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, y'all, they're terrible teaching tools because mimicking step-by-step procedures actually traps students into using less sophisticated reasoning than the problems are intended to develop and use.

Kim  0:32  
In this podcast, we help you teach mathing, building relationships with your students, and grappling with mathematical relationships.

Pam  0:39  
We invite you to join us to make math more figure-out-able.

Pam and Kim  0:43  
Hey. 

Pam  0:44  
Howdy. 

Kim  0:45  
How's it going?

Pam  0:46  
It's going. Fast and furious and fun. And yeah, all the things.

Kim  0:50  
Marching towards the end of 2025. It's been real. I know, I know. 

Pam  0:54  
It is unreal, yeah.

Kim  0:55  
We are wrapping up the end of this year with some fun episodes. So, last week, we gave you the first 6 of the 12 Days of Christmas, Math is figure-out-able style. And so this week, we are going to share 6 more of our favorite things that you can dive into in 2026. It sounds so weird to say.

Pam  1:16  
Hey, before we dive into the next 6. It does sound weird to say. Have you seen the Number Blocks Christmas? 

Kim  1:24  
No! 

Pam  1:25  
It's the 12 Days of Christmas. And it's hilarious. It's super cute. I watched it with my two grandsons. Yeah, it's... I don't even know how to describe it. But it is super cute. 

Kim  1:36  
Check it out!

Pam  1:37  
Well, it kind of makes sense. They end up with 12 different trees. Because it's like every time they repeat, you know, on the 10th day of Christmas... blah, blah, blah. And it goes all the way down. So, they would build like a tree with all of them. And then when they start over, they would build a new tree with all of them. I don't know if that makes any sense. So, there was like 12 on the bottom, and then 11, and then 10. And then, so it forms like a triangle. 

Kim  1:59  
Mmhm.

Pam  2:00  
You can picture like centering those. Yeah, it was really cool. Number Blocks never disappoints. They never, never disappoint.

Kim  2:06  
No, never. Yeah, for sure.

Pam  2:08  
Alright, so.

Kim  2:09  
Alright. 

Pam  2:09  
The next 6 free things for Math is Figure-out-able. Let's start with the Math is Figure-Out-Able Teacher, Facebook group. 

Kim  2:18  
Yeah.

Pam  2:18  
Which I am not a fan of Facebook, or Zuckerberg, or any of that stuff. However, we do take advantage of the opportunity to sort of gather there as a community and do all things Math is Figure-Out-Able. And Kim?

Kim  2:31  
Yeah? 

Pam  2:31  
May I just say, you do a fantastic job of keeping the conversations there figure-out-able, aligned. Like we really encourage people to join in and ask questions. But we also monitor the Facebook group.

Kim  2:49  
Yeah, for sure.

Pam  2:49  
We make sure that it's just not... What is it not? How would you describe? 

Kim  2:53  
It's not complaining about teachers and parents and admin at all. It's not we're anti everything that you're here for. I mean, it's a Math is Figure-Out-Able community, and we absolutely welcome questions, and wonders, and does this fit? But it is called the Math is Figure-Out-Able community for a reason. And I am super grateful for all the people who have been around for quite some time or have found us recently. And they contribute such positive things. You know, I can't get in there all the time, and I miss stuff. And we have a great community there who supports math being figure-out-able and throw in their ideas and classroom experience. Yeah, it's a great place to be.

Pam  3:34  
Super, super place to be. So, yeah. We invite you to join the Math is Figure-Out-Able Teacher Facebook group. Good, great community. Love to have you there.

Kim  3:42  
Yeah. And just like last week, we're going to put all the links that you will need for these free things in the show notes. Day 8, another round of what we love the Math is Figure-Out-Able Podcast, part two. We have chosen a couple of the most, maybe important, episodes, really key things about Math is Figure-Out-Able. 

Pam  4:06  
Impactful?

Kim  4:07  
Yeah, impact. Like, if you need to know what Math is Figure-Out-Able is all about, then you could dive on episode 156, which we titled, "Start Here" on purpose. Sometimes people reach out and say, "Hey, what's the first episode to go to?" And so we just called it, "Start Here." That's episode 156. Really, I'm sneaking this in because it's more than one episode. The develop...

Pam  4:33  
Before you go to the next one. Can I actually? Sorry, sorry, sorry. On that "Start Here", if you've been around for a while and you want something to hand to somebody... You're like, "Hey, I'm really interested in what these guys are talking about. We think Math is Figure-Out-Able really might have something." You're trying to start a conversation with somebody. That "Start Here", episode 156 would be a really great one for them to listen to, so that you can start the conversation. Alright, now you're about to talk about a series of three episodes on Developing Mathematical Reasoning.

Kim  5:01  
Yeah, it's actually four. So, we...

Pam  5:03  
Oh, sorry.

Kim  5:04  
That's okay. We visited DMR in episode 5 and 6, and then again in 67 and 68. So, some back to back episodes. You can see what we added on in the later episodes, kind of our just like guiding... I almost said guiding light.

Pam and Kim  5:24  
Guiding principles.

Pam  5:25  
Bedrock.

Kim  5:26  
Yeah, yeah. For sure.

Pam  5:27  
Foundational stuff, yeah.

Kim  5:29  
And then a more recent episode, episode 377. How do we have that many episodes? We did one called "What is Fluency Anyway?" So, we raised some ideas about fluency and what it means. And, yeah, fluency, a big topic.

Pam  5:44  
Okay, I am going to laugh just a little bit.

Kim  5:46  
Yeah. 

Pam  5:46  
I think we are recording today episode 288. So, I think it might have had to been 277.

Kim  5:52  
Oh, I'm a liar then. Well see, that's why it sounds so weird. 

Pam  5:54  
So close.

Kim  5:55  
277.

Pam  5:56  
I will say, though. Do you know how often? You probably don't, because I don't tell you. I get emails a lot from people trying to monetize our podcast or get guests on our podcast. Or it's always funny when they're like, "This person would be a great guest on your podcast." And they say it in a way that they assume we have guests on the podcast, which we may someday.

Kim  6:16  
Yeah.

Pam  6:17  
At the moment we don't. We never have had guests on the podcast. I say it's funny because it's that moment where it's like, "You obviously have never listened to our podcast or have any idea what we do." 

Kim  6:27  
Yeah.

Pam  6:27  
But people reach out all the time, and one of the most consistent things I'm starting to hear. So, I've gotten that reach out for three years now. But I'm starting to hear, "Your podcast is running longer than 90% of podcasts or 95% of podcasts." 

Kim  6:42  
Yeah. 

Pam  6:42  
So, the fact that we've been running as long as we have, as consistently as we have, it's kind of a big deal.

Kim  6:49  
Yeah. 

Pam  6:49  
And so, you know, when you say, "Whoa, do we have that many?" I mean, we have a lot of podcasts. And it is pretty cool. And I will give you a lot of credit, Kim, for keeping the consistency going. You are the task master, the whip cracker, the, "Pam, we got to record the podcast," and it's brilliant that we've been able to keep it going. And we have not missed an episode in...

Kim  7:09  
Five years.

Pam  7:09  
Three years? Five years.

Kim  7:10  
Or five.

Pam  7:11  
Isn it really that long. 

Kim  7:11  
Yeah, yeah.

Pam  7:13  
Bam!

Kim  7:13  
It's a long time. And, as always, we are always interested to know what people want to hear on the podcast. You can email me. Kim@mathisfigureoutable.com for your ideas or throw them in the teacher Facebook group that you're going to join.

Pam  7:18  
There you go. Because the Math is Figure-Out-Able Teacher Facebook Group is a great place for you to be. Okay, so day 9 of the Math is Figure-Out-Able, 12 Days of Christmas style. I just said that wrong. 

Kim  7:40  
It's fine. 

Pam  7:40  
12 Days of Christmas, Math is Figure-Out-Able style. Put those words together in some order that makes sense to you. Is the Math is Figure-Out-Able blog. So, you may or may not know that we have a blog. We were not very... Just speaking of consistency. See, this is what it looks like. 

Kim  7:53  
That's because you were in charge. 

Pam  7:55  
I was in charge. When Kim is in charge, the podcast goes out every week, without fail. When Pam is in charge, we have a random blog that goes out when I can get it out. Although, we do have somebody helping now with the blog, and it will be a lot more consistent. We do have some fantastic blog posts out there. I'll mention a few of them that you might check out. So, we have one called "Questioning, Questioning" that's all about styles or patterns of questioning. Because individual questions are not as important as how you confer with students. I'll give Cathy Fosnot credit for that phrase. So, yeah, check that one out. Or there's one called "Teaching Routine for Building Important Mental Math Strategies," which is all about Kim's routine that she made up called, "I Have, You Need." And it does a bunch of stuff with I Have, You Need. Goes into some secondary content, so it's not just a numeracy routine, but a way that you can get secondary students building mental math strategies. So, that's a nice one to check out. And then you might also be interested in a blog that we have called "Problem Strings Are Not". And so, it's a great way for you to get more clear on what Problem Strings are because we sort of contrast it with what you might be thinking Problem Strings are and they're actually not. So, what are Problem Strings? My favorite way to teach math. This would be a great way for you to sort of dive in and get some ideas how to differentiate between what a Problem String is and isn't. Right now, you might be like, "Pam, who cares?" Well, I think,  that one of the best ways that we can teach is to get better at teaching Problem Strings. It's not the only way to teach. But it's a fantastic inroad. And it's great because no matter how proficient you are, as a master, you can always like refine facilitating a Problem String. And it gives us a common Instructional Routine to talk about, so we can all get better at this one way of facilitating teaching. And... facilitating teaching? Is that the way I want to say that? One way getting better at facilitating math learning? It gives us a conversation K-12 that we can really have conversations about. And so, I think that's a helpful thing to do. So, there are some blogs that you can check out. Like I said, we're putting them out more and more frequently, so check that out if you have an RSS feeder. I don't know if people even still do that anymore, but you can stick our blog into that and know when a new one comes out. Yeah.

Kim  10:23  
Yeah. Okay.
Another great link that we're going to share with you is to the website, and is specifically to a page where you can see... I'm going to say it. I'm saying it laughing because this is what you say, and it makes me crazy every time. Real Problem Strings with real teachers and real students, as if they're fake. Problem Strings with teachers in classrooms. We've got one for each grade band, K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12. See the kids. See full length video of kids in action. We have write-ups of a Problem String all about math and the structure of the mathematics. We have specific teacher moves that we call out. We have, for some of them, I think there's transcript up there. We have a half sheet that gives you examples of things you can say and what you can notice as you facilitate these Problem Strings. But they're a fantastic start. If you are a classroom teacher and you want to try Problem Strings in your classroom, this is a great place to start because you can see it happen with real kids.

Pam  11:25  
Why do you hate it so bad when I say, "real kids in real classrooms with real teachers"?

Kim  11:29  
I don't mind they're real classrooms and real teachers, but they're always real kids. Like, are they going to be fake? Because some people are like they maybe (unclear)...

Pam  11:37  
We could have actors, couldn't we?

Kim  11:38  
could have a model teacher. I mean, but they're still kids, aren't they? It's fine. It's fine. You say what you want.

Pam  11:45  
You do like to poke at me when I call kids real kids. Okay, alright. Yeah, and I will say my teaching changed when I saw Cathy Fosnot's teachers do Problem Strings. When I actually saw them enacted with real kids, and I saw learning like I never knew was possible. Like, I think I had to see the interaction before a lot of what I was reading in those NSF funded curricula, and the articles in The Mathematics Teacher, and like, pick, the articles in Jeremy, the research journal. Like, as I was reading where people would advocate these teacher moves. When I was teaching math as fake math and set of procedures to mimic, none of that stuff rang true. It didn't make sense. The why you would have discourse in math class about steps that you were mimicking. Like it just... until I saw the learning happening, that's when I started to go, "Oh, wait a minute. There's a whole world out there that I now have access to." So, we highly recommend. Check it out. When you sit down over the holidays, you kick back, you got the remote in your hand, you're like, "What should we watch, Honey?" Pull up a video of a Problem String.

Kim  12:59  
Okay. 

Pam  12:59  
And watch it happen. And then I just invite you to consider that learning can be maybe different than it was for you growing up. Alright.

Kim  13:09  
Yeah, for sure.

Pam  13:11  
Day 11 of the 12 Days of Christmas, Math is Figure-Out-Able style. We have a Number Club webinar that we did with creator David Tim. He's from across the pond where he and I talked all about super cool games that he's created. We really like a good math game. And boy, we are picky when it comes to things that we will promote. Kim and I just actually had to send three emails this week. And let me just be clear. Well, how do I say this? Three denial emails? Rejection emails? (unclear). Three emails that said, "Thanks so much for asking us to endorse your thing. Your product, your thing, is fine. It's fine. It's not going to hurt anybody. Teachers will get some use out of it. It's decent." I know that just sounds terrible. What we... We're not going to endorse something unless it's good, unless it like really aligns with what we do. 

Kim  14:07  
I was going to say, "Good" meaning it's in alignment with pretty much everything we believe. 

Pam  14:13  
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kim  14:15  
It's about alignment for us.

Pam  14:17  
It's about alignment. And so, the Number Club games align. Like, maybe none that we've seen before? Is that safe to say? So, we've got...

Kim  14:28  
This one's unique. Yeah.

Pam  14:29  
They're very unique. They are that you math. Kim, I don't know if I told you this the other day. I was at a church event, and we had some downtime. And this super cool kid... I think he's 11. 10? 11? Knows that if he asked to play on my phone, I will say no, but I will let him play Number Club games. And he's only ever played Stick N' Split. And I knew that Number Ramble was out, and I hadn't even downloaded it yet, so I went and downloaded it on the App Store. And I was like, "Dude, play this game." And it was so fun watching him. I didn't even tell him how to play. I just I did one move for him. I just like say, "Here, you could do this." And then he just was off. And Kim, you might find this interesting. You can tell me, if I shouldn't. We can totally have this edited out of the podcast if this is silly to say.

Kim  15:16  
But we don't do that very often.

Pam  15:17  
We don't, we don't. On Number Ramble... So, Number Ramble, you have factors along the bottom, and then you're trying to make the product at the top.

Kim  15:26  
Mmhm.

Pam  15:26  
And you go from factor to factor.

Kim  15:29  
Mmhm.

Pam  15:29  
And so, if you're trying to get... Let's say that you're starting on 6, and you're trying to get to 8. You have to go from 6. You have to divide by 3 to get to 2, and then you multiply by 2 to get to 4, and you multiply by 2 to get to 8. 

Kim  15:45  
Yeah. 

Pam  15:45  
He thought that to get... Say, that you were on 2, and you had 2, 3, and 5, and you needed to get to 5. He thought that you would have to multiply by 3, divide by 3, and then multiply by 5. Oh, and I should have... Say you're on 1. So, to get from 1 to 5, he thought if... You'd have to picture the board. But 3 is in the middle between 1 and... Or between 2 and 5. So, if he's over here in the two column, but he's at 1. I'm making this so confusing. He thought he had to go through 3 to get to 5. Does that make sense? Like, he had to multiply by 3, divide by 3 to then go to 5? 

Kim  16:25  
Yeah. Why did he think that?

Pam  16:26  
Because it's in the middle. But what he didn't know is you can skip over it. If you drag from that, the left hand column to the far right hand column, the line will go between the dots in the 3 column. Anyway, you don't have to multiply 3 and divide by 3 unless you have a 3 in the product that you already have. And so, I watched him play, and I was like, "Why are you doing that?" And he goes, "Well, because I have to go through 3." And I was like, "Oh! No, you don't." And so, I just showed him. And then you should have seen. His face lit up. Like, Kim, this is what we're looking for. The intrigue, the surprise, the delight on this kid's face when he realized that to do these multiples, he didn't have to necessarily divide by 3, multiply by 3 to get rid of the 3 that wasn't there. That he could just, like skip over it. Oh, it was so cool. It was amazing. Y'all, we could do this with math. Like, this is a kid who's not necessarily interested in math. He's not a... I wouldn't call him a brainiac that's sitting over there, like, "Please give me math puzzles to play with." Like, this is an athlete. This is kind of a crazy kid. It's not his natural interest, but he's intrigued. This game puts him in a place where he's intrigued and he's willing to play. So, anyway. Games are unique. Check it out. We'll put the link to that in
the chat. Alright. What's our next? 

Kim  17:44  
Day 12. Day 12. The final and probably biggest free giveaway is the free Developing Mathematical Reasoning Workshop. Free workshop.

Pam  17:55  
Can you believe we give this away free? 

Kim  17:56  
I know. It's crazy. It's four lessons, four modules. You can have access for six weeks, learn all about the Developing Mathematical Reasoning graphic There are modules for different grade bands. Kind of a an epic everything Math is Figure-Out-Able, important things to know. I mean, yeah. It's... you have to take the workshop to even get a good feel. And we give that out for free. It's been taken by thousands and thousands and thousands of people everywhere. And what's fun is that sometimes I get into the registration, and I'll say, "This person has registered for it four times," because there's always something to take away. And you absorb what you can absorb the first time you take it. And even if it's, you know, over six weeks, you can only absorb so much. And then they come back around again. Or they say, "I'm about to go and act some of that in my classroom. Let me register again." No problem. It's free. We have leaders who have their schools take that free workshop to get them an entry into Math is Figure-Out-Able. It's fantastic. Fantastic workshop.

Pam  19:03  
Yeah, leaders, if you ever have a... What is that day called. Like, a Trade Day, where if teachers do professional learning, then they could, like skip one of the PD days or whatever. 

Kim  19:11  
Yeah, yeah.

Pam  19:11  
"Skip" is the wrong word. But they sort of trade their time out. There's the possibility that your teachers could take this. They get a certificate for having completed it, so they can, you know like, sort of prove they did the thing. Kim, we have university professors that use it in their methods classes. If you're a university professor and you're listening to this, you can contact us, support@mathisfigureoutable.com and ask for the professor link because that way your students won't get just six weeks access, but they can get a whole semester's access, and we give you a year's access, so the professors can use it just to as assignments in their math methods classes, K-12. It's a unique opportunity to sort of see the span from super young math up through grade 12 math. What does it mean to go from counting strategies to functional reasoning? And so, yeah. It is epic. I like epic. We put a lot of capital into creating it. It was a one day workshop that I did with K-12 teachers, and we recorded it, and we broke it up, and then we added a module at the end where you get to see high school students in action, reasoning functionally. I'm pretty proud of it, and we're excited to be able to give it out free. Why do we do it? We really want to impact math teaching around the world, and we feel like this is one of the best ways we can do it is to give you an opportunity to dive in and an experience developing mathematical reasoning yourself. Alright, y'all, we are going to put a link in the show notes that will give you a link to all of the things that we've mentioned in this episode and in last week's episode, 12 days of Free. 12 Days of the Math is Figure-Out-Able style to the 12 Days of Christmas. Y'all, check out 12 days of Free. Check out the links in the show notes. Thanks for being listeners to the podcast. 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. And thanks for spreading the word that Math is Figure-Out-Able!