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Room to Grow - a Math Podcast
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Room to Grow - a Math Podcast

Author: Room to Grow Math

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Room to Grow is the math podcast that brings you discussions on trending topics in math education in short segments. We’re not here to talk at people. We’re here to think and learn with others — because when it comes to mathematics there’s always room to grow!
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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 students are responding to and progressing (or not) toward intended learning. The common theme between these approaches is student sense-making, and our hosts each share a personal example of taking opportunities to encourage sense-making in students.We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:NCTM President Kevin Dykema’s President’s message that sparked this episode: https://www.nctm.org/News-and-Calendar/Messages-from-the-President/Archive/Kevin-Dykema/Balancing-Instructional-Strategies-in-the-Math-Classroom/ TI’s Building Concepts lesson on structure in solving equations: https://education.ti.com/en/t3-professional-development/for-teachers-and-teams/online-learning/on-demand-webinars/2016/building-concepts-foundations-for-success-in-expressions-and-equations A sample problem-based curriculum for middle school (NOT the one Curtis’ son uses!): https://curriculum.illustrativemathematics.org/MS/teachers/what_is_pbc.html 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 
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 way that have shaped her focus in the classroom. She shares how she focuses on connections with students – connections to each other, to school, to the content, and to their communities. She reflects on current struggles facing math education systems, and her belief that choice could drive better student engagement, more student learning, and less teacher burnout. We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:Learn more about the National Teacher of the Year program HERE See Rebecka’s NCTM Handout with more detail about her “Connections” talk and resources she uses in her own classroomLearn more about Explore Mathematics by Sam Shah, mentioned by RebeckaLearn more about Rebecka’s End-of-unit creative summary projectVisit Rebecka’s NTOY webpage HERE Direct link to press kit (including photos) Direct link to request RebeckaConnect with and learn more about Rebecka Peterson  Instagram - @Rebeckapeterson_X (formerly Twitter) - @RebeckaMozdehMedium blog - medium.com/@rebeckapeterson 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. Be sure to connect with your hosts on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 
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 mathematics of the moment – what is being learned in a single lesson, week, or unit – we can focus students on the smaller grain size ideas instead of helping them to place their learning in the bigger picture of mathematics as a whole. As always, the episode recognizes that teachers work very hard at a very complex task: teaching young minds to deeply understand important mathematics!We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:“Listening to and Learning from Student Thinking,” by Elham Kazemi, Lynsey K. Gibbons, Kendra Lomax, and Megan L. Franke from Teaching Children Mathematics, October 2016.“Making Student Thinking Public,” by Shari Stockero and Laura R. Van Zoest from The Mathematics Teacher, May 2011.“Attending to Evidence of Students’ Thinking during Instruction,” by Miriam Gamoran Sherin and James Lynn, from Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, May 2019.The Five Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematical Discussions by Margaret Smith and Mary Kay Stein, ISBN: 978-1-68054-016-1Did 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 
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 Student Achievement Partners with Sandra and John as critical members of the team. The resources, available for free online, include a set of teacher notes that support using these tasks to better understand the math of each grade level, and to engage educators in conversations that get to the depth of the intended learning. Additional work is being done to provide “asset maps,” resources that allow educators to use student work and responses to the Math Milestones tasks to better understand and build upon students’ strengths. We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:Learn more about the Math Milestones project on their website HEREFind the grade level grids (sets of tasks) HEREReview the teacher notes for each grade level HEREExplore additional resources to support teaching the standards from Student Achievement PartnersDid 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 
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 doesn’t even include the day-to-day challenges of interruptions, meetings, grading papers, and on and on! The routines are a support for teachers to use a structure for learning that frees them up to be responsive to the students in the moment.As we learned in the previous episode, the routines help teachers to (a) focus on student thinking, (b) get out of the middle of learning, and (c) support students’ productive struggle. These concrete strategies engage all learners in mathematical thinking, supporting special populations from the start rather than requiring an additional set of approaches to support them. Additionally, the routines create student agency in mathematics, providing ways for students to listen to, engage with, and learn from one another.We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:Be sure to explore Grace Kelemanik and Amy Lucenta’s website, Fostering Mathematical Practices …… and their books, Routines for Reasoning and Teaching for Thinking.Explore infographics, tasks, and more for the Connecting Representations routine.See the Connecting Representations routine in action in this classroom video.Be sure to go back and listen to Part 1 of this conversation if you haven’t already!!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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.
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 reasoning of their classmates to reinforce the mathematics content and thinking goals. In this extended episode, Amy and Grace dive deeply into the “Four Rs” and “Annotation,” two of the five “Essential Strategies” that teachers employ within the routines, with an emphasis on how these strategies provide access and opportunity for all students to engage in the deep thinking of the lesson. Then, they describe the “Connecting Representations” routine in detail to help listeners understand the power of the routines in action. As Grace shares, the power of the routines and essential strategies is that they help teachers to “hand over agency to the students. Teachers are no longer are the sole authority in the classroom... it’s the students doing the heavy lifting.” We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:Be sure to explore Grace Kelemanik and Amy Lucenta’s website, Fostering Mathematical Practices …...and their books, Routines for Reasoning and Teaching for Thinking. Explore infographics, tasks, and more for the Connecting Representations routine.See the Connecting Representations routine in action in this classroom video.Be sure to join us for part 2 of this conversation next month!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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 
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 district in Texas, instructional coach, and taught in both K-12 and community college systems. Katey earned a Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Planning, Master of Arts in Mathematics Education, and Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. She has extensive experience in leading networks for growing impact and designing and implementing system-level change for increasing equitable outcomes. Early on in the conversation, it is agreed that caring about students in a non-negotiable and important component of effective teaching, but caring without math content knowledge is not likely to result in student learning. Our hosts and their guest explore the ideas of pedagogical content knowledge, math content for teaching, and approaching mathematics as ways of thinking, not just ways of getting answers. Expanding learning is presented as a group endeavor, but also something a teacher can pursue on one’s own. We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:The Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI) professional learning programNumberphile on You Tube is one of Curtis’ favorite sources to explore mathematical curiosityThe Coherence Map from Student Achievement Partners on the Achieve the Core website provides a clickable visual map of how content standards connect and build on one anotherDid 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. 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 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. 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 JansenJo Boaler article on connection between timed tests and math anxietyDid 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. 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 freeThirteen 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. 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 equationsMarilyn Burns’ take on The Equals Sign: What it Really MeansIf 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 MathematicsGeorge 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 standardsThe Coherence Map from Achieve the Core showing how the concept of proportional relationships is connected to many other important math conceptsA 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. 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 HEREEdmund 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 HEREDid 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. 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=1You 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.pdfDid 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. 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, roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:A snow “angle” Tweet by STEM SparkJoanie’s Algebra 1 textbook with punny word problems (it does still exist!) “Dad jokes” for mathGraph of past relationshipsWhat does Bob have now?Seven-digit numberFactored quadratic expression Tweet by David GlasbergVisualizing the quadratic formula by Lane Walker on myNCTM (NCTM membership required)Schoolhouse Rock! The PreambleQuadratic formula songClock with math expressionsWilly Wonka memeDid 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . 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=enDid 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . 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/blogArticle 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 
In this episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie welcome Kevin Dykema, new President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). As a practicing classroom teacher, Kevin brings practical knowledge to his NCTM leadership. He reflects on they ways that most school systems have historically addressed students who are struggling in math class, to give them more-of-the-same, or a slower-and-louder approach, and how these typically don’t result in resolving students’ struggles.Kevin suggests how to decide which mathematics topics are worth intervening on, recognizing that if we worry about student mastery of every single standard or topic of the grade level or course, we overwhelm the students and ourselves. Instead, if we focus on fewer, more important topics, we can support students’ future learning. He suggests that we use timely and relevant data to determine which students need support on which topics, and anticipating and planning for supports that come just-in-time to support new learning.Acknowledging that intervention structure looks different at the middle and high school level than for elementary school, Kevin shares his thoughts about intentionally targeting math interventions that will support students for the long term, and finding time to intervene that doesn’t take away from their regular math instruction time. He shares the problems behind teaching “tricks” or gimmicks for helping students get answers quickly, but not understand the meaning of the mathematics behind those tricks.Ultimately, building relationships with our students and attending to building their mathematical identities and agencies is what matters most. We know that every student brings “math brilliance” to the classroom, and finding and tapping into that creates wins for all of us. This episode is packed full of important ideas and resources – we think you are going to love it!We encourage you to explore these resources, mentioned and referenced in this episode:Rules that Expire blog and link to full article from NCTM journal (membership required)Nix the Tricks by Tina Cardone, free online book and resourcesProductive Math Struggle, Kevin’s book co-authored with available for purchaseThe Math Pact series of books by Barbara J. Dougherty, Sarah B. Bush, and Karen S. Karp, available for purchase 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 
In this episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie welcome Juliana Tapper, Math Intervention Specialist and Founder of CollaboratEd Consulting. We start by apologizing for mispronouncing Juliana’s last name when she is introduced at the start of the podcast! Please note that her last name is Tapper, rather than Trapper. We are so sorry, Juliana! Juliana brings her experience teaching and supporting middle and high school math teachers and math interventionists to help us consider ways to break what she calls the “struggle stigma” in math class. She grounds our conversation with powerful results from research around math anxiety, which suggest that math anxiety activates the same fear centers in the brain as seeing a snake! When teachers use this understanding, we can create more effective responses to students who are experiencing math anxiety in our classes.Along with Juliana, your hosts discuss the importance of establishing a classroom culture that makes space all the “mathematical baggage” that students might bring with them. Providing the opportunity to talk about past experiences, positive and negative, allows students to understand that our classroom is a safe and welcoming place, where struggle becomes a normal and expected part of the learning process. Juliana has some practical tips for using instructional protocols with no math to build that classroom culture. She also shares how she established participation as an expectation rather than an option, and how those expectations along with appropriate scaffolds create small successes for students to build on.We know you’ll walk away with some great ideas that will help you better reach more students in your classroom.We encourage you to explore these resources, mentioned and referenced in this episode:Juliana’s website with resources and much more information about supporting students in math www.Collaboratedconsulting.org, or email Juliana directly at juliana@collaboratedconsulting.org.The youcubed® article Valuing Difference and Growth Juliana refers to the findings in this paper about how math anxiety lights up the same centers of the brain as physical fear such as seeing a snake.Juliana mentioned this The Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction Course from Student Achievement Partners; the third course of the series will be available in the fall and you can take it without having taken the first two.Juliana suggested this Good Groupwork activity for helping to build a classroom culture that supports all students’ learning from youcubed.®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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com. Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 
In this episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie tackle ideas around rigor in mathematics. We start by defining what we mean by rigor, acknowledging that it’s a frequently used term that invokes different ideas and meanings! We believe that it means something different than just “difficult,” but frames a way of describing deep, robust, and applicable understanding of mathematical ideas, and we share a couple of visual images that help make sense of this complexity. Through our exploration of rigor as an integral part of learning math, we connect it to previous conversations about productive struggle, making connections in math, and student agency and identity. Rigor isn’t just for high level math courses and high-achieving students, rigor is for everyone and may even be an unexpected approach to overcoming struggle in learning mathematics!We believe that the best way to address rigor in the classroom is by intentional, collaborative planning, where teachers decide which obstacles they want to steer students around and which obstacles they want to steer students straight into! We hope you enjoy the episode and hear a new idea or two to consider for your own setting.We encourage you to explore these resources, mentioned and referenced in this episode:Definition of “rigor” from Achieve the Core: College- and Career-Ready Shifts in MathematicsThis report from the Dana Center at the University of Texas, Austin: What is Rigor in Mathematics Really?This archived (free) blog post from former NCTM President Linda Gojak: What’s All This Talk About Rigor? myNCTM discussion about rigor (membership required): Archived 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 roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 
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