Teachers turned authors — bringing Number Talks to every secondary math classroom.
Why Number Talks changed everything for me
It started in a 3rd grade classroom. My son MJ's teacher pulled me aside to describe the mathematical thinking he'd shared during their opening Number Talks routine. MJ has Down Syndrome. His whole school life, thinking and connecting ideas had never been the problem — writing and memorization were.
Number Talks gave him a way to do math without being limited by what he couldn't write. He could explain, reason, and belong. That moment lit something in me I couldn't put out.
"Number Talks changed my classroom — my students think outside the box when approaching math problems, and they're not afraid to be wrong."
Hearing Ruth Parker at NCTM stoked the fire further. I brought Number Talks into my high school classrooms, co-wrote four books with my colleague Deb, and have been supporting teachers ever since.