Let’s chat—send me a text!

You don’t need to find an empty week in your pacing guide to use a math project.

In this episode, we’re looking at three ways projects can fit into the mathematics you’re already teaching:

• Investigate with math → Election Data + Statistics
• Make a decision with math → Pitch Profit
• Practice through a meaningful product → Stained Glass

Projects don’t have to replace your instruction, practice, or curriculum. Sometimes they simply give students somewhere meaningful to use the math they’re already learning.

This week’s reflection: What job does the mathematics you’re teaching right now need students to do—investigate, decide, or practice?

This podcast is a member of the Teach Better Podcast Network. Better Today. Better Tomorrow. And the Podcasts to Help You Get There.

Connect with Kristen:

• Follow on Instagram @moorethanjustx
• Join the Facebook Community: The Modern Math Teachers Movement

More About the Modern Math Teacher Podcast

Kristen Moore, classroom teacher and instructional coach at Moore Than Just X, empowers modern secondary math teachers to transform the student experience with the strategies and the confidence to implement project-based learning, mastery-based assessment, and student engagement strategies in their classrooms.

Whether you're a math education newbie or a seasoned veteran, you'll find something new and inspiring in every episode. You’re already a listener, why not join the Movement inside ✨The Modern Math Teachers Movement Facebook group. Join the community of math teachers who are not afraid to shake things up and make math class the best part of the day for our students. So tune in each Tuesday, have some fun, and let's elevate our math teaching game together!

*Amazon orders may provide a small affiliate payout at no extra cost to you. These payouts help keep the podcast free for all!

Let’s chat—send me a text!

We hear it all the time: Make math real-world.

But real-world doesn’t automatically mean relevant.

In this episode, I’m sharing how one of my favorite cell phone projects slowly lost its relevance—and what it taught me about choosing contexts that actually matter to the students sitting in front of us.

We’ll talk about:

• The difference between real-world and relevant math
• My Spheres of Relevance: self, community, culture + the larger world
• How timeliness can create relevance
• Why relevant doesn’t have to mean entertaining
• Using real data to build mathematical literacy

Plus, I’m sharing how election data can give students a timely reason to use statistics to analyze the information they’re already encountering outside of school.

This week’s reflection: Where does the math you’re teaching exist in the real world—and why might it matter to your students?

This podcast is a member of the Teach Better Podcast Network. Better Today. Better Tomorrow. And the Podcasts to Help You Get There.

Connect with Kristen:

• Follow on Instagram @moorethanjustx
• Join the Facebook Community: The Modern Math Teachers Movement

More About the Modern Math Teacher Podcast

Kristen Moore, classroom teacher and instructional coach at Moore Than Just X, empowers modern secondary math teachers to transform the student experience with the strategies and the confidence to implement project-based learning, mastery-based assessment, and student engagement strategies in their classrooms.

Whether you're a math education newbie or a seasoned veteran, you'll find something new and inspiring in every episode. You’re already a listener, why not join the Movement inside ✨The Modern Math Teachers Movement Facebook group. Join the community of math teachers who are not afraid to shake things up and make math class the best part of the day for our students. So tune in each Tuesday, have some fun, and let's elevate our math teaching game together!

*Amazon orders may provide a small affiliate payout at no extra cost to you. These payouts help keep the podcast free for all!

Let’s chat—send me a text!

“Projects sound great…but when are students actually learning the math?”

That’s a fair question—and the answer isn’t simply putting more calculations into the project.

In this episode, we’re talking about how to intentionally keep deep, rigorous mathematics at the center of PBL using one of my favorite project-design tools: milestones and milestone markers.

Using my Wasted Space Geometry Project as an example, we’ll explore how students can use surface area, volume, modeling, constraints, and optimization to redesign product packaging—and how intentional checkpoints make their mathematical thinking visible along the way.

We’ll talk about:

• The difference between a deadline and a mathematical milestone
• How milestone markers give you evidence of student learning
• Checking individual understanding during collaborative projects
• Using project evidence to decide when students need instruction or practice
• Why the final product should never be your only evidence of learning

Milestones organize the learning journey. Milestone markers give us evidence that the learning happened.

✨Ready to design your own meaningful math PBL experience? PBL Kickstart is my $17 on-demand workshop designed to help you get started with the mathematics you already teach. Enroll in PBL Kickstart Today

Reflection: If I looked only at the milestones in your project—not the final product—could I tell what mathematics you want students to learn?

This podcast is a member of the Teach Better Podcast Network. Better Today. Better Tomorrow. And the Podcasts to Help You Get There.

Connect with Kristen:

• Follow on Instagram @moorethanjustx
• Join the Facebook Community: The Modern Math Teachers Movement

More About the Modern Math Teacher Podcast

Kristen Moore, classroom teacher and instructional coach at Moore Than Just X, empowers modern secondary math teachers to transform the student experience with the strategies and the confidence to implement project-based learning, mastery-based assessment, and student engagement strategies in their classrooms.

Whether you're a math education newbie or a seasoned veteran, you'll find something new and inspiring in every episode. You’re already a listener, why not join the Movement inside ✨The Modern Math Teachers Movement Facebook group. Join the community of math teachers who are not afraid to shake things up and make math class the best part of the day for our students. So tune in each Tuesday, have some fun, and let's elevate our math teaching game together!

*Amazon orders may provide a small affiliate payout at no extra cost to you. These payouts help keep the podcast free for all!