July 15, 2025 • 49 mins
First, we start off with National Pet Safety Day. How will you celebrate? Well, if you want to get a Save our Pets sticker? You could go here.
Then, what does it take to lead one of the the largest mathematics education organization in the world? Latrenda Knighton, current president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), opens up about her journey from kindergarten teacher to mathematics education leader in part one of this insightful conversation.
Drawing from over three decades in education, Latrenda shares how her early experiences with professional organizations shaped her approach to leadership. "I started as an affiliate leader and member very early in my teaching career," she explains, highlighting how these connections provided support beyond what was available at the school level. Now as NCTM president, she's focused on strengthening these affiliate relationships while expanding professional development opportunities for educators everywhere.
The heart of Latrenda's mission revolves around three key priorities. First, supporting teachers through accessible professional learning opportunities beyond traditional conferences – including webinars, journals, and podcasts that meet educators where they are. Second, highlighting the critical importance of early mathematics education, which she champions through partnerships with early childhood organizations. And third, ensuring students across all grade levels engage in meaningful, sense-making mathematical experiences.
"An engaged student is a more productive student, is a more confident student," LaTrenda emphasizes, distinguishing between student engagement and mere entertainment. She advocates for mathematics instruction that helps students make connections between concepts and real-world applications, building on their existing knowledge while preparing them for future learning.
The episode also features Andy Peterson-Longmore introducing her Teacher Research Community project focused on bringing joy and fun back to high school mathematics classrooms without sacrificing rigor or content. Her work complements Latrenda's vision of mathematics education that empowers both teachers and students.
Tune in to this rich conversation about mathematics education leadership, and don't miss part two coming next week where we'll dive deeper into professional development and the future of mathematics teaching and learning.
You can connect with Latrenda through X (@LatrendaK).
Send Joel and Misty a message!
The More Math for More People Podcast is produced by CPM Educational Program.
Learn more at CPM.org
X: @cpmmath
Facebook: CPMEducationalProgram
Email: cpmpodcast@cpm.org
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
You are listening to the More Math for More People
podcast.
An outreach of CPM educationalprogram Boom Podcast.
An outreach of CPM educationalprogram Boom.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
It's July 15th, it's the middle of summer already.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Well, it's getting more of the summer months.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's the middle of the summer months, july 15th.
Yeah yeah, middle of summer,that's a really interesting
concept to figure out, but we'llcome back to that.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
In the Northern hemisphere.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
yes, yeah, so what is a national day today?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
today is.
It's about awareness.
It's a national pet fire safetyday oh, national pet fire
safety day, yeah, cool yeah, Ihave.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I have some pet fire safety.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Tell me about it.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Tactics.
Yeah, I don't know what theword I wanted there is.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I'd like to know.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I have a little sticker that I got off a website
I don't remember I think itcost me a couple dollars or
something.
That is like a Save Our Petssticker and then I put it on my
front door and then when firerescue people come to my house,
if they ever have to and I hopethey never do then it tells them
(01:31):
how many pets are inside myhouse.
Yeah, and I have one for my, myapartment downstairs and I have
one for the upstairs apartment.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
when there's pets up there, oh, wow, so does do you
change it If, like more petscome to the house?
Yep, I more pets come to thehouse.
I have changed it several timessince I've been here.
That's good.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I mean, I think when I got them, I got several and I,
you know, I've had, I've hadvarious tenants upstairs who've
had pets or not had pets or hadpets and not had pets, and then
more pets went away for variousreasons or came, more pets came
and so, yeah, I've had to changeit several times.
Interesting, that's good to know.
(02:06):
It's got a little like whitesticky little dot number because
it has so many cats and so manydogs and for a while, when I
had Tabby Chick, I had you knowone very small and blind.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, so that I bet that really helps, like the
emergency folks.
Yeah To know.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I hope so.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Because they well, I hope so Well, they want to know.
I think Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, and they want to save all the living things in
the building.
Yeah, so yeah, what does it sayin your thing about fire, pet
safety?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Well it talks about you could have a fire drill and
practice with your pets likewhat you would do.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I don't know if I'm trying to think of how I could
practice that with Owen andBella.
That would be interesting.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I think, wendell, I'd have to pick him up because I
think he'd be like, hey, there'sa fire there and there's no way
I'm running through that.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Well, he wouldn't have actual fire in the fire
drill.
I don't think.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
No, I'm just saying if there was a fire like if.
I'm practicing.
I would have to carry.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
You're just practicing, taking him outside.
Yeah, exactly, carry he'syou're just practicing taking
him outside.
Yeah, exactly, um it talksabout how pets can start fires.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Oh, I've seen several of these on like tiktok videos
and things so like with theelectrical cords is one way.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
If you've got something on the stove and they
jump up there, that's asomething that could happen I
saw one where a doginadvertently started a fire
with like a maybe a cell phonebattery or something like it,
overheated in some way andcaught on fire in the rug and
the dogs were all like whoa.
It's a very funny video.
I'm sure you could find it.
(03:36):
But yeah, All right.
So it's just sort of likefireproofing your house to make
sure your pets are not startingfires inadvertently.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And it talks about your sticker idea in the window.
How many house fires do youthink are caused by pets each
year?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
in the.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
United States In the United.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
States A thousand.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
A thousand.
What?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yes, Wow oh it's right on the nose, bing, wow,
that's amazing.
What?
Yes, wow, I was right on thenose, bing Wow.
That's amazing, that is amazing.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I don't know how many house fires there are in the US
, but in any given year onaverage.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Well, here's another little fun fact that makes me
giggle a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Okay, all right, got it.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Let me phrase it this way what year do you think that
people made pets?
This is the year where peoplemake pets.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I'm going to say prehistoric times.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
A little bit after that.
13,000 BC, that's when peoplemake pets make pets?
Huh interesting, I don't know,what that has to do with ai
write your, write your website.
This is interesting.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Oh no, I think that when we, I think that
archaeologists, whoever,anthropologists, whoever think
about these things, like whenthey think about domesticating-
wolves and dogs.
It's around, I feel, like it'saround 10 to 15, so that would
be somewhere in there.
Like they keep trying to likekind of narrow it down and it's
always a little bit late.
Early, like soon, like earlierwhatever farther ago.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah then, then they were thinking, so probably true
um the which pet do you think isthe symbol of the firehouse?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
uh, isn't it the dalmatian?
Speaker 1 (05:28):
it is you are.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, you're doing it , I'm cooking today.
I got two for three nice you'reon fire oh quick yeah safety,
safety get the dogs out.
What are you?
What are you going to do tocelebrate?
I think I'm gonna adapt yoursticker idea.
I like that idea that ifsomething were to happen, safety
, get the dogs out.
What are you going to do tocelebrate National Fire Pet
Safety?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
I think I'm going to adapt your sticker idea.
I like that idea that ifsomething were to happen,
somebody should know who's inthe house.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, in fact, maybe we'll put a little.
I know, I just Googled it andfound it, but we could put a
link in the description.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I think that'd be great, but there's lots of
people that would appreciatethat Totally, but there's lots
of people that would appreciatethat.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Totally.
Yeah, and sometimes yeah, maybeI'll do a fire drill.
I think it would be funny forme to just kind of like go
through the house going becauseyou know how much that my dogs
love the fire alarm.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
And then we'll spend the rest of the evening calming
them back down.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I was going to ask if you were going to use a whistle
, and I think a whistle would bemore preferable to that sound
that you just made.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
So you can choose, you'll have to let us know how
it goes.
I can choose.
I can choose.
Yeah, okay, sounds good.
So I'm very happy to announceone of our new segments for this
(06:57):
coming school year.
We did join them on theirjourney a year or so ago.
We didn't have one last schoolyear, but I think a year before.
Would that be like the 23, 24school year?
No, that seems way too long ago, but maybe.
Anyway, we did a Join them ontheir Journey in the past and we
had some teachers One was newto the profession and one was a
(07:19):
more veteran teacher but waschanging curricula and this year
we're going to have anotherJoin them on their Journey, but
this time it's going to be withone of our teacher research
community teachers.
And so this is Andy PetersonLongmore.
She has been with the TRC for afew years and she's going to
(07:40):
just launch into herconversation here about her
project and the recent meetingof the TRC group that happened
in Salt Lake City last week.
So here you go.
Here's Andy Peterson-Longmore.
Join her on her TRC journeythis year.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Hey there, I'm Andy Peterson-Longmore, also known as
PL to my students.
A little bit of background onme.
I live and work in Neenah,wisconsin, at Neenah High School
.
My husband and I have beenmarried for seven years.
We're currently fostering toadopt a little baby boy.
I coach speech and debateoutside of the classroom.
I'm also the WisconsinForensics Coaches Association
(08:16):
president, district 9 chair forthe Wisconsin Interscholastic
Speech and Dramatic ArtsAssociation, and then I also
serve as the National Speech andDebate Association district
chair for Northern Wisconsin.
I also coach our high school'smath team and I was previously
the statistician for the FoxValley Math League, which is
just in kind of the Appletonarea of Wisconsin.
I also serve as our mathdepartment chair and I work at
(08:38):
Lambeau Field as a supervisor inthe Usher and Text Message team
.
So I've been a teacher for 12years.
This is my ninth year in MENAand we adopted CPM about four
years ago.
So I've been teaching all fouryears with CPM and I have a kind
of a unique perspective on itbecause back in the day when I
was a student at AshwaubenonHigh School, I was actually a
student of CPM.
(08:59):
So shout out to those Jaguarmath teachers for giving me a
good foundation.
I am teaching Algebra 1 andAlgebra 2 this upcoming year in
the CCA and CCA 2 books, but Ipreviously taught geometry.
I usually switch back and forthbetween Algebra 1 and geometry
just depending on what mydepartment needs.
When I was a student, shabadanwas using the integrated model
(09:21):
I'm not sure if they still areso I did math 1 through 5 at
that point.
So I have kind of a lot ofbackground with CPM, which has
kind of been a fun part of beinga part of the research
community now, because I get alot of perspective from not only
my time as a teacher but alsothinking back on my own
experience as a student.
So I joined the research teamthree years ago, so this is my
(09:41):
third year as part of thecommunity and a lot of times
people ask you do a lot of stuff, so why are you doing this?
Why are you spending this timedoing extra PD over your summer?
And it's going to soundincredibly nerdy, I'm sure, but
I just love the PD.
So for me I don't really find alot of value in what my school
does as district PD and that'snot a dig on my school.
(10:04):
They do wonderful PD.
It's just that it's usuallybuilt for a lot of our lowest
common denominator, so peoplewho don't do a lot of things
outside of the classroom ontheir own.
So there are a lot of thingsthat I'm already aware of.
For example, there was when myfirst couple of years at the
high school I was teaching,their PD was spent talking about
how to organize your GoogleDrive, and that's great for
(10:27):
people who need that, but I justreally I was already way beyond
that and it just didn't feelvery useful for me.
So for me, this serves as PDthat I feel really, really good
about and I feel like is makingme a better teacher.
So if you join the researchteam, a lot of times you're
thinking about what am Iactually going to be doing when
I spend that week with the group?
So each summer, we spendusually a week in July where we
(10:49):
get together in person and doall of our kind of institute
stuff.
So we just call it like ourkickoff every year.
And when I think about it, forme there's kind of like three
main things that happen.
So thing number one that alwayssticks out in my mind is our
shared reading.
So every year, we have thisshared reading that the leaders
(11:11):
bring to us.
My first year, it talked aboutmetaphorical terms that we use
in schools and how they impactstudents and our perception of
students.
It was all around metaphoricalterms, so, for example, it
talked a lot about words likeahead or behind, and it talked
about how, like we always usethese words that suggest
learning is linear and that ifyou don't know this one
particular skill, that you can'treally move on, and so there's
(11:33):
this strange tension that youfeel between where students
actually fall on the spectrum oftheir knowledge, because it's
not really linear, so it wasreally eye-opening for me.
This year's reading, though,was about the tension we feel
between what we believe studentsshould learn in a year and what
we believe the students arecapable of, so like not having
enough time to teach all thethings we think we should be
(11:54):
able to teach, but also feelingthat tension of they're not
ready for us to move on.
I just find this shared readingidea so fascinating, because it
gives us a really greatopportunity to really take a
look at the minute details ofour practice, the things that we
might not even realize arehaving a real impact on
ourselves and on our students,so I absolutely love them.
(12:14):
They're usually run by one ofthe guys who run helps run the
program, mickey, and he's justbrilliant.
So it's really fun to listenand to get his perspective on
all of these things.
The second big part of what wedo is a lot of team bonding.
So I can't stress enough howmuch I have enjoyed working with
this team.
So there are 20 of us here thisyear and I really would
consider each of them a friend.
(12:35):
That includes the leadershipteam.
So these teachers are from allacross the US.
They are literally from NewYork to California.
So, selfishly for me, I reallylove that there are four of us
from within Wisconsin.
So we always have kind of likeour own little Wisconsin team
when we're at Institute and wealways check in with each other
and, you know, spend a lot oftime together.
It was really wonderful tospend time with everybody,
(12:56):
especially our Wisconsin friends, but everybody and just kind of
chat with people and just kindof chat with people.
So for me I had kind of a hardexperience coming into the
Institute in Utah.
I got stuck in Denver overnighton Sunday into Monday and I was
supposed to be there Sundaynight.
But it was so wonderful becauseafter that kind of cluster on
(13:19):
Sunday into Monday, I got towalk into the meeting right at
1130, which was three and a halfhours later than expected, but
I got cheers, applause, hugsfrom people, even people I
hadn't directly worked with inthe past.
So it was just so wonderful tofeel that kind of community come
together like a thank God, youmade it.
But the other thing that theleadership team does for us to
(13:39):
help us kind of foster that teambonding is each day we get two
breaks, one in the morning, onein the afternoon, as well as an
hour-long lunch and you can kindof spend that however you want.
So as a team, as the like 20 ofus, we tend to kind of group up
in one big group or like twoseparate groups and spend time
together just chatting andcatching up on people's lives.
(14:00):
So this year I spent all of mybreaks inside because it was way
too hot in Utah for me as aWisconsin girl.
But I got to spend a lot oftime talking with Judy Kish,
who's one of the originalauthors of the CPM, as well as a
few of the other researchers.
But beyond just those likebreaks during the day, we do a
lot of really cool things that Ithink are really fun in the
(14:21):
evenings.
The other thing that we do thatI think is really fun is we
have a group chat where all ofthe people who are involved in
TRC, including leadership, arein this text message group chat
and we share ideas and kind ofsupport each other all year long
.
So all of that time togethermeans that even the new research
feel like they're part of theteam very quickly.
I tend to be a little bit morereserved when meeting new people
(14:43):
and I joined knowing no one onthe team at all, but by the end
of the first year I really feltgood about having a great group
of people around me that I couldtalk to.
We keep saying it's a researchcommunity, but I haven't even
mentioned the research as partof what we do at Institute and
of course, that's going to beour third thing that we really
spend a lot of time on.
The thing that I really loveabout it is that we start
(15:05):
talking about what we want toresearch right away on Monday.
So the leaders do a great jobof taking all of our ideas and
kind of grouping them intogether to help us connect with
people who are interested inthe same idea.
So if you're familiar withbuilding thinking classrooms, we
always start with VNPSs, orvertical non-permanent white
spaces, and have our big ideason them that we kind of pick at
and think about.
(15:25):
So they might be things likeassessment or social justice or
consolidation note-takingstrategies, and they just have
us walk around, pick at thosedifferent ideas and kind of put
things that are sticking out tous about those particular areas.
Once we've done that, they haveus choose the areas we're
feeling the most interested indoing research around and then
(15:47):
they group us together.
So you have a team of usuallysomewhere between two and five
people who are all interested inthe same topic.
Once you get into your littlegroup it's not permanent, which
is kind of nice and I'll comeback to that in a minute here
but you get to lay out what youcall your problem of practice,
and that problem is just goingto be what guides your work
throughout the year.
Basically it's what are younoticing?
(16:08):
That's the problem in whatwe're doing right now and the
thing you want to fix.
Once you've laid out yourproblem of practice, you've got
kind of an idea of what it isyou're trying to fix.
You start thinking about.
What are some of the thingsthat you're going to try or
think about to help fix theproblem that you've laid out.
So we spent a lot of our secondand third day at the Institute
hammering those out and decidingwhere our focuses would be in
(16:31):
each of our groups.
Now, for me, I started on Mondayin one group around the idea of
pre-calculus and that class andwhat does it mean, and it just
didn't feel quite like what Iwanted to research and I ended
up being able to change groups,which is wonderful because they
let you choose and think aboutwhat is going to make the most
sense for what you want toresearch.
So then on the second day Iended up moving into a new group
(16:56):
focusing more on like joy andfun in the high school classroom
.
So my research, like I said, isjoy and fun in the high school
classroom, because one of thethings that kind of has stuck
out to me and a couple of theother researchers is there's
always this focus on makinglearning fun and making learning
joyful and playful in theelementary classrooms and even
(17:16):
up into a little bit into middleschool classrooms.
But our high school studentsare kind of not getting that
same experience and there'snothing to suggest that learning
shouldn't be fun or joyful orplayful at the high school level
.
So we're just looking for waysto redefine joy for our students
and figure out what we canchange to bring that joy back
into our math classroom.
(17:37):
So in Neenah we just got a newbuilding a couple of years ago
and the cool part about this newbuilding is it's built in pods
and the pods are surroundinglike an open space where
students can work and each ofour classrooms has a large
amount of windows in the frontof it, so like a sliding glass
door sort of situation.
And the cool part is I get tolook and see what other teachers
(18:00):
are doing in other classrooms,like while I'm teaching or while
I'm on prep or anything.
And there was a teacher who wasacross the hall from me for a
little while.
His name was Mr Feedy and hetaught in social studies and he
just had the most amazingclasses.
I would watch the students.
They'd be like cowering underdesks, pretending to be part of
some sort of battle.
They would be putting thingsout, they'd be laughing and it
(18:23):
was just amazing to watch and itjust reminded me how much I
wanted to see that kind of joyin my classroom as well.
So that's kind of where Istarted from when I started
thinking about what I wanted toresearch this year, to be a
little bit more like Mr Keathe.
So throughout the course ofthis year, that's going to be.
My main focus is what can I doto bring joy and fun back into
the math classroom but also keepit productive and helpful.
(18:45):
So showing them ways to havefun but also to do the things
that we still need to do, andseeing where we can go with it
and if it does actually bringthe fun back and if students
still continue to learn.
My team and I.
So I'm working with Daniel andMatt from the research team and
we're going to be presenting atthe conference this year.
And there's also a second groupwho's also interested in joy
(19:05):
and fun and they're coming at itfrom a totally different way.
So we're really excited to meetup with them in February at the
conference and just see whathappens when we try out all
these different ideas and if wehave similar results or if we
are totally different.
So hopefully you enjoyedgetting to know me a little bit
and I hope you keep followingalong in the next couple of
(19:26):
months, as you learn a littlebit about my research.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
So this week on the podcast, we have a part one of a
conversation with LatrendaKnighton.
Latrenda Knighton is thepresident of the National
Council of Teachers ofMathematics, nctm, an
international mathematicseducation organization with more
than 25,000 members.
(20:04):
She began her two-year term aspresident near the end of 2024,
so she's not quite a year intoit.
She has been an educator formore than 30 years and recently
retired as mathematicscurriculum supervisor in Baton
Rouge, louisiana.
Latrenda has been a classroomteacher, an elementary science
specialist, an elementarymathematics coach, a district
(20:25):
instructional coach and amathematical content trainer.
Latrenda is the co-author oftwo books Classroom Ready, rich
Math Tasks, grade K-1, andAnswers to your Biggest
Questions About TeachingElementary Math K-5.
She is a frequent speaker atmathematics education
conferences and a regularpresenter at workshops providing
(20:48):
ongoing professionaldevelopment for practicing
teachers.
As a passionate advocate forhigh-quality mathematics
instruction for all students,she is active in several
mathematics professionalorganizations in which she has
served in leadership roles.
We were really excited to talkwith Latrenda and we hope you
(21:10):
enjoy part one of ourconversation with her.
All right, so today we're herewith Latrenda Knighton.
She's the current NCTM presidentand we're here to chat with her
and find out some things shehas to say, maybe about NCTM and
professionalism, but we'rereally happy to have her on the
podcast today, so welcomeLaTrenda, yeah welcome.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Thank you.
I feel really honored to behere, so thank you Awesome.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Well, Joel, you go first.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah, so what's it been like in this role for you,
for NCTM?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
You know it's funny because it wasn't having served
on the board.
People think you know what thisrole is.
You still don't reallyunderstand the presidency until
you're actually sitting in thatseat or whatever, but, um, you
(22:01):
know, I have to say it's.
This is a fun way to start myretirement by being a CTO
president.
I have to actually say that I amone of those people who I
started as an affiliate leaderand member just very early in my
teaching career.
(22:22):
So it's almost like theultimate for someone who's
always been like a member of theorganizations or whatever, just
to be able to, I guess, bepresident of the kind of the
umbrella organization for all ofthose organizations and just
going out and visiting with ourmembers in the different
(22:44):
affiliates has that's like oneof the things that really just
fills my plate is being able tosee so many members in so many
different settings and just findout that what concerned me and
my school district are the sameconcerns they have, you know,
(23:04):
the same things that keep themup at night, the same things
that keep them excited and justenjoying the joy and the love
that people have for teachingmath to kids.
That's that has been one of the, I guess the most fun part of
this job.
To be completely honest, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
So I'm imagining you, like you know, throughout the
years you've been at NCTM,sitting back there and going,
wow, if I were president, Iwould do this or that or the
other thing.
And I'm wondering.
I'm wondering now that you are,do you like?
What are some of your?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
goals or initiatives, like things that you're really
like.
Oh, I really hope I'm ablerecruited.
But I guess when I found outwhat NCTM was early in my
teaching career, just what webelieved in then and what we
believe in now has always beenthings that I felt strong, have
always been things I feltstrongly about.
(24:19):
I actually didn't have like thislong list of things or whatever
, but there are some things thatI'm passionate about, and so
I'm very, very lucky in that.
Some of those things that I ampassionate about were things
that we were the importance ofthe role that a highly qualified
(24:40):
teacher plays in just arehaving the best experience
possible, you know, in theclassroom.
So one of the things that I ampassionate about is making sure
(25:28):
that we provide as manyopportunities as possible for
our math teachers to haveongoing professional learning,
and, yes, that means coming toconferences and things like that
.
But it's not just that, it'sthe quality of the resources
that we provide to our teachers.
So having the journals, havingwebinars and really having a
wide variety of offerings,because everyone can't come to
our conference, Everyone doesn'tfeel comfortable being in large
groups, and so I've seen us addadditional things.
(25:52):
We added a podcast.
I can't take credit for that,it wasn't my idea, but I get to
be a host of the podcast andcontribute sometimes to the
choice of topics and things likethat, and so that is helpful.
Diversifying the type ofwebinars that we offer, you know
, for teachers, thinking aboutwhat were those hot topics that
(26:14):
my teachers, when I was a mathsupervisor, were always asking
for, and so really centeringthat teacher voice and providing
those very concrete andtangible resources, ideas for
teachers to keep them focused onjust high quality math
instruction, and so one of thethings that is one of the it's
(26:41):
one of the most difficult partsof being president is writing a
president's message every month,because every month you get to
write that message.
But one of the things that Ihave worked really hard to do is
to think about teachers andthat teacher voice and what
would I want to communicate toteachers that they could take as
(27:03):
a tangible thing to think.
I'm going to focus on this forthis month and this is what I
want to look at.
So that's one thing that Iwould say.
If you think of like one of thethings you want to do is, I
want to make sure that my voice,that I communicate as president
, is something that actuallyillustrates how important I
(27:25):
believe the role of the teacheris in the classroom and how much
influence we have on whathappens in education.
And a lot of times you may notfeel that way as a classroom
teacher, but just know that youknow you can build that
community and you have thatvoice just to say this is what I
(27:48):
need.
This is what I want for mystudents.
This is what I want for thefamilies who support the
students.
I support work to continue andto add the little touch you know
to some of those things.
You know some of those thingsthat are characteristic of me
(28:10):
and those types of things.
One of the other things that wehave been working on and there
are some.
I think there's some additionalpieces to come in the next year
or so, so I'm excited aboutthis is making sure that we
shine a light on what happens inthose early grades.
(28:31):
You know, a lot of times ifyou're in a large school
district, people think aboutjust the testing grade because,
of course, you know,unfortunately people look at the
testing grades to determine howthey characterize the score.
School gets a letter grade orsomething like that in your
state accountability system, butwe all know that students don't
(28:54):
come to usually third grade.
It's the first grade there'sstudents participating in
statewide testing.
I just found out for someonelast week that some states wait
until fifth grade to start.
So it's like, oh OK, that'sgoing to be a little bit scary
sometimes.
I just found out for someonelast week that some states wait
until fifth grade to start.
So it's like, oh OK, that'sgoing to be a little bit scary
sometimes.
But we know that children startlearning from the time they're
(29:15):
born.
So if they're just, you know,going through the motions and
playing school in the lowergrades because someone thinks,
oh, it's not important, we'remissing an opportunity to really
provide students with a lot ofrich experiences in mathematics
One, two, to foster theconfidence in them that they can
(29:38):
be learners and doers ofmathematics and also empower
those teachers who work withthose young students to realize
the important role they play inreally shaping just a student's
beginning foundation formathematics, you know, for all
grade bands.
Well, we've done somepartnerships with NAEYC, the
(29:59):
National Association for theEducation of Young Children, so
that we're actually highlightingwebinars specifically designed
for just those pre-K throughteachers.
So we want to make sure thateveryone knows that math is just
(30:25):
as important in those gradelevels as literacy or any other
content area.
And so, as someone who startedmy teaching career teaching
kindergarten, I'm really happythat we're allowed to do that.
And so, you know, we'rebuilding on some work that was
started by my predecessors andso, knowing that and because of
(30:48):
my foundation in early childhoodI took those things, so we're
running with it and so we'recontinuing to build those
foundations, and actually I havea couple of meetings set up in
the next couple of weeks withsome folks in those areas that
we're trying to do someadditional collaborations, with
some folks in those areas thatwere trying to do some
additional collaborations.
(31:08):
So I really appreciate thatjust our leadership, our
executive leadership at NCTM.
One recognizes the importance ofthat and two has the confidence
and is allowing me to pursuethose additional things because
we have seen some positive gainsfrom folks who are primarily
(31:28):
supporting those grade levelteachers People support those
grade levels as well as fromfamilies and caregivers and from
the teachers themselves.
And so I would say, just keepingthat focus on the teacher,
keeping that focus on what arewe doing for our earliest
(31:50):
learners and for the teacherswho teach our youngest learners.
Those are kind of two kind ofpet things of mine that you know
I've looked for some additionalprojects in that area.
And then the third would justto continue to strengthen those
relationships with our affiliategroups Because, as I said, I
(32:13):
started that's how I even becameaware of NCTM was through my
local affiliate group because Ihad a math supervisor who felt
that it was very important thatyou become a member of your
professional organization thatwere active in those things, and
so I learned a lot from being apart of that group.
(32:35):
That group helped to grow meprofessionally just as much, if
not more, than the support thatI received at my school or at my
district level.
So, if I can you know, keepthose things on the forefront
and continue with all the othernew things that we have been
(32:55):
working on and focusing on.
I feel good about my presidency.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Awesome.
Just a couple little smallthings there.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Just a little, that's amazing little that's amazing,
that's amazing I love hearingabout the uh your history there.
Like I, when I decided tobecome a high school math
teacher I I found like I couldhave.
I thought maybe I could affectstudents in mathematics greatly,
being a high school and I thinkI had some influence there.
But in hindsight I thought hadI gone to elementary, I could
(33:30):
have done equally or moreinfluence in that way.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
So that's fun to hear your story.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Yeah, what about as you meet with NCTM members and
the communities and things likethat?
Are there any other themes ortopics that really stand out in
this like in current times?
Speaker 3 (33:51):
well, you know folks are dealing with it's
something's changed and somethings remain the same, and I
say this in a good way you know,a lot of times you know.
Now I feel as if I'm old enoughto hear people say, oh, you
know the old math and the newmath.
I'm like oh my goodness, I know, I hear what people were saying
(34:14):
, and I'm saying but it's notolder than you, because it's
really the same, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
And so it's like I hate to brush the bubble.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
But the same way we're saying we should teach
right now.
It's like way back when I wastaught to teach.
That's how we were taught toteach.
It's just somewhere along theline we forgot.
And I say that because onething that we've always known is
an engaged student is a moreproductive student, is a more
(34:46):
confident student.
We've always known this.
An engaged student is a moreproductive student, is a more
confident student.
We've always known this.
An engaged student in anycontent area.
We've lost sight of thatsometimes and I will hear people
say well, kids today, they need.
I don't know if it's reallythat the children are different.
I do believe that, just becausethey have, they've been exposed
(35:09):
to a lot of things thatobviously were not even
available when I was a child, oreven some people who are much
younger than I am.
You know, we've had a lot ofchanges in technology and just
in things that are accessible tofolks.
But what I will say as a resultof that change, I think that
(35:33):
our students and I think in agood way feel more empowered to
articulate what they want andwhat they need.
You know, I remember, you knowas a child and maybe if I said
well, I need this such and suchnot to do whatever.
And if I felt bold enough forsome reason, I hit my head or
(35:54):
something and actually went toschool and actually said that,
you know.
Then there was a conversationthat was going to happen with my
parents.
You know what?
Let's turn the same class today.
You know?
Could you make sure?
you have a talk with her youknow, because it's supposed to
be a nice, sweet, good littlesouthern girl and not say, well,
(36:16):
you know, this activity doesn'tmake sense, you know that was
not good and that was not polite, no matter how polite you said
it.
And I think, as long asstudents are being respectable
to the adults in their livesbecause I definitely do not
condone anyone not speaking tosomeone in a disrespectful way,
(36:39):
but I notice that students arebetter able, some to articulate
their needs and some are moreempowered to do so, and probably
because they are bombarded withso many different things, they
have so many types of activitiesthey engage in, they probably
have had a chance to sample somany different things.
(37:00):
And so I say this because weknow that an engaged student is
a more empowered student.
But I see that we're startingto listen to that, and so now we
are beginning to think okay,it's not just about the adult in
the room Now.
(37:21):
We've had times when we've saidthat and some people have
listened to it, but I see thatcoming back around and I think
that's a good thing.
And so one of the things thatyou will hear us say a lot and I
say us when we are, you know,talking to teachers about you
(37:42):
know best practices and thingslike that.
We're reminding them of theimportance of student engagement
and what's the differencebetween engagement and
entertainment.
You know, because we'redefinitely not saying you have
to be.
It was so funny.
I was at a recent conferenceand there was a teacher she's an
(38:02):
early career teacher.
Well, you know how they want usto move really fast and keep
the kids doing.
I said, well, who is they?
And she couldn't tell me whothey was because there is
nothing.
And I said sweetie, I said yourjob is not to entertain your
students.
I said you want to engage them,meaning that they need to be
actively involved and they needto be doing things that are
(38:24):
involved, result in sense making.
Because we know and the sameresearch has been around for
many, many, many years, but itkeeps coming back up every time
someone does a new study that ifwe and we know this as adults
about ourselves, but it's thesame for students If I can make
(38:45):
sense of what I'm doing, if Ican make connections between
what I'm doing and what it lookslike in the real world, there's
a better chance that I willmake meaning of it and I will
learn.
And so when you ask what aresome things on our radar, is we
know that for so long for somestudents that has not been the
(39:07):
case.
And so finally, we're kind ofall getting on the same level
playing field, because workforceis saying this is what we need
and it's going back to thosepieces and the students are
telling us this is what I needto be able to do, but I didn't
have the opportunity to do that.
So you see us activelyproviding opportunities where we
(39:31):
talk about this, talks aboutthat explicitly, of making sure
that it's relevant and that weactually are making sure our
(39:52):
students are engaged and it'sthe sense-making.
And so you know we've hadsense-making resources and tools
, you know, for a long time,even in principles and standards
2000,.
You know we talked about thosethings.
So you're talking 25 years agoand even before that that was
part of it.
(40:12):
But we're putting it, I guess,more as front and center and
doing additional resources andadditional professional learning
to support teachers with that.
How do you use the resources?
You have to actually make surethat you're helping students
make connections, so they'rehaving that sense-making, so
(40:33):
that you have that stick-towitness, because that's the
piece that's not happening.
Like you mentioned high school,those are the students who
started first coming back andtelling us and I mean as
educators in the community youknow this isn't working.
You know this is what I neededto know, this is what I didn't
(40:54):
get and things like that.
So how do we bring thoseopportunities the recent
publication with high school?
But then when we looked at thatit was like, well, you know, we
need to do this for high school.
We felt we owed it to our highschool educators because those
(41:15):
are the first set of studentswho are exiting to the real
world.
But you know what?
We need to look at this fromthe entire pre-K-12 spectrum,
and so we may or may not haveheard.
We have a new publication thatwill be released in 2026 at the
Denver Annual and it's pre-K-12focal points and so it's using,
(41:35):
you know, you guys may remembercurriculum focal points from the
2000s where we looked at K-8and identified what were those
focal point areas of content foreach of those grade levels and
those habits of mind.
So now to build that coherence,we're looking at pre-K-12.
So we want to be able to helpour educators make connections
(42:02):
between what happens in theearly grades and as we build on
the layers each year, becausethat's what we want our students
to do, because you don't startover each time In math.
You take something you have, youadd another piece, you add
another layer, you make sense ofit and then hopefully make room
(42:23):
for the new learning and, mostimportantly, it's the relevance
to make sure that they'reconnecting it to something that
makes sense in the real world,are using, you know, to come to
the classroom.
(42:49):
You know we have people say,the traditional avenue.
I'm not sure if that trulyexists anymore, you know,
because we have so manydifferent ways to become a
teacher than there were 32 yearsago when I started teaching.
So making sure that we providethem with support for how do you
(43:11):
do those pieces?
How do you do those things?
What's the important?
Math at this grade level?
How is it connecting to whatyou taught in first grade?
How does it connect tosomething in second, third,
fourth or fifth grade?
Why is it important that youhave that foundation?
And one of the reasons why Iwould always tell the teachers I
(43:33):
supported when a child walksinto sixth grade, they don't
have a stamp on their head thatsays I'm a sixth grader and I
know all the content that comesbefore this and are ready to
start here.
You know, because sometimesthey have knowledge that goes
(43:53):
beyond that grade level, but itmight be some parts of that
sixth grade content whereveryour state is that maybe I'm a
little bit fuzzy on some ofthose prerequisites.
So I need to know how thosepieces are connected, because
sometimes I, just as the student, I just need you to help me to
make connections.
So I need to know, as the adultwho is in the classroom, what
(44:16):
are those connecting pieces.
I can't just know my piece youknow.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
I need to know all the other pieces you know, or at
least the connectors, so I cansupport, you know, my
constituents, my students, youknow, think of it that way.
I think an important part ofwhat I'm hearing and what you're
saying is that engagement pieceand that making sense piece,
because there's a part of itthat like oh well, ok, the
student's going to come in sixthgrade.
They have these pieces that theyknow not so clear on other
parts they do know really wellor they know this other thing,
that's eighth grade, whatever itis, and as the teacher, I
(45:02):
really need and want them toengage in what I'm helping them
understand, because I can't justtell them how it makes sense.
To me, right, making sense islike they need to like, oh,
connect it to the pieces and dothe things.
And with that engagement,because if I'm just telling them
this is how it makes sense,then they're just back to like
memorizing and trying to figureout what I'm saying, right, as
the teacher, and it's such ahuge part of what we're trying
(45:22):
to do.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Oh, exactly, because that's what we do in the real
world when we're working,absolutely.
I mean, you know, we choosejobs that we love or we're
passionate about, but no oneknows everything they need to
know for whatever professionthey choose, especially not in
the first years.
But if I have a strongfoundation, I can build on it.
(45:44):
Or I can say okay, I understandhow to do A, b, c, d and E.
They're asking me to do this.
Let me see how I can make senseof this so that I can connect
the pieces.
And that's what we want.
We want them to have thingsthat they can use to build on,
just so that they are complete,whole individuals mathematically
(46:07):
, because there is a lot of mathin the world and they need to
be able to utilize it.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
And to have that confidence and willingness to
take those risks, to say I don'tknow, how to do that right, and
ask somebody too, because theexpectation is not that they're
just going to figure it all outor anybody right, it's going to
figure it all out themselves.
We need to be able to have thatconversation and those pieces,
and so it's creating that kindof a space as well.
So it's so many things.
(46:36):
I want to shift our line just alittle bit.
So in a few weeks here you'regoing to be coming down to San
Diego to speak with our teachersat the Academy of Best
Practices.
Joel will be there and I thinkthe topic that you've been given
, letrendonighton.
(47:08):
So tune in, actually, not in twoweeks, but next week.
We're going to bump a week andget you to part two of
LeTrendonighton's conversationnext week.
You won't have to wait quite solong and until then, enjoy.
So that is all we have time foron this episode of the More
Math for More People podcast.
(47:29):
If you are interested inconnecting with us on social
media, find our links in thepodcast description, and the
music for the podcast wascreated by Julius H and can be
found on pixabaycom.
So thank you very much, julius.
Join us in two weeks for thenext episode of More Math for
More People.
What day will that be, joel?
Speaker 1 (47:51):
It'll be July 22nd, pi Approximation Day, so not
food or anything like thatActually the number pi or the
ratio, and we'll talk about notthe actual day of Pi, but that
approximation day where theBabylonians had come up with an
approximation of the number thatwe know of as Pi today, and so
(48:15):
we'll go through some paststories that we've shared in the
classroom and how we've relatedto that in a fun way.
So we look forward to seeingyou again on July 22nd for Pi
Approximation Day.
See you then, thank you.
You are listening to the More Math for More People
podcast.
An outreach of CPM educationalprogram Boom Podcast.
An outreach of CPM educationalprogram Boom.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
It's July 15th, it's the middle of summer already.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Well, it's getting more of the summer months.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's the middle of the summer months, july 15th.
Yeah yeah, middle of summer,that's a really interesting
concept to figure out, but we'llcome back to that.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
In the Northern hemisphere.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
yes, yeah, so what is a national day today?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
today is.
It's about awareness.
It's a national pet fire safetyday oh, national pet fire
safety day, yeah, cool yeah, Ihave.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I have some pet fire safety.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Tell me about it.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Tactics.
Yeah, I don't know what theword I wanted there is.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I'd like to know.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I have a little sticker that I got off a website
I don't remember I think itcost me a couple dollars or
something.
That is like a Save Our Petssticker and then I put it on my
front door and then when firerescue people come to my house,
if they ever have to and I hopethey never do then it tells them
(01:31):
how many pets are inside myhouse.
Yeah, and I have one for my, myapartment downstairs and I have
one for the upstairs apartment.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
when there's pets up there, oh, wow, so does do you
change it If, like more petscome to the house?
Yep, I more pets come to thehouse.
I have changed it several timessince I've been here.
That's good.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I mean, I think when I got them, I got several and I,
you know, I've had, I've hadvarious tenants upstairs who've
had pets or not had pets or hadpets and not had pets, and then
more pets went away for variousreasons or came, more pets came
and so, yeah, I've had to changeit several times.
Interesting, that's good to know.
(02:06):
It's got a little like whitesticky little dot number because
it has so many cats and so manydogs and for a while, when I
had Tabby Chick, I had you knowone very small and blind.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, so that I bet that really helps, like the
emergency folks.
Yeah To know.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I hope so.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Because they well, I hope so Well, they want to know.
I think Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, and they want to save all the living things in
the building.
Yeah, so yeah, what does it sayin your thing about fire, pet
safety?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Well it talks about you could have a fire drill and
practice with your pets likewhat you would do.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I don't know if I'm trying to think of how I could
practice that with Owen andBella.
That would be interesting.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I think, wendell, I'd have to pick him up because I
think he'd be like, hey, there'sa fire there and there's no way
I'm running through that.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Well, he wouldn't have actual fire in the fire
drill.
I don't think.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
No, I'm just saying if there was a fire like if.
I'm practicing.
I would have to carry.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
You're just practicing, taking him outside.
Yeah, exactly, carry he'syou're just practicing taking
him outside.
Yeah, exactly, um it talksabout how pets can start fires.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Oh, I've seen several of these on like tiktok videos
and things so like with theelectrical cords is one way.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
If you've got something on the stove and they
jump up there, that's asomething that could happen I
saw one where a doginadvertently started a fire
with like a maybe a cell phonebattery or something like it,
overheated in some way andcaught on fire in the rug and
the dogs were all like whoa.
It's a very funny video.
I'm sure you could find it.
(03:36):
But yeah, All right.
So it's just sort of likefireproofing your house to make
sure your pets are not startingfires inadvertently.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And it talks about your sticker idea in the window.
How many house fires do youthink are caused by pets each
year?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
in the.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
United States In the United.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
States A thousand.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
A thousand.
What?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yes, Wow oh it's right on the nose, bing, wow,
that's amazing.
What?
Yes, wow, I was right on thenose, bing Wow.
That's amazing, that is amazing.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I don't know how many house fires there are in the US
, but in any given year onaverage.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Well, here's another little fun fact that makes me
giggle a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Okay, all right, got it.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Let me phrase it this way what year do you think that
people made pets?
This is the year where peoplemake pets.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I'm going to say prehistoric times.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
A little bit after that.
13,000 BC, that's when peoplemake pets make pets?
Huh interesting, I don't know,what that has to do with ai
write your, write your website.
This is interesting.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Oh no, I think that when we, I think that
archaeologists, whoever,anthropologists, whoever think
about these things, like whenthey think about domesticating-
wolves and dogs.
It's around, I feel, like it'saround 10 to 15, so that would
be somewhere in there.
Like they keep trying to likekind of narrow it down and it's
always a little bit late.
Early, like soon, like earlierwhatever farther ago.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah then, then they were thinking, so probably true
um the which pet do you think isthe symbol of the firehouse?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
uh, isn't it the dalmatian?
Speaker 1 (05:28):
it is you are.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, you're doing it , I'm cooking today.
I got two for three nice you'reon fire oh quick yeah safety,
safety get the dogs out.
What are you?
What are you going to do tocelebrate?
I think I'm gonna adapt yoursticker idea.
I like that idea that ifsomething were to happen, safety
, get the dogs out.
What are you going to do tocelebrate National Fire Pet
Safety?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
I think I'm going to adapt your sticker idea.
I like that idea that ifsomething were to happen,
somebody should know who's inthe house.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, in fact, maybe we'll put a little.
I know, I just Googled it andfound it, but we could put a
link in the description.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I think that'd be great, but there's lots of
people that would appreciatethat Totally, but there's lots
of people that would appreciatethat.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Totally.
Yeah, and sometimes yeah, maybeI'll do a fire drill.
I think it would be funny forme to just kind of like go
through the house going becauseyou know how much that my dogs
love the fire alarm.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
And then we'll spend the rest of the evening calming
them back down.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I was going to ask if you were going to use a whistle
, and I think a whistle would bemore preferable to that sound
that you just made.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
So you can choose, you'll have to let us know how
it goes.
I can choose.
I can choose.
Yeah, okay, sounds good.
So I'm very happy to announceone of our new segments for this
(06:57):
coming school year.
We did join them on theirjourney a year or so ago.
We didn't have one last schoolyear, but I think a year before.
Would that be like the 23, 24school year?
No, that seems way too long ago, but maybe.
Anyway, we did a Join them ontheir Journey in the past and we
had some teachers One was newto the profession and one was a
(07:19):
more veteran teacher but waschanging curricula and this year
we're going to have anotherJoin them on their Journey, but
this time it's going to be withone of our teacher research
community teachers.
And so this is Andy PetersonLongmore.
She has been with the TRC for afew years and she's going to
(07:40):
just launch into herconversation here about her
project and the recent meetingof the TRC group that happened
in Salt Lake City last week.
So here you go.
Here's Andy Peterson-Longmore.
Join her on her TRC journeythis year.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Hey there, I'm Andy Peterson-Longmore, also known as
PL to my students.
A little bit of background onme.
I live and work in Neenah,wisconsin, at Neenah High School
.
My husband and I have beenmarried for seven years.
We're currently fostering toadopt a little baby boy.
I coach speech and debateoutside of the classroom.
I'm also the WisconsinForensics Coaches Association
(08:16):
president, district 9 chair forthe Wisconsin Interscholastic
Speech and Dramatic ArtsAssociation, and then I also
serve as the National Speech andDebate Association district
chair for Northern Wisconsin.
I also coach our high school'smath team and I was previously
the statistician for the FoxValley Math League, which is
just in kind of the Appletonarea of Wisconsin.
I also serve as our mathdepartment chair and I work at
(08:38):
Lambeau Field as a supervisor inthe Usher and Text Message team
.
So I've been a teacher for 12years.
This is my ninth year in MENAand we adopted CPM about four
years ago.
So I've been teaching all fouryears with CPM and I have a kind
of a unique perspective on itbecause back in the day when I
was a student at AshwaubenonHigh School, I was actually a
student of CPM.
(08:59):
So shout out to those Jaguarmath teachers for giving me a
good foundation.
I am teaching Algebra 1 andAlgebra 2 this upcoming year in
the CCA and CCA 2 books, but Ipreviously taught geometry.
I usually switch back and forthbetween Algebra 1 and geometry
just depending on what mydepartment needs.
When I was a student, shabadanwas using the integrated model
(09:21):
I'm not sure if they still areso I did math 1 through 5 at
that point.
So I have kind of a lot ofbackground with CPM, which has
kind of been a fun part of beinga part of the research
community now, because I get alot of perspective from not only
my time as a teacher but alsothinking back on my own
experience as a student.
So I joined the research teamthree years ago, so this is my
(09:41):
third year as part of thecommunity and a lot of times
people ask you do a lot of stuff, so why are you doing this?
Why are you spending this timedoing extra PD over your summer?
And it's going to soundincredibly nerdy, I'm sure, but
I just love the PD.
So for me I don't really find alot of value in what my school
does as district PD and that'snot a dig on my school.
(10:04):
They do wonderful PD.
It's just that it's usuallybuilt for a lot of our lowest
common denominator, so peoplewho don't do a lot of things
outside of the classroom ontheir own.
So there are a lot of thingsthat I'm already aware of.
For example, there was when myfirst couple of years at the
high school I was teaching,their PD was spent talking about
how to organize your GoogleDrive, and that's great for
(10:27):
people who need that, but I justreally I was already way beyond
that and it just didn't feelvery useful for me.
So for me, this serves as PDthat I feel really, really good
about and I feel like is makingme a better teacher.
So if you join the researchteam, a lot of times you're
thinking about what am Iactually going to be doing when
I spend that week with the group?
So each summer, we spendusually a week in July where we
(10:49):
get together in person and doall of our kind of institute
stuff.
So we just call it like ourkickoff every year.
And when I think about it, forme there's kind of like three
main things that happen.
So thing number one that alwayssticks out in my mind is our
shared reading.
So every year, we have thisshared reading that the leaders
(11:11):
bring to us.
My first year, it talked aboutmetaphorical terms that we use
in schools and how they impactstudents and our perception of
students.
It was all around metaphoricalterms, so, for example, it
talked a lot about words likeahead or behind, and it talked
about how, like we always usethese words that suggest
learning is linear and that ifyou don't know this one
particular skill, that you can'treally move on, and so there's
(11:33):
this strange tension that youfeel between where students
actually fall on the spectrum oftheir knowledge, because it's
not really linear, so it wasreally eye-opening for me.
This year's reading, though,was about the tension we feel
between what we believe studentsshould learn in a year and what
we believe the students arecapable of, so like not having
enough time to teach all thethings we think we should be
(11:54):
able to teach, but also feelingthat tension of they're not
ready for us to move on.
I just find this shared readingidea so fascinating, because it
gives us a really greatopportunity to really take a
look at the minute details ofour practice, the things that we
might not even realize arehaving a real impact on
ourselves and on our students,so I absolutely love them.
(12:14):
They're usually run by one ofthe guys who run helps run the
program, mickey, and he's justbrilliant.
So it's really fun to listenand to get his perspective on
all of these things.
The second big part of what wedo is a lot of team bonding.
So I can't stress enough howmuch I have enjoyed working with
this team.
So there are 20 of us here thisyear and I really would
consider each of them a friend.
(12:35):
That includes the leadershipteam.
So these teachers are from allacross the US.
They are literally from NewYork to California.
So, selfishly for me, I reallylove that there are four of us
from within Wisconsin.
So we always have kind of likeour own little Wisconsin team
when we're at Institute and wealways check in with each other
and, you know, spend a lot oftime together.
It was really wonderful tospend time with everybody,
(12:56):
especially our Wisconsin friends, but everybody and just kind of
chat with people and just kindof chat with people.
So for me I had kind of a hardexperience coming into the
Institute in Utah.
I got stuck in Denver overnighton Sunday into Monday and I was
supposed to be there Sundaynight.
But it was so wonderful becauseafter that kind of cluster on
(13:19):
Sunday into Monday, I got towalk into the meeting right at
1130, which was three and a halfhours later than expected, but
I got cheers, applause, hugsfrom people, even people I
hadn't directly worked with inthe past.
So it was just so wonderful tofeel that kind of community come
together like a thank God, youmade it.
But the other thing that theleadership team does for us to
(13:39):
help us kind of foster that teambonding is each day we get two
breaks, one in the morning, onein the afternoon, as well as an
hour-long lunch and you can kindof spend that however you want.
So as a team, as the like 20 ofus, we tend to kind of group up
in one big group or like twoseparate groups and spend time
together just chatting andcatching up on people's lives.
(14:00):
So this year I spent all of mybreaks inside because it was way
too hot in Utah for me as aWisconsin girl.
But I got to spend a lot oftime talking with Judy Kish,
who's one of the originalauthors of the CPM, as well as a
few of the other researchers.
But beyond just those likebreaks during the day, we do a
lot of really cool things that Ithink are really fun in the
(14:21):
evenings.
The other thing that we do thatI think is really fun is we
have a group chat where all ofthe people who are involved in
TRC, including leadership, arein this text message group chat
and we share ideas and kind ofsupport each other all year long
.
So all of that time togethermeans that even the new research
feel like they're part of theteam very quickly.
I tend to be a little bit morereserved when meeting new people
(14:43):
and I joined knowing no one onthe team at all, but by the end
of the first year I really feltgood about having a great group
of people around me that I couldtalk to.
We keep saying it's a researchcommunity, but I haven't even
mentioned the research as partof what we do at Institute and
of course, that's going to beour third thing that we really
spend a lot of time on.
The thing that I really loveabout it is that we start
(15:05):
talking about what we want toresearch right away on Monday.
So the leaders do a great jobof taking all of our ideas and
kind of grouping them intogether to help us connect with
people who are interested inthe same idea.
So if you're familiar withbuilding thinking classrooms, we
always start with VNPSs, orvertical non-permanent white
spaces, and have our big ideason them that we kind of pick at
and think about.
(15:25):
So they might be things likeassessment or social justice or
consolidation note-takingstrategies, and they just have
us walk around, pick at thosedifferent ideas and kind of put
things that are sticking out tous about those particular areas.
Once we've done that, they haveus choose the areas we're
feeling the most interested indoing research around and then
(15:47):
they group us together.
So you have a team of usuallysomewhere between two and five
people who are all interested inthe same topic.
Once you get into your littlegroup it's not permanent, which
is kind of nice and I'll comeback to that in a minute here
but you get to lay out what youcall your problem of practice,
and that problem is just goingto be what guides your work
throughout the year.
Basically it's what are younoticing?
(16:08):
That's the problem in whatwe're doing right now and the
thing you want to fix.
Once you've laid out yourproblem of practice, you've got
kind of an idea of what it isyou're trying to fix.
You start thinking about.
What are some of the thingsthat you're going to try or
think about to help fix theproblem that you've laid out.
So we spent a lot of our secondand third day at the Institute
hammering those out and decidingwhere our focuses would be in
(16:31):
each of our groups.
Now, for me, I started on Mondayin one group around the idea of
pre-calculus and that class andwhat does it mean, and it just
didn't feel quite like what Iwanted to research and I ended
up being able to change groups,which is wonderful because they
let you choose and think aboutwhat is going to make the most
sense for what you want toresearch.
So then on the second day Iended up moving into a new group
(16:56):
focusing more on like joy andfun in the high school classroom
.
So my research, like I said, isjoy and fun in the high school
classroom, because one of thethings that kind of has stuck
out to me and a couple of theother researchers is there's
always this focus on makinglearning fun and making learning
joyful and playful in theelementary classrooms and even
(17:16):
up into a little bit into middleschool classrooms.
But our high school studentsare kind of not getting that
same experience and there'snothing to suggest that learning
shouldn't be fun or joyful orplayful at the high school level
.
So we're just looking for waysto redefine joy for our students
and figure out what we canchange to bring that joy back
into our math classroom.
(17:37):
So in Neenah we just got a newbuilding a couple of years ago
and the cool part about this newbuilding is it's built in pods
and the pods are surroundinglike an open space where
students can work and each ofour classrooms has a large
amount of windows in the frontof it, so like a sliding glass
door sort of situation.
And the cool part is I get tolook and see what other teachers
(18:00):
are doing in other classrooms,like while I'm teaching or while
I'm on prep or anything.
And there was a teacher who wasacross the hall from me for a
little while.
His name was Mr Feedy and hetaught in social studies and he
just had the most amazingclasses.
I would watch the students.
They'd be like cowering underdesks, pretending to be part of
some sort of battle.
They would be putting thingsout, they'd be laughing and it
(18:23):
was just amazing to watch and itjust reminded me how much I
wanted to see that kind of joyin my classroom as well.
So that's kind of where Istarted from when I started
thinking about what I wanted toresearch this year, to be a
little bit more like Mr Keathe.
So throughout the course ofthis year, that's going to be.
My main focus is what can I doto bring joy and fun back into
the math classroom but also keepit productive and helpful.
(18:45):
So showing them ways to havefun but also to do the things
that we still need to do, andseeing where we can go with it
and if it does actually bringthe fun back and if students
still continue to learn.
My team and I.
So I'm working with Daniel andMatt from the research team and
we're going to be presenting atthe conference this year.
And there's also a second groupwho's also interested in joy
(19:05):
and fun and they're coming at itfrom a totally different way.
So we're really excited to meetup with them in February at the
conference and just see whathappens when we try out all
these different ideas and if wehave similar results or if we
are totally different.
So hopefully you enjoyedgetting to know me a little bit
and I hope you keep followingalong in the next couple of
(19:26):
months, as you learn a littlebit about my research.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
So this week on the podcast, we have a part one of a
conversation with LatrendaKnighton.
Latrenda Knighton is thepresident of the National
Council of Teachers ofMathematics, nctm, an
international mathematicseducation organization with more
than 25,000 members.
(20:04):
She began her two-year term aspresident near the end of 2024,
so she's not quite a year intoit.
She has been an educator formore than 30 years and recently
retired as mathematicscurriculum supervisor in Baton
Rouge, louisiana.
Latrenda has been a classroomteacher, an elementary science
specialist, an elementarymathematics coach, a district
(20:25):
instructional coach and amathematical content trainer.
Latrenda is the co-author oftwo books Classroom Ready, rich
Math Tasks, grade K-1, andAnswers to your Biggest
Questions About TeachingElementary Math K-5.
She is a frequent speaker atmathematics education
conferences and a regularpresenter at workshops providing
(20:48):
ongoing professionaldevelopment for practicing
teachers.
As a passionate advocate forhigh-quality mathematics
instruction for all students,she is active in several
mathematics professionalorganizations in which she has
served in leadership roles.
We were really excited to talkwith Latrenda and we hope you
(21:10):
enjoy part one of ourconversation with her.
All right, so today we're herewith Latrenda Knighton.
She's the current NCTM presidentand we're here to chat with her
and find out some things shehas to say, maybe about NCTM and
professionalism, but we'rereally happy to have her on the
podcast today, so welcomeLaTrenda, yeah welcome.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Thank you.
I feel really honored to behere, so thank you Awesome.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Well, Joel, you go first.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah, so what's it been like in this role for you,
for NCTM?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
You know it's funny because it wasn't having served
on the board.
People think you know what thisrole is.
You still don't reallyunderstand the presidency until
you're actually sitting in thatseat or whatever, but, um, you
(22:01):
know, I have to say it's.
This is a fun way to start myretirement by being a CTO
president.
I have to actually say that I amone of those people who I
started as an affiliate leaderand member just very early in my
teaching career.
(22:22):
So it's almost like theultimate for someone who's
always been like a member of theorganizations or whatever, just
to be able to, I guess, bepresident of the kind of the
umbrella organization for all ofthose organizations and just
going out and visiting with ourmembers in the different
(22:44):
affiliates has that's like oneof the things that really just
fills my plate is being able tosee so many members in so many
different settings and just findout that what concerned me and
my school district are the sameconcerns they have, you know,
(23:04):
the same things that keep themup at night, the same things
that keep them excited and justenjoying the joy and the love
that people have for teachingmath to kids.
That's that has been one of the, I guess the most fun part of
this job.
To be completely honest, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
So I'm imagining you, like you know, throughout the
years you've been at NCTM,sitting back there and going,
wow, if I were president, Iwould do this or that or the
other thing.
And I'm wondering.
I'm wondering now that you are,do you like?
What are some of your?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
goals or initiatives, like things that you're really
like.
Oh, I really hope I'm ablerecruited.
But I guess when I found outwhat NCTM was early in my
teaching career, just what webelieved in then and what we
believe in now has always beenthings that I felt strong, have
always been things I feltstrongly about.
(24:19):
I actually didn't have like thislong list of things or whatever
, but there are some things thatI'm passionate about, and so
I'm very, very lucky in that.
Some of those things that I ampassionate about were things
that we were the importance ofthe role that a highly qualified
(24:40):
teacher plays in just arehaving the best experience
possible, you know, in theclassroom.
So one of the things that I ampassionate about is making sure
(25:28):
that we provide as manyopportunities as possible for
our math teachers to haveongoing professional learning,
and, yes, that means coming toconferences and things like that
.
But it's not just that, it'sthe quality of the resources
that we provide to our teachers.
So having the journals, havingwebinars and really having a
wide variety of offerings,because everyone can't come to
our conference, Everyone doesn'tfeel comfortable being in large
groups, and so I've seen us addadditional things.
(25:52):
We added a podcast.
I can't take credit for that,it wasn't my idea, but I get to
be a host of the podcast andcontribute sometimes to the
choice of topics and things likethat, and so that is helpful.
Diversifying the type ofwebinars that we offer, you know
, for teachers, thinking aboutwhat were those hot topics that
(26:14):
my teachers, when I was a mathsupervisor, were always asking
for, and so really centeringthat teacher voice and providing
those very concrete andtangible resources, ideas for
teachers to keep them focused onjust high quality math
instruction, and so one of thethings that is one of the it's
(26:41):
one of the most difficult partsof being president is writing a
president's message every month,because every month you get to
write that message.
But one of the things that Ihave worked really hard to do is
to think about teachers andthat teacher voice and what
would I want to communicate toteachers that they could take as
(27:03):
a tangible thing to think.
I'm going to focus on this forthis month and this is what I
want to look at.
So that's one thing that Iwould say.
If you think of like one of thethings you want to do is, I
want to make sure that my voice,that I communicate as president
, is something that actuallyillustrates how important I
(27:25):
believe the role of the teacheris in the classroom and how much
influence we have on whathappens in education.
And a lot of times you may notfeel that way as a classroom
teacher, but just know that youknow you can build that
community and you have thatvoice just to say this is what I
(27:48):
need.
This is what I want for mystudents.
This is what I want for thefamilies who support the
students.
I support work to continue andto add the little touch you know
to some of those things.
You know some of those thingsthat are characteristic of me
(28:10):
and those types of things.
One of the other things that wehave been working on and there
are some.
I think there's some additionalpieces to come in the next year
or so, so I'm excited aboutthis is making sure that we
shine a light on what happens inthose early grades.
(28:31):
You know, a lot of times ifyou're in a large school
district, people think aboutjust the testing grade because,
of course, you know,unfortunately people look at the
testing grades to determine howthey characterize the score.
School gets a letter grade orsomething like that in your
state accountability system, butwe all know that students don't
(28:54):
come to usually third grade.
It's the first grade there'sstudents participating in
statewide testing.
I just found out for someonelast week that some states wait
until fifth grade to start.
So it's like, oh OK, that'sgoing to be a little bit scary
sometimes.
I just found out for someonelast week that some states wait
until fifth grade to start.
So it's like, oh OK, that'sgoing to be a little bit scary
sometimes.
But we know that children startlearning from the time they're
(29:15):
born.
So if they're just, you know,going through the motions and
playing school in the lowergrades because someone thinks,
oh, it's not important, we'remissing an opportunity to really
provide students with a lot ofrich experiences in mathematics
One, two, to foster theconfidence in them that they can
(29:38):
be learners and doers ofmathematics and also empower
those teachers who work withthose young students to realize
the important role they play inreally shaping just a student's
beginning foundation formathematics, you know, for all
grade bands.
Well, we've done somepartnerships with NAEYC, the
(29:59):
National Association for theEducation of Young Children, so
that we're actually highlightingwebinars specifically designed
for just those pre-K throughteachers.
So we want to make sure thateveryone knows that math is just
(30:25):
as important in those gradelevels as literacy or any other
content area.
And so, as someone who startedmy teaching career teaching
kindergarten, I'm really happythat we're allowed to do that.
And so, you know, we'rebuilding on some work that was
started by my predecessors andso, knowing that and because of
(30:48):
my foundation in early childhoodI took those things, so we're
running with it and so we'recontinuing to build those
foundations, and actually I havea couple of meetings set up in
the next couple of weeks withsome folks in those areas that
we're trying to do someadditional collaborations, with
some folks in those areas thatwere trying to do some
additional collaborations.
(31:08):
So I really appreciate thatjust our leadership, our
executive leadership at NCTM.
One recognizes the importance ofthat and two has the confidence
and is allowing me to pursuethose additional things because
we have seen some positive gainsfrom folks who are primarily
(31:28):
supporting those grade levelteachers People support those
grade levels as well as fromfamilies and caregivers and from
the teachers themselves.
And so I would say, just keepingthat focus on the teacher,
keeping that focus on what arewe doing for our earliest
(31:50):
learners and for the teacherswho teach our youngest learners.
Those are kind of two kind ofpet things of mine that you know
I've looked for some additionalprojects in that area.
And then the third would justto continue to strengthen those
relationships with our affiliategroups Because, as I said, I
(32:13):
started that's how I even becameaware of NCTM was through my
local affiliate group because Ihad a math supervisor who felt
that it was very important thatyou become a member of your
professional organization thatwere active in those things, and
so I learned a lot from being apart of that group.
(32:35):
That group helped to grow meprofessionally just as much, if
not more, than the support thatI received at my school or at my
district level.
So, if I can you know, keepthose things on the forefront
and continue with all the othernew things that we have been
(32:55):
working on and focusing on.
I feel good about my presidency.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Awesome.
Just a couple little smallthings there.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Just a little, that's amazing little that's amazing,
that's amazing I love hearingabout the uh your history there.
Like I, when I decided tobecome a high school math
teacher I I found like I couldhave.
I thought maybe I could affectstudents in mathematics greatly,
being a high school and I thinkI had some influence there.
But in hindsight I thought hadI gone to elementary, I could
(33:30):
have done equally or moreinfluence in that way.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
So that's fun to hear your story.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Yeah, what about as you meet with NCTM members and
the communities and things likethat?
Are there any other themes ortopics that really stand out in
this like in current times?
Speaker 3 (33:51):
well, you know folks are dealing with it's
something's changed and somethings remain the same, and I
say this in a good way you know,a lot of times you know.
Now I feel as if I'm old enoughto hear people say, oh, you
know the old math and the newmath.
I'm like oh my goodness, I know, I hear what people were saying
(34:14):
, and I'm saying but it's notolder than you, because it's
really the same, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
And so it's like I hate to brush the bubble.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
But the same way we're saying we should teach
right now.
It's like way back when I wastaught to teach.
That's how we were taught toteach.
It's just somewhere along theline we forgot.
And I say that because onething that we've always known is
an engaged student is a moreproductive student, is a more
(34:46):
confident student.
We've always known this.
An engaged student is a moreproductive student, is a more
confident student.
We've always known this.
An engaged student in anycontent area.
We've lost sight of thatsometimes and I will hear people
say well, kids today, they need.
I don't know if it's reallythat the children are different.
I do believe that, just becausethey have, they've been exposed
(35:09):
to a lot of things thatobviously were not even
available when I was a child, oreven some people who are much
younger than I am.
You know, we've had a lot ofchanges in technology and just
in things that are accessible tofolks.
But what I will say as a resultof that change, I think that
(35:33):
our students and I think in agood way feel more empowered to
articulate what they want andwhat they need.
You know, I remember, you knowas a child and maybe if I said
well, I need this such and suchnot to do whatever.
And if I felt bold enough forsome reason, I hit my head or
(35:54):
something and actually went toschool and actually said that,
you know.
Then there was a conversationthat was going to happen with my
parents.
You know what?
Let's turn the same class today.
You know?
Could you make sure?
you have a talk with her youknow, because it's supposed to
be a nice, sweet, good littlesouthern girl and not say, well,
(36:16):
you know, this activity doesn'tmake sense, you know that was
not good and that was not polite, no matter how polite you said
it.
And I think, as long asstudents are being respectable
to the adults in their livesbecause I definitely do not
condone anyone not speaking tosomeone in a disrespectful way,
(36:39):
but I notice that students arebetter able, some to articulate
their needs and some are moreempowered to do so, and probably
because they are bombarded withso many different things, they
have so many types of activitiesthey engage in, they probably
have had a chance to sample somany different things.
(37:00):
And so I say this because weknow that an engaged student is
a more empowered student.
But I see that we're startingto listen to that, and so now we
are beginning to think okay,it's not just about the adult in
the room Now.
(37:21):
We've had times when we've saidthat and some people have
listened to it, but I see thatcoming back around and I think
that's a good thing.
And so one of the things thatyou will hear us say a lot and I
say us when we are, you know,talking to teachers about you
(37:42):
know best practices and thingslike that.
We're reminding them of theimportance of student engagement
and what's the differencebetween engagement and
entertainment.
You know, because we'redefinitely not saying you have
to be.
It was so funny.
I was at a recent conferenceand there was a teacher she's an
(38:02):
early career teacher.
Well, you know how they want usto move really fast and keep
the kids doing.
I said, well, who is they?
And she couldn't tell me whothey was because there is
nothing.
And I said sweetie, I said yourjob is not to entertain your
students.
I said you want to engage them,meaning that they need to be
actively involved and they needto be doing things that are
(38:24):
involved, result in sense making.
Because we know and the sameresearch has been around for
many, many, many years, but itkeeps coming back up every time
someone does a new study that ifwe and we know this as adults
about ourselves, but it's thesame for students If I can make
(38:45):
sense of what I'm doing, if Ican make connections between
what I'm doing and what it lookslike in the real world, there's
a better chance that I willmake meaning of it and I will
learn.
And so when you ask what aresome things on our radar, is we
know that for so long for somestudents that has not been the
(39:07):
case.
And so finally, we're kind ofall getting on the same level
playing field, because workforceis saying this is what we need
and it's going back to thosepieces and the students are
telling us this is what I needto be able to do, but I didn't
have the opportunity to do that.
So you see us activelyproviding opportunities where we
(39:31):
talk about this, talks aboutthat explicitly, of making sure
that it's relevant and that weactually are making sure our
(39:52):
students are engaged and it'sthe sense-making.
And so you know we've hadsense-making resources and tools
, you know, for a long time,even in principles and standards
2000,.
You know we talked about thosethings.
So you're talking 25 years agoand even before that that was
part of it.
(40:12):
But we're putting it, I guess,more as front and center and
doing additional resources andadditional professional learning
to support teachers with that.
How do you use the resources?
You have to actually make surethat you're helping students
make connections, so they'rehaving that sense-making, so
(40:33):
that you have that stick-towitness, because that's the
piece that's not happening.
Like you mentioned high school,those are the students who
started first coming back andtelling us and I mean as
educators in the community youknow this isn't working.
You know this is what I neededto know, this is what I didn't
(40:54):
get and things like that.
So how do we bring thoseopportunities the recent
publication with high school?
But then when we looked at thatit was like, well, you know, we
need to do this for high school.
We felt we owed it to our highschool educators because those
(41:15):
are the first set of studentswho are exiting to the real
world.
But you know what?
We need to look at this fromthe entire pre-K-12 spectrum,
and so we may or may not haveheard.
We have a new publication thatwill be released in 2026 at the
Denver Annual and it's pre-K-12focal points and so it's using,
(41:35):
you know, you guys may remembercurriculum focal points from the
2000s where we looked at K-8and identified what were those
focal point areas of content foreach of those grade levels and
those habits of mind.
So now to build that coherence,we're looking at pre-K-12.
So we want to be able to helpour educators make connections
(42:02):
between what happens in theearly grades and as we build on
the layers each year, becausethat's what we want our students
to do, because you don't startover each time In math.
You take something you have, youadd another piece, you add
another layer, you make sense ofit and then hopefully make room
(42:23):
for the new learning and, mostimportantly, it's the relevance
to make sure that they'reconnecting it to something that
makes sense in the real world,are using, you know, to come to
the classroom.
(42:49):
You know we have people say,the traditional avenue.
I'm not sure if that trulyexists anymore, you know,
because we have so manydifferent ways to become a
teacher than there were 32 yearsago when I started teaching.
So making sure that we providethem with support for how do you
(43:11):
do those pieces?
How do you do those things?
What's the important?
Math at this grade level?
How is it connecting to whatyou taught in first grade?
How does it connect tosomething in second, third,
fourth or fifth grade?
Why is it important that youhave that foundation?
And one of the reasons why Iwould always tell the teachers I
(43:33):
supported when a child walksinto sixth grade, they don't
have a stamp on their head thatsays I'm a sixth grader and I
know all the content that comesbefore this and are ready to
start here.
You know, because sometimesthey have knowledge that goes
(43:53):
beyond that grade level, but itmight be some parts of that
sixth grade content whereveryour state is that maybe I'm a
little bit fuzzy on some ofthose prerequisites.
So I need to know how thosepieces are connected, because
sometimes I, just as the student, I just need you to help me to
make connections.
So I need to know, as the adultwho is in the classroom, what
(44:16):
are those connecting pieces.
I can't just know my piece youknow.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
I need to know all the other pieces you know, or at
least the connectors, so I cansupport, you know, my
constituents, my students, youknow, think of it that way.
I think an important part ofwhat I'm hearing and what you're
saying is that engagement pieceand that making sense piece,
because there's a part of itthat like oh well, ok, the
student's going to come in sixthgrade.
They have these pieces that theyknow not so clear on other
parts they do know really wellor they know this other thing,
that's eighth grade, whatever itis, and as the teacher, I
(45:02):
really need and want them toengage in what I'm helping them
understand, because I can't justtell them how it makes sense.
To me, right, making sense islike they need to like, oh,
connect it to the pieces and dothe things.
And with that engagement,because if I'm just telling them
this is how it makes sense,then they're just back to like
memorizing and trying to figureout what I'm saying, right, as
the teacher, and it's such ahuge part of what we're trying
(45:22):
to do.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Oh, exactly, because that's what we do in the real
world when we're working,absolutely.
I mean, you know, we choosejobs that we love or we're
passionate about, but no oneknows everything they need to
know for whatever professionthey choose, especially not in
the first years.
But if I have a strongfoundation, I can build on it.
(45:44):
Or I can say okay, I understandhow to do A, b, c, d and E.
They're asking me to do this.
Let me see how I can make senseof this so that I can connect
the pieces.
And that's what we want.
We want them to have thingsthat they can use to build on,
just so that they are complete,whole individuals mathematically
(46:07):
, because there is a lot of mathin the world and they need to
be able to utilize it.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
And to have that confidence and willingness to
take those risks, to say I don'tknow, how to do that right, and
ask somebody too, because theexpectation is not that they're
just going to figure it all outor anybody right, it's going to
figure it all out themselves.
We need to be able to have thatconversation and those pieces,
and so it's creating that kindof a space as well.
So it's so many things.
(46:36):
I want to shift our line just alittle bit.
So in a few weeks here you'regoing to be coming down to San
Diego to speak with our teachersat the Academy of Best
Practices.
Joel will be there and I thinkthe topic that you've been given
, letrendonighton.
(47:08):
So tune in, actually, not in twoweeks, but next week.
We're going to bump a week andget you to part two of
LeTrendonighton's conversationnext week.
You won't have to wait quite solong and until then, enjoy.
So that is all we have time foron this episode of the More
Math for More People podcast.
(47:29):
If you are interested inconnecting with us on social
media, find our links in thepodcast description, and the
music for the podcast wascreated by Julius H and can be
found on pixabaycom.
So thank you very much, julius.
Join us in two weeks for thenext episode of More Math for
More People.
What day will that be, joel?
Speaker 1 (47:51):
It'll be July 22nd, pi Approximation Day, so not
food or anything like thatActually the number pi or the
ratio, and we'll talk about notthe actual day of Pi, but that
approximation day where theBabylonians had come up with an
approximation of the number thatwe know of as Pi today, and so
(48:15):
we'll go through some paststories that we've shared in the
classroom and how we've relatedto that in a fun way.
So we look forward to seeingyou again on July 22nd for Pi
Approximation Day.
See you then, thank you.
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