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Before students can confidently solve problems, they need opportunities to confidently share ideas.

We're continuing our Creating a Classroom of Problem Solvers series by exploring one of my favorite places to start: Thinking Routines.

These routines create low-pressure opportunities for students to notice patterns, share ideas, compare strategies, justify their thinking, and build confidence as mathematicians.

We'll discuss why thinking routines matter, how they support mathematical identity, and why they're such a powerful companion to Word Problem Workshop and problem-solving classrooms.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How these routines build confidence and engagement
• Several favorite routines to try in your classroom
• The biggest mistake teachers make when facilitating thinking routines
• How thinking routines support discourse and problem solving

Resources Mentioned:

Free Thinking Routine Sample:
https://monamath.myflodesk.com/thinkingroutines

Christopher Danielson's How Many? books:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1032898356

Let's Connect!

Website: MonaMath.com
Instagram: @hellomonamath

Listen on YouTube https://youtu.be/D1Xa3fgZ8fM

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a teacher friend who is working to create a classroom of problem solvers.

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Creating a classroom of problem solvers can feel overwhelming when you're trying to fit problem solving, fluency, discourse, assessment, intervention, and curriculum pacing into a single math block.

In this episode we're unpacking the six essential elements that help students become confident, capable mathematicians and how these elements work together to create a classroom where students do the thinking, talking, and problem solving.

Inspired by the research in Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics, we'll explore why mathematical proficiency is about so much more than getting the right answer and how small shifts in instruction can help students develop deeper understanding, stronger reasoning, and greater independence.

In this episode, we're chatting about:

• How thinking routines build reasoning, discourse, and fluency
• Where intervention, small groups, and strategic instruction fit
• What purposeful fluency really means
• How student-engaged assessment supports learning and growth
• Why identity and belonging are essential for mathematical success
• How to fit it all together without adding more to your day

Whether you're implementing Word Problem Workshop, exploring student-centered math instruction, or simply looking for ways to increase student thinking and engagement, this episode will help you reimagine what your math block can be.

Resources Mentioned:

📘 Word Problem Workshop: 5 Steps to Creating a Classroom of Problem Solvers https://amzn.to/4enq6bD

📚 Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics https://amzn.to/4vLN1o3

🌎 monamath.com/

📲 Instagram: @hellomonamath

If you're enjoying the Math Chat Podcast, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a teacher friend who wants students doing more of the thinking in math class.

Find Math Chat Podcast on YOUTUBE!

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What if the most important thing you teach at the beginning of the year isn’t a routine… but a belief about what math actually IS?

In this episode of the Math Chat Podcast, we’re talking about how to launch the school year with a true problem-solving mindset so students learn to think, persevere, discuss ideas, and trust themselves as mathematicians from day one.

Because students learn what math is by experiencing math.

If math is always watching, copying, and repeating, students learn math is about compliance. But when math becomes noticing, wondering, trying, discussing, revising, and making sense of ideas… students learn math is about thinking. And teacher friends… that changes everything.

In this episode, we’ll chat about:

• the biggest mindset mistake teachers make at the beginning of the year
• how over-scaffolding can accidentally reduce student independence
• what students actually need to become problem solvers
• ways to normalize productive struggle in math class
• what classrooms full of thinkers really look and sound like
• practical shifts that help students build confidence, reasoning, and perseverance from the very beginning

Mentioned in this episode

👩🏼‍🏫 Word Problem Workshop Teacher Training

🆓 5 Questions to Ask in Math Class to Get Students Thinking

📒 The BOOK! Word Problem Workshop: 5 Steps to Creating a Classroom of Problem Solvers

📱 @hellomonamath on Instagram

A few favorite reminders from this episode:

• “Students become problem solvers by solving problems. Not by watching us solve them.”
• “We have to stop treating struggle like an emergency.”
• “Your job is not to perform the math. Your job is to facilitate the thinking.”
• “Students learn what math is by experiencing math.”

If you’re enjoying the Math Chat Podcast, leaving a quick review helps more teachers discover the show and build classrooms full of thinkers too.