Grow Your Mind
Guest Blog: Let Students See the Math
A failed percentages test taught Amanda Koonlaba that math isn't a locked door — it just needs more than one way in. In this guest post, she shows how arts integration helps students see math instead of only calculating it.
The Question We Only Ask Too Late
I taught first grade in a storage room. Twenty-one six-year-olds, no windows, and students with significant learning needs I had no training to address. That experience sent me on a path I'm still walking — and it keeps bringing me back to one question: why do we only ask the most important diagnostic question in math after a student has already been found eligible for special education? That question belongs earlier. For every student. Before the referral. Before the label.
Guest Blog: Foundations of Numeracy Part 2
EXCERPT
Research has given us a clear picture of what students need to develop lasting mathematical proficiency — but knowing the destination isn't enough. In Part 2 of this series, Jillian Mendoza of PowerMyLearning shows principals, instructional coaches, and district leaders how to put the Foundations of Numeracy framework to work where it's needed most: designing intervention that targets root causes rather than surface-level procedures, and building teacher professional learning that actually changes instruction. If your school or district is making intervention and PD decisions without a shared diagnostic lens, this is the read that reframes how you think about both.
Guest Blog: Foundations of Numeracy Part 1
Decades of research have converged on a clear picture of what students need to build lasting mathematical proficiency — but translating that evidence into coherent, school-wide action is where many systems fall short. In this guest post, Jillian Mendoza, Director of Math at PowerMyLearning, introduces the Foundations of Numeracy framework: a research-backed map for making smarter decisions about curriculum, intervention, and instructional coherence. Whether you're a principal, instructional coach, or district leader, this framework gives you a shared language for evaluating every math decision — not just a slice of it, but the whole picture.