Room to Grow - a Math Podcast - Podcasts

47:06

Decluttering Mathematics in Middle & High School with...

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2026/09/22

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis learn about a new publication: Decluttering Mathematics: 5 Fundamental Understandings That Unleash Meaningful Student Thinking Grades 6-12. Three of the book’s authors join us to share how that when secondary mathematics instruction is cluttered with disconnected procedures and a focus on computation without meaning, students are essential being handed a huge pile of tiny puzzle pieces without ever building or even seeing the picture on the p...

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38:26

Back to School – Establishing Classroom Culture

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2026/08/19

In this back to school episode, Curtis and Joanie discuss key ideas for starting the new school year off right, to ensure effective teaching and learning for teachers and students. How do you spend the first day of school with your students? Do you get them working in groups right away like Curtis, learning about them as students and how they engage with math and each other? Or maybe you focus on learning their names and helping them learn each other’s names like Joanie, ensuring a community ...

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50:05

From Roots to Algebra: Why Early Math Mastery Changes...

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2026/07/15

What do kindergarten counting concepts have to do with high school algebra? More than most teachers realize. In this episode, Joanie and Curtis sit down with Erin Wahler-Cleveland, founder of Roots and Wings Math, to explore how deep understanding of early and elementary mathematics lays the groundwork for everything that comes later — and what teachers at every grade level can do to better support that understanding. Erin opens with a thought-provoking coordinate-plane framework that disting...

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50:45

The Math That Matters

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2026/06/18

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...

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41:51

Data Science for Everyone!

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2026/05/13

In this episode, Curtis and Joanie sit down with Mahmoud Harding from Data Science 4 Everyone (www.ds4e.com) to explore the growing role of data science in K-12 education. Mahmoud breaks down the key distinction between data science and data literacy — two terms that are often used interchangeably but carry very different meanings for educators and students alike. The conversation dives into why data science matters for all educators right now, regardless of subject area or grade ...

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48:46

Still Standing: Practical Sustainability for Educators

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2026/04/22

Teaching math in 2026 is demanding in ways that are structural, cultural, and relentless — and yet the conversation about teacher sustainability rarely makes space for what math educators are actually carrying. In this episode, Curtis and Joanie get honest about burnout, purpose, and community in the math teaching profession. Drawing on research from burnout science, teacher identity, and professional resilience, this conversation explores three ideas that don't get discussed enough: why burn...

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40:59

I used to think… but now I think…

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2026/03/23

This episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie reflect on topics about which they have changed their minds. Although their minds have changed about different things, in their conversation, they have captured bigger ideas about what goes into changing one’s mind, and have applied that to what goes into changing a teacher’s practice. Importantly, the recognize that change is a highly personal experience and is an inevitable part of continued growth. As you listen to Joanie’s thoughts about how...

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40:40

Instructional Nudges with Zandra de Araujo

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2026/02/11

This episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie welcome Zandra de Araujo to the podcast. Zandra and her colleagues, Sam Otten and Amber Candella created math classroom “Instructional Nudges,” small tweaks to classroom practice that can make a significant impact on student engagement, learning, and sense making of mathematics. The conversation reveals the origin of the Instructional Nudges project, some specific example nudges and how they work, and the coming soon Instructional Nu...

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45:48

From Anxious to Explorer: Rethinking Math Class for a...

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2026/01/16

This episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie discuss two publications they have engaged with regarding technology, adolescents, and learning. The Anxious Generation describes the impact of smart phones and other recent technologies on childhood development, providing an understanding of what is happening internally for students in our classrooms. The Disengaged Teen utilizes research data around modes of learning and how they play out in terms of classroom behaviors. Our hosts make connect...

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38:12

What We Learned in 2025

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2025/12/17

This episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie reflect back on 2025 and all that they learned during the year. A significant number of 2025 episodes of Room to Grow were focused on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating the 10th anniversary of its publication. Curtis and Joanie highlighted how these practices have survived the test of time, and continue to reflect good teaching in mathematics. Additionally, our hosts preview what new topics they are...

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33:54

Centering Student Reasoning in Conceptual...

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2025/11/26

In this episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie reconsider the balance of conceptual understanding and procedural fluency in math instruction. Although this topic has been discussed before, our hosts acknowledge that there is great nuance and many considerations in considering these two ideas in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Curtis and Joanie discuss how inquiry-based, discovery-style learning opportunities are more open ended, are student centered, and are less teacher directe...

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64:22

Developing Mathematical Reasoning with Pam Harris

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2025/10/14

This episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie speak with Pam Harris. Pam is well known and loved for her website, podcast, books, and conference sessions all based on her core belief that “Math is FigureOutAble.” Today’s discussion centers on Pam’s newest publication, Developing Mathematical Reasoning: Avoiding the Traps of Algorithms. Pam starts with three distortions about math that are common among teachers, students, and the population, and can impact how educators engage students with ...

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25:29

Changing Classroom Practice

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2025/09/16

This episode of Room to Grow brings together our 2025 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from Principles to Actions, an NCTM publication. After discussing each of the eight practices in isolation over the last several months, this month tackles the ideas and challenges in actually making substantive change to classroom practice. Our hosts share ideas for engaging with others in deeper professional learning, coaching, and peer observations, as well as ideas for individual teach...

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43:12

Supporting Productive Struggle in Learning Mathematics

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2025/08/19

This episode of Room to Grow wraps up Joanie and Curtis’ season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions. The final practice in the series is “Support productive struggle in learning mathematics.” This is defined as follows: Effective teaching of mathematics consistently provides students, individually and collectively, with opportunities and supports to engage in productive struggle as they grapple with mathematical ideas and relationships. Our h...

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44:22

Build Procedural Fluency from Conceptual Understanding

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2025/07/22

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 “Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding.” This is defined as follows: Effective teaching of mathematics builds fluency with procedures on a foundation of conceptual understanding so that students, over time, become skillful in using procedures flexibly as ...

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31:06

Pose Purposeful Questions

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2025/06/24

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...

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34:04

Establish Mathematics Goals to Focus Learning

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2025/05/20

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. &nbs...

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42:19

Elicit and Use Evidence of Student Thinking

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2025/04/15

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...

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32:20

Using and Connecting Mathematical Representations

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2025/03/18

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 ch...

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24:57

Promoting Reasoning and Problem Solving with Tasks

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast ·

2025/02/11

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...

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Room to Grow - a Math Podcast

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