In October, a few teachers from the Darlington math department had the opportunity to attend the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Annual Conference that was held in Atlanta. This was made possible through a generous Thatcher Grant that affords professional development opportunities to the Darlington community every year. The conference theme was centered around "Lessons and Legacies: Stories of Creative Pedagogy." The sessions throughout the week focused on honoring historical and contemporary contributions of mathematics educators while also celebrating creative teaching practices that transform math learning today. We all walked away with a lot of ideas to continue to make math at Darlington engaging and relevant for our students.
My personal highlight was a session that I attended with Peter Liljehdahl: "Developing Thinking Classrooms: Strategies That Empower Student Agency." Peter is a well-respected researcher and author. He opened his session with the fact that "Thinking is a necessary precursor to learning, and if students are not thinking, they are not learning." This idea is also central to the Math Medic resource that we have adopted this year as our primary resource for Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra 2. Cultivating our students' willingness to think is critical to their success in the classroom. This is important because, as Peter says, "Thinking is what we do when we don’t know what to do." So we must develop this skill.
Carrie Watterson, a fourth-grade teacher at Darlington since 2022 with over a decade of experience in the classroom, attended a wide variety of sessions. She summarized her experience by saying that, "This was a great opportunity to reflect on ways to improve instruction around what we are already doing everyday. I realized we have a strong curriculum, and I can lean into authentic and individualized assessment. My biggest takeaway was that I can find quick and meaningful ways to assess students' thinking rather than 'what they know,' and create more opportunities for low-floor/high-ceiling tasks. I left invigorated, and ready to create new culminating unit tasks!"
Barrick Wade, a second year Upper School teacher and Darlington graduate of the Class of 2019 reflected on his experience by saying, "My time at the NCTM Conference reminded me why I enjoy teaching math. Being surrounded by passionate educators, fresh ideas and energizing conversations reignited my belief that great mathematics education can truly play a huge role in students' lives."
At the conference, we also attended a screening of the movie "Counted Out." This movie presents a mosaic of personal stories, expert interviews and scenes of math transformation in action. It explores what is at risk if we keep the mathematical status quo. It looks into the current state of math in our country where the vast majority of Americans don’t consider themselves "math people." The current reality across the United States is that math proficiency goes down as students grow up. This is a trend that can be reversed. We are excited to bring a screening of this film to the Darlington community on Dec. 4. See the trailer here. More information about this screening event will be forthcoming, but we look forward to this opportunity to bring this dialogue to the Darlington Community!
Professional growth and development are high priorities for Darlington. Each year, faculty and staff members participate in a professional growth cycle that includes professional learning communities, professional development days, and the ability to apply for professional development grants which fund conferences, travel, workshops, instructional supplies, outside speakers, and more. This blog series will highlight some of the opportunities that faculty and staff have participated in since they were awarded 2025-2026 Thatcher Grants last spring.
