At the end of September, I attended the NCTM conference in Chicago. This conference is usually a time in which I soak up information, get my math mojo, and try to gleam inspiration for the rest of my school year. It’s fun to run into colleagues that I’ve gotten to know in all my years of going to conferences. It’s also terrific to get know new colleagues.
This year felt a little different. I can’t put my finger on exactly why it felt different. Maybe it was because I read other people’s opinions on X (formerly Twitter) about this edu-celebrity culture and where NCTM is headed.
After doing much of my own noticing…I had questions twirling in my head.
Who is NCTM geared towards? NCTM’s full name is National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. This should encompass many factions of teacher that include elementary, middle, high school, and college level educators. And yes…there were attendees from all of these levels of education. But I’m still wondering — who is NCTM’s audience? (This may make more sense as I go on)
What’s with all the commercials and companies? I get that part of the conference needs sponsorship. I understand that this is a great time for people to sell their goods and that education can be a business. It just seemed that these companies are preying on teachers (the consumers). I think this may always be the case for any conference, but the commercialization is getting out of control. I sat in on one session about number lines and quickly realized that it was sponsored by a textbook company. And we barely spoke about number lines! Ugh.
When is the last time some speakers have seen a classroom? Before I begin….I’ll tell you that I was chosen as a speaker for this conference. I presented at Friday afternoon at 4pm. Not exactly the prime time for speaking, but I’ll take it. I submitted my proposal under my name, but under KristenAcosta.com as my workplace. This is how people know me and my work. (I am not there to represent my district as they are not sponsoring me or giving me any time off to head to the conference.) Despite not being a representative of my school district for this conference, I am still a classroom teacher. I have not left the classroom. I make that well known because teachers can smell inauthentic people. I have found that I have much more credibility because I am still in the thick of things. One teacher told me…”Oh…you are one of us.” Yes—and damn proud of it! And I had to use 2 personal days off to head to the conference.
In looking and listening at the speakers listed, I found that some of these “big” names haven’t seen the inside of a classroom in years. Some speakers were speaking on behalf of their sponsored company (like I mentioned before) and are retired. Some speakers are consultants. One particular speaker has NEVER taught before…but yet is getting book deals and speaking gigs all over the country. How?!? I come to this conference to gleam off the expertise from other classrooms. But this becomes difficult when the speakers are oversaturated with people who haven’t seen the inside of a classroom in a long while.
One “big”name sat next to me at a session. I commented about how I was doing some technique in my classroom with my kids. He looked at me like I was an alien and asked, “you are still in the classroom?” Yes!!!
The teacher’s voice was barely a whisper at this conference. And I make this conjecture based solely on what I observed. I, of course, could not attend every single session. I did look through the conference program and read some bios. But as I chatted with others and spoke of my theory…the people I talked to didn’t argue against it. They quietly nodded in agreement.
The teacher’s voice was barely a whisper at NCTM.
With that, I offer suggestions.
- NCTM needs to sit down and figure out who the main audience is and what their purpose is at the annual conference. Is NCTM more for classroom teachers? Is it for college professors? Could there be mini-conferences for elementary, secondary and post-secondary separately so that everyone is seen and heard? For more on this listen to Debate Math’s conversation on NCTM (episode 33)
- I’m not sure I have a solution for the commercialization….I just don’t like being smacked in the face with commercials. I especially feel this way when walking into a session that unbeknownst to me is sponsored by a company.
- As for the speakers, would it be such a bad idea to have a quota? Could 20-30% of the speakers be classroom teachers and/or educators still working in schools? All these others can speak theories, ideas, and spread messages around math….but it’s the practioners that put it in place.
- Does this mean that regional and state conferences have more of a place for practioners? That’s hard too when certain states might be going through budget restrictions (I’m looking at you California) and conference attendance is decreasing.
I don