Room to Grow - a Math Podcast

In this episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie reconsider the balance of conceptual understanding and procedural fluency in math instruction. Although this topic has been discussed before, our hosts acknowledge that there is great nuance and many considerations in considering these two ideas in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Curtis and Joanie discuss how inquiry-based, discovery-style learning opportunities are more open ended, are student centered, and are less teacher directe...

This episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie speak with Pam Harris. Pam is well known and loved for her website, podcast, books, and conference sessions all based on her core belief that “Math is FigureOutAble.” Today’s discussion centers on Pam’s newest publication, Developing Mathematical Reasoning: Avoiding the Traps of Algorithms. Pam starts with three distortions about math that are common among teachers, students, and the population, and can impact how educators engage students with ...

This episode of Room to Grow brings together our 2025 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from Principles to Actions, an NCTM publication. After discussing each of the eight practices in isolation over the last several months, this month tackles the ideas and challenges in actually making substantive change to classroom practice. Our hosts share ideas for engaging with others in deeper professional learning, coaching, and peer observations, as well as ideas for individual teach...

This episode of Room to Grow wraps up Joanie and Curtis’ season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions. The final practice in the series is “Support productive struggle in learning mathematics.” This is defined as follows: Effective teaching of mathematics consistently provides students, individually and collectively, with opportunities and supports to engage in productive struggle as they grapple with mathematical ideas and relationships. Our h...

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis continue the season 5 series on the Mathematics Teaching Practices from NCTM’s Principles to Actions, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This month’s practice is “Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding.” This is defined as follows: Effective teaching of mathematics builds fluency with procedures on a foundation of conceptual understanding so that students, over time, become skillful in using procedures flexibly as ...