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...

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 w...

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 professi...

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 exper...

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 projec...

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 aroun...

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...

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-sty...

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...

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...

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 en...

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 un...

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 impo...

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, situ...

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 t...

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 ph...

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...

In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis begin a season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Facilitating Meaningful Mathematics Discourse.” Our hosts first identify what they mean by discourse and why it is important: that students are able to communicate their mathematical thinkin...

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: ·       Teach...

In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis speak with leaders of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) about their recent publication, High School Mathematics Reimagined, Revitalized and Relevant.   Latrenda Knighten, NCTM President and Kevin Dykema, NCTM Past-President share a great overview of how rethinking how and what we teach in high school math can be improved so t...

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 a...

In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis continue their conversations with middle and high school students to gain their perspectives on learning math. Our hosts interviewed six students from grades 7-12 in three different sessions. Because all of these conversations were rich with great comments, this is the second of two episodes of Room to Grow devoted to these students’ perspectives...

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...

In this episode of Room to Grow , Joanie and Curtis continue their conversation from the Wisconsin Math Council’s annual conference.  Wisconsin mathematics education leaders Mary Mooney and Lisa Hennessey share additional thoughts on the remaining pillars of their conference theme, A  C.A.L.L. to Action, embracing the roles of Community, Advocacy, Leadership, and Learning. Additionally, we hear so...

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...