More Math for More People
CPM Educational Program is a non-profit publisher of math textbooks for grades 6-12. As part of its mission, CPM provides a multitude of professional learning opportunities for math educators. The More Math for More People podcast is part of that outreach and mission. Published biweekly, the hosts, Joel Miller and Misty Nikula, discuss the CPM curriculum, trends in math education and share strategies to shift instructional practices to create a more inclusive and student-centered classroom. They also highlight upcoming CPM professional learning opportunities and have conversations with math educators about how they do what they do. We hope that you find the podcast informative, engaging and fun. Intro music credit: JuliusH from pixabay.com.
More Math for More People
Episode 3.17: Where Joel and Misty discuss ambrosia and hear from a former CPM student, now CPM teacher!
It's National Ambrosia Day! Joel and Misty chat about how they might celebrate.
Also, they have a conversation with Andie Peterson-Longmore, a former CPM student and now a CPM teacher and member of the CPM Teacher Research Corps as well. Andie tells them about her experience with CPM as a student, adopting it at her school in WI several years ago, and her TRC project.
Also, we have one more installment of Join Then on Their Journey and some farewells to 2023.
See you in January!
Send Joel and Misty a message!
The More Math for More People Podcast is produced by CPM Educational Program.
Learn more at CPM.org
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Email: cpmpodcast@cpm.org
Hello everyone, it's December 12th 2023. And this is episode 13 of season three, the final episode of 2023 of the More Math for More People podcast. Cheers.
Speaker 2:Hello, there, I'm. Joel.
Speaker 1:And I'm Misty.
Speaker 2:And you're listening to the More Math for More People podcast, an outreach of CPM educational program.
Speaker 1:We have a lot of conversations about math and math education on this podcast. We're passionate about continually improving the way math is taught and we hope that you learn something in every episode that helps you become better at what you do.
Speaker 2:And we hope that you have some fun and laugh as well. That always makes things a little more interesting.
Speaker 1:Yep, we're pretty passionate about having fun Joel.
Speaker 2:So please have a listen and we think it'll be well worth it. Boom.
Speaker 1:Well, here we are. It's 12-12-23, which that kind of defeats the nice symmetry of it. It's 12-12. 23. 23. So 12-20-20, 12-12-24 will be so exciting.
Speaker 2:So much better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, so what day is it though?
Speaker 2:Well, it's 12-12-23.
Speaker 1:I'm just kidding. I'm kidding, wow, you're a funny guy.
Speaker 2:It's National Ambrosia Day.
Speaker 1:Let me say that, like it's so.
Speaker 2:Yes, ambrosia, okay.
Speaker 1:National Ambrosia Day. That's right. The healthy treat. What?
Speaker 2:That's what it says. It says it's healthy, it's got marshmallows and jelly beans fruit lots of vitamin C.
Speaker 1:Well, okay, because we put fruit in a dessert doesn't make it healthy. In my opinion, this would disagree with your thinking there, but I guess saying something as healthy is all relative.
Speaker 2:True.
Speaker 1:If you were only eating the marshmallows and the jelly beans, then it would be less healthy. It's got. And if you put them on fruit.
Speaker 2:Pecans and nuts. Those I think, are healthy treats Sure.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Sour cream yogurt.
Speaker 1:What? Yeah, a sour cream and yogurt. Well, it says. It said it had like whipped cream.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can choose. It says the choices are you can use whipped cream or sour cream or yogurt to achieve your creamy texture.
Speaker 1:That would have a slight, very different appeal. Everything we're describing about this delicious treat just sounds awful.
Speaker 2:I don't want to diss Ambrosia.
Speaker 1:Okay, so Ambrosia is essentially fruit salad that you have made into a creamy fruit salad by adding whipped cream or sour cream or yogurt and possibly some nuts. Yes, right, okay.
Speaker 2:I think that's basically what it says.
Speaker 1:Okay, excellent, and is this something that people tend to eat at the holidays? That's why it's mentioned or is it a winter salad? Well, I'm wondering why today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good question. I guess I don't know. I'm looking at the stuff right now and I don't see much about the Ambrosia Day itself, but I do see as early as 1200 BC, like citrus deliciousness treats were out there.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:When do you think?
Speaker 1:the first it existed for some time. That's right.
Speaker 2:When do you think the first printed recipe of Ambrosia came around?
Speaker 1:First printed recipe, I'm going to say the 1500.
Speaker 2:1932.
Speaker 1:Oh, I was way off.
Speaker 2:You're way off.
Speaker 1:I went with the like what's the yes? I'm going to say seemingly ludicrous early, as opposed to just reasonable 1932.
Speaker 2:And why do you think it was called Ambrosia? I'm sorry, Ambrosia.
Speaker 1:It was called Ambrosia because Ambrosia is the Greek food of the gods. So I am assuming they were likening it somehow to that or they were just. I mean, there was a band called Ambrosia, but I don't think they were around in 1832. It probably wasn't named after the band.
Speaker 2:So the word means delicious or fragrant, really, uh-huh, the gods on Mount Olympus. They ate this Ambrosia to maintain their immortality, and if they did not eat the Ambrosia, they became weak.
Speaker 1:Oh, that would follow.
Speaker 2:That's a good reason to eat Ambrosia.
Speaker 1:I don't think it was sour cream and fruit.
Speaker 2:And it does say it is associated with holidays, but they geographically say it's for southerners.
Speaker 1:Oh, interesting. I'm not sure, why that is, but I always think of Ambrosia being I think I am confused Ambrosia with a Waldorf salad, Like I think of Ambrosia.
Speaker 2:What's on a Waldorf?
Speaker 1:salad? Well, I think Waldorf salad is just apples and nuts and whatever you think you're putting on it. And so I think Ambrosia is more like I think of, like fruit cocktail.
Speaker 2:I always think about and I've shared this on an earlier episode of the podcast but my mom really liked green jello with olives and cottage cheese and things like that, and in fact one of our PL team members, jeremiah Morgan, and his family actually made it based off of the podcast.
Speaker 1:Based on your recommendations.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, Loved it, by the way, but that's what I think of with the Ambrosia. I'm not a big holiday creamy fruity salad kind of guy.
Speaker 1:Or they're like minced meat pie.
Speaker 2:I do like a minced meat pie.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure I've ever had minced meat pie. All right. So it's National Ambrosia Day, so what are you going to do to celebrate Joel?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to look at pictures of Ambrosia salad, I think.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, excellent.
Speaker 2:How about you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not sure how I'm going to celebrate this one. I might eat some fruit, how's that?
Speaker 2:That's a good one.
Speaker 1:I could do that. I might eat a deconstructed Ambrosia salad.
Speaker 2:Even better Deconstructed Ambrosia salad. Deconstructed Ambrosia salad. I just saw a hipster. Am I dating?
Speaker 1:myself by saying hipster, no, I don't know, I'm not the person to ask. All right, well, as you can go out and celebrate National Ambrosia Day in your own way, as you always are able to do.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Okay, so today we are here with Andy Peterson-Longmore and Andy, you are a teacher in Nina, wisconsin, right? Yep, okay, cool, good points for me. And Andy is here because Andy has an interesting story. She was a CPM student and then now is a CPM teacher and also a member of TRC, and so we're going to hear Andy's story of how those things came up. So welcome to the podcast, andy.
Speaker 6:Thank you, it was a really interesting experience. So one of the things that I guess I never realized was interesting or unique about my story is that I was in a program like CPM. So I guess, looking back in time, I started high school in 2006. So the program had existed for quite a while at that point. But in that part of Wisconsin I grew up in Green Bay, cpm wasn't as big of a program that existed. So we were, I guess you would consider a unique school in that perspective. And I went through an integrated curriculum so I did math one, two, three, four and five. So even more unique.
Speaker 1:So way back before connections even yes.
Speaker 6:So it was fun because we did a four by four block, which means you do one semester of math one, then you do a semester of math two in your freshman year and then you move on to math three and four as a sophomore and so on, and I really loved it because one of the things that I really struggled with was I always wanted to move faster than my teachers would allow me to because they were trying to directly teach all the time.
Speaker 6:So when I moved into a CPM curriculum it was an opportunity for me to be free of that and go as fast or as slow as I needed to. It also allowed me and my best friend, who also was in the class. Together we spent a lot of time kind of teaching each other in this really wonderful way where it was like the only time we ever even really spoke to our teacher was when we were stuck, which was nice because he would talk over and just check in and be like how are you doing? And as soon as he realized that we were we were on the right path, he was able to focus on other kids that were able or that needed a little bit more help. I moved into teaching right around act 10 in Wisconsin, which, if you don't know what that is, that was the removal of collective bargaining rights for teachers. So it was a struggle period in Wisconsin for teachers.
Speaker 6:And that's where we ended up going to a lot of very traditional teaching all around the state my previous district. That's what they used was something, another curriculum that did a lot of very direct teaching. When I moved to Nina, we ended up doing a curriculum study and we were looking for something new and I had suggested that. This is a curriculum I grew up with and I thought it was something that might be fun for us to look into. It was definitely becoming trendy to look into problem based curriculums at that time and they actually agreed to take a peek at it. So we looked at CPM along with several others, and it was fun to be able to encourage our entire department to really look at this and what it could do for our kids.
Speaker 1:Did you have to make a lot of arguments or did you have to, like, fight for it a little bit? Was there resistance?
Speaker 6:A little bit there was quite a bit of resistance, just because anybody who grew up pre I would say 2012 even had a very direct model where your teacher stood in front and did the I do, now we do and now you do model teaching.
Speaker 6:So they were very nervous not necessarily like mad or upset about the idea of doing it in a different way, but just scared of appearing as though they weren't teaching and that they weren't really helping the students move forward.
Speaker 6:But one of the things I brought up that I thought was really special about CPM that I noticed particularly after becoming a teacher is a lot of teachers seem to have this their math exists in kind of boxes where, if I'm talking about geometry, the things that are in my brain are very geometry and if a student comes over and asks a pre-calc question, I have to like get out of the geometry box and jump into the pre-calc box where CPM, with all of the mixed-space practice and everything that we've done.
Speaker 6:I don't really have those boxes in my brain. So a kid can come over and ask me a completely random question about law of science and then a kid over here could be talking about how to find the slope, and it doesn't matter. For me I can do both at the same time to where a lot of other teachers seem to really struggle with that, and I recommended that. I thought that would be really helpful for us, because in the world you don't live in those boxes. So it's a lot easier if all of your math is scattered out in front of you and you can just pick up whatever you need rather than focusing on just one content area.
Speaker 2:Totally. Did you know you wanted to be a teacher when you were graduating high school?
Speaker 6:No, I went to a school that encouraged something called a vocation, which is like your calling, and I had originally planned to be a translator. I studied Spanish and during act 10, when everything was going on, I felt called to make a difference in education and to move back into that field, and I chose to go into math instead of anything else just because I had loved it so much in school and my experiences.
Speaker 2:Reflecting now. Do you think CPM had anything to do, because you've had two experiences in high school. Do you think that made an influence in your decision?
Speaker 6:Absolutely. One of the things that I think is so important about the curriculum is that it encouraged my interest in. If you needed to go off on a tangent for a minute and look into something totally weird and different than what maybe the rest of your classmates were looking into, I felt like I had the privilege that I could go ahead and just do that. So if I was like, oh well, this problem is talking about the volume of a sphere, but that makes me wonder about the volume of the earth, we were given the free reign to be able to take what we were learning and say, oh, let's go apply it to this other thing and then come back together with what everybody else is doing in class, which was really wonderful. I also like that. It forces you to learn how to attack problems rather than being told what to do in terms of how to solve a problem. So that was a really cool experience that it forced me to get used to the idea of I need to attack my own problems and figure out my own solutions.
Speaker 1:So I'm wondering, I'm wondering. I have two questions. I'm gonna decide which one I'm gonna ask first. So what year was it when you adopted CPM? Then, when you went, changed from what you were doing before to doing CPM now? Do you remember about when it was? I like, or about?
Speaker 6:how long. I believe it was 2020.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, great year to change things, yeah. No. So my question then is so that you've been doing CPM now for a couple of three years, right? Some of them are a little bit strange perhaps, and I'm wondering how your experience receiving that instruction via CPM as a student is impacting your thoughts and decisions as a teacher now. Like, how are you connecting that when you go? Oh, and I was a student, this, but sometimes your students might not be the same as you and how you thought, so I'm wondering how that is impacted you.
Speaker 6:One of the things that I think is really fun is that I get a bird's eye view.
Speaker 6:I have that in my brain because I went through everything, so I know, for example, we teach the box method in Algebra 1 when we're talking about how to solve a or how to do multiplying binomials Sure, so then I'm able to talk about that's gonna be really important because in Algebra 2, we're gonna move into Polidoca where you're gonna talk about division of polynomials, and that's gonna be really important because being able to do those two skills helps us when we move into imaginary numbers and all of the things that go there. So a lot of times when I'm teaching I'll tell the kids that we have the front stage, like this is me teaching, but then we also have backstage, where this is why this is important and this is where it's going and why you need to know these things. And I try and frame it for my kids that way so that they get the perspective of what we're talking about. Now has this huge long thread that spans through Algebra 1, geometry and Algebra 2, and even PreCalc and beyond.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, it's all connected Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And you're involved in the teacher research core as well. Yes, correct, yeah, and how's that going for you?
Speaker 6:It has been a really awesome experience.
Speaker 6:I heard about it from the person who came in to do like the first year that you start adopting CPM, they have somebody come in and help you through it, and I had told her about my experiences being a student of CPM and that I didn't really feel like I needed a lot of help with how to teach it because I was so familiar with how it worked.
Speaker 6:So she suggested maybe looking into TRC as a way to extend my own learning and better understand what I wanna do. So this year we went to San Francisco for our TRC Summer Institute and I got to work with a bunch of different people from all over the country, but several from within Wisconsin, which was really cool, and we have a team that is called Connections and Retention, and so me and my team are focusing on the connections that exist between the different curriculums and ways to make that extremely clear for our students, because we think that that's where our students are going to benefit the most moving forward. So one of the big things I'm doing as part of my research project is figuring out ways to draw that giant line that exists through Algebra I, geometry and Algebra II to help our students connect. This is something I learned in Algebra I. Here's where it shows up in geometry. Here's where it shows up beyond.
Speaker 1:That's where our research is focused. Yeah, so that mixed-based practice thread through the courses right.
Speaker 3:Yeah totally.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's awesome and so you're looking at. So, just to make sure we can understand correctly, you're looking at what the threads are and then how to communicate, make those more apparent for students as they're going through it.
Speaker 6:And helping them to draw their own threads as well.
Speaker 1:I see, I see, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 6:Well, that sounds awesome. Yeah, that sounds awesome.
Speaker 1:And is that so? I know sometimes in TRC the research can be like a one year or a couple years Like. Do you feel like this is a thing that's you're going to be able to grapple and get a whole handle on in one year, or is this going to be a longer term thing for you think?
Speaker 6:My hope is for it to be a several year thing, Me more high school. The school I work at is a very large high school, but I'm fortunate that I get to loop with my students. Cool. So there are 17 math teachers in my department, but I get to spend usually two years with a group of about 30 kids that'll go with me through Algebra 1 and Geometry. So our hope is that I can use what I'm learning right now with these students and then apply it next year and see if we can draw that thread out even further.
Speaker 2:Very cool.
Speaker 1:Nice, that's I just. Your story is really cool. I think that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's got to be some large number ish of students people out in the world who were students and to CPM, and to think of how many of them have gone on and done so many things and hopefully a lot of them have come back to teaching Right, I don't always know who they are.
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 6:Yeah, as we were talking about it, it made me reflect a little bit. Just from my own experience I know of, there were 14 people from my graduating class at my high school that I know went on to be teachers, most of them at the elementary level, but they were all graduates of a CPM program and I'm curious how that impacted their elementary school classrooms.
Speaker 2:I was just thinking the same thing. You wouldn't even have to be a math teacher, it could be.
Speaker 1:I know teaching CPM impacted how I taught science at the same time. Just change the way I thought about learning and working and how to construct lessons and units to try to build those kinds of connections for people. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 6:I'm in our department chair as well, so in this new role.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 6:In this new role. It's been a lot of fun because our science department we've been sharing with them the team roles that we use, so now they also use resource manager task manager facilitator. They use that language and they're trying to design a lot of their physics lessons which is what we have as a ninth grade science curriculum so that it matches with what we do in algebra one so that they can talk slope and the starting point and we're using all the same language as they move between our two classes.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I should help.
Speaker 6:All right, yeah, we're hoping that it's going to show some really great improvement for both of us, since that's a really important skill, but it also is something that our students really struggle with recognizing those kind of ambiguous terms.
Speaker 1:Well, and it takes that math into the real context right. It's problem-based learning extended from your classroom into other classrooms. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and telling us your story.
Speaker 1:It's really fabulous and we hope to hear more about your TRC project later in the future.
Speaker 6:So, yes, check us out in February, right? Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:Come to the conference and hear what you're talking about. It's awesome. I love it All right, thank you. Here we are with another installment of Join them on their Journey, enjoy.
Speaker 3:Hi, this is my camera from the Northern Lower Michigan. I was asked to reflect a little bit on what my goals are between now and the holiday break. I really do think it's a good time to actually sit back, reflect a little and try to figure out how I want to improve what I'm doing within my classroom. We all know CPM is. It's a heavy lift trying to make sure you're covering all the things you need to you're moving fast enough, kids are having time to process their information and things like that, and right now, one of the things I'm struggling with is tempo and coverage of material. I'm finding that my kids, being their first year, are really struggling with processing this information and trying to make sure that we are still learning the things they need to learn. Prior to this curriculum, it was very much a teacher-centered approach with a lot of direct instruction, so they are basically waiting for me to do those kinds of things. So, with that being said, I've been moving much slower through things and I know I am not moving at a pace that I should be. So my goal is to start looking for ways to find and take some things out, but still get to the right materials and things like that. So I'm going to be working with my ISD a little bit to kind of figure out how that's going to go. Another thing that I'm kind of thinking that I'm not doing very well at but I really do want to improve on is utilizing some of these STTS strategies. I have found that everyone that I've tried and used in the right way has really worked. But I do have a lot of preps and we all know if you have a lot of preps it's hard to go through and manage all of these pieces. So my goal is to try to just implement a few more strategies before Christmas break and see how those things work and see if there are some because I'm sure I'm going to develop this go-to to some of the strategies and things like that that really do work for my kids.
Speaker 3:The final thing is assessment has been kind of a struggle. It's like when do I assess? What do I assess? So my plan moving forward is I'm going to try to go to a bi-weekly quiz sort of system, being every two weeks they'll take a quiz. But I'm also trying to include mixed space practice. So as I assess I am making sure to include things from chapter one or chapter three or wherever it is the different lessons that were being presented. I have done one of those already and I think it really was a good indicator of how my kids are doing and where I needed to go. So this kind of bi-weekly assessment strategy I think is going to be very beneficial for me at this point, especially with me just starting out and trying to figure out where my kids are. So those are my goals between now and Christmas to work out some of that.
Speaker 3:So when I come back from Christmas we all know that stretch that goes between January, february and March. At least here in Michigan there's not a lot of days off, so you have a lot of teaching time where you can really make some headway and make some ground. So, going into Christmas, those are the things that I am going to really be focusing on and trying to make sure for January one. I have a much better handle on and am able to manage that a little bit better within my CPM classroom. So it's been a pleasure. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and I hope your CPM classrooms are doing wonderfully and I hope you're learning lots, just like I am learning lots in this first year. Have a great holiday and Merry Christmas. Bye.
Speaker 5:Hi Misty and Joel Graham here. The end of 2023. Getting ready for winter break. We've got a week and a half to go and it's a good time to reflect on how things are going and what I want to focus on for the coming year to keep us on track.
Speaker 5:Today I did a participation quiz and that's something I think I would like to do more of in more of my classes Did it in my fourth period, my last period, and it was something I felt like we needed to help us focus on respect and participating and focusing on our group. I was surprised and impressed with how students bought into the quiz and wanted to do well. I also noticed, and reflecting on it, that when I wrote positive comments that other groups engaged in similar ways. Not every group did, but more groups engaged in those positive behaviors. So, as I reflected, I think that when I was positive and wrote positive comments about students, I think it helps me see the good things that are going on in class and it helps students see that good things are going on in class and it can be contagious. It can spread, in that we want to do well, we want to learn and when we see awesome things happening that spreads and we try to do that as well. So I think that was a realization for me. I wrote down on the board when I saw off-task behavior. But I think maybe more importantly to acknowledge and celebrate the positive, awesome behavior, the great discussions that were going on, that is what I think really motivated students better and helped students want to participate and engage with the content. So that is definitely something I think I will work on and modify and make sure students are aware of, and I think at the end of class was a time I could have a debrief and maybe try to make sure students are paying attention and seeing those good behaviors so that we can revisit them.
Speaker 5:I also, in thinking about assessments, had some of my classes do presentations on cultural designs that have symmetry in them to help them show the types of symmetry we studied in integrated one math and I thought that was a great way to get students demonstrating what they learned as well as practicing presentation skills that I really noticed we need to practice more of. So I thought that was a great alternative assessment and it was something I think students could use more practice with but also got me to think about how to structure the presentation more. I think with MLL students it helps to have sentence frames or sentence starters that I would like them to say in the presentation and to have some structure with that. I think could have been helpful. But all in all, I think the presentations were beneficial and I think it showed me that they were helpful but also that we should do more of them.
Speaker 5:Coming out of the pandemic, I think speaking in front of people and putting together an organized presentation is a skill that we could use more practice with. So hope things are going well. See you in the next year.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this is our final episode for 2023. Wow, yeah, cpm always takes a business holiday over the December and January, beginning of January. So the business office is closed from the 22nd through the 4th, resuming on the 5th. So we will be taking a break also and we'll skip a podcast episode during that and resume again January 9th. So, joel and I want to make sure that you what that we do what.
Speaker 2:What do you want to make sure that? We want to make sure that you have a great time off in this time that you are taking care of yourselves, hope that you have some moments for reflection of how the year is going so far. We're halfway through almost our school year, and so we want you to be able to continue strong in the coming 2024.
Speaker 1:So please rest and relax, spend some time with your family or friends whatever makes you feel refreshed and take this break. We will see you in January.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 4:Hello from CPM's professional learning team. This is Sharon Rendon and I'd like to take just a minute during this final podcast of 2023 to extend gratitude from CPM's team for engaging with us this year, Whether you participated in our learning events, whether you piloted our new inspiring connections materials, if you've engaged with us on social media or through this podcast, or if we've had the pleasure to meet you in person at a conference. We have loved the interactions we've had with you. As you begin to wind down the year, take time to reflect and celebrate the amazing work you've done and the success that you've had in and out of the classroom. We appreciate and thank you for everything you're doing to bring more math to more people. We look forward to connecting with you in the new year.
Speaker 1:So that's all we have time for on this episode of the More Math for More People podcast.
Speaker 2:For more information on Stay Connected, find CPM on Twitter and Facebook. You can find our handles in the podcast description.
Speaker 1:The music for the podcast was created by Julius H and can be found on pixivaycom. Thanks, julius. Join us in two weeks for the next episode of More Math for More People. What day will that be, joel?
Speaker 2:A tirade about our world Parallel oozing ravenous surface, so not dripping across wild. That's right, it'll be January 9th, poetry at Workday and I had just rolled my high cubes there, got a little poem for us, excited to talk about poetry, and maybe I'll tell a tale of when I was younger and was really kind of in the poetry a little bit. So I can't wait to talk about it with Misty and we hope to all see you in the new year on January 9th. Thank you in advance for watching. Bye.