Allison Loves Math Podcast

Spark Curiosity. Fuel Sensemaking. Ignite Teacher Moves.

The Allison Loves Math Podcast is back! In this first interview, Jon Orr and Kyle Pierce share their framework for helping teachers to make math moments every day that promote productive struggle and build resilient learners. Their three-part framework covers (1) Sparking Curiosity, (2) Fueling Sensemaking, and (3) Igniting Teacher Moves.

Join Jon and Kyle at their free Making Math Moments Virtual Summit on November, 18-20th: https://summit.makemathmoments.com/

Find the Allison Loves Math playlists at https://www.allisonlovesmath.com/blog, including

• Playlist for Elementary School Teachers
• Playlist for High School Teachers and College Professors
• Playlist for Parents

Get Allison's Books on:

• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Allison-Dillard/e/B07PV43V59
• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/%22Allison%20Dillard%22
• Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/author/604645715/Allison-Dillard
• Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/search?q=allison%20dillard
• And other online retailers

"Teach your kids to ask for things when they need them." - Beth Liesenfeld

Learning math can become fun and easy if we make the best of the available resources by learning to advocate and approach the appropriate school teams for an effective IEP learning experience.

In this episode, I chat with Beth Liesenfeld, an occupational therapist and founder of The IEP Lab, an organization focused on providing insider knowledge about the IEP system and process to enable parents of children with special needs to get an effective IEP and get their child learning, all without having to constantly fight with the school district!

Allison and Beth discuss:

• Beth's experiences that led to her founding the IEP Lab [1.06]
• Beth's Top 5 Tips for getting the most out of your math IEP

- Have limited priorities - Pick 2 things that could create the most impact [6.00]

- Consistency in communication [8.40]

- Knowing how your child learns [11.00]

- Approaching advocacy [12.30]

• Advice for parents who are homeschooling their child [9.40]

Similar episodes you might enjoy:

• #15 The Inclusive Education Podcast with Vickie Brett & Amanda Selogie
• #48 How to Help Kids Get Unstuck in Math with bilingual OT Nicole Santamaria
• #31 How Executive Functioning Impacts All Aspects of Learning with Stephanie Pitts & Rachel Kapp

Beth's Resources

• The IEP Podcast: https://pod.link/1584271582
• E41: How to Feel Heard and Communicate with Ease: How to Write a Vision Statement! www.TheIEPLab.com/episode41
• Free Parent IEP Role Cheat Sheet: www.TheIEPLab.com/parentrole
• Decoding IEP Data Workshop: www.TheIEPLab.com/data
• IG: @TheIEPLab
• Facebook: /TheIEPLab

Allison's Books

• Crush Hypothesis Testing
• Crush Math Now
• Love Math Journal
• Raise Your Math Grade

Connect with Allison

• Website: https://www.allisonlovesmath.com/
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Allison-Dillard/e/B07PV43V59
• Facebook: /AllisonLovesMath
• Instagram: @allisonlovesmath
• Twitter: @AllisonLuvsMath

"Growth comes from challenging oneself to get out of their comfort zone and try."

When it comes to math, one of the best ways to challenge students with concepts that dig deeper into and go beyond their school curriculum is math competitions.

In today's interview, I sit down with Ingrid Moats, owner of Tampa Bay Test Prep, to learn all about the fascinating world of math competitions. Through this episode, Ingrid answers my many questions and draws attention to the role of math competitions in shaping a student's confidence in and love of math.

Allison and Ingrid discuss:

• Growing up in a math environment [1.29]

• Levelling up math skills with Mathletics - Math Competitions [3.12]

• Math Competitions - Math Kangaroo, Math Olympiad, AMC8, Math Counts [5.08]

• Benefits of participating in math competitions [7.09]

• Creating opportunities for participating in math competitions at your school [8.45]

• Learning from each other [16.02]

Quotes

• I really loved detective stories and mystery stories, and so I was like if I could put clue 1 and clue 2 together maybe I could get something I have never seen before… I was the detective.

• Math competitions give a little bit of exposure to see a variety of math they didn't get to see before.

• Light up the math brain and showcase see what they can do. Students need to know that they can struggle and succeed.

Connect with Ingrid Moats

• Instagram: @moatsingrid,
• Instagram: @tampabaytestprep
• Facebook: tampabaytestprep
• Website: www.tampabaytestprep.com
• Ingrid's free guide to math competitions

Allison's Books

Raise your Math Grade | Crush Hypothesis Testing | Crush Math Now | Love Math Journal

Connect with Allison

• Website: https://www.allisonlovesmath.com/
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Allison-Dillard/e/B07PV43V59
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllisonLovesMath
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonlovesmath
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllisonLuvsMath

How can we help our students recover from pandemic learning loss in mathematics? As we look ahead, to our students' long-term ability to succeed in math and STEM, our task ahead as teachers is both complex and of far-reaching importance.

This is why today I invited Elly Blanco- Rowe, a senior educational consultant for Teaching Matters, to share with us tips to help our students overcome math learning loss.

As an experienced teacher with over 20 years of coaching and school leadership, Elly advocates for equitable, culturally responsive mathematics instruction for all children. She holds a Masters in Teaching from Pace University, an MBA from Ba-Ruk College and a Masters in School Building Leadership from Mercy College. She is also currently a doctoral student at Fordham University in Educational Leadership, Administration and Policy.

Elly and I chat about:

• Improving teacher effectiveness for student success[3.48]
• 3 practices for teachers
  • Slowing down and going deeper while at a grade level [7.50]
  • Leveraging technology to teach students [8.26]
  • Simplifying learning by making the context relevant to the content [9.10]
• Tiktok as a means of instructing students [11.43]
• How teachers can go deeper into specific topics [14.00]

Quotes

• Simplify learning by making context relevant to the content.
• The power that comes from knowing the vertical alignment is so intense. Knowing what is coming up next and how does the learning from this year support next year's learning is really helpful.
• Bring technology to the classroom. Use TikTok as a means of instructing students!

Connect with Teaching Matters

LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Connect with Elly Blanco-Rowe

Instagram | LinkedIn

Allison's Books

Raise your Math Grade | Crush Hypothesis Testing | Crush Math Now | Love Math Journal

Connect with Allison

• Website: https://www.allisonlovesmath.com/
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Allison-Dillard/e/B07PV43V59
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllisonLovesMath
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonlovesmath
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllisonLuvsMath

In today's episode, my co-author for the Love Math Journal, Nicole Thomson, and I dive into the first prompts from the Love Math Journal to provide advice, tips and inspiration for teachers who are introducing the Love Math Journal to their classes for the first time.

We cover tips for discussing tips, examples, and advice for the following Love Math Journal prompts:

• How do you feel about math?
• Why do you feel this way?
• Math is...

If you are a teacher, math lead, principal or district leader looking for resources to help 4th-8th grade students develop growth mindsets and SEL skills, specifically for math, download a free review copy of the Love Math Journal here: https://www.allisonlovesmath.com/reviewcopy

If you're interested in purchasing the Love Math Journal for your class, school, or district, provide educators with discounts on bulk orders. For questions on discounts and purchase orders, email [email protected].

You can listen to my other interviews with Nicole Thomson:

• #45 The Love Math Journal
• #44 Using Gratitude to Help Students Overcome Math Anxiety

"Every moment of practice coaches assess their athletes. They're not grading their athletes, but they're looking at what their athletes are doing."

Today's interview is with Tom Schimmer, author of the bestselling book, Grading from the Inside Out, and an expert in assessment, grading, RTI, and educational leadership. Through this episode, Tom draws attention to ways assessment can boost our student's confidence and love for math, including how to assess math the way coaches assess their athletes.

Allison and Tom discuss:

• How Tom's teachers played vital roles in nurturing his love for math. [1.56]
• What good assessment practices look like [7.00]
• How to make room for learning from mistakes in a math class [9.14]
• Why and how to avoid redundancy in math tests [15.44]
• Assessment planning [20.29]
• Tom's books on instruction and assessment [22.57]
• Quality over counting: Situations where equal marks do not equate to equal understanding [24.34]

Quotes

• Find a way to use evidence (outcomes of assessment) to advance learning as opposed to just judge learning.
• 'What's the score during warmup?'

'The score is 00. The game hasn't started.'

'Okay. Why did you sweat in practice? Why didn't you die for a loose ball? Why didn't you do all of that? You clearly didn't get anything? Because it's to start the game, the game is 00.

'Well, it prepared me to play better, right?

• Be prepared to demonstrate math proficiency without practicing math proficiency, even though you're not harvesting anything, you're not gaining anything, you're looking at this idea that this is going to improve my math skill.
• Percentage system is not all it's cracked up to be when it comes to grading.
• Every moment of practice the coaches assess their athletes, they're not grading their athletes, but they're looking at what their athletes are doing. So if we taught like we coached in the sense that we do very little quantification. We would have an assessment system or an assessment experience for our students that would be most beneficial to them reaching proficiency with the learning goals.

Links from the episode

Allison's episode on Tom's podcast

Connect with Tom Schimmer

• Twitter: @TomSchimmer; @TomSchimmerPod
• Instagram: @tomschimmerpodcast
• Facebook: Schimmer Education
• YouTube: Tom Schimmer Podcast
• TikTok: @tomschimmerpodcast

Allison's Books

• Raise your Math Grade: An open educational resource.
• Crush Math Now

• Crush Hypothesis Testing: This book is co-authored by math professor Jennifer Flenner, who was on Episode #34 Tips for Teaching Introductory Statistics.

• Love Math Journal: This journal is co-authored by Nicole Thomson, who was on Episode# 44 Using Gratitude to Help Students Overcome Math Anxiety.

Connect with Allison

• Website: https://www.allisonlovesmath.com/
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Allison-Dillard/e/B07PV43V59
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllisonLovesMath
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonlovesmath
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllisonLuvsMath

The lastest covid surge has ended. This is the time to catch up on taking care of yourself.

For one person, self-care might be vegging out and sleeping in. For another, it might be having a cocktail and a good laugh with friends. For yet another, it might be eating healthier and eliminating the stress of last-minute family meals.

Today's interview features Marie Fiebach, family dinner coach and the host of the Feed Your Family Tonight podcast. In this episode, Marie and I talk about meal planning, quick dinner recipes and so much more.

Allison and Marie chat about:

• Time management secrets to weeknight dinner success [3.00]
• Eliminating stress by having backup meal plans [6.59]
• Marie's quick dinner recipes [11.32]
• How and when to experiment with new dinner ideas [13.31]
• Marie's favorite go-to breakfast recipes [17.06]

Quotes

• Prep your meals today to be successful later in the week.
• Dinners do not have to be fancy. It can be a little bit boring. It is ok if you have 10 or 12 meals and you're having the same things over and over again

Free weekly meal planning sheet at feedyourfamilytonight.com/plan

Connect with Marie: - Marie's website and free meal planning guide: https://feedyourfamilytonight.com/ - Marie's podcast: https://feedyourfamilytonight.com/podcasts/ - Marie's Instagram: @feedyourfamilytonightFB: - Marie's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FeedYourFamilyTonight Allison's Books

• Raise your Math Grade

• Crush Hypothesis Testing

• Crush Math Now
• Love Math Journal This journal is co-authored by Allison and Nicole Thomson, who had been on Episode# 44 Using Gratitude to Help Students Overcome Math Anxiety.

Connect with Allison Dillard

• Website: https://www.allisonlovesmath.com/
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Allison-Dillard/e/B07PV43V59
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllisonLovesMath
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonlovesmath
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllisonLuvsMath

Are you thinking about taking a career break? If teaching through the pandemic has you thinking about switching careers, there is much to consider before making the jump. In today's episode, Allison interviews career coach and host of the Money, Career and Motherhood Podcast, about how to plan for a career that strikes a balance between your personal, professional, and family life. These are some highlights from the episode:

• What unquantifiable factors to consider before taking a career break [2:10]
• How to find a balance in your life on your professional, personal, and family front [5.17]
• Thinking about what you value before taking a career break [10.01]
• Accepting there will be burnouts and learning curves in any career [11.13]
• Investing in yourself when you are not working [18.23]
• Squeezing opportunities from challenging times [24.19]

Check out Janice's previous interview on Allison Loves Math Podcast

Check out Janice's Website

Allison's Books

• Raise your Math Grade: Get this FREE short book, which is a toughen-up math manifesto mixed with you-can-do-it enthusiasm. It is an open educational resource, meaning you can share it freely with friends, students, and colleagues.

• Crush Hypothesis Testing: In Introductory Statistics, hypothesis testing is one of the most difficult topics and every teacher, textbook, YouTube video explains in a slightly different way. If it's making you frustrated, you're not alone. Learn the 5-Step Method that Makes Hypothesis Testing Easier and Understandable

• Crush Math Now: Order this best-selling Amazon book! It is a study guide packed with all the advice Allison has given students over the years on math mindset, study skills, and test-taking strategies.
• Love Math Journal: Get this growth mindset journal to help 4th-8th grade students to succeed in and love math. This journal is co-authored by Allison and Nicole Thomson, who had been on Episode# 44 Using Gratitude to Help Students Overcome Math Anxiety.

Connect with Allison

• Website: https://www.allisonlovesmath.com/
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Allison-Dillard/e/B07PV43V59
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllisonLovesMath
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonlovesmath
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllisonLuvsMath

Students need support to shine and grow. In this episode, Punam Saxena, author of Parent Power, discusses how parent engagement at school and at home can boost a child's academic success.

Parent Impact Coach, TEDx speaker, and host of the Edu-Me Podcast, Punam Saxena sheds light on how a student-parent-teacher team can nurture a child to become the best version of themselves.

Allison and Punam discuss:

• Punam's new Ted Talk [2.03]
• How a student's a socio-emotional environment impacts their academic performance [4.11]
• How teachers can engage reluctant parents [8.37]
• Being a better parent [19.00]

Check out Punam's previous interview on Allison Loves Math Podcast: https://allisonlovesmath.mykajabi.com/blog/PunamSaxena

Connect with Punam Saxena

Punam's TedTalk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrY3dM-AvOg

Punam's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Parent-Power-Navigate-School-Beyond/dp/1736640208

Punam's Website: https://www.edu-me.net/

Allison's Books

• Raise your Math Grade: Get this FREE short book, which is a toughen-up math manifesto mixed with you-can-do-it enthusiasm. It is an open educational resource, meaning you can share it freely with friends, students, and colleagues.

• Crush Math Now: Order this best-selling Amazon book! It is a study guide packed with all the advice Allison has given students over the years on math mindset, study skills, and test-taking strategies.
• Love Math Journal: Get this growth mindset journal to help 4th-8th grade students to succeed in and love math. This journal is co-authored by Allison and Nicole Thomson, who had been on Episode# 44 Using Gratitude to Help Students Overcome Math Anxiety.

Connect with Allison

• Website: https://www.allisonlovesmath.com/
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Allison-Dillard/e/B07PV43V59
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllisonLovesMath
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonlovesmath
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllisonLuvsMath

"Do you want to be great or do you want to be comfortable?"

Advocate for your needs. Be proactive. Build a support system. Take risks. Push yourself to do great things. In today's interview, Shanise Walker, Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, shares inspiring and practical advice for math students about how to advocate for themselves and set themselves up for success in math.

Shanise is a first-generation college student, who earned B.S. in Mathematics from UGA and Ph.D. in Mathematics from Iowa State University. Her research interests lie in extremal combinatorics and graph theory and she is active in service to the mathematical profession related to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).

Allison and Shanise discuss:

• How Shanise fell in love with Math [3.15]
• Being proactive and having a plan [5.54]
• Shanise talks about her blog in the American Mathematical Society [10.18]
• Having a spectrum of support system [16.20]
• If you are doing Math Majors, take up English courses[21.55]

Check out Shanise's blog: https://blogs.ams.org/livingproof/2021/09/14/how-challenging-experiences-led-me-to-pursue-a-phd-in-mathematics-by-shanise-walker/

Connect with Shanise: [email protected]

Connect with Allison

• Website: https://www.allisonlovesmath.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllisonLovesMath
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonlovesmath
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllisonLuvsMath

Allison's Books

• Raise your Math Grade: Get this FREE short book, which is a toughen-up math manifesto mixed with you-can-do-it enthusiasm. It is an open educational resource, meaning you can share it freely with friends, students, and colleagues.

• Crush Math Now: Order this best-selling Amazon book! It is a study guide packed with all the advice Allison has given students over the years on math mindset, study skills, and test-taking strategies.
• Love Math Journal: Get this growth mindset journal to help 4th-8th grade students to succeed in and love math. This journal is co-authored by Allison and Nicole Thomson, who had been on Episode# 44 Using Gratitude to Help Students Overcome Math