In this episode of Room to Grow, Curtis and Joanie host Vanessa Vakharia, in person! Their conversation explores the concept of math trauma, which Vanessa defines as “a negative experience with math that sticks with you long after the experience is over.” We learn about how Vanessa overcame her own math trauma after failing grade 11 twice, and explore the ways in which teachers can ensure that students have positive, trauma-free learning experiences in math class.

Resources mentioned in this episode and ways to learn more:

• Math Therapy book by Vanessa Vakharia
• The Math Guru tutoring services in Toronto, Canada
• The Math Therapy podcast, Vanessa’s weekly podcast on all things Math Trauma/Math Therapy
• Find and follow Vanessa on social media: Instagram @themathguru and TikTok @themathguru

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

In this episode of Room to Grow, Joanie and Curtis learn about a new publication: Decluttering Mathematics: 5 Fundamental Understandings That Unleash Meaningful Student Thinking Grades 6-12. Three of the book’s authors join us to share how that when secondary mathematics instruction is cluttered with disconnected procedures and a focus on computation without meaning, students are essential being handed a huge pile of tiny puzzle pieces without ever building or even seeing the picture on the puzzle box. Ted, Scott, and April call out the clutter and describe how educators can connect the disconnected and focus on what’s important to allow students the opportunity to think, reason, and make sense of mathematics.

In the conversation, the authors touch of the five fundamental understandings in the book: Measurement, Comparison, Proportional Relationships, Equivalence, and Graphical Representations, and provide examples of how and why attention to student thinking leads to better teaching and better student learning. Curtis and Joanie appreciated the approach of having students “think first; compute only if necessary,” and the idea of retiring some common topics to the “math attic.” The authors share their grounding the book in ways of thinking, ways of approaching, and ways of doing mathematics, all in the service of doing bigger things in math class.

Resources mentioned in this episode and ways to learn more:

· Order the book HERE or HERE or HERE

· Ted’s website https://www.coequalmath.com/home and LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedcoe/

· April’s LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildstrom/ , BTC info page https://www.buildingthinkingclassrooms.com/team/april-strom

· Scott’s website https://www.scottadamsonmath.com/ and LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-adamson-465202327/

· James’ website https://jamestantonmath.com/ and LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-tanton-9920bb58/

Did you enjoy this episode of Room to Grow? Please leave a review and share the episode with others. Share your feedback, comments, and suggestions for future episode topics by emailing roomtogrowmath@gmail.com . Be sure to connect with your hosts on Instagram: @JoanieFun and @cbmathguy.

In this back to school episode, Curtis and Joanie discuss key ideas for starting the new school year off right, to ensure effective teaching and learning for teachers and students. How do you spend the first day of school with your students? Do you get them working in groups right away like Curtis, learning about them as students and how they engage with math and each other? Or maybe you focus on learning their names and helping them learn each other’s names like Joanie, ensuring a community is built as early as possible.

Our hosts discuss ways to frame struggle and mistakes, and how to be sure that what you put in place the first week stays aligned through your words and actions all year long, ensuring that students “end the school year with a more positive math identity than when they started.”

Resources mentioned in the episode and others to follow up on:

· NCTM President’s Message (Latrenda Knighten) for August 2026 (no login required)

· Book Productive Math Struggle

· Edutopia blog post Instructional strategies for managing student mistakes in math and Mathnasium blog post for parents

· Youcubed Week of Inspirational Math – Activities and resources for the first week of school (or anytime) to support positive math identity and student engagement

· Book Impact of Identity in K-12 Mathematics: Rethinking Equity-Based Practices