In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis talk about an important role of math education: preparing students for the life they want to pursue after high school. Whether it’s college, trade school, the military, or directly into the work force, a student’s goals and desires should drive their learning experiences throughout their PK-12 years, and the course offerings, counseling and advising, and school system overall should, ideally, prepare all students for the outcomes they desire.

They recognize early in the conversation that this isn’t just about high school, isn’t just about courses, and isn’t just about math. They dive into ideas around career choices, advocating for students’ best interests, and the challenges in creating a system with the depth, breadth, and flexibility required to truly prepare all students. There aren’t easy answers to these questions, but we hope the conversation sparks thinking, discussion, and actions in your setting that support more students to be better prepared for their chosen futures.

We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:

• American Progress Math Pathways: The Way Forward report: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/math-pathways/ 
• NCTM’s former President Robert Berry’s blog post on Mathematics Pathways from December, 2019:  https://www.nctm.org/News-and-Calendar/Messages-from-the-President/Archive/Robert-Q_-Berry-III/Lets-Talk-About-Mathematics-Pathways/ 
• EdWeek article challenging calculus as the “peak of high school math” https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/calculus-is-the-peak-of-high-school-math-maybe-its-time-to-change-that/2018/05 
• Just Equations report on calculus and college admissions: https://justequations.org/resource/a-new-calculus-for-college-admissions-how-policy-practice-and-perceptions-of-high-school-math-education-limit-equitable-access-to-college 

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing [email protected]. Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis explore ideas around the emotional side of learning and how it impacts students in their academic growth. Because we and our students are humans - and humans have emotions - it is impossible to learn without a connection to our emotions, whether those emotions are positive or negative. As educators reflect over the summer and begin to plan for the upcoming school year, we hope you’ll consider the emotional side of your students’ experiences in math class.

Joanie and Curtis suggest planning for the emotional experiences alongside planning for content. As a teacher, how might you consider the ways students will feel in sharing their early thinking, perceiving their responses or others as “incorrect,” or being influenced by previous traumatic experiences with math? With some thoughtful planning and attention, these emotional experiences can be managed and leveraged to support learning for all student in the classroom, including those who are traditionally successful and may have positive feelings about math. 

We hope the content in this episode will help you consider ideas you may not have thought about before, and spark discussion with your educator friends.

We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:

• Special issue of Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12 on Social and Emotional Learning and Mathematics Learning from November, 2022 (membership required).
• Access, Power, Identity, and Healing in Mathematics by Sara Gartland, Shellee Wong, and Laurie Silverstein (membership required).
• Our previous conversation on Room to Grow with Juliana Tapper in August, 2022. 
• Rough Draft Math by Amanda Jansen
• Jo Boaler article on connection between timed tests and math anxiety

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing [email protected]. Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis talk about teaching strategies for remembering in mathematics, such as mnemonic devices, tricks, and gimmicks. 

They challenge the notion that teaching with tricks is inherently bad, and discuss how to determine when a strategy intended to help students learn might actually work against their understanding of the underlying mathematics. For instance, “FOIL” and “SOH-CAH-TOA” are both frequently taught in high school math classes, yet one is a way to remember mathematical definitions (not a trick!) and the other is a random association for a limited procedure (a trick!). So what about if a student creates their own strategy or trick while learning math?  

Join our hosts in trying to make sense of how and when remembering strategies are helpful and when they might be more harmful.

We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:

• Nix the Tricks – available to download for free
• Thirteen Rules that Expire is an article from Teaching Children Mathematics (NCTM membership required) about commonly taught ideas in elementary school that don’t support long-term learning. This blog about the article does not require NCTM membership.
• Twelve Math Rules that Expire in the Middle Grades is a similar publication from Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School (NCTM membership required) with middle school-specific ideas.
• This EdWeek article includes a commentary from Dr. Hilary Kreisberg about “nixing tricks.”

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing [email protected]. Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis share a friendly debate about which math topic is the most important for students to learn.

There are many math topics that could be argued as the most important, and we’d love to hear your hot take, too!

Take a listen to Curtis explaining why the meaning of the equals sign is crucial and Joanie arguing that proportional relationships are especially important. Then reach out to agree with one of them, or share a different topic that you find most important.

We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:

Resources related to the meaning of the equals sign:

• Texas Instruments Building Concepts activities around the equals sign and the meaning of equations
• Marilyn Burns’ take on The Equals Sign: What it Really Means
• If you are a research-y type, you might enjoy this research article Understanding the Equals Sign as a Gateway to Algebraic Thinking or this thesis paper Making Sense of the Equal Sign in Middle School Mathematics
• George Strait song All My Exes Live in Texas 😊

Resources related to proportional relationships:

• The progressions document on Ratios and Proportional Relationships from the University of Arizona supporting how proportional relationships develop in middle school standards
• The Coherence Map from Achieve the Core showing how the concept of proportional relationships is connected to many other important math concepts
• A blog post titled  Proportionality Confusion which explains how common  methods for teaching about proportion often loses the big idea of proportional relationships 

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing [email protected]. Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis talk with Rachel Lambert, known for her research on teaching mathematics to students with disabilities. 

Rachel’s passion and enthusiasm is matched by her knowledge, and the combination makes for a powerful conversation full of great resources, ideas, and suggestions for classroom teachers. If you haven’t heard Rachel speak before, you are in for a treat!

We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:

• Rachel’s website where she provides free access to her research: https://mathematizing4all.com/ 
• Jay T. Domage’s book on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Academic Ableism. Choose the “Open Access” or “Audio Download” versions which are free.
• General information about Universal Design for Learning HERE and HERE
• Edmund Harriss’ website and a really cool mathematical adult coloring book he co-created 
• Learn more about neurodiversity and what it means for teachers and schools HERE and HERE

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing [email protected]. 

Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis discuss and asset-based approach to teaching and learning mathematics.

They emphasize that all students bring strengths to learning mathematics, whether it be from a cultural, language, or ways of thinking lens, and that by assuming that all students have and bring strengths, math educators invite even more learners to be successful. As usual, our hosts share their personal experiences, anecdotes and ideas that they hope you’ll relate to.

We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:

• Classroom practices that compliment and asset-based approach to teaching and learning math https://www.ifl-news.pitt.edu/2021/09/three-practices-that-compliment-an-asset-based-approach-to-teaching-and-learning-in-math-classrooms/ 
• Edutopia article on setting a high bar for all students https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-asset-based-approach-instruction-and-assessment/
• Research from the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education about asset-based mathematics instruction https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5951/jresematheduc.49.4.0373 

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing [email protected]. Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis share a powerful conversation with Dr. Julia Aguirre, co-author of the book The Impact of Identity on K-8 Mathematics: Rethinking Equity-Based Practices.

This publication, and additional work led by Julia at the University of Washington, Tacoma, has influenced countless math educators across the country who want to ensure that all students have the opportunities, support, and classroom experiences that lead to deep learning of meaningful mathematics.

She challenges us all to not only bring our personal experiences and passions as teachers to our students, but to also tap into their experiences, passions, cultures, and communities as opportunities to make sense of and engage with mathematics. We think this episode will get you thinking and will give you some ideas about supporting your students’ math identities.

We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:

• You can learn more about Julia and her work here: https://sites.google.com/a/uw.edu/dr-julia-aguirre/home?pli=1
• You can purchase Julia’s book here: https://www.nctm.org/store/Products/The-Impact-of-Identity-in-K-8-Mathematics--Rethinking--Equity-Based-Practices/
• You can find the TODOS paper Julia mentions here: https://www.todos-math.org/assets/images/The%20Movement%20to%20Prioritize%20Antiracist%20Mathematics%20final%203.0_v6.pdf

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing [email protected]. Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis take some time to have fun with math. We share some of the puns, memes, and GIFs about math that make us laugh, make us think, and have been or would be great to share with students.

We all appreciate the chance to laugh, and although puns and memes are often silly and sometimes groan-worthy, sharing the lighter side of ourselves and of math with students is a great way to build relationships and classroom culture. No doubt, your students will appreciate knowing what makes you laugh or groan when it comes to math. Bear with us as we describe our favorites, and click below to find the visual images we discuss in this episode. Share YOUR favorites with us using our email address, [email protected]. 

We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:

• A snow “angle” Tweet by STEM Spark
• Joanie’s Algebra 1 textbook with punny word problems (it does still exist!) 
• “Dad jokes” for math
• Graph of past relationships
• What does Bob have now?
• Seven-digit number
• Factored quadratic expression Tweet by David Glasberg
• Visualizing the quadratic formula by Lane Walker on myNCTM (NCTM membership required)
• Schoolhouse Rock! The Preamble
• Quadratic formula song
• Clock with math expressions
• Willy Wonka meme

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing [email protected] . Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis build the conversation from NCTM's description of access, described as "ensuring that all students routinely have opportunities to experience high-quality mathematics instruction, learn challenging mathematics content, and receive the support necessary to be successful."

Our hosts tackle this challenging topic by considering some important high-leverage components, particularly those that are within a classroom teachers’ locus of control. Ensuring that all students have high-quality instruction from an excellent teacher supports the learning of challenging mathematics content. Joanie and Curtis consider that “support for success” extends beyond academic support, and spills over into the importance of classroom culture in access for all students. Teachers can, with intention, ensure that all students know they are viewed as doers of mathematics with ideas that are valuable for the learning of the entire class.

The conversation then shifts to discussing how the Standards for Mathematical Practice can help teachers not only understand what access looks like, but also helps students realize the relevance of the mathematics they are learning. Unsurprisingly, our hosts circle back to the importance of relationships with our students for their successful learning.

We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:

• NCTM’s Statement on Access and Equity in Mathematics Education https://www.nctm.org/Standards-and-Positions/Position-Statements/Access-and-Equity-in-Mathematics-Education/
• Supporting students’ identity and agency in mathematics https://www.nctm.org/Store/Products/The-Impact-of-Identity-in-K-8-Mathematics--Rethinking--Equity-Based-Practices/ 
• Blog about Minimizing the “Matthew Effect” https://buildingmathematicians.wordpress.com/2018/01/15/minimizing-the-matthew-effect/ 
• Skew the Script AP Statistics resources for relevant mathematics https://skewthescript.org/ 
• Implementing the Standards for Mathematical Practice https://achievethecore.org/peersandpedagogy/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Implementing-Standards-for-Mathematical-Practices-Updated-2016.pdf 
• Instagrammer with Bachelor and Bachelorette data: https://www.instagram.com/bachelordata/?hl=en

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing [email protected] . Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

In this episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie dig into a conversation about data science. They start by trying to define what data science is, describing it as the intersection of content, statistics, computer science, problem solving. It is complex, and allows people to interact with information that content, statistics, or computer science couldn’t do alone. In our current technology and data rich world, this topic is timely, relevant, and growing in importance.

Curtis and Joanie describe data science as a process by which we start with a question we want to know the answer to, then gather, interpret, analyze, and model data that can help answer the question. Although we acknowledge that data science in school looks different than data science in the world, we recognize it as a valuable way to foster students’ natural curiosity and to build their modeling, problem solving, and communication skills.

Our hosts recognize and discuss that not everyone believes that data science is relevant content for K-12 students and educators, and offer the complicating factors that come alongside bringing new ideas such as these to the curriculum. We encourage you to explore the resources to decide for yourself! 

• Blog series in support of data science https://justequations.org/blog
• Article expressing critique against using data science in place of calculus-centered courses Jo Boaler and youcubed data sicence big ideas for K-8 https://www.youcubed.org/data-big-ideas/
• UCLA data science course https://www.introdatascience.org/ 
• Berkeley data science course: http://data8.org/
• Cal State free Course for teachers Course Kata: https://coursekata.org/
• Jo Boaler and youcubed data sicence big ideas for K-8 https://www.youcubed.org/data-big-ideas/
• Data talks for students in younger grades https://www.youcubed.org/resource/data-talks/ 
• New York Times’ What’s going on with this graph? https://www.nytimes.com/column/whats-going-on-in-this-graph 
• Data Science 4 Everyone: https://www.datascience4everyone.org/

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing [email protected] . Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.