CPM’s Teacher Conference was not only a great opportunity to learn and network with others, but also included the official launch of CPM’s new middle school curriculum, Inspiring Connections. Stickers with different illustrations from the courses started showing up on people’s water bottles and computers. Some attendees wore “Ask me about Inspiring Connections!” badges, which created a buzz at the conference as questions and conversations popped up.

In the conference sessions about Inspiring Connections, participants learned that the curriculum is a bi-media curriculum. This means that the courses use both print and digital to deliver the curriculum. Students will have a Mathematician’s Notebook, a consumable student book to record the messy work of learning as they highlight key concepts, questions, rough draft thinking, mistakes, corrections, and their inspirations. The Reflection & Practice problems are printed there, too.

Both students and teachers will access the curriculum through a new digital platform. This means that devices with internet access are required. But each student does not need a device. In fact, one-to-one is not recommended, but two-to-one or four-to-one is ideal to encourage collaboration and conversations.

Along with the Mathematician’s Notebook and devices, students will be using vertical non-permanent surfaces (VNPSs). Teachers field-testing the curriculum have been excited with the engagement they see when students work at VNPSs.

Inspiring Connections has everything you love about CPM, plus new pieces to ensure that classrooms around the country bring More Math to More People!

You can visit cpm.org/middle-school-ic/ to learn more about Inspiring Connections.