“My students can’t” sounds like a fact, but it usually hides something else: we don’t yet have a clear way to see what students can do, name it, and build on it. We dig into that problem with two of our favorite educators, John Hayes and Victoria Holt, who bring their conference session “CYA: Cover Your Assets” to the mic and make it immediately usable for teachers, coaches, and administrators. Link to the article that John mentions in the conversation. If you want practical inclusive math cl...
Jul 7
27 min
Pink Flamingo Day kicks things off with a surprising bit of natural history, then we make a sharp turn into the question that matters for every math teacher: what actually gets students thinking. We sit down with Peter Liljedahl, author of Building Thinking Classrooms, for a practical conversation that goes past the headlines and into the moves that make the work real in K-12 classrooms. If you want better math tasks, stronger lesson launches, clearer closings, and a more realistic pic...
Jun 23
46 min
Donald Duck ... Love him? Find him annoying? Or do you want him banned? (That story is fake, by the way....) Then we pick up part two of our conversation with Peter Carpenter to get clear about something schools confuse constantly: adult learning is not one thing. Peter breaks it down into three practical buckets: training, professional development, and professional learning. Listen to find out the difference for yourself! Then our final installment of Join Them on Their Journey from Chi Lo ...
Jun 9
38 min
Spelling “tuberculosis” on the spot is one thing, but designing learning that actually changes what adults do is a whole different challenge. We start season six on Scripps Spelling Bee Day with a fast, funny spelling run and then we’re joined by Peter Carpenter, a longtime public educator turned coach, principal, and district leader, to talk about adult learning theory and what strong professional development design really requires. We also hear our final post from Jessie in Ast...
May 26
33 min
National Odometer Day sounds like a joke until you follow the math hiding in plain sight. We kick things off by unpacking what an odometer actually measures, why it can help prevent mileage fraud, and how it connects to geometry you can feel in your hands. From there, our conversation opens up with Rafael del Castillo, CPM's Executive Director, as we reflect on five years of the More Math for More People podcast, the guests who’ve shaped our thinking, and the kind of math education community...
May 12
34 min
We start by honoring school bus drivers and sharing our memories of riding the school bus on School Bus Driver Appreciation Day. Then we all know that math class gets quieter when students are confused and louder when they’re thinking together. That’s why we invited Marjorie Kucich and Sarah McKittrick to talk about station rotation in middle school math and how a smart rotation can turn a lesson into a room full of visible problem solving. We dig into what “stations” really means in t...
Apr 28
24 min
National Gardening Day starts with a surprisingly honest question: do you like gardening, or do you like having a garden? From urban farming stats to blueberry bushes that take care of themselves, we warm up with the kind of curious, low-stakes talk that makes real learning feel safe. Then we sit down with Judy Hutchinson, a math teacher in Rockford School District, to talk about CPM’s Academy of Best Practices and why it’s one of the most meaningful professional development experiences a te...
Apr 14
28 min
It's National Crayon Day! What are your favorite or least favorite memories about crayons? Do you still like to use crayons today? :wink Then we talk with Jeremiah Morgan about the Site-Based Leadership (SBL) Program and their upcoming book study on April 8, 15, 22, and 29. The book study will be engaging with The Instructional Coaching Toolkit, which you can purchase through the link below. As Jeremiah points out, the SBL Program is for everyone! For more details check out the SBL webs...
Mar 31
32 min
This episode opens with a lighthearted discussion about National 3D Day, where we joke about three-dimensional experiences like 3D movies, printing, and art. Then we have another installment of Conversaciónes con Rafael. Together we reflect on the pressures of constant busyness in education and life, emphasizing the importance of intentionally creating time for reflection, creativity, and human connection rather than always working toward deliverables. We also discuss how technology—esp...
Mar 17
50 min
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 ...
Mar 3
52 min
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