Creating Change through Community

Photos of caps and gowns, weddings, new jobs, and end-of-year celebrations fill my social media page this time of the year. Each represents a journey with a history and a new beginning. While there are many celebrations, I also am reminded of how hard this past year was for so many K-16 educators, learners, families, and communities. Many were stretched to their limit and experienced disconnection and isolation.

As we look ahead, I hope we can begin to renew, process, and use things we have learned to create a better space for all. Just as athletes perform better with intentional rest and recovery, many of us have encouraged our teacher candidates and K-12 educators to take time to rest and heal this summer. In the same vein, we as mathematics teacher educators need time to rest, process, and recover. Many of us have been working on overdrive to support students, teachers, families, and communities. We haven’t taken time to refresh and process this past year. I hope you can carve some time this summer for yourself, in order to rest, renew, and reimagine.

As individuals and as an organization, summer can be a time for us to reflect on the past year and plan for the future based on lessons learned. From the events of last year, we will enter the fall changed, and if we use the next few months to process ways to address what we have learned and build our reimagined mathematics education community, we can enter the fall stronger, wiser, and better. Know that your AMTE leadership will use this time to continue to ruminate and plan ways we can further advocate for mathematics teacher education. This includes collaborating with sibling organizations to use our collective strength to impact mathematics education and to advocate for equitable mathematics instruction for all.

The photos on social media this time of year often celebrate the journey that has brought a person to this moment in time. Each digital image is filled with many pixels. If pixels were missing or of lesser quality, the image would be incomplete or blurry. Yet, when the various minute areas of illumination work together to build upon strengths of each other, they create the complete picture. This reminds me of our mathematics education community. Each member has different strengths, needs, histories and ways to contribute to the collective, and all are needed and add details to create the complete, beautiful image that is our community. Take time this summer to rejuvenate and connect with others. AMTE will continue to plan, support, and prepare, because this fall we will be sharing ways we can enhance our pixels and strengthen the AMTE community. I look forward to learning and growing together over the upcoming year.

Best,

Megan