In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis continue the season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Pose Purposeful Questions.” This is defined as follows: Effective teaching of mathematics uses purposeful questions to assess and advance students’ reasoning and sense making about important mathematical ideas and relationships. In unpacking this definition, our hosts key in on the im...
Jun 24, 2025•31 min•Season 5Ep. 6
In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis continue the season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating its 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Establish Mathematics Goals to Focus Learning.” This is defined as follows: Effective teaching of mathematics establishes clear goals for the mathematics that students are learning, situates goals within learning progressions, and uses the goals to guide instructional decisions . In to...
May 20, 2025•34 min•Season 5Ep. 5
In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis continue the season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Elicit and Use Evidence of Student Thinking.” In Principles to Actions , NCTM describes this teaching practice in this way: Effective teaching of mathematics uses evidence of student thinking to assess progress toward mathematical understanding and to adjust instruction continually in...
Apr 15, 2025•42 min•Season 5Ep. 4
In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis continue the season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Use and connect mathematical representations.” Our hosts describe the five representations outlined in Principles to Actions , which include visual, symbolic, verbal, contextual, and physical descriptions of mathematics, but emphasize that the representations are not meant to be a che...
Mar 18, 2025•32 min•Season 5Ep. 3
In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis continue the season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Implement Tasks that Promote Reasoning and Problem Solving.” Our hosts being by expounding on the difference between selecting a task and implementing it, and that selecting a good task does not guarantee good implementation. They bust the idea that the only way to engage students in ...
Feb 11, 2025•25 min•Season 5Ep. 2
In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis begin a season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Facilitating Meaningful Mathematics Discourse.” Our hosts first identify what they mean by discourse and why it is important: that students are able to communicate their mathematical thinking in ways that others can clearly understand for the purpose of furthering their own mathematics lea...
Jan 14, 2025•31 min•Season 5Ep. 1
In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis reflect on their personal and professional experiences of 2024 and what they learned. Reflect – conferences, books, podcast guests. Thinking differently about teaching and learning math. Hope you’ll take the time to reflect and capture your own learning. Curtis and Joanie reference these episodes of Room to Grow which aired in 2024: · Teaching and Learning Math: Students’ Perspectives Part 1 (aired August 28, 2024) and Part 2 (aired September 1...
Dec 17, 2024•35 min•Season 4Ep. 11
In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis speak with leaders of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) about their recent publication, High School Mathematics Reimagined, Revitalized and Relevant. Latrenda Knighten, NCTM President and Kevin Dykema, NCTM Past-President share a great overview of how rethinking how and what we teach in high school math can be improved so that more students leave high school prepared. This preparation involves not only knowing more mathemat...
Nov 12, 2024•55 min•Season 4Ep. 10
In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis speak with Mike Steele and Joleigh Honey, authors of the recently released book transform your math class using asset-based teaching for grades 6-12 . The book and the conversation explore what is meant by “asset-based,” and why shifting to more asset-based approaches supports a broader range of learners. Mike and Joleigh unpack ideas around asset-based language, including, the language of mathematics, the language students use to talk about ma...
Oct 15, 2024•58 min•Season 4Ep. 9
In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis continue their conversations with middle and high school students to gain their perspectives on learning math. Our hosts interviewed six students from grades 7-12 in three different sessions. Because all of these conversations were rich with great comments, this is the second of two episodes of Room to Grow devoted to these students’ perspectives; if you haven’t already listened to part 1, we encourage you to do so. Part 2 focuses on these stud...
Sep 17, 2024•50 min•Season 4Ep. 8
In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis have conversations with middle and high school students to gain their perspectives on learning math. They interviewed six students from grades 7-12 in three different sessions. Because all of these conversations were rich with great comments, the next two episodes of Room to Grow will be devoted to these students’ perspectives. Part 1 focuses on what the students said their teachers do or don’t do in the classroom that supports their learning. ...
Aug 28, 2024•22 min•Season 4Ep. 7
In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis continue their conversation from the Wisconsin Math Council’s annual conference. Wisconsin mathematics education leaders Mary Mooney and Lisa Hennessey share additional thoughts on the remaining pillars of their conference theme, A C.A.L.L. to Action, embracing the roles of Community, Advocacy, Leadership, and Learning. Additionally, we hear some questions from the session audience. If you haven’t already, be sure to go back and listen to the f...
Jul 18, 2024•36 min•Season 4Ep. 6
In this episode of Room to Grow , we join our hosts at the Wisconsin Math Council’s annual conference. Wisconsin mathematics education leaders Mary Mooney and Lisa Hennessey join Curtis and Joanie for a discussion focused on the conference theme, A C.A.L.L. to Action, embracing the roles of Community, Advocacy, Leadership, and Learning. Due to the extended nature of this great conversation, this month’s episode features Community and Advocacy. Stay tuned for next month’s continuation of the conv...
Jun 18, 2024•25 min•Season 4Ep. 5
In this episode of Room to Grow , our hosts discuss ways to support student sense-making in teaching and learning mathematics. Building out on the ideas shared in Episode 3 of Room to Grow , Curtis and Joanie dive more deeply into what it means for students to “make sense of mathematics.” They discuss what it looks and sounds like when students are making sense, as opposed to just repeating back learned ideas, and consider which classroom structures and teacher moves might best support students’...
May 14, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 4
In this episode of Room to Grow , our hosts look for the balance between instruction that is teacher-driven, traditional lecture-style, and inquiry-based, discovery-style lessons. They recognize the value of both types of teaching, understanding that there is a time in learning for both exploration and for direct and explicit teaching. The conversation offers explanation of what conditions may require different teaching strategies, based on the goals and content of the lesson as well as how stud...
Mar 12, 2024•37 min•Season 4Ep. 3
In this episode of Room to Grow , our hosts share conversation with Rebecka Peterson, the 2023 National Teacher of the Year (NTOY). Rebecka is a high school math teacher at Union High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on leave for the 2023-24 school year to fulfill her NTOY responsibilities. She views the NTOY not as an award, but rather a job, that of spokesperson and ambassador for the teaching profession. In this conversation, we learn about her teaching journey and the lessons she learned along the...
Feb 13, 2024•49 min•Season 4Ep. 2
In this episode of Room to Grow , Curtis and Joanie consider ways to uncover how students are actually thinking about the mathematics they are learning. Using a real-life, recent incident between Curtis and his sixth grade son, our hosts consider the challenging fact that many students think that success in math class means figuring out what answer the teacher (or the computer program/app, or the back of the book) is looking for. They posit that when educators are always focused on the mathemati...
Jan 16, 2024•34 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In this episode of Room to Grow , special guests Sandra Lightman and John Staley help Joanie and Curtis understand the Math Milestones. These one-page resources include 12-14 math tasks that provide a visualization of and engagement with the math standards of each grade. The Math Milestones tasks present grade level math, not as a list of standards or learning outcomes, but as a groups of math tasks, a language understood by teachers and students. The Math Milestones project was supported by Stu...
Dec 11, 2023•42 min•Season 3Ep. 12
In this episode of Room to Grow , Curtis and Joanie continue their conversation with Grace Kelemanik and Amy Lucenta. In follow-up to our previous episode, this conversation shifts to a focus on teachers and how the Reason Routines help them to be more effective with more students. We begin by talking about what makes teaching hard – including the fact that teachers make a million decisions every day in response to the students in the room and how they are engaging with the content; and that doe...
Nov 13, 2023•44 min•Season 3Ep. 11
In this episode of Room to Grow , Grace Kelemanik and Amy Lucenta join Curtis and Joanie to talk about how routines can provide the “opportunity and support for each and every student develop mathematical thinking and reasoning.” Although routines are used by most educators for a variety of reasons, Grace and Amy focus on “Routines for Reasoning,” which are specifically designed and structured to surface the ways that students are thinking about the mathematics and to better understanding the re...
Oct 16, 2023•40 min•Season 3Ep. 10
In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis host special guest Dr. Katey Arrington to discuss the importance of teacher content knowledge. Dr. Arrington is the Associate Director of the UTeach Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. She is also serving in the Presidential line for NCSM: Leadership in Mathematics Education from 2022-2026. Previously, she led the K-12 system services work at the Charles A. Dana Center, served as a mathematics coordinator for a growing, diverse dist...
Sep 12, 2023•32 min•Season 3Ep. 9
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. T...
Aug 14, 2023•36 min•Season 3Ep. 8
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 ...
Jul 17, 2023•33 min•Season 3Ep. 7
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 wa...
Jun 12, 2023•31 min•Season 3Ep. 6
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 mo...
May 19, 2023•23 min•Season 3Ep. 5
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 websi...
Apr 10, 2023•38 min•Season 3Ep. 4
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 en...
Mar 13, 2023•29 min•Season 3Ep. 3
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 mathem...
Feb 13, 2023•41 min•Season 3Ep. 2
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 ...
Jan 17, 2023•32 min•Season 3Ep. 1
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. Ensur...
Nov 04, 2022•32 min•Season 2Ep. 11
