Education students and alums present at Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference
Four Elementary Education majors presented on math teaching strategies at the Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference held Oct. 18. Alumni of McDaniel’s Education programs were also represented among the conference presentations and award winners.
On Oct. 18, four Elementary Education majors presented at the 2024 Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM) annual conference hosted at Reservoir High School in Fulton, Maryland.
Professor Laura Bitto, Hailey Laur, Aleigh Freed, and Paul Steinert.
The McDaniel student attendees co-presented with Assistant Professor of Education Laura Albaugh Bitto ’04, sharing strategies and approaches to classroom teaching and mathematics education.
Senior Elementary Education majors Aleigh Freed of Westminster, Maryland, Hailey Laur of Westminster, Maryland, and Paul Steinert of Dundalk, Maryland, co-presented with Bitto on “Engage Student Thinking and Activate Discourse Through Daily Math Routines.” They led the audience through math routines that promote discussion, investigation, risk-taking, and respect for students’ ideas.
Elementary Education senior Victoria McArthur of Columbia, Maryland, and Bitto co-presented "Cake and Calculations,” which shared ways to apply the 5 Practices teaching framework to fifth and sixth grade math lessons using a cake-themed math problem.
Also present at the conference was recent Elementary Education alum Tamya Bydume ’24 of Hanover, Maryland, who now teaches fifth grade students at Cranberry Station Elementary School in Carroll County. Bydume presented on “The power of anticipating student thinking.”
“I’m so proud of our students and recent graduates for taking a leadership role in their mathematical education teaching and learning,” Bitto says. “They made us proud with their reflective practices and professional dispositions.”
Among its 2024 awards, MCTM recognized Matthew Cox M.S. ’09, a graduate of McDaniel’s Curriculum and Instruction master’s degree program (now called Innovations in Teaching and Learning), with the Outstanding High School Mathematics Teacher of the Year Award. He is a mathematics teacher at Mt. Hebron High School in Howard County.
McDaniel Professor Emeritus of Education Francis (Skip) Fennell also presented at the conference on “Strength-Based Feedback: Maximizing Formative Assessment and Mathematical Understandings.” Fennell received the MCTM Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.
McDaniel College was a proud sponsor of the 2024 MCTM conference, which provided learning opportunities and resources for K-12 teachers and math educators from Maryland’s two- and four-year colleges and universities. This year’s conference theme was “Sustaining Community: Finding Our Way Back to What Matters Most.”
The Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics is a public voice of mathematics education, inspiring vision, providing leadership, offering professional development, and supporting equitable mathematics learning of the highest quality for all students.
McDaniel's master's programs, particularly the Elementary Math Instructional Leader Certificate, were also represented at the conference. Pictured are student Hailey Laur, Lauren Keenan, coordinator of the Elementary Math Instructional Leader Certification, and Assistant Professor Laura Bitto (l-r).
