UETCTM

Upper East Tennessee Council of Teachers of Mathematics

The Upper East Tennessee Council of Teachers of Mathematics is an organization for anyone involved in mathematics education from preschool through college in the greater Tri-Cities region. We meet several afternoons a year in various locations across the region.

Meetings for 2025-26

Meetings begin with refreshments and informal networking at 4:00, followed by announcements and a brief business meeting, then sessions at 4:30 for all levels concluding by 6:00.

 

Tuesday, September 16, John Sevier Middle School, 1200 Wateree St., Kingsport

• General Session: Data Literacy and Engaging, Real-World Math Learning with Tuva

  Tuva empowers schools and districts to bring real-world math and statistics into their classrooms, making math learning engaging, authentic, and relevant for all students. With Tuva, students build data literacy skills and conceptual understanding of important mathematical and statistical concepts for a deeper learning experience. Tuva updates its content library regularly, making student learning meaningful through new lessons and tasks tied to current events.

  
  Middle & High School Session: Algebra Tiles

  Discover a powerful, concrete way to teach abstract algebraic concepts. This professional development session introduces educators to the use of algebra tiles 🟥🟨🟩 as a dynamic tool for exploring expressions and equations. Moving beyond rote memorization, you'll learn how to help students visualize concepts like combining like terms, factoring quadratics, and solving two-step equations.

  This session will provide you with practical, hands-on strategies to:

  Model algebraic expressions: Represent variables and constants visually to build a strong foundational understanding.
  Solve equations intuitively: Guide students through the process of "zeroing out" terms to isolate the variable.
  Deepen conceptual understanding: Connect the visual manipulation of tiles to the symbolic rules of algebra.

  Leave with a newfound confidence in using algebra tiles to create an engaging and accessible learning environment, making algebra tangible and less intimidating for all students.

• One more session geared towards elementary grades TBA.

Tuesday, January 27 (virtual hosted by Tusculum University) -- details will be announced in a newsletter

Tuesday, March 3, Daniel Boone High School, 1440 Suncrest Dr., Gray

You can now access this page by going to www.uetctm.org.

 

Join us!

Membership application

Newsletters

Current school year newsletters will appear here.

 

Newsletters from previous years (2003-2024) have been moved to this archive site.The site should open up in a new window.

Officers for 2025-26:

 

President: Scott LaVoie, Washington County Schools, lavois@wcde.org

President-elect and past president: Peggy Rochelle, Tusculum University, prochelle@tusculum.edu  

Secretary: Sunshine Light, Kingsport City Schools, slight@k12k.com

Treasurer: Julie Tester, Kingsport City Schools, jtester@k12k.com

Webmaster: Daryl Stephens, East Tennessee State University, stephen@etsu.edu

 

List of UETCTM Presidents from 1985 to present

Organizations we are affiliated with:

Tennessee Mathematics Teachers Association (TMTA)

TMTA hosts an annual conference on a Friday and Saturday in early fall each year. The 2024 conference was on September 27 and 28 at the University of Tennessee, Martin. The 2025 conference will be at Pellissippi State Community College's Hardin Valley Campus in Knoxville, September 26-27. Link to conference information pageTentative future locations are Austin Peay State University in 2026, University of Memphis in 2027, and ETSU in 2028.

UETCTM hosted the 2011 TMTA conference on September 23-24 at ETSU, and was a co-host for the 2018 conference at the Walters State Community College Sevierville Campus.

 

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)

NCTM is the parent organization of TMTA and UETCTM. NCTM holds several in-person and virtual conferences a year. The next conference will be February 5-7, 2025, in Kansas City, MO.

NCTM conference information is found here.

Nearby Regional NCTM Affiliates:

Southwest Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics. will have their annual conference on Saturday, October 4, 2025, at the Higher Education Center in Abingdon, Virginia.

Smoky Mountain Mathematics Education Association -- based out of the Knoxville area, this group is in the process of reconstituting itself.

Last update August 28, 2025