I have seen first hand the power of setting high expectations of grade level content with students and I will never go back. I have seen the power of saying to a group of students who have been historically unsuccessful in mathematics, “I believe you can do grade level math so I’m going to teach you grade level math,” and I will never go back to teaching solely remedial content. I have truly been where you are, in a classroom full of students who have failed math for multiple

If you’re a 6-12th grade math teacher feeling like the disengagement, laziness, complacency, and apathy is just too much to bear… you’re in the right place. First, you are doing an amazing job. I just know it. Don’t beat yourself up or feel like you have to find a new career path. You can overcome this. Next, let's talk about the importance of motivating disengaged students in math, why so many students are struggling with math, and then discover some tips to boost motivation

Math fact fluency. It’s a heated debate in the math education world. On one hand, many are in favor of timed math fact fluency tests and...

Math has long been the most failed subject in middle school and high school. According to Ron Schachter's work, Solving Our Algebra Problem: Getting All Students through Algebra I to Improve Graduation Rates,* math is the reason cited by over 80% of high school dropouts that they gave up on school. And the pandemic has made math equity issues far more robust in the US and beyond. LAUSD, one of the largest school districts in the country, has “lost 20 years of math progress du

It’s natural to wonder, “is this workshop going to be worth my time and money?” Especially math professional development. You might be...

I’ve taught math at three different high schools. I’ve attended some amazing professional development for math teachers, and I’ve also...

What is “I do, we do, you do” Commonly referred to as “I do, we do, you do” the gradual release of responsibility (GRR) model is an instructional model where teachers deliver lessons in intentionally structured chunks. In their book, Better Learning Through Structured Teaching, Authors Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey define gradual release of responsibility as an, “instructional framework [that] is based on the belief that teachers can intentionally increase students' ownership

In my book, you’ll see that I use Cold Calling as a suggested strategy. But when you learn more, you can do better. Since the publishing of my book I’ve learned how polarizing saying things like “cold call” is in the math community. I believe using those words has contributed to more than a few people misunderstanding what I believe about math education. So as I’ve learned more, I’m trying to do better. I’d like an opportunity to more accurately describe the instructional rou

So you've just found out you're going to be teaching virtually again. You're in the right place! Whether you loved the distance learning...

I’m going to tell you a quick story from my fifth year in the classroom... I had a 12th grader in my remedial integrated math 1 class (yup.. he was repeating this class for the 4th time). He ditched my class often, but when he came, he got to work and was really trying hard to pass. We’ll call him Fernando for this post. It was time for our systems of equations unit to begin (side note: I’ve got a great blog post about systems of equations activities here ). I love the system

In the teacher groups I’m a part of, I keep seeing comments come up about the high amount of students failing math. Comments like, “80%...

About a decade ago I was a Math Teacher on Special Assignment at a large urban school district. The math subject area coordinator took me...

I personally feel the first week of school is the most important week of teaching. The community you create your first week will impact how students feel in your classroom all year long. This is especially true if you teach students with learning disabilities in math or students who struggle with math. We cannot use math strategies for struggling learners until our classroom community has been intentionally created first. Continue reading to find four reasons why classroom cu

Systems of equations was always one of my favorite units to teach because of the opportunity for real world applications. But it can also...

“Math strategies for struggling learners.” Have you googled that phrase? It can feel hopeless when we as teachers have a deep desire for...

Have you ever been ridiculously excited to try something in your classroom after attending a conference? Back in 2015 I went to the...

Keeping students engaged in the hybrid model definitely has unique challenges. As a math intervention specialist, I've been providing...

I recently facilitated a math workshop for one of clients as a math intervention specialist that maxed out my zoom capacity at 100...

I’m most passionate about supporting intervention math teachers and providing math teaching strategies for students with disabilities,...