How This Math Leader Stopped Firefighting and Started Leading: A Simple Change For Math Improvement
Have you ever had one of those weeks where it feels like all you did was put out fires? You know, the ones where you start Monday with all these big goals, but by Friday, you look back and realize you spent the entire week dealing with urgent distractions instead of what really matters?
We just got off a call with a math coordinator who said, “yeah, me too”.
They said before they joined our improvement program they found themselves in that exact spot every single week.
They had all these well-laid plans: They wanted to help teachers build capacity, focus on instructional growth, and get more productive struggle happening in math classrooms.
They had clear goals mapped out, and everything looked great… on paper.
But then they said the reality of the job hit.
Parent calls, last-minute curriculum changes, urgent meetings, new initiatives popping up out of nowhere—you name it. They spent their days jumping from one mini-crisis to the next, and by the end of the week, they’d thought, “What happened to all the stuff we said was important?”
It felt like no matter how much they cared about real, lasting change, they never had the time for it.
Sound familiar?
The Realization That Changes Everything
The fires aren’t going anywhere, but that doesn’t mean you should be spending all of your time trying to put them out.
We helped them realize that they weren’t protecting the time for the things that actually mattered.
Sure, they were busy—but were they busy with the right things?
Were they helping teachers build capacity to strengthen their own mathematical proficiency?
Were they modeling productive struggle in the classroom? Nope.
They were spending their time on whatever fire flared up that day.
We helped them make a simple but powerful change: We coached them to start protecting time for what really mattered.
They blocked out chunks of their week to focus on instructional leadership—getting into classrooms, co-teaching with educators, and helping build confidence in math instruction.
And here’s the key: they committed to it, no matter what fires popped up.
It wasn’t easy. The fires were still there. But the difference? They were no longer letting them control their entire week.
The truth is, if you don’t intentionally carve out time for what you say matters, your actions will tell a different story.
You might think you’re focusing on building teacher capacity or improving math instruction, but if your week is filled with putting out fires, then that’s what you’ve really prioritized.
Here’s the thing: Those fires? They’ll still be there in 30 minutes. The urgent things don’t always need to be done immediately.
If you’ve committed to a 20-minute classroom visit or a coaching session, honor that commitment.
The fires can wait, but the opportunity to make a real impact in your school? That’s fleeting and you’re projecting to your educators a distortion of what really matters.
The Challenge: What Are You Really Committing To?
So here’s my challenge to you:
Take a hard look at how you’re spending your time.
Are you letting the fires run your schedule, or are you protecting time for the things that will truly make a difference by the end of the year?
If you’re struggling to balance it all, trust me, you’re not alone.
Consider the district leader that we’ve mentioned above: one of the most impactful takeaways they’ve had from the two years inside our improvement program is the accountability, guidance, and support we provided while we coach them through our 4 stage process for creating sustainable math improvement action plans.
If you’re tired of constantly feeling like you’re just firefighting and want to focus on what really moves the needle, then book a call here with our team. After our call you’ll have clear action steps for how you can start to strengthen your math program and focus on what matters.
Because, at the end of the year, do you want to look back and say you spent it putting out fires, or do you want to say you built something that truly lasts?
Resources Related To The Video
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Learn about the Curiosity Path by reading our 3-Part Framework
- Visit Make Math Moments Problem Based Math Lessons page for other useful problem based units
- Up your pedagogical and content knowledge game by joining our Make Math Moments Teacher Academy!
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Each Make Math Moments Problem Based Lesson consists of a Teacher Guide to lead you step-by-step through the planning process to ensure your lesson runs without a hitch!
Each Teacher Guide consists of:
- Intentionality of the lesson;
- A step-by-step walk through of each phase of the lesson;
- Visuals, animations, and videos unpacking big ideas, strategies, and models we intend to emerge during the lesson;
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- Resources and downloads including Keynote, Powerpoint, Media Files, and Teacher Guide printable PDF; and,
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Each Make Math Moments Problem Based Lesson begins with a story, visual, video, or other method to Spark Curiosity through context.
Students will often Notice and Wonder before making an estimate to draw them in and invest in the problem.
After student voice has been heard and acknowledged, we will set students off on a Productive Struggle via a prompt related to the Spark context.
These prompts are given each lesson with the following conditions:
- No calculators are to be used; and,
- Students are to focus on how they can convince their math community that their solution is valid.
Students are left to engage in a productive struggle as the facilitator circulates to observe and engage in conversation as a means of assessing formatively.
The facilitator is instructed through the Teacher Guide on what specific strategies and models could be used to make connections and consolidate the learning from the lesson.
Often times, animations and walk through videos are provided in the Teacher Guide to assist with planning and delivering the consolidation.
A review image, video, or animation is provided as a conclusion to the task from the lesson.
While this might feel like a natural ending to the context students have been exploring, it is just the beginning as we look to leverage this context via extensions and additional lessons to dig deeper.
At the end of each lesson, consolidation prompts and/or extensions are crafted for students to purposefully practice and demonstrate their current understanding.
Facilitators are encouraged to collect these consolidation prompts as a means to engage in the assessment process and inform next moves for instruction.
In multi-day units of study, Math Talks are crafted to help build on the thinking from the previous day and build towards the next step in the developmental progression of the concept(s) we are exploring.
Each Math Talk is constructed as a string of related problems that build with intentionality to emerge specific big ideas, strategies, and mathematical models.
Make Math Moments Problem Based Lessons and Day 1 Teacher Guides are openly available for you to leverage and use with your students without becoming a Make Math Moments Academy Member.
Use our OPEN ACCESS multi-day problem based units!
Make Math Moments Problem Based Lessons and Day 1 Teacher Guides are openly available for you to leverage and use with your students without becoming a Make Math Moments Academy Member.
Partitive Division Resulting in a Fraction
Equivalence and Algebraic Substitution
Represent Categorical Data & Explore Mean
Downloadable resources including blackline masters, handouts, printable Tips Sheets, slide shows, and media files do require a Make Math Moments Academy Membership.
Use our OPEN ACCESS multi-day problem based units!