Why Math PD Matters - Even in the Summer

This summer, I've found myself in a virtual room full of teachers, from kindergarten to high school from all over the world. Although we are vastly different, we're all here for the same reason: to better support students who struggle with math.

Not one of us joined this professional development because we love math in the traditional sense. We're not solving complex equations for fun or dreaming in square roots (well some of the high school math teachers might be). We came together because we love helping students understand something that often feels impossible to them.

Math doesn't get the same grace as reading. Think about it: when someone struggles with reading, we rally around them. We intervene early. We never say, "It's okay, I wasn't good at reading either." But with math? That's a common response. We excuse it. We avoid it. We pass on the belief that math is hard, scary, or just not for everyone.

But math literacy is just as important as reading literacy. We need both to function in the world.

Math isn't about memorizing long terms or solving problems with 17 steps. Most of us don't use those in everyday life. But number sense, understanding how numbers work, relate, and interact, is a basic life skill. It's like reading. Reading isn't just about knowing letters or sight words; it's about understanding how language works, how letters form words, and how words carry meaning.

In the same way, math is about knowing that 10 is more than 7, that doubling something increases it, that fractions and percents help us split things fairly or understand sales at the grocery store. These are not just school skills. These are life skills.

So here we are, teachers from all over, spending part of our summer digging into how we can build number sense, how we can help kids see patterns, how we can help them feel confident with numbers. Because math anxiety is real, and confidence doesn't come from telling kids to try harder. It comes from building understanding step-by-step, just like we do with reading.

And while we're at it, we're also learning how to talk about math in more positive ways. One of the most powerful things we can do is stop saying, "I was never good at math," and start saying, "Math can be tricky, but we can figure it out together." That small shift in language can completely change a student's mindset.

We're also remembering to connect math to real life. Cooking, shopping, playing games, even planning a trip—these are all opportunities to show students that math isn't just something that lives in textbooks. It's something they already use, and with the right support, something they can feel confident doing.

This PD isn't about becoming a math genius. It's about becoming a better guide for our students. It's about giving them the tools they need to see math not as something scary or unreachable, but as something they can understand and maybe even grow to enjoy.