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If you want to hear a crowd of educators not speak their truth, ask the question, “Do you believe that all students can learn at grade level?” It is akin to asking your students, “Do you get it?” Heads nod. The answer comes quickly. Yes. And sometimes that yes comes faster than the reflection behind it. And let’s just say everyone answers yes. The next move is simple. Hand them any vetted math HQIM. It does not matter which one. Give them a grade level task that demands reaso

I began my career in education in 2010 at age 28. If you had asked me in high school what I wanted to be, you would have heard pediatric neurologist, and while I do not perform medically necessary surgery, I still spend my days paying attention to how stress and confidence show up in math educators long before anyone says a word and I perform "math surgery" every day with teachers and students. I started ninth grade at THE Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions

You hear teachers remind kids of what they should have learned last year. Ninth-grade teachers question what eighth-grade teachers did. Sixth-grade teachers wonder what students spent the year doing in fifth grade. The pattern stays the same. We blame instead of communicate because it's easier to do than deal with the real issue. Recently, I sat with a group of elementary teachers, and we dug into long division. They showed me two strategies they use. One was new to me and re

It is early November, and every educator is ready for a break. The kids are feeling it too, if we’re being honest. This time of year brings a need for a reset for many reasons. Assessment data comes in, and it’s often not what you hoped for. Students sense the upcoming break, and they start to turn up the energy. Teachers crave time off, and PTO requests increase. Every role feels the weight of this season in a different way. Reflecting on My Journey This blog has always refl

In my fifth year of HQIM work, I’ve realized the hardest part isn’t the systems or the pacing guides. That part runs itself now. The real challenge is what happens when lessons push adults out of their comfort zones. I hear it often, “students can’t do it.” But most times, that’s not about the kids. It’s about us. Teachers who are used to the safety of “I do, we do, you do” can wrestle when lessons shift toward conceptual, open ended thinking. That includes me. It took years

We started off working on the lesson internalization. That was the plan. Align the objective, tighten the checks for understanding, make sure the questioning matched the standard. Then the teacher asked me how to reach a student who never joined in. I asked him to tell me about the kid, not the data, not the behavior, just who he was. He told me the student’s mother had been deported a few weeks ago. We can stop right there. Because what else does that child have to think abo

The Power of Intervention in Math Education They say if you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans. From 2013 to 2015, I found myself immersed in intervention work in math education. I never imagined there would be a role in schools designed specifically for that. So, you can picture my joy when I learned that the very district I grew up in had an opening for a sixth-grade math interventionist at one of the intermediate schools. Stepping into that role was more than just

Story Time Part 1: How Humanizing Policy Shaped My Efficacy I had no idea what it was called back then. What I now know to be my belief...

I was a brand new District Middle School Math Specialist with nine campuses and 7,000 kids on my plate when HQIM landed in my lap. During...

A month ago, I authored a post on LinkedIn where I shared my thoughts on how we can often confuse support with control. A pacing guide...

My individual teacher efficacy used to vary directly (math fun 😂) based on the leadership I was under. I have had leaders who helped me...

In my early years of being a practitioner of "ignorance is bliss" in math education, the only question I asked my students was “Everybody...

I began dumping my math apprehension on close to 150 kids in August of 2010. I was a brand new teacher and education had become my second...