Today we speak with Christina Michaels – a teacher for over 24 years from Tucson Arizona. Christina has just taken our online course The Concept Holding Your Students Back: Unlocking the Key Understanding of Proportional Reasoning and is implementing many of the strategies she has learned. The pebble in Christina’s shoe is around the question: “When is the right time to show my students a model that they can use to represent their thinking?”

This is another Math Mentoring Moment episode where we talk with a member of the Math Moment Maker Community who is working through struggles and together we brainstorm possible next steps and strategies to overcome them.

Today we bring on our old friend Alex Overwijk from Ottawa Ontario who shares his teaching journey and transformation from a pretty typical high school math teacher to an engaging activity based thinking classroom advocate!

In our discussion we learn the answers to how to engage your students with activity based learning, why finding a teaching partner who is willing to make change with you is so important, why you should be “all in” on a Thinking Classroom, how to draw senior students in to your lesson when the concepts are abstract, and why we should assess and evaluate with more than single unit tests.

Today we have a special treat for your ears! We recently held a live panel discussion at the annual OAME Conference (Ontario Association of Mathematics) on de-streaming the grade 9 math program here in Ontario with some pretty special guests!

We were honoured to host Dr. Christine Suurtamm who is a Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Ottawa, Hema Khodai, an Instructional Resource Teacher with Peel District School Board, Mark Chubb, a classroom teacher and past instructional coach, and finally Jason To who is a Coordinator for Secondary Mathematics and Academic Pathways with the TDSB.

In this deep discussion we discuss the benefits of de-tracking or de-streaming as it helps to break down barriers that prevent marginalized students from an equal opportunity to succeed, thrive, and reach their full potential.

Today we speak with Caitlyn Sloan, a high school geometry teacher who is currently in the role of leading a math support class for students who require additional support. In this conversation, you’ll hear Caitlyn reflect on her challenge to stay true to her investigative, problem based approach to teaching mathematics given that her students have been pre-taught to mimick the rules, steps, and procedures. Listen in to see how she might be able to bridge the gap!

This is another Math Mentoring Moment episode where we talk with a member of the Math Moment Maker Community who is working through struggles and together we brainstorm possible next steps and strategies to overcome them.

Today we speak with Theresa Wills, the author of the new book Teaching Math At A Distance. Theresa is an assistant professor of mathematics of education at George Mason University and a past middle school math teacher.

Stick around to hear how to run math routines online with success, optimal strategies for engaging students online, how we collaborate online in meaningful ways, how we can use the 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematical Discussion in an online space, and guidelines for creating rich online interactions in math class.

Today we speak with Thomasenia Lott Adams from the University of Florida — Go Gators! Thomasenia is a mathematics teacher educator/researcher with numerous accolations for teaching and the work she does with pre-service teachers.

We speak with Tomasenia today about how we can use students’ cultural capital to empower learning, why promoting student voice is so important in math class, and why increasing the number of meaningful “touch points” in math class helps amplify student voice.

Today we speak with Tom Marker, a 14 year veteran sixth grade teacher from Ohio! Tom reached out to us to tackle the big struggle of trying to convince his students to avoid rushing to standard algorithms and instead value strategies that can be more meaningful outside the classroom.

This is another Math Mentoring Moment episode where we talk with a member of the Math Moment Maker Community who is working through struggles and together we brainstorm possible next steps and strategies to overcome them.

Today we speak with Liesl McConchie! Liesl is a former math teacher with nearly 20 years of experience training school leaders and teachers across the globe. She has partnered with over 300 schools to implement the science behind what really improves achievement for all students as well as co-authored two books on brain science and learning.

In our discussion we learn the answers to what is brain-based learning and why we need to use it in our teaching; why there’s no such thing as a motivated student or an unmotivated student; and, how to use brain science to boost student motivation.

That there is Jason Garner, a veteran teacher of 13 years and currently teaching 5th grade. Jason has been diving deep into changing his classroom over the last year. He’s taken the Making Math Moments That Matter Workshop and is currently applying what he’s learned with great success. He chats with us about how to take his learning to the next level.

This is another Math Mentoring Moment episode where we talk with a member of the Math Moment Maker Community who is working through struggles and together we brainstorm possible next steps and strategies to overcome them.

Today we speak with George Garza – a high school teacher who strives to make a difference in his students’ lives is struggling with engagement, pacing, and reaching his students who are falling behind. In this conversation you’ll hear George reflect on his practice and realize where he needs to focus his efforts. Stay with us to hear his epiphany!

This is another Math Mentoring Moment episode where we talk with a member of the Math Moment Maker Community who is working through struggles and together we brainstorm possible next steps and strategies to overcome them.