37 episodes

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!

We’re former educators and we make it no secret how much we love math. Tune in for our conversations centered on all the ways that make it possible to enrich the entire learning experience for both teachers and students, ranging from specific topics like mathematical modeling to general ideas about student engagement. Every episode of this math ed podcast offers something new.

When we come together to talk through our ideas and the different teaching methods being used today — whether in the classroom or at home — it gives everyone a chance to expand their knowledge. We invite you to listen in with colleagues and friends so you can keep the conversations going, and keep on learning.

Meet your hosts: Curtis Brown and Joanie Funderburk
Curtis Brown leads numerous content development projects including the Families of Functions video series from Texas Instruments. Curtis also taught mathematics and Statistics for years, and he served as Statistics Specialist at the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) and Mathematics Coordinator at LTF. There’s a joy in exploring all the patterns and logic that can be found in mathematics, and Curtis is eager to jump into each podcast episode with new, interesting takes on the day’s topics.

Joanie Funderburk serves as Texas Instruments’ Strategic Alliance Director, advocating for high-quality STEM education and elevating the voice of educators in state- and national-level policy decisions. Joanie’s previous experiences, from teaching math for nearly 20 years to her roles as the Director of Facilitators at Illustrative Mathematics, and Manager of Professional Learning at Student Achievement Partners, have allowed her to learn from teachers across the country. Joanie pours her enthusiasm for math into this podcast with a belief that continuous learning benefits everyone.

Room to Grow - a Math Podcast Room to Grow Math

    • Education
    • 5.0 • 13 Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires macOS 11.4 or higher

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!

We’re former educators and we make it no secret how much we love math. Tune in for our conversations centered on all the ways that make it possible to enrich the entire learning experience for both teachers and students, ranging from specific topics like mathematical modeling to general ideas about student engagement. Every episode of this math ed podcast offers something new.

When we come together to talk through our ideas and the different teaching methods being used today — whether in the classroom or at home — it gives everyone a chance to expand their knowledge. We invite you to listen in with colleagues and friends so you can keep the conversations going, and keep on learning.

Meet your hosts: Curtis Brown and Joanie Funderburk
Curtis Brown leads numerous content development projects including the Families of Functions video series from Texas Instruments. Curtis also taught mathematics and Statistics for years, and he served as Statistics Specialist at the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) and Mathematics Coordinator at LTF. There’s a joy in exploring all the patterns and logic that can be found in mathematics, and Curtis is eager to jump into each podcast episode with new, interesting takes on the day’s topics.

Joanie Funderburk serves as Texas Instruments’ Strategic Alliance Director, advocating for high-quality STEM education and elevating the voice of educators in state- and national-level policy decisions. Joanie’s previous experiences, from teaching math for nearly 20 years to her roles as the Director of Facilitators at Illustrative Mathematics, and Manager of Professional Learning at Student Achievement Partners, have allowed her to learn from teachers across the country. Joanie pours her enthusiasm for math into this podcast with a belief that continuous learning benefits everyone.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires macOS 11.4 or higher

    Balancing Instructional Modalities

    Balancing Instructional Modalities

    In this episode of Room to Grow, our hosts look for the balance between instruction that is teacher-driven, traditional lecture-style, and inquiry-based, discovery-style lessons. They recognize the value of both types of teaching, understanding that there is a time in learning for both exploration and for direct and explicit teaching. 

    The conversation offers explanation of what conditions may require different teaching strategies, based on the goals and content of the lesson as well as how students are responding to and progressing (or not) toward intended learning. 
    The common theme between these approaches is student sense-making, and our hosts each share a personal example of taking opportunities to encourage sense-making in students.
    We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:
    NCTM President Kevin Dykema’s President’s message that sparked this episode: https://www.nctm.org/News-and-Calendar/Messages-from-the-President/Archive/Kevin-Dykema/Balancing-Instructional-Strategies-in-the-Math-Classroom/ TI’s Building Concepts lesson on structure in solving equations: https://education.ti.com/en/t3-professional-development/for-teachers-and-teams/online-learning/on-demand-webinars/2016/building-concepts-foundations-for-success-in-expressions-and-equations A sample problem-based curriculum for middle school (NOT the one Curtis’ son uses!): https://curriculum.illustrativemathematics.org/MS/teachers/what_is_pbc.html 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 Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

    • 37 min
    A conversation with the National Teacher of the Year

    A conversation with the National Teacher of the Year

    In this episode of Room to Grow, our hosts share conversation with Rebecka Peterson, the 2023 National Teacher of the Year (NTOY). Rebecka is a high school math teacher at Union High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on leave for the 2023-24 school year to fulfill her NTOY responsibilities. She views the NTOY not as an award, but rather a job, that of spokesperson and ambassador for the teaching profession.
    In this conversation, we learn about her teaching journey and the lessons she learned along the way that have shaped her focus in the classroom. She shares how she focuses on connections with students – connections to each other, to school, to the content, and to their communities. She reflects on current struggles facing math education systems, and her belief that choice could drive better student engagement, more student learning, and less teacher burnout. 
    We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:
    Learn more about the National Teacher of the Year program HERE See Rebecka’s NCTM Handout with more detail about her “Connections” talk and resources she uses in her own classroomLearn more about Explore Mathematics by Sam Shah, mentioned by RebeckaLearn more about Rebecka’s End-of-unit creative summary projectVisit Rebecka’s NTOY webpage HERE Direct link to press kit (including photos) Direct link to request RebeckaConnect with and learn more about Rebecka Peterson  Instagram - @Rebeckapeterson_X (formerly Twitter) - @RebeckaMozdehMedium blog - medium.com/@rebeckapeterson 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 (formerly Twitter) and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

    • 48 min
    Uncovering Student Thinking

    Uncovering Student Thinking

    In this episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie consider ways to uncover how students are actually thinking about the mathematics they are learning. Using a real-life, recent incident between Curtis and his sixth grade son, our hosts consider the challenging fact that many students think that success in math class means figuring out what answer the teacher (or the computer program/app, or the back of the book) is looking for. 

    They posit that when educators are always focused on the mathematics of the moment – what is being learned in a single lesson, week, or unit – we can focus students on the smaller grain size ideas instead of helping them to place their learning in the bigger picture of mathematics as a whole. As always, the episode recognizes that teachers work very hard at a very complex task: teaching young minds to deeply understand important mathematics!
    We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:
    “Listening to and Learning from Student Thinking,” by Elham Kazemi, Lynsey K. Gibbons, Kendra Lomax, and Megan L. Franke from Teaching Children Mathematics, October 2016.“Making Student Thinking Public,” by Shari Stockero and Laura R. Van Zoest from The Mathematics Teacher, May 2011.“Attending to Evidence of Students’ Thinking during Instruction,” by Miriam Gamoran Sherin and James Lynn, from Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, May 2019.The Five Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematical Discussions by Margaret Smith and Mary Kay Stein, ISBN: 978-1-68054-016-1Did 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 Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

    • 33 min
    Deep Mathematical Thinking Using Math Milestones Tasks

    Deep Mathematical Thinking Using Math Milestones Tasks

    In this episode of Room to Grow, special guests Sandra Lightman and John Staley help Joanie and Curtis understand the Math Milestones. These one-page resources include 12-14 math tasks that provide a visualization of and engagement with the math standards of each grade. The Math Milestones tasks present grade level math, not as a list of standards or learning outcomes, but as a groups of math tasks, a language understood by teachers and students. 
    The Math Milestones project was supported by Student Achievement Partners with Sandra and John as critical members of the team. The resources, available for free online, include a set of teacher notes that support using these tasks to better understand the math of each grade level, and to engage educators in conversations that get to the depth of the intended learning. Additional work is being done to provide “asset maps,” resources that allow educators to use student work and responses to the Math Milestones tasks to better understand and build upon students’ strengths. 
    We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:
    Learn more about the Math Milestones project on their website HEREFind the grade level grids (sets of tasks) HEREReview the teacher notes for each grade level HEREExplore additional resources to support teaching the standards from Student Achievement PartnersDid 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 Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

    • 42 min
    Impacting Teaching Practice with Routines for Reasoning

    Impacting Teaching Practice with Routines for Reasoning

    In this episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie continue their conversation with Grace Kelemanik and Amy Lucenta. In follow-up to our previous episode, this conversation shifts to a focus on teachers and how the Reason Routines help them to be more effective with more students. 

    We begin by talking about what makes teaching hard – including the fact that teachers make a million decisions every day in response to the students in the room and how they are engaging with the content; and that doesn’t even include the day-to-day challenges of interruptions, meetings, grading papers, and on and on! The routines are a support for teachers to use a structure for learning that frees them up to be responsive to the students in the moment.

    As we learned in the previous episode, the routines help teachers to (a) focus on student thinking, (b) get out of the middle of learning, and (c) support students’ productive struggle. These concrete strategies engage all learners in mathematical thinking, supporting special populations from the start rather than requiring an additional set of approaches to support them. Additionally, the routines create student agency in mathematics, providing ways for students to listen to, engage with, and learn from one another.
    We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:
    Be sure to explore Grace Kelemanik and Amy Lucenta’s website, Fostering Mathematical Practices …… and their books, Routines for Reasoning and Teaching for Thinking.Explore infographics, tasks, and more for the Connecting Representations routine.See the Connecting Representations routine in action in this classroom video.Be sure to go back and listen to Part 1 of this conversation if you haven’t already!!
    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 Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

    • 43 min
    Routines for Supporting Student Thinking

    Routines for Supporting Student Thinking

    In this episode of Room to Grow, Grace Kelemanik and Amy Lucenta join Curtis and Joanie to talk about how routines can provide the “opportunity and support for each and every student develop mathematical thinking and reasoning.” Although routines are used by most educators for a variety of reasons, Grace and Amy focus on “Routines for Reasoning,” which are specifically designed and structured to surface the ways that students are thinking about the mathematics and to better understanding the reasoning of their classmates to reinforce the mathematics content and thinking goals. 

    In this extended episode, Amy and Grace dive deeply into the “Four Rs” and “Annotation,” two of the five “Essential Strategies” that teachers employ within the routines, with an emphasis on how these strategies provide access and opportunity for all students to engage in the deep thinking of the lesson. Then, they describe the “Connecting Representations” routine in detail to help listeners understand the power of the routines in action. As Grace shares, the power of the routines and essential strategies is that they help teachers to “hand over agency to the students. Teachers are no longer are the sole authority in the classroom... it’s the students doing the heavy lifting.”
     We encourage you to explore the resources below, referenced in this episode:
    Be sure to explore Grace Kelemanik and Amy Lucenta’s website, Fostering Mathematical Practices …...and their books, Routines for Reasoning and Teaching for Thinking. Explore infographics, tasks, and more for the Connecting Representations routine.See the Connecting Representations routine in action in this classroom video.Be sure to join us for part 2 of this conversation next month!
    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 Twitter and Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy. 

    • 40 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
13 Ratings

13 Ratings

lorelei.mallett ,

Great Insights!

Joanie and Curtis bring timely and relevant information right to my ears! Their insights push me to reflect on my instructional practices and what I can do to meet the varied needs of my students. They acknowledge that teachers are constrained by time, standardized tests, and curriculum pacing. I have learned a lot from listening to this podcast. Give them a listen!

math_count ,

Reflective and Inspiring

I love listening to the thought processes and experiences of Curtis and Joanie. The topics are timely and relatable to the classroom.

alison_pruett ,

Great for math educators

I love listening to Curtis and Joanie! They feel like my friends/colleagues just having a discussion about math education.

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