Room to Grow - a Math Podcast

In this episode of Room to Grow, Ali Martinez, Chief Program Officer for Math at Student Achievement Partners (SAP), joins Joanie and Curtis for a conversation about the math that matters. In the current era, math teachers face too much content and too little time to feel or be effective in allowing students the chance to learn math deeply. Aly shared information about SAP’s national initiative to identify essential mathematics content for high school, and to integrate data science competenci...

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 o...

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 continu...

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 i...

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) a...

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...

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 t...

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 continuat...