Modern Math Teacher- Teaching Strategies for High School and Middle School Math Teachers

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Our students are surrounded by data—but are we teaching them how to actually think with it?
In this episode, we’re moving beyond “calculate the statistic” and talking about how real data can help students investigate, question, interpret and make predictions.
We’ll talk about:
Moving from calculating data to interpreting it
Why messy, real data creates richer thinking
Helping students ask, “What does this data NOT tell me?”
Using timely election data to build mathematical literacy
I’m also sharing how my Election Data + Statistics Project puts these ideas into action with real election-related data.
This week’s reflection: Are your students learning how to calculate statistics—or are they also learning how to think with them?

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!
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!

Let’s chat—send me a text!
You Don’t Need Three Weeks for PBL
“I’d love to do more projects…but I just don’t have time.”
If that sounds familiar, this episode is for you.
Because somewhere along the way, we started assuming that good project-based learning has to mean a massive, multi-week project complete with research, presentations, fancy final products, and approximately 47 things for the teacher to manage.
It doesn’t.
In this episode of The Modern Math Teacher, we’re talking about how to right-size PBL for the mathematics, your curriculum, and the instructional time you actually have.
We’ll explore the continuum from rich tasks and performance tasks to mini-projects and full PBL experiences—and why bigger doesn’t automatically mean better.
I’m also sharing four practical ways to shrink a project without shrinking the mathematics.

In this episode:
Why good PBL doesn’t have to take three weeks
How to right-size a project around the mathematical goal
The difference between rich tasks, performance tasks, mini-projects, and larger PBL experiences
Why smaller projects aren’t watered-down PBL
How “project bloat” steals instructional time from the mathematics
Four ways to make a project more manageable
Why you can weave a project into instruction instead of saving it for “project week”
What you should NEVER cut when shortening a project
Why starting with one manageable project is enough
The goal isn’t to find more time for PBL.
It’s to design PBL that fits the time you actually have.

Ready to Get Started with PBL?

If you’ve found the place in your curriculum where a project makes sense but you’re still wondering how to turn that idea into an actual learning experience, PBL Kickstart is for you. Enroll in PBL Kickstart and Start Planning Now

PBL Kickstart is my $17 on-demand workshop that walks you through planning your first project-based learning unit in three simple steps—without assuming you have unlimited planning time or three empty weeks in your pacing guide.

Because you don’t need to transform your entire classroom.

You need one good place to start.

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!