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 4.18 - International Sweatpants Day and an update from Brandon Pelter (ABP)
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This episode celebrates International Sweatpants Day, exploring the history, cultural significance, and societal perceptions of sweatpants while highlighting how comfort can enhance our daily lives. We discuss personal experiences with sweatpants and whether they can be considered professional attire.
Then we visit again with Brandon Pelter, Academy of Best Practices New Teacher participant to get an update of how his year is going. We talk about manipulatives, student engagement, feedback strategies, and more.
If you are interested in finding out more about the Academy of Best Practices program, visit cpm.org/abp. The application deadline is May 1, 2025.
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International Sweatpants Day Celebration
Speaker 1You are listening to the More Math for More People podcast . An outreach of CPM educational program Boom . An outreach of CPM Educational Program .
Speaker 2Boom .
Speaker 1All right January 21st .
Speaker 2It's January 21st 2025 . It's still interesting to say that .
Speaker 1That's because I'm on a few more weeks Exactly .
Speaker 2Probably all the way until September . Yeah , what is the day today ?
Speaker 1International Sweatpants Day .
Speaker 2Yes , international Sweatpants Day , really . So we're going worldwide with sweatpants .
Speaker 1We're being inclusive . The whole world can celebrate today .
Speaker 2Yes , the whole world gets to have sweatpants today . So that's interesting because I mean , my brain immediately goes to . Well , then call them sweatpants everywhere . I think in the UK they call them trainers . No , that's shoes maybe , but I think there's some other word they use for like sweatpants , but also is it only sweatpants , it's not the whole sweat jogger suit right like a whole , just sweatpants . Oh , all right , can I ? Can I wear like jeggings and leggings , or is it just only sweatpants ?
Speaker 1I think there's probably varieties like a legging would feel nice you could do athletic wear perhaps maybe that would be athletic wearing , because I mean also .
Speaker 2I think of when I the old school sweatpants that have the elastic on the bottom versus more modern sweatpants that are like on the bottom I have to say .
Speaker 1Oh yeah , they're more like yoga pants . I've reached a point in my life where I wear sweatpants on a daily basis actually , yeah , I celebrate every day .
Speaker 2Well , do you celebrate all the time ?
Speaker 1I do feel , I do feel .
Speaker 2Wow .
Speaker 1I was going to say , I feel some social pressure sometimes when , like , maybe , in a travel situation , although I yeah . I don't think I've seen you wear sweatpants when you travel I wear different types of pants but travel and wear different types of pants .
Speaker 2But yeah , I , I definitely I I do enjoy lounge wear , which I would qualify sweatpants as one version of . I mean , I probably wear them more around my house than I do to the gym anymore , yeah , but I mean , I go to the gym a lot less than I used to , though too . So , yeah , all right . So so so we need more sweatpants , see , we need more comfortable , comfortable wear , because confining clothing is not on my list of things I really need or want .
Speaker 2Yeah , so is there ? Is there a what's the I don't know justification or the like , motivation or the inspiration that ?
Speaker 1well international sweatpants day I'm looking now it's yeah this is the why is this a holiday question . I don't know why today is the day , but it is celebrating that . The history of sweatpants would say so . The creation of sweatpants was for athletes .
Speaker 1They did . They have made their way into fashion , like you had mentioned , the suits , the track suits and things like that , which I also have . Some track suits I believe you've seen a picture or two of me in a track suit yes . Tracksuits I believe you've seen a picture or two of me in a tracksuit .
Speaker 2yes , I mean every time there's a blazers game , I think you know they always show their fits and some of them are what I would consider to be tracksuits . It's probably not what they call them , but yes , some interesting things that monks were of the first to wear sweatpants .
Speaker 1Yeah yeah , In medieval Europe they were a basic form of sweatpants .
Speaker 2It's not a very funny picture . In my head it says a very funny picture . What did you say ?
Speaker 1In medieval Europe were the first to wear sweatpants .
Speaker 2Yeah , okay . It has a very funny picture in my head . I'm not sure I can quite conjure what that actually looked like . I think of sweatpants as being made of like usually not natural materials .
Speaker 1I don't know I guess I could look at my the tag I might have been yeah maybe they're like fleece is a cotton because they don't shrink . If you put them in the dryer , they don't shrink .
Speaker 2They have to well , not cotton shrinks . You have to . Just once it's washed , they don't shrink yeah interesting , okay . So monks wearing sweatpants , you could celebrate the day by hosting a sweatpants .
Speaker 1That's an interesting image there . You could celebrate the day by hosting a sweatpants party that's suggested .
Speaker 2So his party ? Okay , yeah , yeah , that sounds great . I think that sweatpants have an unwarranted sense of it's interesting . I think for some people have an unwarranted sense of it's interesting . I think for some people there's an unwarranted sense of shame around it right , or a judgment of oh you're only in sweatpants you haven't bothered to put on clothing . But then also , like I said , I see people , professional people , out and about .
Speaker 1I do yeah . But wearing sweatpants or wearing a very fancy tracksuit , especially with the work from home movement and pandemics and things like that .
Speaker 2For sure . Yeah , yeah , well , and yeah , I mean I think there's something around . Oh well , wearing clothing that's comfortable , I am too .
Speaker 1It's an elastic waistband . I am too .
Speaker 2I'm all for that .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2I'm also of the age that I'm all for that . I'm also of the age that I'm like I wore it to do my clothing being comfortable and fashionable at this point . So , what are you going to do to celebrate International Sweatpants Day ?
Speaker 1I know , I'm just full of celebration what are you going to do ? Okay ?
Speaker 2yeah , I'm probably going to also wear sweat . All right , okay , yeah , I mean probably going to also wear sweatpants .
Speaker 1I mean I feel like it's as good a reason as any to wear sweatpants .
Speaker 2So enjoy your International Sweatpants Day , everyone . Okay , so today is January 21st , so that means if you are listening to this today , then you missed the regular registration deadline for the teacher conference . If you haven't registered yet , because that was on the 19th , but you do have one last chance to register for the conference and get in by the late deadline . It is the last and final chance to get in for the teacher conference . The late deadline is coming up . It is on February 3rd 2025 . So you have to pay a little bit more , but you can still get into the teacher conference . It's all day Saturday , half day Sunday . We also have a Saturday only option and we have the pre-conferences on the Friday before . It includes your meals breakfast and lunch and it's going to be amazing .
Speaker 2We have 12 concurrent sessions , five different breakout times . Our wonderful keynote speaker is going to be Dr Nicole Joseph . She studies the intersection of gender and race in math classrooms . We'll have the Ignite for you . Peter Lillidal is going to be there . There's going to be so many great things you will not want to miss out , so go to shopcpmorg and get your stuff going so that you can get registered for the CPM Teacher Conference . Again , the days of the conference are February 22nd and 23rd . You can also register for Saturday only on the 22nd . Pre-conferences on the 21st Everything is at shopcpmorg . February 3rd is your last chance . Get there and we'll see you in San Diego , right ? So today we're really excited to be back here with brandon alter , who we talked with sometime in August I don't know , it was episode eight . We're like on episode I don't know 19 or something , 18 . And about his experience with the Academy of Best Practices for New Teachers and his plans for the school year . So we wanted to bring him back on and see how it's been going .
Speaker 3So welcome back , brandon . Yeah , thank you for having me back . I'm excited to be talking to you all again , and it feels like it was so long ago , but the ideas are still . I'm still working on a lot of what I learned , so I'm excited to talk about it .
Speaker 1What's like a big thing , that's happened .
Speaker 3Yeah , one of the big things that we had talked about the last time we caught up was algebra tiles , and so I've incorporated them a ton in the course that I teach throughout the . We're in a semester base , so our first semester is like a pre-algebra class , getting gearing kids up for algebra , one which they'll take in the second semester . So I've really tried to work them in anything you know , anytime possible . But solving equations has been a big point , and we saw so much success that my principal was willing to go out and buy some more .
Speaker 3So to make sure that my teacher across the hall , who also teaches freshmen , can use them if she'd like to as well . So I'll take that as a win . Use them if she'd like to as well , so I'll take that as a win . And I think continuing for myself in that learning process it's the first time that I've used them as a manipulative kind of working with them as an introduction has been great . And then for my own learning how to work kids more towards the abstract and what that timing might look like and how I maneuver you know when we're working with them and maybe I'll record the abstract Then I start the kids to like . That process has been where I've learned a lot in these last you know , in these last couple of weeks .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah for sure . It's such an individual pace . I think in some ways for kids , right , individual pace . I think in some ways for kids right , like some of them are really quick to move , to wanting to get away from the tiles or being able to grasp the abstract pieces , the symbolic notation , and then some of them want to hold hang on to them for longer . And I know when I was using them I was always like good on you , right , like do you want to do them longer ? That's great . At some point they become untenable , there's too many to deal with and kids kind of go away . But I always told my kids this was their one chance to work with algebra tiles . You know you're going to be able to work with symbols the whole rest of your life , but you're not going to walk around with algebra tiles in your bag . This is the time to really get that understanding , that reinforcement .
Speaker 3Yeah , I was even . You know , I was proud because the end goal , even though you have a manipulative , the end goal is just to help students better understand the abstract , right , it's not like we want to stay in manipulative land forever , but when I would see a student or two still drawing things out to make sense of them , I was really proud because I knew that that meant they understand , they understood how to use the tool and they also knew themselves as learners as , hey , I need to see this , let me work through this . So that was a really cool kind of small thing , but a really cool win to see that .
Speaker 2And it's still really valuable connections right , because as they move forward into algebra and we look at factoring and we look at complete a square , it always seems like that visual basis and that geometric connection to the algebra tiles is really valuable .
Speaker 3A hundred percent , yeah , so that's been a big win . I've been excited to be incorporating those and get some support here on the ground from admin . They see that that's successful . That's always a good thing .
Speaker 1How does your admin see it ? Are they just coming in your classroom and observing , or is there other teachers saying things ?
Speaker 3Some observations from my principal . But he's also , you know , he's really on board with whatever we can do to get to help student understanding . That's something he's passionate about and I'm also not a shy person . So when I would have those wins I would start some of those conversations with him so he saw the value . He saw it himself a little bit , but then also just in our conversations he was on board and the other teacher was interested . So yeah , let's go for it .
Speaker 2certainly a worthwhile investment yeah in addition to the manipulatives and the visual models right , I think you had also , I think there were two . I think you'll remember one was you mentioned using some of the motion detectors ? Yes , did you ? Did you follow through with that ?
Speaker 3yes , yeah , I , I , I love those . It's to me it's similar to the manipulatives and that it's just kind of like an access point and a lot of people always have these conversations . Oh , real world context , which I've come to not love that term . To me it doesn't have to be real world , it has to be tangible . It has to be something for a student to just make sense of a situation . It has to be tangible , it has to be something for a student to just make sense of a situation . It doesn't need to make sense when you're out in the street , it just needs to help you understand what we're doing .
Speaker 3So the CBRs are great in that respect and in helping kids to just make sense of , first and foremost , graphs , which by and large are a struggle , and seeing them considering things like slope without even saying slope , without me ever even saying slope or rate was , is really cool . And that's another tool , like the algebra tiles that I kind of get set here in this fall course and then when we jump into algebra one in the spring , that's something that comes back out and they build more connections and we dive deeper and we , you know , make sure that we can find slope and talking about time and distance of your walk and things like that . So I like this having this time to start with those things and then carry , carry through when it comes time for algebra one yeah , that'll be cool ,
Teaching Strategies and Goals
Speaker 3right .
Speaker 1I remember one thing you're talking about , too is giving your students authority right and letting them take the ownership and maybe using some study teaching strategies . So are there any of those that have kind of stood out that you're really using , or absolutely .
Speaker 3You know , when you first mentioned that , what jumps into my head I don't remember the , the exact name for it in the STTSs , but you know I would from time to time because I'd been doing the board work from before ABP there'd be times where groups are stuck and it's kind of like where most groups are stuck and I'm thinking is this , do I just call it and bring it back to the seats ? What do I do ? Are stuck and I'm thinking is this , do I just call it and bring it back to the seats ? What do I do ? So it's been . I loved having the strategy of like you have one person per group , kind of come in and meet , give them some information and they bring it back to their groups . That's been one that I really enjoy using , and then also , just even when they're at desks , different strategies and also , just even when they're at desks , different strategies , switching their groups . You know daily having different roles . In that sense , all of those , I guess , smaller moves , I've seen some really positive impacts in my classroom .
Speaker 2Cool , nice . So the other thing I remember you talking about was feedback , mm-hmm .
Speaker 3And you had some ideas about how you wanted to think about feedback this year . So one thing that I've started after a quiz or a test , especially if a student is interested in getting a better grade , I'll give them their test back with no right or wrong . I'm not going to tell you what's right or wrong , and I just want them to start by showing me what are you confident in and that gives me a really good idea of I definitely got this . And then that also gives them the chance to see their old answers and we can have conversations about was this even in the ballpark , or was it just a small mistake somewhere along along along the line of your work and you just put it in the calculator wrong Cause that we know that happens all the time , or did we just totally miss the boat ?
Speaker 3And so that's been something that really helps to start conversations . It's hard to do that as often as I'd like because that just takes so much time , but opportunities , even with exit tickets , where you know it'll just be one question and I'll have the same generic comment on a lot of them , but just starting class the next day to give that back to them and give them a chance to look at it again or even contrast it with another strategy or two that I might put up on the whiteboard , something like that , just to kind of keep that loop going . That's been really valuable Nice .
Speaker 2So you're here , you're mid-year-ish right . You said you're finishing one semester , going to the next . So what are some of your goals or your things you're going to focus on now , in the end of the year ?
Speaker 3I definitely want to . We were just talking about that feedback . I want to keep going with that and find a good balance and how I can continue to keep things timely but also just things that they can respond to . That keeps them doing something and isn't just a oh , okay , here's my grade , I'm done now . I'm continuing to work on that , I also . So what's been cool throughout the fall is I've gotten to catch up with , I've stayed close with , two of my fellow ABPers , so we've been in touch and trying to keep that going and keep that connection , because they're doing really cool things in their classroom as well . So sharing that .
Speaker 3And then I think , lastly , just in when I think about Algebra 1 and the abstractness that we're trying to get to get to with our students , just continue to . When I think about , like exponent rules as an , as a random example , that all just comes from your work with concrete numbers . So continuing to go back and start there before we get to x or y or whatever it is , because it I try to name with my students when they see X and Y letters and whatever like that looks really weird . I know , and I see a letter and I want to shut down . But didn't we just do that with two times two times two times two , didn't we just do that same thing ? Well then , we're generalizing . You know , we're taking , we're , we're . That's exactly what we're trying to do . Take these things that we know how to do .
Speaker 3Now let's say , like any time , but those concrete entry points , I think , especially for students that have struggled in the past , make a huge difference and they totally change math from this language that isn't supposed to make any sense to like oh , it's just that pattern written that way , that's not so bad , that's not so scary . Okay , x is like okay , I kind of were using a letter to just say any number . Oh , it's like a placeholder . Cool , not bad . So more opportunities like that , and I think that'll be a goal of mine 10 years from now . I don't think that'll ever stop being something that is really important to me .
Speaker 2That's great .
Speaker 1Yeah , the other people you're talking to . Are you spread out or geographically closer ?
Speaker 3No , no , we actually kind of span the country . I'm here in Connecticut , spencer is in Wisconsin and Sid is in California . So we have a good yeah , we've got it pretty well mapped out . I guess we'd have to meet in Wisconsin . That's the midway point , but we have actually all three of us have talked to one another and then we're trying to set up a time where where we can all meet as a group . But it's , it's really nice and I know I said this the first time that we talked what abp does in bringing together these newer teachers and people that are committed to learning , getting better at their craft . Now to continue that and see that through and and hear about what people are doing , because what has been my focus out of abp is totally different than than other people we were at . You know different points of of our learning , of skill and pedagogy , and so continuing to see that through and help them out and get advice , yeah it's , it's been really impactful .
Speaker 2Awesome , that's awesome . Well , thank you so much for coming on the podcast today and give us an update on how your year's going .
Speaker 1It sounds fabulous and so good to see you the rest of your year goes amazing . Yeah , thank you . I'd like to hear how it finishes up too . Absolutely .
Speaker 2We might be doing that too , yeah .
Speaker 3Yeah , you guys let me know . It's always a pleasure to chat .
Speaker 1Thank you .
Speaker 2Awesome . So , after you've heard all that , you might be wondering what is this Academy of Best Practices and how can I get involved ? Well , if that's the case , then you need to head over to cpmorg backslash A-B-P . That's A-B-P for Academy of Best Practices , and there you'll find all the deets , you'll find applications for new teachers and veteran CPM teachers and you'll find all the details about what's involved , what's provided , etc . Etc . The deadline for applications is May 1 , 2025 , and the Academy of Best Practices will be at the beginning of August in San Diego .
Speaker 2So go and find out and , if it seems right for you , apply . What do you have to lose ? So that is all we have time for on this episode of the More Math for More People podcast . If you are interested in connecting with us on social media , find our links in the podcast description , and the music for the podcast was created by Julius H and can be found on pixabaycom . So thank you very much , julius . Join us in two weeks for the next episode of More Math for More People .
Medjewel Date Day Celebration
Speaker 2What day will that be , joel ?
Speaker 1It'll be February 4th , medjewel Date Day . So I've had some experience with dates , but not a lot . But the MedJewel Date Day takes place on February 4th yearly and it serves the purpose of highlighting the benefits of the MedJewel dates . So it's originally a mid-eastern fruit . They made their way to the US about the 18th century and there's a hint of caramel flavor . They're sweet , they're delicious , one of the healthiest snacks that are purchased in the markets nowadays . So it's good for energy and can do wonders for people who are trying to cut down on the consumption of sugar . So it'll be fun to talk about medjool dates . See you february . Thank you .