Pam  0:01  
Hey, fellow mathers! Welcome to the podcast where Math is Figure-Out-Able. I'm Pam Harris, a former mimicker turned mather.

Kim  0:10  
And I'm Kim Montague, a reasoner who now knows how to share her thinking with others. At Math is Figure-Out-Able, we are on a mission to improve math teaching.

Pam  0:18  
We know that algorithms are super cool, historic achievements, but they're terrible teaching tools because mimicking step-by-step procedures actually trap students into using less sophisticated reasoning than the problems are intended to develop.

Kim  0:31  
In this podcast, we help you teach mathing, building relationships with your students, and grappling with mathematical relationships.

Pam  0:39  
Y'all, we invite you to join us to make math more figure-out-able. 

Kim  0:43  
Hey, hey.

Pam  0:45  
Kimberly!

Kim  0:46  
Yes, ma'am. What's up? 

Pam  0:46  
It's a little cold out.

Kim  0:46  
It is.

Pam  0:46  
Which is wonderful because it should be cold this time of year.

Kim  0:48  
It is. Which is fantastic. I was... Yeah, I was telling some people not too long ago that Christmas in Texas is kind of...

Pam  0:59  
Iffy?

Kim  0:59  
Dismal. And not in a weather kind of way. It's just warm sometimes, and that is not Christmas.

Pam  1:05  
Yeah, it was super humid the other day. They were out putting the Christmas lights up, and my little grandsons were sweating. I was like, Okay, come on. What is happening right now?

Kim  1:15  
Yes. But whether it's warm or not, we like Christmas. We like December. 

Pam  1:19  
Love it! Love it, yeah. 

Kim  1:20  
December is a time that you kind of like slow down, or we try to anyway, slow down a little bit. 

Pam  1:25  
Definitely try to. 

Kim  1:26  
We try to. Yeah. Some Christmas shopping and more family time. I have been in gift buying mode lately. 

Pam  1:35  
Fun. Fun, fun. 

Kim  1:36  
Yeah, and as kids get older, it's like a little trickier. They want more expensive things. It's just like a few more expensive.

Pam  1:43  
For sure. And I'm on a... I have an idea for one of my kids. 

Kim  1:48  
Oh. 

Pam  1:49  
I have this great idea, and I just need a little bit more time to see if I can make it work.

Kim  1:55  
Oh, that's cool. 

Pam  1:55  
Yeah, I don't always. I don't always have great ideas, but I'm kind of excited
about this one. 

Kim  1:59  
I mean, you have four, it's hard to have a great idea. 

Pam  2:02  
Well, and now I have seven if you count the in-laws.

Kim  2:05  
One hundred percent they count. 

Pam  2:07  
Yeah, for sure. And then the two grandkids. And so, yeah. There's just a little bit of... Oh, and don't forget my husband. You know, all the people. Yeah.

Kim  2:13  
The littles are the best. You got littles to buy for.

Pam  2:16  
What's really hard with them is like not buying all the things. Show some restraint, Pam! 

Kim  2:20  
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, we know that everyone else is in buying mode, and while you're spending all that money, we thought that we would offer you some free stuff. We know that you love free stuff. We do too. 

Pam  2:35  
Absolutely. Good free stuff, right? 

Kim  2:37  
Yeah.

Pam  2:38  
Valuable. Yeah, absolutely. So, Kim, let's do the 12 Days of Christmas, Math is Figure-Out-Able style.

Kim  2:45  
Yes. 

Pam  2:46  
Where we are going to talk about 12 of our favorite things, free to you, and we're going to put links to all these things in the show notes. Let's start off with maybe the thing that might be one of our biggest gives. I don't know. Can I say that? Because a lot of these things are big gives. This is a big give.

Kim  3:04  
Yeah, it's a big request because it's just so juicy.

Pam  3:07  
We started creating an ebook, and then we added to it, and we refined it, and we added to it, and we refined it, and it's actually held steady for maybe a minute now. We call it the Major Strategies ebook, Major Numeracy Strategies. And we created this ebook, and we give it out. I give it out at almost every conference talk that I give. 

Kim  3:26  
Yeah.

Pam  3:27  
We highly recommend that you check it out. It will help you determine the difference between strategies and models and strategies and algorithms. And then we flat out suggest, here are the major numeracy strategies for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. We also get into early addition, early multiplication. Those relationships that if you build in kids' heads, then they are mathing the way mathy people actually math. And some Problem Strings to try in your classroom. So.

Kim  3:54  
Yeah.

I got to tell you. I was in a math related Facebook group not long ago. It was like a week ago. And somebody had posted like notebook paper. And they said, "Has anyone seen a document that looks like this?" And they had sketched out one of the pages. I don't know if it was addition or multiplication. But it was exactly the page from the ebook. 

Pam  4:18  
Wow, good memory.

Kim  4:19  
I don't think it was the same problems, but exactly the same. And they're like, "I found this thing, and I can't find it again." I was like, "Oh, I know what that is."

Pam  4:28  
That's awesome. 

Kim  4:29  
Yeah, it was fun to share the link. Okay.

Pam  4:31  
Well, now you won't have to search for it, everybody. Well, we'll give you the link.

Kim  4:34  
Yeah, sprinkle it everywhere. 

Pam  4:36  
You can go find it.

Kim  4:37  
Alright. Number two, and probably one of my favorite things that we do on a regular basis. If you don't join us yet on Wednesday evenings, you've got to start joining us on MathStratChat. It's where Pam...

Pam  4:50  
MathStratChat.

Kim  4:50  
Yeah, Pam posts a problem all around the world on Wednesday evenings, and people look at the problem, they pause, they think, they solve the problem however they want, and they share what they're thinking is on social media. We post on Twitter/X. Where else? Instagram. Facebook.

Pam  5:09  
Facebook. LinkedIn. Soon to come on Tiktok. It's coming.

Kim  5:14  
Yeah. Very cool. So, what I love about it is I get to read a lot of different comments. And I don't comment as much as I'd like to about all of the posts, but when I go through and look at all the different strategies people are using to solve these problems, it is so much fun because sometimes people will say, "Here's my first thought, but then I thought something else. I had a different way." People comment on each other's thinking, which is our favorite thing. 

Pam  5:38  
Mmm, love it.

Kim  5:39  
Yeah, it's just a really great way to do some math together.

Pam  5:42  
Yeah, I've actually been collecting a few of the responses when people will say something like, "I saw this last week," or "I read this person's and it made me think of this." 

Kim  5:52  
Yeah.

Pam  5:52  
Yeah, it's super. It's a really good... What's the word I want? I'll come up with the word I promise. It's a really good example. Wow, I couldn't come up with the word "example". It's a really good example of learning together and a learning community where we can build on each other's ideas and learn from each other. Yeah, it's really nice. And...

Kim  6:15  
Super fun. 

Pam  6:15  
...one of the things that we decided not too long ago was as cool as MathStratChat is, if we only do a problem, then it's fine, but it could be more powerful to do a series of problems.

Kim  6:29  
Yep.

Pam  6:29  
Where then people can... So, we do a problem one week, and then the next week. Check it out, it'll be kind of like the next problem in a string. And we often... Not all the time, but we will often do three or four problems in a row. And so, if you're paying attention Wednesday nights or whenever you can get in a look at MathStratChat, you can literally get a higher dose of specific strategies. So, great way to go. 

Kim  6:52  
Yeah. 

Pam  6:52  
Cool. How about number three, my favorite instructional routine, Problem Strings. We recently created a Problem String guide. So, they call them White Papers, but it's a free download where you can check out what is a Problem String?

Kim  7:10  
Yep. 

Pam  7:11  
Has some examples of what it is and it isn't. And, yeah, check out a free guide. You can download that one. Again, all these links are going in the show notes. In fact, we're going to give you a link where then you can get all of the links. So, check that out. Problem String guide, brand new. So, chances are if you've seen some of our free guides, you have not seen this one yet. So, yeah, check that one out.

Kim  7:33  
That guide is only two pages long. You know, it's a shorter read. It's got some things about structures and about kind of some important things for you to know, so if you're looking for something short to...

Pam  7:44  
Punchy? 

Kim  7:44  
...download, pass around. Yeah, yeah.

Pam  7:46  
Yep, there you go. 

Kim  7:47  
It's a good first start. Okay. Another fantastic thing on social media on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On all the social medias, you post hashtag TryThisTuesday or TryThisThursday. These are super fun, and they are brand new, fresh ideas of Relational Thinking, As Close As It Gets, Factor Puzzles, Problem Strings, Which One Doesn't Belong? Something different all the time, a different routine, but it's brand new each week. And those are fantastic to share. So, when you see those, they can just get put right into your classroom routine that week. New ideas. 

Pam  8:26  
Yeah, and most of those are quicker. They're intended to be like, bam, go try this right now. And then you can come back and get feedback. You can say, "Hey, I tried this, and that it went this way. Or kids got responded in this way." You can literally just search the hashtag TryThisTuesday or hashtag TryThisThursday, and come up with a ton of those examples. Or you can get the brand new ones that come out. What's kind of funny when I create these is often I will just say to someone on the team, "Give me a math topic." Like, give me a thing. Give me a thing you're going to do next week. Give me a thing that you did last week. And somebody you know will say something like Mean, Median and Mode. And I'm like, Oh, bam. And then I'll just go. I'll run, and I'll create one of these Instructional Routines on that topic. And kind of think about how I've done it in the past and what it would look like. And then, yeah, just give it a shot. 

Kim  9:17  
Yeah.
And if you can get access to social media in your school, it's really nice look. You could literally pull it up and just stick it, you know, right there on your screen.

Pam  9:26  
Your slide deck.

Kim  9:27  
Yeah, it's easy to read, kid friendly, not a lot of ugly text. So, that's really nice to be able to use right there on demand.
Yeah.

Pam  9:35  
There you go. Alright, day five, we would like to talk about... Which is kind of funny. The Math is Figure-Out-Able podcast. Check it out. So, here are three of our favorite episodes that you may or may not have heard. Yeah, so we think these would be worth a listen if you didn't get a chance to listen to them. So,  episode 245, The Three Distortions That Ruin Math Teaching.

Kim  10:01  
Mmhm.

Pam  10:01  
So, what are the ways that you might have viewed mathematics as a student that was sort of a distorted view that could actually impact the way that you're teaching right now that you might not realize? And once you realize, then you have the choice and sort of make a difference. Or episode 276. This might be one of my favorites, Facilitating Pam's Favorite Problem String. So, I do have a favorite Problem String that I've done across the years. I have definitely certain teacher moves that just fit so nicely with it, and so we decided we would do a whole podcast episode where I kind of tried to flush out a whole lot of different ways you could do it, different moves. Why I do each of those? So, dive into 276, to check out that Sticks of Gum Problem String. If you are ever going to do a Problem String for a group of teachers, or parents, or maybe you want to try your first one, this would be a really good episode to get all the nitty gritty.

Kim  10:59  
Mmhm, mmhm.

Pam  11:00  
Be super prepared to go facilitate that particular Problem String.

Kim  11:04  
Yep. 

Pam  11:04  
Alright, one more, Episode 277. So, right after that one. That's kind of funny. Is, Memorize the Facts. It Makes All the Difference. So, that title is a little tongue in cheek. I think it kind of depends on what you mean by "memorize", but that's exactly what we get into is all the nuances of why facts and what does it mean to have the facts at your fingertips? Why do so many people think that memorizing the facts is the thing that you have to start with? And you can't open the gateway to higher math until you got that done, so we're just going to keep drilling you until you finally get them, quote, unquote, "memorize". You know what is it all about facts? And we dive into that. Give you some really good words and justification, research to help you move forward with students who do or don't know their facts and how to help everybody be successful. 

Kim  11:54  
Yeah.

Pam  11:55  
Yeah.

Kim  11:55  
It's no coincidence that these three are clustered together. If you are a leader, instructional coach on the campus, we think these would be three fantastic ones that you could send out a podcast episode for your teachers to listen to about the distortions. When you come together, you can debrief what they thought about that distortions, where they feel like maybe they had some experience growing up. Facilitate the Problem String together, and when the inevitable conversation about facts comes up, could send them away with a fantastic episode to listen to as well. 

Pam  12:25  
Absolutely.
Hey, and one other thing to know is y'all really should be on our email list because we send out a weekly email, and one of the things that's in that email is the new podcast episode. So, it's a great reminder for you. "Oh, right. Like, the Math is Figure-Out-Able podcast is dropping." You'll know what the topic is. We give you a little bit about what's coming up in that podcast episode. And you also then know when we do our challenges and webinars. We are always doing a lot of free virtual things that you can hop on. Once you get registered, you can get the link to the recording, etc. If you want to know about all those things, join our email list. Get on that weekly email that we send out to find out about all the free things that are coming out, including the podcast episodes, challenges, webinars, all the things. That link will be in the show notes to join, to get on that. If you're like, "I don't want to go to your show notes," you can always go to mathisfigureoutable.com and that joining our email list will be one of the first things that you'll see. So, you know like, if you don't do anything else from this episode, get on that email list. 

Kim  13:32  
Yeah.
Okay, so the final one we're going to share today is I think a godsend to classrooms. If I am going into a classroom to do some work with some students, one of the first places I'm going to go is to our Instructional Routines Hub. Every once in a while I'm in a Facebook group, somebody will say something about like where do I find more Problem Strings? Where do I find more of this and that? So, you should know that every time we post one of those, TryThisTuesday or TryThisThursday, they get housed in our Instructional Routines Hub. When you go to that link, that'll be in the show notes, then you can have fresh ideas if you didn't see them when they first came out. But we've collected every opportunity for you to do a Relational Thinking, As Close As It Gets, Problem Strings. We have them for all the grade ranges, and you can just scroll through there, find the ones that you want. You can put some together to create like a week of a specific Problem String, strategy type. There's so much there. (unclear).

Pam  14:31  
We've got them all organized.

Kim  14:33  
Yeah.

Pam  14:33  
Yeah, exactly. 

Kim  14:34  
What's super cool is that if you have a Twitter/X account, you can click on each of these, and they'll take you to the commentary that people have done in the week that it went out, so that you can see all the comments that people left.

Pam  14:51  
Yeah, you can totally look at the whole the whole thread, and it'll give you great ideas about how to use it. And like you said, you can kind of see it all at a glance, and scroll through, and see all the ones that we've ever put out.

Kim  15:03  
And scroll, and scroll, and scroll, and scroll. There's so much there.

Pam  15:07  
So, it's a section of our website that we call the Instructional Routines Hub, where basically, once we've put something out on social media, we collect it and we stick it there because if you might not have seen it in that moment in social media, and so now here's kind of an archive history of all the ones that we put out. You might be surprised at all of the richness that is available there. That's our day 6 of our 12 Days of Christmas Math is Figure-Out-Able style. Remember, we're going to put the link to all of these in the show notes. There'll be a specific link that will send you to a blog where they'll be all listed at once, and you can just go check out the ones that are most interesting to you at this moment.

Kim  15:44  
Yeah, so we have more free things coming to you next week. We hope you check these out because we love to create free resources for you to help you in your classroom. 

Pam  15:53  
Yeah, so, everybody, I hope that you're having a wonderful December, whether you're cold or hot, like we are here in Texas. Or I guess we're cold today. Yeah, have a very nice holiday season, and we'll see you next week. Thanks for tuning in and teaching more and more real math to find out more about the Math is Figure-Out-Able movement, visit mathisfigureoutable.com. Keep spreading the word that Math is Figure-Out-Able!