them relevant throughout the year.

Designing for Belonging in Mathematics Through Complex Instruction

Knowles Senior Program Officer, Teacher Development, Josh Thurbee | Thursday October 29 at 9:30 am

Students can succeed academically in math while never feeling they belong. This interactive session uses Design for Belonging and Complex Instruction frameworks to help teachers create authentic belonging. Through reflection and hands-on activities, participants learn concrete strategies like multiple-ability treatments and status interventions to transform math classrooms into communities where every student’s mathematical contributions are valued.

Unpacking Eurocentrism in the Secondary Math Classroom Through Ethnomathematics

Knowles Senior Fellows Lekha Tantry & Rebecca Guarino | Thursday October 29 at 9:30 am

Have you heard of Pythagoras? Euler? We are aware of the Eurocentric view of Mathematics, but not where these concepts truly originated. In this session, you will gain ideas on how to decolonize your math curriculum by showcasing the non-European roots of these concepts. Whether you want to create your own elective course or incorporate standalone lessons in your curriculum, you will leave this session with curriculum resources to bring back to your school contexts.

Controlled Chaos: Random Groups That Actually Work

Knowles Teaching Fellow Josh Pullen | Thursday October 29 at 11:30

Struggle with implementing visibly random groups while still honoring IEPs, 504s, and social considerations? In this session, you will use a simple tool I developed for my own classroom, Shuffle Buddy, to input your accommodations and social rules and generate visibly random student seating charts and groups that follow your constraints. You will leave with ready-to-use seating charts for your classroom and accommodation-ready random groups just a click away.

Building Belonging and Agency Through Equitable Assessment Strategies

Knowles Teaching Fellow Emily Blumenthal | Thursday October 29 at 2:30 pm

Will this be on the test? Is this assignment graded? Frustrated by these common student questions that emphasize grades over learning, we decided to make significant changes to our assessment and grading practices in our precalculus classes. We’ll share how we’ve used tiered assessments and portfolio grading to create a stronger sense of student belonging and agency in our classrooms. Participants will then have the opportunity to workshop ideas to make shifts in their own assessments.

Math Family Day—Inviting Families to Explore Math with Their Students

Knowles Senior Fellow Rebecca Guarino | Thursday, October 29 at 4:30 pm

A school community grows stronger with more involvement from students’ families. Parents may have trouble conceptualizing how different and collaborative math classrooms feel now compared to more traditional math classes they likely experienced when they were kids. Why not host a “Family Day” and invite students’ family members to join them in class? Facilitators will share best practices from their experience hosting a family day and how they successfully engaged a variety of families.

Story Tables: Increasing Access to Algebraic Reasoning

Knowles Senior Fellow Shira Helft | Friday, October 30 at 9:30 am

Reasoning algebraically is one of the gatekeepers to success in middle and high school math. In this session, we will do math together using one reasoning tool I love—the story table. It’s helped me teach order of operations, evaluating expressions, solving equations, function transformations, inverse functions, and more. We will also consider the impact of tool choice on students’ sense of belonging and ownership of ideas.

Collaborative Performance Tasks: Making Assessment a Practice for Learning

Knowles Senior Fellow Sarah DiMaria | Friday October 30 at 2:30 pm

Assessment is an ongoing practice for learning, not an endpoint. This session explores how collaborative performance tasks can be used for formative assessment to elevate student agency and deepen mathematical understanding. Grounded in research from Digital Promise’s MC² Collaborative Learning in Action project, participants will leave with structures, strategies, and tools to make assessment a dynamic part of learning.

Accommodations for Inclusive Inquiry: Empowering All Students to Experience Mathematical Tasks

Knowles Senior Fellow Alison Espinosa | Friday October 30 at 2:45 pm

Often, students with disabilities are seen through a deficit lens. This conception of student ability often leads teachers to employ less engaging instructional practices. In this session, we will focus on students’ abilities and research-based practices to serve students with accommodations for educational needs. We will discuss strategies to help able students become resilient, persistent problem-solvers and develop a deep conceptual understanding of topics.

Practice Makes Progress: Designing Pathways for Equitable Math Learning

Knowles Senior Fellows Carlee Madis, Sheila Orr, & Sarah DiMaria | Saturday October 31 at 9:30 am

Standards for Mathematical Practice are key to rich, equitable math learning but are often sidelined by content pacing. This session introduces Practice Pathways—a planning structure that focuses on purposeful growth in one SMP across a unit, building coherence and skill over time. Leave with tools to plan for practice, not just content, and to design engaging, authentic math experiences where all students thrive.