Room to Grow - a Math Podcast

Room to Grow Math
  • 4.7 (15)
  • EDUCATION
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Room to Grow is the math podcast that brings you discussions on trending topics in math education in short segments. We’re not here to talk at people. We’re here to think and learn with others — because when it comes to mathematics there’s always room to grow!

  1. 3D AGO

    Instructional Nudges with Zandra de Araujo

    This episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie welcome Zandra de Araujo to the podcast. Zandra and her colleagues, Sam Otten and Amber Candella created math classroom “Instructional Nudges,” small tweaks to classroom practice that can make a significant impact on student engagement, learning, and sense making of mathematics.   The conversation reveals the origin of the Instructional Nudges project, some specific example nudges and how they work, and the coming soon Instructional Nudges aligned to the Mathematics Language Routines. Everyone will walk away with an idea or two to implement right away in the classroom!  Additional referenced content includes: ·       Zandra’s personal webpage ·       Practice-Driven PD webpage which houses all of the Instructional Nudges ·       NCTM article – Rate and Review nudge ·       Incremental PD guide ·       Two-minute teacher guide videos  Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

    41 min

  2. JAN 16

    From Anxious to Explorer: Rethinking Math Class for a Disengaged Generation

    This episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie discuss two publications they have engaged with regarding technology, adolescents, and learning. The Anxious Generation describes the impact of smart phones and other recent technologies on childhood development, providing an understanding of what is happening internally for students in our classrooms. The Disengaged Teen utilizes research data around modes of learning and how they play out in terms of classroom behaviors. Our hosts make connections between these texts and what these ideas mean for math educators and classroom practices.   Additional referenced content includes: ·       Book: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt ·       Podcast with Trevor Noah and Jonathan Haidt ·       Book: The Disengaged Teen by Rebecca Winthrop and Jenny Anderson Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

    46 min

  3. 12/17/2025

    What We Learned in 2025

    This episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie reflect back on 2025 and all that they learned during the year. A significant number of 2025 episodes of Room to Grow were focused on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating the 10th anniversary of its publication. Curtis and Joanie highlighted how these practices have survived the test of time, and continue to reflect good teaching in mathematics. Additionally, our hosts preview what new topics they are hoping to learn and explore podcast episodes about in 2026.   Additional referenced content includes: ·       NTCM’s Principles to Actions and Taking Action books ·       Pam Harris’ website and book ·       Julianne Foxworthy Gonzalez, Ph.D. in Mathematics Education. Math guidelines for supporting multi-language learners (MLLs).   All of us at Room to Grow wish you a peaceful holiday season!  Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

    38 min

  4. 11/26/2025

    Centering Student Reasoning in Conceptual Understanding and Procedural Fluency

    In this episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie reconsider the balance of conceptual understanding and procedural fluency in math instruction. Although this topic has been discussed before, our hosts acknowledge that there is great nuance and many considerations in considering these two ideas in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Curtis and Joanie discuss how inquiry-based, discovery-style learning opportunities are more open ended, are student centered, and are less teacher directed. They support these types of lessons in math instruction while recognizing that there are times when an explicit approach where teachers are sharing important information also has a place. Additionally, our hosts consider that teaching procedures and algorithms also provides and opportunity to cultivate conceptual understanding. When teachers help student find the  conceptual understanding within the procedures, they engage in mathematical reasoning. This type of reasoning through concepts and procedures contributes to a broader and more robust understanding of meaningful mathematics.   Additional referenced content includes: ·       NCTM article From Rules That Expire to Deeper Mathematical Thinking. Mathematics Teacher: Learning & Teaching PK-12 Volume 118 Issue 4. April 2025. (Membership required). ·       NCTM article Teaching Is a Journey: From Rules That Expire to a Journey Aspired. Mathematics Teacher: Learning & Teaching PK-12 Volume 118 Issue 4. April 2025. (Membership required). ·       Robert Kaplinski’s website and Open Middle website Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

    34 min

  5. 10/14/2025

    Developing Mathematical Reasoning with Pam Harris

    This episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie speak with Pam Harris. Pam is well known and loved for her website, podcast, books, and conference sessions all based on her core belief that “Math is FigureOutAble.” Today’s discussion centers on Pam’s newest publication, Developing Mathematical Reasoning: Avoiding the Traps of Algorithms. Pam starts with three distortions about math that are common among teachers, students, and the population, and can impact how educators engage students with math in their classrooms. Next the conversation shifts to what is meant by algorithms, and how they differ from strategies and formulas. Then the discussion focuses on the potential traps to learning that can result from teaching algorithms in mathematics. All of these ideas are based on the development of mathematical reasoning, from counting strategies to additive thinking, to multiplicative reasoning and proportional reasoning, then the functional reasoning that comprises much of the math students learn in high school. There are so many good ideas in this episode that will challenge you and get you thinking! Additional referenced content includes: ·       Pam Harris’ website, Math is FigureOutAble. ·       Pam’s book, Developing Mathematical Reasoning: Avoiding the Traps of Algorithms. ·       Pam’s podcast, Math is Figure-Out-Able! ·       Find Pam on all your favorite social media platforms. Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

    1h 4m

  6. 09/16/2025

    Changing Classroom Practice

    This episode of Room to Grow brings together our 2025 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from Principles to Actions, an NCTM publication. After discussing each of the eight practices in isolation over the last several months, this month tackles the ideas and challenges in actually making substantive change to classroom practice.  Our hosts share ideas for engaging with others in deeper professional learning, coaching, and peer observations, as well as ideas for individual teachers to work on making change in their classrooms. They acknowledge that change is complicated, and encourage listeners to engage in small, incremental steps that add up over time.  Additional referenced content includes: ·       NCTM’s Principles to Actions ·       NCTM’s Taking Action series for grades K-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12 ·       NCTM’s Principals to Actions Toolkit – Professional learning and other resources for a deeper dive into the eight Mathematics Teaching Practices Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

    25 min

  7. 08/19/2025

    Supporting Productive Struggle in Learning Mathematics

    This episode of Room to Grow wraps up Joanie and Curtis’ season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions. The final practice in the series is “Support productive struggle in learning mathematics.” This is defined as follows: Effective teaching of mathematics consistently provides students, individually and collectively, with opportunities and supports to engage in productive struggle as they grapple with mathematical ideas and relationships.  Our hosts begin with discussing the connection to classroom culture, ensuring that students feel safe, emotionally and academically, in order to be willing to struggle. Additionally, the expectations set by the teacher when there is a belief that productive struggle is a valuable and important aspect of learning math. Then they linger on the word “grapple” and the connotation it creates, and how different it is than the connotation of the word “struggle.” And they emphasize that productive struggle isn’t about the math being hard, but rather thinking about the mathematics in new ways, and making connections that may not have been obvious. A key idea is the importance of educators’ asking questions to better understand student thinking, which is a necessary condition for helping them to grapple with new mathematical connections. Additional referenced content includes: ·       NCTM’s Principles to Actions ·       NCTM’s Taking Action series for grades K-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12 ·       Favorite No protocol (5 minute Video) ·       Previous Room to Grow episode Helping Students Struggle Productively ·       Image of America flag made of baseballs Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

    43 min

  8. 07/22/2025

    Build Procedural Fluency from Conceptual Understanding

    In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis continue the season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding.”  This is defined as follows:  Effective teaching of mathematics builds fluency with procedures on a foundation of conceptual understanding so that students, over time, become skillful in using procedures flexibly as they solve contextual and mathematical problems.  Using some discussion about multiplication, our hosts try to differentiate what is meant by conceptual understanding and by procedural fluency. They tease out the confusion that can arise by associating conceptual understanding with inquiry-based instruction and procedural fluency with direct instructional strategies. Although these types of instruction often go together, they are different, and separating them can help educators focus on how to best get to student learning.  Additional referenced content includes: ·       NCTM’s Principles to Actions ·       NCTM’s Taking Action series for grades K-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12 ·       NCTM’s position paper on Procedural Fluency (January 2023 – membership not necessary)  Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on X and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

    44 min
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4.7
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

Room to Grow is the math podcast that brings you discussions on trending topics in math education in short segments. We’re not here to talk at people. We’re here to think and learn with others — because when it comes to mathematics there’s always room to grow!

Information

  • Creator
    Room to Grow Math
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    59
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Room to Grow - a Math Podcast
  • Show Website
    Room to Grow - a Math Podcast

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