

Making Math Moments That Matter
Kyle Pearce & Jon Orr
Helping you transform your K-12 math lesson plans by building confidence in effective teaching practices, guiding you to transform your math curriculum, and inspiring classroom strategies to engage all students. As a teacher are you wondering how to create K-12 math lesson plans where students don't want to stop exploring your math curriculum when the bell rings? As a mathematics coordinator or leader are you wondering how to support teachers when implementing engaging math lessons that fuel student sense making?Over the last 19 years, Kyle and Jon, the founders of MakeMathMoments.com have been engaging students, teachers, and district program leaders with effective mathematics pedagogy, accessible resources, and inspiring learning environments in K-12 math classrooms. Now, in this podcast they coach you - K-12 classroom teachers and district leaders of mathematics through a 6 step plan that cultivates and fosters your mathematics program like a strong, healthy and balanced tree.If you master the 6 parts of an effective mathematics program, the impact you have on students or teachers will grow and reach far and wide.Every week, you’ll hear insight from practicing classroom teachers and leaders in math education so you’ll get the feedback, guidance, and fresh ideas you need to stop feeling overwhelmed, gain back your confidence, and inspire the students and fellow teachers you serve to enjoy the beauty of mathematics once again. Start making math moments today by listening to Episode #139: Making Math Moments From Day 1 to 180
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 8, 2019 • 57min
#19 Four Strategies to Help Students START Problems & Stick With Them
One of the biggest challenges WE teachers have right now is helping kids not give up when problem solving in math class. It troubles us when students are working on problems that are slightly different from classroom examples and they either SHUT DOWN, or quickly raise their hands and say, “I don’t know what to do!” In this episode we share the audio recording of a webinar we ran in January 2019 to help address those exact issues. Show Notes: http://makemathmoments.com/episode19 Love the show? Text us your big takeaway!Get a Customized Math Improvement Plan For Your District.Are you district leader for mathematics? Take the 12 minute assessment and you’ll get a free, customized improvement plan to shape and grow the 6 parts of any strong mathematics program.Take the assessmentAre you wondering how to create K-12 math lesson plans that leave students so engaged they don’t want to stop exploring your math curriculum when the bell rings? In their podcast, Kyle Pearce and Jon Orr—founders of MakeMathMoments.com—share over 19 years of experience inspiring K-12 math students, teachers, and district leaders with effective math activities, engaging resources, and innovative math leadership strategies. Through a 6-step framework, they guide K-12 classroom teachers and district math coordinators on building a strong, balanced math program that grows student and teacher impact. Each week, gain fresh ideas, feedback, and practical strategies to feel more confident and motivate students to see the beauty in math. Start making math moments today by listening to Episode #139: "Making Math Moments From Day 1 to 180.

Apr 1, 2019 • 58min
#18 How To Make Math Irresistible: An interview with Raj Shah
We chat with Dr. Raj Shah from Math Plus Academy about how how to harness the elements of video games that make them so addictive and how we can apply them to our math classes. We chat about how to build a culture of discussion, creativity and problem solving in our classrooms, and we also chat about how to use the power of mystery to engage our students. Show Notes: http://makemathmoments.com/episode18 Love the show? Text us your big takeaway!Get a Customized Math Improvement Plan For Your District.Are you district leader for mathematics? Take the 12 minute assessment and you’ll get a free, customized improvement plan to shape and grow the 6 parts of any strong mathematics program.Take the assessmentAre you wondering how to create K-12 math lesson plans that leave students so engaged they don’t want to stop exploring your math curriculum when the bell rings? In their podcast, Kyle Pearce and Jon Orr—founders of MakeMathMoments.com—share over 19 years of experience inspiring K-12 math students, teachers, and district leaders with effective math activities, engaging resources, and innovative math leadership strategies. Through a 6-step framework, they guide K-12 classroom teachers and district math coordinators on building a strong, balanced math program that grows student and teacher impact. Each week, gain fresh ideas, feedback, and practical strategies to feel more confident and motivate students to see the beauty in math. Start making math moments today by listening to Episode #139: "Making Math Moments From Day 1 to 180.

Mar 25, 2019 • 44min
#17 From Learning To Action: A Math Mentoring Moment With Matthew Makuch
On today’s show, we’re bringing on Matt Makuch from Victoria, British Columbia to share his mathematics professional learning journey thus far. Matt shares some of the influencers who inspired him initially to begin thinking differently about teaching his math class including Marcy Cook, Kim Sutton, and Sherry Perrish. He also shares how he took the plunge to take his professional learning to the next level when he joined our Making Math Moments That Matter Online Workshop. In particular, he’ll share his progress thus far incorporating the Notice and Wonder routine, how he is now better mathematizing the world around him to incorporate into his mathematics learning environment, and his early attempts at spiralling the mathematics curriculum. Show Notes: http://makemathmoments.com/episode17 You’ll Learn: Great resources to start (or continue) your mathematics learning journey;. Some of the challenges you might experience when trying to implement a notice and wonder protocol; How Matthew has “stumbled” upon a great set of curious math prompts after taking our online workshop by seeing the mathematics in the world around him; Matthew’s biggest take-aways from our online workshop he participated in recently; The importance of widening your perspective when it comes to teaching mathematics and teaching in general. Love the show? Text us your big takeaway!Get a Customized Math Improvement Plan For Your District.Are you district leader for mathematics? Take the 12 minute assessment and you’ll get a free, customized improvement plan to shape and grow the 6 parts of any strong mathematics program.Take the assessmentAre you wondering how to create K-12 math lesson plans that leave students so engaged they don’t want to stop exploring your math curriculum when the bell rings? In their podcast, Kyle Pearce and Jon Orr—founders of MakeMathMoments.com—share over 19 years of experience inspiring K-12 math students, teachers, and district leaders with effective math activities, engaging resources, and innovative math leadership strategies. Through a 6-step framework, they guide K-12 classroom teachers and district math coordinators on building a strong, balanced math program that grows student and teacher impact. Each week, gain fresh ideas, feedback, and practical strategies to feel more confident and motivate students to see the beauty in math. Start making math moments today by listening to Episode #139: "Making Math Moments From Day 1 to 180.

Mar 18, 2019 • 44min
#16: How To Create Authentic Conversations In Math Class: An Interview with Marian Small
Join us while we chat with the great Marian Small. For us, Marian has been a rock and a foundation for how we’ve changed our teaching practice! She’s an author, math education influencer, and Open question guru! In this discussion we talk with Marian about the origin story of open questions, how open questions compare to open middle problems, and how being more intentional with big ideas versus specific skills is more beneficial for student learning. Show Notes: http://makemathmoments.com/episode16 You’ll Learn: What are open questions and how they can change your classroom. How you can differentiate your questioning with open questions. What’s the difference between open questions and open middle problems. Why you should be more intentional in your teaching. How to change the focus of your lesson to big ideas instead of a specific skills [and why you should.] How MathUP can help you as a teacher think about teaching math while providing you with resources! Love the show? Text us your big takeaway!Get a Customized Math Improvement Plan For Your District.Are you district leader for mathematics? Take the 12 minute assessment and you’ll get a free, customized improvement plan to shape and grow the 6 parts of any strong mathematics program.Take the assessmentAre you wondering how to create K-12 math lesson plans that leave students so engaged they don’t want to stop exploring your math curriculum when the bell rings? In their podcast, Kyle Pearce and Jon Orr—founders of MakeMathMoments.com—share over 19 years of experience inspiring K-12 math students, teachers, and district leaders with effective math activities, engaging resources, and innovative math leadership strategies. Through a 6-step framework, they guide K-12 classroom teachers and district math coordinators on building a strong, balanced math program that grows student and teacher impact. Each week, gain fresh ideas, feedback, and practical strategies to feel more confident and motivate students to see the beauty in math. Start making math moments today by listening to Episode #139: "Making Math Moments From Day 1 to 180.

Mar 11, 2019 • 57min
#15: How to get the most out of the conferences you attend
Conference season is just around the corner for us at the time of this recording. We attend various conferences throughout the year and a big question that we always have is, “Is this going to be worth it?” In episode 15 we want to give you 5 TIPS on how to get the most out of the conferences you attend and also what can you do if you can’t attend a conference this year. Show Notes: http://makemathmoments.com/episode15 What You'll Learn: Practical tips to build a community while at a conference. How being picky in your session is a good thing. Why we should use this experience to learn about our “blind spots” in education. Why we need to address in-equity in the classroom. Tips to help you build a habit when implementing a new resources/tool/routine. Resources: Knowledgehook.com Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way - James Clear [Book] Twitter Hashtags from MTbOS [Facebook Group] Math Moment Makers K-12 [Facebook Group] Build Math Minds [Facebook Group] Jo Boaler’s How to Learn Math Global Math Department Love the show? Text us your big takeaway!Get a Customized Math Improvement Plan For Your District.Are you district leader for mathematics? Take the 12 minute assessment and you’ll get a free, customized improvement plan to shape and grow the 6 parts of any strong mathematics program.Take the assessmentAre you wondering how to create K-12 math lesson plans that leave students so engaged they don’t want to stop exploring your math curriculum when the bell rings? In their podcast, Kyle Pearce and Jon Orr—founders of MakeMathMoments.com—share over 19 years of experience inspiring K-12 math students, teachers, and district leaders with effective math activities, engaging resources, and innovative math leadership strategies. Through a 6-step framework, they guide K-12 classroom teachers and district math coordinators on building a strong, balanced math program that grows student and teacher impact. Each week, gain fresh ideas, feedback, and practical strategies to feel more confident and motivate students to see the beauty in math. Start making math moments today by listening to Episode #139: "Making Math Moments From Day 1 to 180.

Mar 4, 2019 • 51min
#14 : Pi Of Life: An interview with Sunil Singh
We’re bringing on a colleague, friend, and fellow Ontarian from the math education world. He’s the author of Pi of Life and his soon to be released book, Math Recess, an international keynote speaker and a part of the BuzzMath team. We talk about the simplicity of mathematics, how learning mathematics should be more like the preparation of a fantastic meal rather than just serving up the final finished dish, and finally, Sunil gives us some suggestions for how we can teach effectively. Show notes: http://makemathmoments.com/episode14 You'll Learn: How “messy” learning can be more beneficial than “neat” learning. How can we create a love of math with our families and students. How we can redefine success for each student. How can we teach students and not just teach math. Love the show? Text us your big takeaway!Get a Customized Math Improvement Plan For Your District.Are you district leader for mathematics? Take the 12 minute assessment and you’ll get a free, customized improvement plan to shape and grow the 6 parts of any strong mathematics program.Take the assessmentAre you wondering how to create K-12 math lesson plans that leave students so engaged they don’t want to stop exploring your math curriculum when the bell rings? In their podcast, Kyle Pearce and Jon Orr—founders of MakeMathMoments.com—share over 19 years of experience inspiring K-12 math students, teachers, and district leaders with effective math activities, engaging resources, and innovative math leadership strategies. Through a 6-step framework, they guide K-12 classroom teachers and district math coordinators on building a strong, balanced math program that grows student and teacher impact. Each week, gain fresh ideas, feedback, and practical strategies to feel more confident and motivate students to see the beauty in math. Start making math moments today by listening to Episode #139: "Making Math Moments From Day 1 to 180.

Feb 25, 2019 • 54min
#13 : Where Assessment & Practice fit in Curiosity Sparked Lessons: A Math Mentoring Moment with Sam Brotherton.
In episode 13 you’ll listen to Sam Brotherton, a teacher from St. Louis Missouri. Sam’s been teaching for 5 years and we chat with him on this Math Mentoring Moment episode of the Making Math Moments that Matter Podcast about struggling with the idea of where assessments fit in his routines. Sam’s been teaching with 3-act math lessons, desmos activities, and a variety of other great resources he’s gathered from the math community but he’s noticing, much like we did early on, that when it comes to standardized tests, or those word problems from the textbook his students aren’t performing any better. Show Notes: http://makemathmoments.com/episode13 You’ll Learn: How you can incorporate assessment into your daily lessons. How to transition from a 3 act math task to typical word problems. How to ensure students can solve word problems after learning through task. Where practice fits in your curiosity sparked lessons. How to sequence student solutions to maximize the connecting stage of your productive discussions. New engaging practice structures that can replace the typical worksheet. Love the show? Text us your big takeaway!Get a Customized Math Improvement Plan For Your District.Are you district leader for mathematics? Take the 12 minute assessment and you’ll get a free, customized improvement plan to shape and grow the 6 parts of any strong mathematics program.Take the assessmentAre you wondering how to create K-12 math lesson plans that leave students so engaged they don’t want to stop exploring your math curriculum when the bell rings? In their podcast, Kyle Pearce and Jon Orr—founders of MakeMathMoments.com—share over 19 years of experience inspiring K-12 math students, teachers, and district leaders with effective math activities, engaging resources, and innovative math leadership strategies. Through a 6-step framework, they guide K-12 classroom teachers and district math coordinators on building a strong, balanced math program that grows student and teacher impact. Each week, gain fresh ideas, feedback, and practical strategies to feel more confident and motivate students to see the beauty in math. Start making math moments today by listening to Episode #139: "Making Math Moments From Day 1 to 180.

7 snips
Feb 18, 2019 • 52min
#12 How Do I Make Memorable Math Moments AND Cover The Curriculum?
The hosts discuss the challenge of incorporating rich tasks into the math curriculum, using curiosity-inducing tasks to introduce big ideas, finding existing tasks for effective teaching, planning and the five practices for teaching math, saving time and covering curriculum through teaching with tasks, and engaging with listeners by providing resources and promoting their social media presence.

Feb 11, 2019 • 56min
#11 Play is the Engine of Learning: An Interview With Dan Finkel
Episode #11: PLAY IS THE ENGINE OF LEARNING: An Interview With Dan Finkel Show notes page: http://makemathmoments.com/episode11 Play is the engine of learning, that’s the mission of Dan Finkel and his team at MathForLove.com. Over the next 60 minutes, we’ll dive into Dan’s story about how he fell in love with math and in particular, teaching with games in the math classroom, he’ll give us some background behind his extremely popular TED Talk on the 5 principles of extraordinary math teaching and he’ll give us 3 things he looks for when selecting games for use in the math classroom. You’ll Learn: How playing games can strengthen our math skills. Lessons we learn from games can have an impact in our own math learning. Three conditions for games in the math classroom. Resources: Dan’s Ted Talk Mathforlove.com Tiny Polka Dots Prime Climb Ted Ed Riddle - NIM Proofiness - Charles Seife [Book] Teaching with your mouth shut - Donald Finkel [Book] Creating Innovators - Tony Wagner [Book] Game PIG Math For Love Curriculum. makemathmoments.com/booksLove the show? Text us your big takeaway!Get a Customized Math Improvement Plan For Your District.Are you district leader for mathematics? Take the 12 minute assessment and you’ll get a free, customized improvement plan to shape and grow the 6 parts of any strong mathematics program.Take the assessmentAre you wondering how to create K-12 math lesson plans that leave students so engaged they don’t want to stop exploring your math curriculum when the bell rings? In their podcast, Kyle Pearce and Jon Orr—founders of MakeMathMoments.com—share over 19 years of experience inspiring K-12 math students, teachers, and district leaders with effective math activities, engaging resources, and innovative math leadership strategies. Through a 6-step framework, they guide K-12 classroom teachers and district math coordinators on building a strong, balanced math program that grows student and teacher impact. Each week, gain fresh ideas, feedback, and practical strategies to feel more confident and motivate students to see the beauty in math. Start making math moments today by listening to Episode #139: "Making Math Moments From Day 1 to 180.

Feb 4, 2019 • 60min
#10: Mathematical Mindsets: An Interview With Dr. Jo Boaler
Our conversation begins with Jo sharing some of her memorable moments from math class followed by a rich discussion about the importance of thinking deeply to communicate mathematical understanding, ideas for differentiation in the math classroom, teaching through task, and much more! Get ready to grow your brain with a variety of amazing mathematical ideas for your classroom. You’ll Learn: How math is visual and by teaching with visual resources we can strengthen our students understanding. Why math class needs to be social and collaborative instead of isolated. How to differentiate your math lessons with intentionality. Why we need more than just memorization of math facts and procedures. How to meet your standards while teaching through tasks. Show notes and resources: http://makemathmoments.com/episode10 Making Math Moments That Matter Online Workshop http://makemathmoments.com/onlineworkshopLove the show? Text us your big takeaway!Get a Customized Math Improvement Plan For Your District.Are you district leader for mathematics? Take the 12 minute assessment and you’ll get a free, customized improvement plan to shape and grow the 6 parts of any strong mathematics program.Take the assessmentAre you wondering how to create K-12 math lesson plans that leave students so engaged they don’t want to stop exploring your math curriculum when the bell rings? In their podcast, Kyle Pearce and Jon Orr—founders of MakeMathMoments.com—share over 19 years of experience inspiring K-12 math students, teachers, and district leaders with effective math activities, engaging resources, and innovative math leadership strategies. Through a 6-step framework, they guide K-12 classroom teachers and district math coordinators on building a strong, balanced math program that grows student and teacher impact. Each week, gain fresh ideas, feedback, and practical strategies to feel more confident and motivate students to see the beauty in math. Start making math moments today by listening to Episode #139: "Making Math Moments From Day 1 to 180.