Episode 5.18: 3, 2, 1, Ignite!

On this episode we share the Ignite talks from the 2026 CPM Teacher Conference. 

The room buzzed with that end-of-day, can’t-stop-thinking energy as teachers took the Ignite stage and proved how five-minute stories can shift an entire practice. 

Personal stories tie it all together: a quiet teen who returns years later to teach calculus, reminders to expect students to surprise us, and a joyful tour through primes, cryptography, and algebra tiles that rekindle why we teach math in the first place. Along the way, we touch leadership that centers wholeness, reading that fuels growth, and communities that make better math together.

If this sparked an idea or gave you courage to try something new, share the episode with a colleague, subscribe for more, and leave a quick review telling us the one change you’ll make next class.

The More Math for More People Podcast is produced by CPM Educational Program.
Learn more at CPM.org
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Facebook: CPMEducationalProgram
Email: cpmpodcast@cpm.org

Transcript

Welcome And Conference Setup

SPEAKER_09 0:17

You are listening to the More Math for More People podcast, an outreach CPM educational program.

SPEAKER_05 0:31

Hello, everyone. So last week we had our 2026 CPM teacher conference in San Francisco, which I am one of the main organizers for. And my co-host, Joel, is a major part of it as well. He MCs our opening session, closing sessions, etc. But one of the things that he primarily does is organize an MC the Ignite session, which happens at the end of the day on Saturday. Several speakers get up and they give an inspiring and passioned uh talk with slides that automatically advance every 15 seconds. So I think they have 20 slides, if my math is right, and they have a five-minute talk that they give while these slides are advancing. So it's always an interesting thing to see how well they stay on time with their slides. Um, their messages are super inspiring and super interesting. And so what we have for you today here is a live recording. So the quality will be a little different, so just bear with that. A live recording of our Ignite speeches from the 2026 CPM Teacher Conference. And as a slight side note, if you are interested in, if you hear these inspiring speeches, becoming an ignite speaker or a speaker for the CPM Teacher Conference next year, you can send in your proposal beginning in April. So more details on that coming out. Enjoy our Ignite speakers from the 2026 CPM Teacher Conference. Cheers.

What Is An Ignite Session

Live Recording Disclaimer And Invitation

Ignite Kickoff And Host Banter

SPEAKER_10 2:04

Okay. So let's go ahead and get started with our ignite session. So go ahead and finish getting our stacks, come on to the seats, and we'll kind of get going here. Um did you have a good day today? Awesome. I did too. I say I I did have one downside. Rekin can back me up on this. When we all left here this morning, and there was like a little break with some food, somebody actually left an uneaten sticky bun on a napkin. I don't think it was personal, but I I think I might take it that way anyway. So um, anyway, I hope you enjoyed your sticky bun day uh and all the things that go with it. So, again, I want to thank everybody for being here. I want to thank you taking the time out of your busy schedules. This conference is for you. This is one way that CPM tries to give back to the math education community is by holding this conference. Um, we're happy to be back here in San Francisco, and this is a really exciting uh piece of what we do to ignite your passions, to um whatever uh you hear today, I hope inspires you one, to maybe do an ignite next year, but two, to uh in your practice that you can take with you and that you can uh move forward with that. So this group of people has really sacrificed um their time, their nerves, their energy, and so let's welcome all of them. Let's just give a little applause right now. What is going on here? Okay, Daniel's artistua. Alright. Personally, he enjoys antiquity, riding his motorcycle, and a good meal. Now, one thing I get out of this year, also I asked everybody to send me kind of like two troops in a line. So I'm gonna say them now. It's up to them if they want to reveal the live. So um, I'll just here's some facts about Danny. So he has ripped a tree out of the ground with his bare hands. He's worn the same outfit every year for picture day. And he's back the trailer into an opening with an inch clearance on both sides. Let's welcome Dan.

SPEAKER_03 5:18

Alright, any guesses on the line?

unknown 5:22

Trailer.

Speaker 1: Surviving To Year Six

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Ooh. Okay, it was a dead small tree, so technically I have ripped a tree out of the ground. Uh, this is the outfit I wear for every picture day. I can't back a trailer up to save my life. My grandpa did I saw my grandpa do it with like literally a centimeter clearance on both sides, and I was like, you're 70. And I can't, I can't, oof, so yeah, can't back my trailer. Yep. The US Department of Education reports that nearly 50% of teachers leave the profession in the first five years. That's when my first year teaching, an older, experienced teacher pulled me aside and said, repeat after me, six. So if you make a tier six, you beat the statistic. When things get rough, just think six. And that stuck with me. So much so that I have a tally on my calendar at home, marking the years up until I make it to your six. And obviously, each tally mark represents a year, and each year has a story. So I'd like to take a moment to tell you the story of each year so far, and as I do so, you'll see it hasn't necessarily been the more math that has kept me going, but rather the more people. And it all starts with year one. My quote for that year was I was going in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with the ignorant bliss of a first-year teacher, and I was gonna ride it out for 10 years. Now, being my first year teaching, it was also my first year teaching CPM, and I know I shouldn't say this at like a CPM conference, but I didn't like it. I thought I knew better than the book, and it was just so much different than the way that I was taught math, that at the end of the year, when I saw the opportunity to apply for something called the Academy of Best Practices, I leapt at the chance. And I got in. I was hoping to learn best practices, which I did, and I got so much more out of it. I was introduced to a community of teachers nationwide who were curious and passionate, just like I was. And that really refueled my fire for year two. And year two was not my first rodeo. I felt ready to go. With the support of my instructional coach and my coworkers, I was able to build upon the foundations of year one, and y'all, I felt great. The most influential thing that happened that year was I attended a Building Thinking Classrooms keynote at that year's CPM conference. And like two sessions after that, because y'all, I dove right in. I was changing lesson plans on the flight home. And what that taught me so early into my career is that teaching is an evolutionary process. The what I thought the pinnacle of teaching was in high school changed when I got to college, changed in year one, year two, and even now into year five. And the success of year two made me feel like I was on top of the world, which made the fall hurt even worse. Year three was the big oof. Professionally, some things just weren't going right. You know, I had a lot of student behaviors, and I didn't cry in class, but only because I just made it out the door. I had the thought of I'm not going to quit, but I see why people do. And I kept thinking six, but a number doesn't do much to build you up when you're so low. But you know what does? More people. I went into that summer broken, and two things really helped build me back up again. The first was it was my first year being the mentor for the Academy of Best Practices. That cohort poured into me just as much as I poured into them. And I saw the curiosity and passion that relit my fire after year one. And that was also my first year with the teacher research community, TRC. Talk about more people. That group of teachers lifted me up in such a big way, and TRC as a whole showed me that there was more to teaching than I thought there could be. And that summer set me up for the comeback. Now, this was the year I switched from algebra one to algebra two, and my the trust I built in CPM made for a smoother transition. I call it the comeback-ish though, because while my fire was refueled and relit, it was burning low. It wasn't a bad year, it was actually pretty solid. I was just tired. So much so that when planning this talk, I almost called it the forgotten year because even though it was just last year, it's a blur. The most memorable thing that happened was that was my first year actively doing TRC research, trying new things in the classroom to contribute to it, and we even presented our research at last year's conference. And that's a feeling I will never forget. All that brings me to this year. And the summer into this year was a good busy. I had ABP, TRC, I was on a keynote panel, and I attended a Building Thinking Classrooms conference led by my boy Peter himself. And I cut my hair. And year feel year year five feels pretty good. I've been able to take everything I've learned and pass it along to more people. Just like I was the mentor for ABP, I'm now the new staff mentor for my school. And with everything I've done with Building Thinking classrooms, I've been able to show it to all departments at my school. Now, I want to acknowledge that five years is not a long time. But I'm three months away from beating the statistic. So if you're in here tonight and your first five has come and gone, be there for the new guys. And if you're in here tonight and you're in your first five, repeat after me six. Because teaching can be hard. There's always more lessons to plan, more meetings to attend, and more behaviors to manage. And you're not alone. There is always gonna be more math, and there is always more people. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 11:04

Okay, I'd pick it up.

SPEAKER_10 11:10

Okay. Prior to CPM, Misha did product management at several startups. And here's just three things about Misha. He's never taught a class. He has a master's in technology innovation, and he's on the board of a children's literacy nonprofit. Let's welcome Misha.

SPEAKER_07 11:51

Tough act to follow. Do I talk about my life?

SPEAKER_10 11:58

Yeah, please.

SPEAKER_07 11:59

Um, it was it was the first one. When I was in college, I taught programming to some kids for a little bit.

SPEAKER_10 12:06

Okay. Ready?

SPEAKER_07 12:08

Um, yeah. Alright. AI is here and it's evolving fast. Your students will live in a world that's gonna be shaped by it. And the kinds of thinking that you're building in CPM classrooms, it isn't just helpful anymore. It's gonna be a must-have for survival. So let's do a quick show of hands. Um raise your hand if you've seen something turned in that you're pretty sure came from AI. Yep, so it's definitely it's it's already here. The question is, what do we do about it? Um, so you're gonna give an assignment, right, and a student can snap a photo and they instantly get the answer, but they can also get the steps, they can also get different methods for solving it. So locking down answer keys, grading homework for correctness, and drilling kill are now about as pointless as trying to get them to stop saying that TikTok soundbite that you hate. Um so what matters now? It's the ownership. Can they explain why a method works? Catch a subtle error, adapt when conditions change? The gap between having an output and owning the thinking, that's the core of future-proof education. Uh in TechShift, schools usually swing in one of two extremes. They either ban everything or they adopt left and right. No rhyme or reason. Both are reactive. The better move is steadiness. Keep your principles, update the evidence, and design for AI instead of chasing it. AI will be everywhere, spellcheck times a thousand. School's answer to spellcheck wasn't a ban, and it wasn't canceling writing class either. Uh while I before e except after C might fade, clarity judgment and knowing what to say specifically, specifically, uh are very much still around. Uh and I'm a believer that AI won't replace people, but it will replace uh those who can multiply their work with AI, uh, they will replace those who can. We have to teach that knowing the answer isn't the advantage. Framing problems, spotting assumptions, judging trustworthiness, and communicating is. And the good news, math already teaches AI supervision skills. Estimating soundness checks, setting bounds, testing solutions, choosing methods, and answering asking the key question: how do we know? It's hard to tell when something's real these days and when AI might outright be lying to you. Just like this, at first glance, A looks right, but the habits and the tools we get from math class tell us that B is the right answer. AI doesn't get rid of thinking, it makes it indispensable. AI exponentially grows your impact, so it can do a lot of good. But it'll happily multiply your issues and your flawed thinking if you let it. My push is don't fight it. Train your students to leverage it well. That's why formative assessment is even more non-negotiable now. It reveals those misconceptions and strategy choices before polished work hides them. The VNPSs, why this approach check-ins, and find the plot flaw launches all strengthen these skills. And summative assessment still very much matters, but it's not a way to fight AI with harder questions or a cheating goose chase. Focus on evidence design, justification, verification, and choices. If answers are cheap, assessments must prove the ownership of thinking. AI can generate perfect steps, so sure your work isn't enough either. Ask for ownership. Why this method? What assumptions, what checks? What were the alternatives? Steps aren't evidence anymore, the decisions are. And uh if a student's gonna use AI anyways, banning means we just can't guide them. Teach it like calculator use. Students can define the problem, give the right context, name assumptions, and check the results. They're in a good place. And the goal is moving from the mindless copy and pasting to thinking support and augmentation. And that's actually what AI experts are doing in real life. You gotta start with a clear goal, you've got to choose your tools, assemble the right resources, and challenge the outputs. You iterate, you polish. It's not one prompt, it's a process. CPM team roles uh will help you as well. Heavy students ask, for the organizer, what info do we need? Coordinator, how do we break this down and what strategy should we choose? Investigator, how do we know? And representative, how do we explain it? That's the framework for those right questions and collaborative verification. And communication is the center of it all. As the advanced students will have to be ready to explain models, critique reasoning, and constantly revise. And working with AI, clarity matters even more. Better prompts mean better outputs, mean better outcomes. And this shift means get the right answer isn't enough, both in and outside of class. Assignments need a build reflection. Error logs, strategy justification, verification steps, the deeper thinking isn't extra, it's the whole point. Some of you are thinking, I already do some of this stuff, and that's fantastic. CPM and building thinking classrooms align really well with it. My push is feel empowered, go further on purpose. And if Monday you tell your principal that you're now the AI implementation lead and deserve a raise, this is your justification to have them call me. AI made answers cheap, so your job is building thinking people who can frame problems, verify reality, and ask better questions. Collaborate with structure, use judgment, and reflect honestly. That's future-proof, and that's just good teaching. Thank you.

Speaker 2: Teaching For An AI World

SPEAKER_10 17:20

Okay, all right. Our next presenters um are Kevin Peters and Kathy Kennell. Kennel. Kevin. Thank you. And um their introduction, they told me they they have a little introduction within their presentation, so I'm gonna be brief on this, but I do have some facts. Okay for Kathy. Kathy has three uh adult uh children. Kathy is a three-time marathon champion, and Kathy has taught math in Honduras. Kevin. Kevin has biked 70 miles in one day. Is that how you got here?

SPEAKER_02 18:08

It's not enough.

SPEAKER_10 18:10

Kevin likes to build chairs in his spare time, and he has a pet lizard. Please welcome to the stage. Kevin and Kathy.

SPEAKER_08 18:28

Yes, yes. Oh, did you turn it on?

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Is it on? No. No, well, I can't save a lie, you won't know. What do I do here? Just flip it. Flip it off. Oh, better? Yeah, better. I don't have a pet to do. But I do like building chairs. And some time ago I did do that long bike ride, but it's not enough to get here.

SPEAKER_04 18:49

Do you want to guess? No, that's true. Nope, that's true too, but it's a good one because I could just have two. You know? No, I was not a marathon runner. 5K, but not marathon. And never a champion.

SPEAKER_10 19:07

You ready? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Here we go. So I did a Google search on homework to prepare for this talk, and uh the results are not good. Uh teachers assign too much homework. Homework is really stressful. Uh I get the vibe from my work that uh teachers don't like to discuss homework, students don't like to do homework, parents complain about homework. So I really hope we can use the next few minutes to reimagine what homework could look like in all of your classrooms. So there's me. Um I'm Kevin Peters. I teach at a small public school in a very large city, not 70 miles from here. Um I'm a fellow at Math for America, and then I met Kathy when I did the TRC.

SPEAKER_04 19:56

And my name is Kathy Kennell, and I teach at a private school in Lansdale, PA. It's my first year as a TRC person as well. I'm also an AP exam reader and a huge proponent of building thinking classrooms. If we're gonna reimagine homework, then it probably needs a new name. First of all, students are not necessarily doing it at home. And second, we want to get away from this idea of it being a chore, so why in the world are we calling it work? I think all of us can agree that we would like our students to learn outside of the classroom because they're curious and find it meaningful. We want our students to do assignments not to get it done or to earn points, but because they want to learn. So let's call it out-of-class learning.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

So a big question for our research became how out-of-class learning connects to in-class learning. And we thought it'd be a good idea to have students preview those problems we wanted them to do outside of class while they're still in class. So we called it the problem preview. And you could see here, uh, I had some of my students do this preview on their desk. They took some notes, I took some photos, I sent it to them. I hope it was a good help for them to do their uh out-of-class learning. They did find it um helpful to do that.

SPEAKER_04 21:10

Then we gave students the ability to make choices about their out-of-class learning. Choice meant that they could pick whatever problems they wanted to do from a problem set, or they could set aside the set entirely and instead maybe make a study guide or do a deep dive into a particular concept or skill that they wanted more practice, maybe redo classwork in order to understand something. Our goal was that by giving our students choices, it would empower them to focus their learning on what they needed to be successful.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

So we wondered that it would be hard for students to choose the right problems to do. That's what one of my students told me. So we created a student feedback form where once a week we would have students submit a form, and on that form they would reflect on what they learned. Uh, here's an example of that form. So we asked students to explain why. They picked a particular problem, and then we asked them to write uh what they learned or gained from the problem and ask a question. So this way they kind of had a bit of agency and a lot of choice in their learning, and we got a good amount of feedback from that. You can see on this particular form, student asked me a question about the cosecant. Like, how did they figure that out? Like they're able to do the problem, but how do they calculate that? That's really good feedback for me when I look at this work because that tells me that I probably should go over that in class.

SPEAKER_04 22:26

Something else we wanted to do was bring their outside of class learning back into the classroom. Kevin thought it would be a great idea to have the students present problems to their peers. I was a bit skeptical at first, not quite understanding how that would work. But after discussing what this could look like, we made a plan. We would require all students in the class to participate. Three to four would present at a time, with three to four peers as their audience. We decided to call these presentations problem symposiums. Many students have really enjoyed becoming the teacher and presenting their learning to their peers. Even students who had reservations rose to the challenge. We can see our students growing in confidence, making connections, and learning from each other.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

So where are we now? We did talk about problem symposiums. We had our students do a reflection form. We gave them choice in our problem. All of these things have led to student ownership. The idea that students have more ownership over how they learn outside of class, and it's really changed how students approach their learning not only out of class, but also in the classroom itself. And it's taught us that while what students think really matter, they get to make the choices about what they learn.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

So, how can you reimagine homework in your classroom? Well, remember, it doesn't have to happen at home, and it's not about the work. It's about creating ideas for out-of-class learning together with your students. And realizing that you are on the journey with them. With some guidance, you can help your students realize what they need to practice, explore, and do to make the learning your students are doing out of class useful, meaningful, and even joyful. Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 24:13

Thank you.

SPEAKER_10 24:19

Abby Smith, who's our next presenter. Hi Abby. I've had the honor of collaborating and working with Abby, and it's been a great pleasure. And I'm glad you're here today. And a couple facts about Abby Luxe. Abby almost always sneezes and threes. Abby has skydived into the grand game. Yeah. And Abby has one Chris. One Christmas by making. Oh, okay. One Christmas by making a Doctor Who harness quilt. For okay, so she'll come share that as I pull this up. Sounds good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:11

Is this on? Yes it is. Okay. Um, yeah, no, uh I will not be skydiving into the Grand Canyon. Uh that sounds like a great adventure for someone else. Uh I will I will go back to quilting. Thank you. Excellent.

SPEAKER_08 25:26

Okay, so that was like something else. All right.

Speakers 3–4: Reimagining Homework

SPEAKER_06 25:30

Ready? Go. Okay. Hey guys, um, I'm Abby. I am lucky enough to be a product manager here at CPM. That means I um I'm looking at the technology stuff and making sure that um what we have supports you. But today I want to go back to the time that I was in my classroom and tell you a story. Um, so can you relate the teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off? Anyone? Anyone? Okay, okay. All right. Um, okay, well then how about this? Uh have you ever been in the situation where you were like the student and you had something to say, but you were just too nervous to actually join in. Yeah. Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of nodding heads. Yeah. Um we want to participate, but a lot of times we sit there and we wait uh just out of fear that we we're nervous, we don't want to go. I've seen it today that we wait in PD sessions. Uh we wait whenever we're at a table of new people and we haven't met anyone, we're nervous to make that first, you know, conversation point. Um and we're waiting for someone else to go first. So I'm gonna uh talk about time. I uh decided to try improv. And I need to be clear, I was bad, very bad. Um, I like rules. Uh so I would sit there in fear and discomfort while I would watch my classmates in awe, these like 20-year-olds that would like jump up and do anything. And I was sitting there like, oh no, it's gonna be my turn, and I'm gonna, I can't do it. Um, and so my instructor saw me being terrified every night, and he was like, Okay, look, tonight, just go first every single time. Um, no matter what it was, just just do it. Um, and I was like, Well, I guess so. That sounds bad, but okay, I'll try it. Um But it was actually kind of cool. Uh the fear dropped because I just got up and did it, and I actually started to have fun, uh, which was novel for that. Um yeah, so to be clear, going first, it did not make me better. I was still bad at improv. Uh but it stopped the waiting. I stopped second-guessing myself and creating reasons not to do something. It became clear that the waiting was worse than the doing. And I thought that lesson might just be for, you know, like performing arts. Um, but it turned out to be a little bit more. Um, I met Abby O'Connor, I know, another Abby. Um, but she was my classroom neighbor and a baby first-year teacher. And uh she was nothing like I was my first year. She asked for help out loud. She said what she needed. She invited people in, even whenever she didn't know how something was going to work. She didn't wait to see who might invite her, she invited others. She just went first and decided to give it a try. And she would freely share what worked and what did not work. So whenever this uh came up and we understood what remote teaching was, um by inviting people to join her, she had set us up for success to try out new things, and we were ready, and our students were ready too. This group became a community, became a family. I still go camping with them once a year. Um and she kept inviting others in. That community that was built wasn't magic, it was purposeful. And we can find this in the classroom too. Um trying a new routine, trying a new strategy, a new way of engaging students is like that. Purposefully building it. Most of the time, we're waiting. Waiting to see if someone else will go first, waiting to see if it's worth it, waiting to see if there's like a magical perfect opportunity, waiting until we feel ready. And the thing is, most of us are here because someone went first for us. They invited us in. They included us and they said, come try this with me. So what does going first look like? Um, maybe it's trying out a new instructional move that you've picked up today. Uh maybe it's inviting a colleague to come into your classroom and give you feedback, or just go out for coffee. Um, maybe it's sharing something that didn't work, because you don't have to be perfect to go first. You just gotta be brave and take that first step. There's always a million reasons not to try something and to just stay in the comfort zone. But then we miss that chance to surprise ourselves with success. So ask yourself this who went first for you and who might need you to go first tomorrow. Thank you.

SPEAKER_10 30:58

Okay, Amanda Effridge is our next presentation. And Amanda spent six years in the teacher research community. Uh spent part of the BP loves the PM. And I'll say, probably feels a little less stressed about this because it's crew trying to get a flight back. Too soon. Amanda has swamo shucks. Amanda's a master class welding. And Amanda in a single year moved five times across four states. Let's bring up Amanda.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

All right. Um I have moved a lot. I lived in four different states in one year. I've swam with sharks twice, um, one on purpose, one not. Um, and I don't know how to weld yet, but we'll we'll see. Yes. I never planned on being a math teacher. I have very clear memories of being on my middle school math counts team, willingly staying after school to learn more math and prepare for competitions with my friends. And surprise, I won. But then I got to high school and a new school in a new city, and like most kids that age, I became very self-conscious and I desperately wanted to fit in. And surprise, I did not. So quiet and shy, I don't think I made an impression on my peers or my teachers. And I don't think many of them would remember my name today. But I remember theirs. I have Mr. Sponsor, who, as my teacher, saw the quiet side of me, but as my dance teacher, I saw joy and determination. I have Miss C, who ignited a love of theater. And there was Mr. Mann, who, on the day of the AP exam, walked down the line and told us what he thought we would score: a five for my best friend, a four for the person next to me, and for me, a one. It's been 20 years, and I still remember that moment as if it were yesterday. How the confidence gained from weeks of studying disappeared because my teacher did not believe in me. And maybe because of that studying, and maybe because of spite, I scored a five. But notice something about the teachers I didn't mention. None of them were my math teacher. I don't remember their names, I don't remember their classes, and I don't remember anything I learned. I refused to take calculus my senior year. I changed my major in college, so I wouldn't have to take it there either. Um and I thought I had gamed the system. I graduated without taking a math class. So, like most 20-something year olds with a history degree and no idea what to do, I decided I was going to law school. Um, I joined AmeriCorps, and to strengthen my application, and much to my surprise, they put me in a middle school math classroom. So I thought, it's middle school, I can do this, it will be fine. Um, and one year became two, two became three, and on my third year I looked around, that's my classroom. I looked around and I thought, I like this. I I might actually want to be a teacher. So, fast forward a few years to a new school, I get my schedule, and there it is, calculus, my best friend. Um and there is no way out this time. I tried. And so I stayed one chapter ahead of the kids, and I actually thought it kind of made sense. I liked what I was learning, and it made sense. So that was something that I would have been mortified to say. Um, I don't think my teachers would have ever believed me. And that experience changed how I thought about learning and teaching math. Why can't it be more fun? CPN's commitment to more math for more people, to collaboration and to narrative-driven sense making showed me how often our systems reward audible performance over quiet understanding. And how often our classrooms aren't set up to see a student's potential. This changed how I saw students and how I taught them, because if someone had judged me when I was 16, they would have been wrong. I think back to my high school math classroom and to all my classes, and I wonder if those teachers would believe me when I tell them where I am today. The quiet kid who did not speak up in class is up here and speaking in front of all of you. And I've been a math teacher for over a decade. Did their thoughts of me impact uh how they saw me and all of the things that I thought I was capable of? The truth is I'll never know. The best I can do is make sure that students remember my name for the good reasons. So I think of Rolando, who, when he told me he wanted to study biology in college, I asked him if he was sure about that. And now he is a re uh biotech researcher at a science firm in Boston. And Manuel, who knew no English when he came and now is halfway through a law degree, and he'll finish before I ever start. So I think about the hundreds of students and probably thousands at this point who I've taught who I don't know what their stories are. I can only hope that I kept the door open for the millions of things that their futures hold. What I do know is that our job is not to predict what students will become, it's to leave space for them to surprise us. We only see them at one small part on their path, and we must remember that there's an infinite number of paths ahead of them. So here I am on my own winding path. Even though I haven't taken that calculus class yet, um, I am still a math person.

Speaker 5: Go First And Build Community

SPEAKER_10 37:00

Welcome our master. You got this Patricia Daniel. And Patricia is uh an army wife, boy mom, a math educator, has 15 years of secondary math teacher, mostly high school, and some middle school schools. Five years as a district math coordinator, overseeing K-12 math curriculum and instruction for the rest of that. The largest district in the skill, actually. And uh teaching philosophy is culture around the year that we teach problem solving and communication skills, and we just happen to use that to do that. She loves VPM, she is my friend. Welcome up, Patricia. You can let us in on this. Patricia is a fooder, loves to try your restaurants, uh, cooking new things. Patricia is always early to everything. All the time. Sometimes it even feels awkward how early she is. Okay. And then uh if Patricia wasn't for education, she'd be a party phone. Okay, not four response, but I'm late to everything.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

I'm surprised I'm here on time right now. I was wondering who was laughing when that fact came up. I was like, you must know me. Yes. I can't mean I like to graze a deadline. That's my that's my MO. I remember when I fell in love with math. I was a junior in college and I was taking a number theory class, and we started to learn about prime numbers. And I thought to myself, okay, I know about prime numbers. Their factors are one and itself. And then my professor said, Do you know what's keeping the world safe? The fact that factoring is hard. I'm sorry, what did he just say factoring? Like take a composite number and break it down into its primes. And then we started talking about really large prime numbers and how multiplying them together was super easy, but breaking them into its primes, very difficult. So can you factor six quickly? I bet you thought of two and three before I even finished my sentence. But let's say the number was a little bit bigger, like 391. Can you factor that? Okay, we don't have a lot of time, so I'm gonna tell you. 17 and 23. That one takes a little bit longer, right? But imagine if the number was even bigger, like 300 or more digits long. Factoring those numbers takes enormous computational effort, and it's what modern public key cryptography relies on to protect things like credit card transactions, online banking, passwords, secure email, and apparently the world. My friends, did you know there is a market for large prime numbers? I feel like we could get in on that. But then plot twist. There are numbers that pretend to be prime. Mm-hmm. Yeah, Carmichael numbers. They look prime, act prime, pass the test for prime, but they're not prime. Mathematics is full of surprises like this. When was the last time you let yourself be surprised? When was the last time you let yourself be that curious about math that you dug in and you explored? It's not enough for us to just know math. We teachers need to be surprised by it, delighted by it, and curious about it. We can't forget to love the math. So start small and simple. Just do the math before you teach the lesson and let the story of the problems in our CPM books unfold for you. Can you think of anything better than posting up at your favorite coffee shop and doing math? And yes, it might not be the way that you learned math. And I'm gonna tell you something. Being open to learning is not for the faint of heart. But I would hate for you to miss out on your own math epiphanies. I've had a few of my own, and I'm a better teacher for it. I remember learning how to complete the square using algebra tiles. Did you know the square is literally incomplete? And then we use math to complete it? You guys, I thought we just took B, divided it by two, squared it, added it to both sides for no good reason except to be tortured. Or dig in a little further and read something like Francis Seue's Mathematics for Human Flourishing. In this book, the author invites us to view mathematics not just as a set of tools or processes, but as a deeply human endeavor. You want to know the best part? Each chapter ends with mathematical tasks or puzzles that invite us not to just read about the ideas, but to experience the joy of thinking mathematically. My favorite chapter, the one on community. We don't often think of community when it comes to mathematics because a common picture of a mathematician is this lone academic type person toiling on a problem in isolation. But we know in reality, mathematics is collaborative. In this book, the boy who loved math, Hungarian mathematician Paul Aerdish, traveled the world to do math with others because he knew together makes more and better math. And look around, we've all traveled from across the country to come here to do math together. And conferences are never short of ideas and resources and inspiration to improve teaching and learning. And I know that's why we're here, but it's not enough for us to just know math. We have to love it too. And don't get me wrong, we need all those things. We need to know the resources, we need to know how to write a good lesson plan. We need to know, like, we do need to know the math that we're responsible for teaching. But after all of that, if you really want to level up as a teacher, you need to love the math. There is a difference between a teacher that knows math and a teacher that knows and loves math. And I would argue our students know the difference too. And teachers, I know you're doing the most right now. And you might be thinking, I don't have the time or the energy to do one more thing, but my hope for you is that somewhere in between the planning and the prepping, you remember to love the math. I encourage you to make space to experience the joy, curiosity, and wonder of mathematics for yourself and watch your classroom. Transform. Teachers, don't forget to love the math.

SPEAKER_10 44:13

Okay. Well, our next presenter is Rafael Feltas Field. I decided I'm not gonna say our new executive director. He is our executive director. An honor to welcome him to the stage. And I have a few fox. Um, he's a very supportive accounting reader. Cheers for the Seattle Seahouse. And knows all of the lyrics to the song, It's the End of the World As We Know It.

SPEAKER_11 44:50

It could be true. I don't even know what that song is. And I love that you're framing uh caring and wonderful leader as a fact. I love that. So you're not gonna sing? I'm not gonna sing. No.

unknown 45:16

Yeah.

Speaker 6: Seeing Quiet Potential

SPEAKER_11 45:18

All right. So uh I initially wanted to call this the the tea the journey of a teacher leader, teacher-first leader, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And then I was like, read the room. It's ignite, it's not extinguish. So I have decided to focus on my joy, and I want to feature this first of many books that have brought me joy. Reading for me is very joyful. And I was delighted to see all the joy amongst our presenters. Each one of them incorporated joy, which is not happiness, by the way, that's a temporary state. Joy is more permanent. So I was a teacher full on from 1985 to 2010. Uh I am from the 20th century. Uh and uh the teaching part of my career started in high school, right? So, high school where I learned the game of school along with my students. We played the game of school, and I think I played it pretty well, and I think my high school students played it pretty well. We remember each other, uh, but it had its limitations. One thing I tried to do, by the way, that quote you can Google it later. I love the quote, I don't like the person who said the quote, you can figure that out later. But um breaking up the game in high school was presenting something that was different and challenging, and that was a book about quantum mechanics in the context of a time where we were told that my teaching and their learning was risking the United States of America in a nation at risk, if you haven't checked it out lately. That was the message. Then I went to middle school, and if you have taught middle school, you know that that could be a really awesome project. If you have not taught middle school, that looks like chaos. So another book that brought me into that middle school space is The Courage to Teach. Parker Palmer. If you haven't read it, you should, because it's about this notion that you have to show up whole to be a teacher. There's no phoning it in and teaching, like some other professions, to be honest. Uh, I love that this has already come up in our talk. The Artist Way at Work was an inspiring uh project at the school I was at, the middle school, by the art teacher who was teaching algebra. She had never taught math in her life, and was so good that she then led some of the math coordinating that I was in charge of. Then I found CPM because in that chaotic middle school space, I needed something different, right? And that different thing was CPM. Then I moved to a girls' school where curriculum integration was the next amazing hard thing. The notion that kids could show up on day one and co-create the curriculum with you. I ran out the door the first year, I was hired the second year. Okay. Then I moved into my leader era, which is 2007 to the present. Um, I encourage folks to always think of themselves as leaders. And I will never forget when one of my staff gave me this book. And and if you knew her, if you knew our history together, she was real. She was saying, What are you going to do now? Leading peers, encouraging peers, and being the boss, two very different things. So when you get to that place, remember they're different. This is one of my favorite books in terms of leadership, The Five Dysfunctions. It just gives you a sense of what could be based on what shouldn't be. If you've never seen uh the movie or read the book, The Missiles of October, the Cuban Missile Crisis, I happen to be Cuban, but that's not why I picked it, is a great study in leadership through crisis. So if you find yourself in that moment, think about it. I uh have been a student since I was born. I am as old as the Space Needle, a joke I would often tell in Seattle. And I consider that phase to be ongoing and forever. Highly encourage you to read this book, Artificially Intelligent. It's a math story. It reminds us that artificial intelligence has been around for a very long time, and it explains some of the math behind it. This, I got to go to Reggio Emilia for one week and hang out with preschool students. This is one of the laboratories. This is light, the light and shadow laboratory. These kids are three, four, five years old. Okay. And um, bringing to the present, bringing us to the present, I do want to shout out to Christopher Danielson, who we are very fortunate if he's out there somewhere, to count among us. And uh this book just won the Mathical Award. And because I promised, I am ending my talk with the QR code for you to participate in the branding survey. So if you're loving your prizes and you want to keep them, do the survey. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 50:37

So let's give another 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 pixabay.com. So thank you very much, Julius. Join us in two weeks for the next episode of More Math for More People. What day will that be, Joel?

SPEAKER_09 51:18

It will be March 17th, National 3D Day.

SPEAKER_10 51:23

So we'll talk about all the things that are 3D, maybe some other dimensional ideas, our experiences with 3D, if we've had any. Assuming we did, however. Could be a 3D movie. Find out ways to celebrate 3D when 3D printing became available, places that you could use 3D printing, and all the rage about 3D. Oh, by the way, it's halfway to my birthday as well. Definitely want to celebrate on March seventeenth. See you there.