Conference Season: Sharing, Learning, and Connecting Through Mathematics

It’s that time of year again—conference season.

One of my favorite parts of being an educator is the opportunity to step outside of my own classroom, connect with other educators, share ideas, and learn from the experiences of others. Conferences give us a chance to pause from the day-to-day demands of teaching and think about the bigger questions: How can we create better learning experiences for our students? How can we make mathematics more meaningful? How do we ensure every student sees themselves as a mathematician?

This year, I’m excited to have the opportunity to present at NCSM, NCTM, AMTNYS, and AMTNYC. While the sessions have different focuses, there are some common threads running through all of them: student agency, meaningful mathematics, data literacy, equitable access, discourse, and creating learning experiences that center students as thinkers.

NCSM: Data Stories for Justice

At NCSM, I’ll be presenting Data Stories for Justice: Empowering K–12 Students to Investigate Their World Through Data Science.

Data is everywhere. Our students encounter graphs, statistics, percentages, headlines, and claims based on data every day. But being able to calculate a mean or create a graph isn't necessarily the same thing as being data literate.

In this session, we’ll explore how data science can transform the K–12 mathematics classroom into a space where students investigate questions that actually matter to them.

We’ll look at ways students can collect, analyze, interpret, and communicate data connected to their communities, cultures, and lived experiences. More importantly, we’ll think about how these experiences can elevate student voice and agency.

I believe data has the power to tell stories—but students should have opportunities to become the people telling those stories.

NCTM: Making the Most of Classroom Resources

I’ll also be presenting several sessions at NCTM, focused on helping educators make the most of the resources available through NCTM membership.

For new members, I’ll facilitate Exploring Classroom Resources for New Members. We’ll explore the NCTM Classroom Resources page and look at the extensive collection of instructional plans, interactive tools, and other resources available to members.

For existing members, I’ll offer Exploring Classroom Resources for Existing Members, with a focus on discovering resources that can support the work experienced teachers are already doing in their classrooms.

I love the idea behind both of these sessions because sometimes the challenge isn't finding resources—it's knowing where to look and how to make those resources work for you and your students.

I’m also facilitating Notice and Wonder Secondary, where we’ll dig into one of my favorite classroom routines.

Notice and Wonder is deceptively simple. Give students something interesting to look at and ask:

What do you notice?
What do you wonder?

From there, a mathematical conversation can go in all kinds of directions.

We’ll explore examples from NCTM Classroom Resources and think about how this routine can be used with middle and high school students to build curiosity, encourage discourse, and create opportunities for meaningful mathematical thinking.

AMTNYS: Humanizing Data and Transforming Tasks

At AMTNYS, I’ll be presenting two sessions that connect closely to some of the work I’ve been doing around mathematics, data science, equity, and student agency.

The first is Humanizing Data: Empowering All Learners Through Inquiry, Storytelling, and Authentic Data Experiences.

We live in a world where data is abundant—and where AI can generate an answer almost instantly.

That makes the question of what students do with data even more important.

How do we create experiences where students aren't simply calculating statistics or interpreting a graph someone else created? How do we give them opportunities to ask questions, investigate, make sense of information, tell stories, and communicate their own conclusions?

In this session, we’ll explore authentic data investigations, storytelling, discourse-rich routines, and equitable teaching practices that help students develop into data thinkers and storytellers.

The second session is Transformative Math Tasks: Reimagining Learning in Middle and High School Classrooms.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about what makes a math task more than just a problem students are expected to solve.

A transformative task gives students opportunities to reason, make connections, struggle productively, collaborate, communicate, and make decisions. It provides multiple entry points and creates space for students to bring their own thinking and experiences into the mathematics.

In this workshop, we'll look at traditional, answer-driven problems and consider how we can transform them into richer learning experiences.

The goal isn't to make every problem longer or more complicated.

The goal is to make the thinking more meaningful.

AMTNYC: Continuing the Conversation

I'll also bring Transformative Math Tasks to AMTNYC.

One of the things I enjoy most about presenting this session is that there isn't one "right" way to transform a task. The process itself becomes an opportunity for teachers to think about their goals, their students, and the kinds of mathematical experiences they want to create.

We'll explore tasks that promote multiple entry points, productive struggle, discourse, collaboration, and student voice. We'll also think about how teachers can support diverse learners while maintaining high expectations and meaningful mathematical thinking.

Ultimately, I want students to leave mathematics classrooms knowing that they are more than answer-getters.

They are thinkers.

They are problem-solvers.

They are mathematicians.

More Than Presenting

As excited as I am about presenting these sessions, conferences have never been just about presenting for me.

They're about connection.

They're about sitting in a session and hearing an idea that makes you rethink something you've been doing for years.They're about sharing something that worked in your classroom and hearing how someone else might adapt it for theirs.

They're about being reminded that, even though teaching can sometimes feel like an individual profession, we don't have to do this work alone.

This year's sessions reflect many of the ideas that continue to shape my work as a math educator: creating meaningful learning experiences, making mathematics accessible and relevant, elevating student voice, developing data literacy, and helping every student see themselves as capable.

I’m looking forward to the conversations, the learning, the collaboration, and—of course—the opportunity to share some of the work that continues to challenge and inspire me.

If you're attending NCSM, NCTM, AMTNYS, or AMTNYC, I hope our paths cross.

Come say hello, join a session, share an idea, or just start a conversation.

That's what conference season is really about.

Access all of my pre and post-session resources: https://www.dustinpurdy.com/professional-speaking