Latest Thoughts

If you’ve followed me at all in the past several years, you probably know that I often hear people say they just aren’t math people. You also likely know how I feel about that. I mean, that’s really why this website exists…to provide resources and ideas to help you understand…

I often open the first day of math classes by asking students to use one word to describe the subject of mathematics. As you can imagine, the responses vary widely. Math is fun. Math is easy. Math is impossible. Math is numbers. Math is rules. Math is necessary. There are…

Think back to math class for a minute. Any math class will do. When the teacher asked a question or presented you with a problem to solve, was it understood they were most often looking for an exact answer? The ONE correct solution. As someone who spent some years leading…

Are you an artist? Meaning, do you create in some way for personal enjoyment, self-expression, to sell as a source of income, or for some other reason? Maybe you like to draw, paint, or sculpt. Maybe you use words to create by writing poetry or stories or songs. Maybe you…

When I say the phrase “problem-solving” what comes to mind? Does your mind immediately jump to math class and the dreaded word problems? Or do you think about how you navigated the situation when you got a flat tire on a road trip? If you are like most people I…

Today, instead of talking about a specific way you use math every day, I’m going to take you through a bit of the backstory of the podcast. I’ll share why I’m so passionate about the topic of math people and why I believe it’s important to see yourself as a…

Have you ever been driving along and realized the car is running low on gas? You start looking for gas stations and you choose the one with the lowest price on the sign, even though it only saves you a couple of cents. What you are actually doing here is…

My husband I recently visited Hawai’i as a celebration of 30 years of marriage. We have been trying to get there to celebrate milestone anniversaries for 20 years and this year we finally made it happen! There’s a whole lot I could say about the trip, but I’ll stay on…

In the last few years, I’ve seen a lot of people habit tracking. Sometimes they use a paper chart to keep track, as a printout on the fridge or drawn out in a bullet journal. Sometimes, it’s in an app…there are tons of tracking apps out there. Some focus on…

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been determined to do well and succeed. When I didn’t get something right, I made adjustments to my approach and tried again. And again. And again. Until I was satisfied with the outcome. Or, until I ran out of time and…

Do you love to play board games or card games like I do? I am always asking my husband if he wants to play a game and I love all kinds. I especially like games that involve some kind of strategy or skill. The truth is, though, most games involve…

Everyone loves a good deal, right? I remember when I was a kid, any time my parents wanted to make a specific purchase, they would look at the options and compare prices at different stores. Now, mind you this was before the internet, so that meant actually visiting multiple stores…

It is no secret that the only thing I truly enjoy about food preparation is the eating part. I love to eat all kinds of foods from all around the world, but I don’t love the cooking part. Not even a little. It’s one of those areas of my life…

I think it’s time to clear some things up. I talk about “math people” a lot. LIke a lot, a lot. I have conversations with students, with friends, with people I meet on the street or on the airplane, and even with the guy who sold me my car. Here’s…

If you are anything like me, you make endless lists, mostly of things that need to get done. I love a good list for a few reasons: Have you ever written something on your list that you did before you made the list just so you can cross it off?…

Are you a musician? Meaning, do you play a musical instrument? I remember learning to play piano when I was a young child. I think I was five or six years old when I started lessons with the music director at the church we attended. She taught me how to…

Do you have a vivid memory from math class? One that has stuck with you for years. There are a handful of distinct memories I have from when I was in the third grade. I loved my teacher…truth be told, I loved all my teachers except a couple from high…

Since I started the podcast a few months ago, most of the episodes I’ve recorded (and the posts I’ve made here to accompany them) so far either focus on a specific mathematical idea you frequently use, sometimes without even realizing it, OR on the math involved in a particular activity…

Today, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. You know, the one that gets in the way and often interrupts a math journey. The thing that drives so many people crazy enough that they ultimately decide math isn’t for them.  But first… Let’s back up all the way to…

People say the craziest things sometimes, don’t they?  Our personal beliefs come from our life experiences and the emotions we feel during those experiences play a role in what gets cemented into our belief system. I’ve heard several mentors and coaches teach this model over the years as a repeating…

How often do you think about money? Are you someone who buys whatever you want without much thought or someone who carefully considers each dollar that leaves your bank account? No matter which category you fall into, you probably work within a budget of some kind. That makes you a…

Back in this post, I shared some of the ways math shows up in nature. Specifically, a few places we see the Fibonacci sequence and the related golden spiral and golden ratio. Every time I revisit the topic of Fibonacci numbers, I am completely fascinated by it and I can…

For all you writers out there who thought you were off the hook because you use words for your creative expression, this post is for you. I guess it’s for the readers out there, too, now that I think about it. Because there is also math hidden in the words…

If we were having a conversation face to face, you might say to me something like, “So, you have 24 episodes (posts) about the ways I might be using math in my daily life. But my question is how does all of this help me learn math?” Or “how does…

I have only a couple of real memories from when I was in kindergarten. One of them happened at lunchtime. I had my little lunch box in my hands and I was standing in the line waiting to get my milk carton. Except, I must have been energetic that day.…

I first had the idea for this series of posts and podcast episodes while cleaning out my home office. Clearing out might be a better term for it because I’ve been transforming a bedroom that used to belong to our son into an inspiring work space for myself. While I…