This qualitative case study provides insight into 14 preservice teachers’ (PSTs’) experiences from attending a professional conference that focused on K-16 mathematics education. PSTs attended at least 4 sessions that focused on best practices for teaching and learning mathematics and participated in daily debriefs where they shared what they learned. PSTs also completed a pre and post survey where they were asked various questions about their confidence in teaching mathematics. The question we chose to further explore from their pre to post responses was, “I can use various tools to support student understanding.” Preliminary findings provide insight into what PSTs found that they learned from attending the conference in regards to using various tools. A key goal of this presentation is to show how engagement in the conference helped PSTs gain confidence with using different tools and learning more ideas and strategies to promote engagement among students within their classrooms.
