sincerelyamathstudent

The number one blindspot I see in math instruction right now?
Leadership teams that wait for end of year assessment data to reveal what classroom observations could have exposed months earlier.

All because most observation forms check for teacher behaviors, not student reasoning.

Here is what that cycle looks like in practice:

📅 August/September — Teachers receive training and begin implementing the new HQIM. Leaders schedule formal evaluations and conduct initial walkthroughs. Everything looks aligned.

📅October/November — Unit assessment data start to reveal instructional inconsistencies across classrooms and subgroups. Observations confirm that all teachers are using the HQIM, so team planning increases focus on how specific teachers can better use the resource.

📅December/January/February — The gap between what students understand and what teachers assume they understand widens. Observations continue to monitor implementation of HQIM, but the leadership team knows where poor instruction is taking place and wonder “why won't they just use the resource?”

📅March/April — Leaders continue observing. Teachers continue teaching. The observation system continues to search for evidence of compliance instead of evidence of student thinking. The gap compounds.

📅May — The state assessment arrives and the scores do not reflect the expertise or the effort.

But here is the truth:

The story was being written in October.

Those small gaps were actually large chasms the whole time. And a better observation system would have empowered leaders to act sooner.

Most observation systems are designed to keep administrators passive.

They were built to document teacher performance, not to monitor whether students are building mathematical reasoning across every classroom every week.

That is a system problem.

But here is the part that requires tough love:

💡 The system will not fix itself in August when the new school year starts.

💡It will not fix itself because you hired a new teacher.

💡And it will not fix itself because you adopted a new curriculum.

✔️ It fixes itself when leadership teams deliberately build an observation system that uses informal observations as a proactive monitoring tool that exposes instructional patterns before the assessment does.

That window is right now. Not August. Now.

Because May 2027 is already being shaped by what you build this summer.

The question is not whether your observation system failed you this year. For most buildings it did.

The question is what you are going to do about it before August arrives again.

The secret is out!

I’m speaking at the first ever Math Intervention Summit! 📣

Join me June 8-10 as we navigate the path to student confidence and motivation. I’ll be teaching you how a few sense-making strategies that will foster proportional reasoning so you can become the gatebreaker your students need.

Don't hike alone—sign up for free!!🥾⛰️

https://www.collaboratedwithjuliana.com/summit

"Test to think, not to pass." A teacher said that during the webinar last night. I didn’t have to say it. That is when I knew the room understood exactly what test prep should be.

Last night's Test Prep Without Burnout webinar ran about 25 minutes over.
Almost every person stayed.

I was feeling guilty because I make it a point to honor everyone’s time, but so many questions were being posted in the chat, I knew I had to keep going.

At 7:43, I acknowledged that our time was almost up and asked permission to keep going. When everyone said yes, I asked “What’s resonating with you right now?”

➡️ "Metacognition will help to combat learned helplessness."

➡️"We're not just activating prior knowledge, we're intentionally building on it and honoring it."

➡️"The part about helping kids have a different way to get unstuck before asking for my help."

➡️"I need to see my students' thinking."

The chat was on FIRE!

Those are not my words.

They are the words of math teachers and leaders arriving at their own conclusions, in real time, as a community.

If you missed the webinar, be on the lookout for the next one.

I captured a picture of the final comments to make attending a no-brainer.

And if you are ready to bring the routines that I shared into your classroom before your state assessment, the 60 reasoning prompts are still available, on sale until April 15th.

These are the same prompts we used during the session to evaluate what makes a reasoning routine worth keeping.

Grab them here: https://www.sincerelyamathstudent.com/store/p/uncover-misconceptions

Students just left for spring break. When they return, classrooms will be full, but their minds will most likely still be on vacation.

We might view this as disengagement, but students are showing disconnection.

We must remember that safety, trust, and learning are inseparable.
Before students can reengage with math, they need to feel like they belong.

When students return from spring break, reestablish connections with brain-friendly reasoning routines that will help students think deeply again.

That is not a detour from instruction; this is the foundation of it.

Reestablishing connection is not separate from test prep.

If you want to see what brain-friendly, human-centered math instruction looks like in practice, join me at the Test Prep Without Burnout webinar this Monday, March 30th, at 7pm EST.

Register today! Link in comments.

I used the same exit ticket every single day. Some days I got one win. Some days I got two. Either way, I never left class without knowing exactly where my students were.

The exit ticket had two prompts, and students chose one:
"I really understood today's lesson because..." or "Today's lesson left me unsure because..."

That’s it.

Two sentences, student choice.

How did I win?

1️⃣Connection.
Some students never mentioned the lesson but shared something personal. These responses had nothing to do with math, but they told me that students felt safe enough to bring their whole selves into the learning. Establishing safety is the first step on the path to deep learning.

2️⃣ Advocacy.
Some students told me exactly what they needed. When students learn to advocate for themselves, learned helplessness ends. Helping students build metacognition enables them to identify what helps them learn best.

One exit ticket prompted deep reflection, allowing me to explore my students' state of mind.

And every single day I left class knowing exactly what my students understood, what they needed, and whether they felt safe enough to tell me the truth.

I now coach teachers to use this same exit ticket to illustrate that impactful teaching does not always mean more work. Sometimes it means one well-placed question at the end of class.

If you want to see why student reflection should be a critical part of test prep, join me at the Test Prep Without Burnout webinar on March 30th at 7pm EST.

Free. 45 minutes. Built for Grade 5-8 math teachers, but every leader in the room will leave with something they can use the very next morning.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/et8UmPYe

You just finished planning your test prep lessons. You know exactly WHAT you are reviewing. But do you know HOW?

Let's examine 2 examples of test prep:

Classroom A:
Teachers reviews previous assessment data.
Identifies activities.
Compile them in a review packet.

Classroom B:
Teachers reviews previous assessment data.
Identifies related misconceptions.
Designs a task that forces students to explain their thinking.

One produced a resource. The other created a reasoning opportunity.

When test prep is built around activities, students practice problems.

When test prep is built around mathematical reasoning, students deepen their understanding.

And deep understanding is exactly what the state assessment is designed to measure.

The difference between Classroom A and Classroom B is not talent or experience.
It's a framework, and that is completely teachable.

The Test Prep Without Burnout webinar on March 30th at 7pm EST will give you the skills you need.

In 45 minutes you will walk away with 3 reasoning routines that will turn your test prep from a review packet into a thinking strategy, starting the very next day.

Free. 45 minutes. March 30th at 7pm EST.

Link in comments.

POV: You stopped using poor results to motivate teachers and started helping them draw a direct line from their instructional moves to student outcomes.

Not long ago, 90% of my time as an instructional leader was spent doing things that felt productive but changed nothing:

• Printing data reports and walking into teacher meetings like the numbers would speak for themselves.

• Creating teacher resources that were full of theory but low on practical application.

• Pulling the whole team together to address a problem that only existed in one or two classrooms.

• Sharing strategies that worked for me, instead of having conversations that build teacher capacity.

I thought I was leading but I was managing.

Today I spend 30% of my time analyzing data that has already happened, and 70% of my time partnering with teachers to produce the data we want.

I have learned:

• How to help a teacher trace exactly where a lesson stopped building understanding, without making them feel like a failure.

• How to use student work as evidence, instead of numbers on a spreadsheet.

• How to meet teachers where they are individually, instead of addressing everyone the same way and calling it professional development.

• How to create the conditions where teachers feel safe enough to be honest about what’s not working so we can address it and move on.

Those shifts moved a 3-person, grade 8 math team from a 39% pass rate to a 78% pass rate in three years.

All because I stopped leading with pressure and started leading with partnership.
If you are tired of showing teachers data and watching nothing change, I built something for your team.

The Test Prep Without Burnout webinar on March 30th at 7pm EST is where we start helping teachers understand the connection between how they teach and what students do on assessment day.

Free. 45 minutes. Built for Grade 5-8 math teachers but every leader in the room will leave with something they can use the very next morning.

Register here: https://www.sincerelyamathstudent.com/test-prep-webinar

Some people prep for a webinar with silence and green tea, but I need a playlist that hits. From Mahalia Jackson to Cardi B, I will work to any genre of music as long as I can break for my own mini concert.

Today I realized my "get to work" playlist could use some fresh additions.

Right now I have:

▪️ Mahalia Jackson for when I need to feel grounded.

▪️Jakyla Carr for when I need to remind myself of who I am.

▪️Betty Davis for when I need to feel fearless in my uniqueness.

▪️Sade when I need to slow down and think clearly.

▪️Cardi B when I need to remind other people who I am.

See? Wide range, but no apologies.

I am about to sit down, get focused, and finish prepping for the Test Prep Without Burnout webinar on March 30th.

But I could use some help.

Drop your top "get to work" song in the comments. Genre does not matter, I promise I won’t judge…unless I can’t help it.

I need a playlist that can carry me from planning to executing to celebration without losing momentum.

And if you are curious about the results, link to register in comments.

It’s Free. 45 minutes. March 30th at 7pm EST.

Come through!

"I’m not sure I know what I should be looking for in a math classroom. How do I know if students are learning?"

That thought is more common than you think.

The most honest problems I hear from school leaders after a math observation:

▪️ I can tell if the teacher has classroom management, but I can't tell if students are actually learning math.

▪️I gave them feedback, but when I go back, everything looks the same.

▪️It's such a mess in there, I don't want to say the wrong thing, so I just leave feeling defeated.

If this is you, great. These are very standard thoughts.

Now you can shift your thinking in 3 ways:

1. Stop watching the teacher instead of listening to the students.
The teacher can perform a great lesson, and students can still understand nothing.

2. Stop giving feedback on everything you notice.
Unfocused feedback doesn't move instruction. It overwhelms teachers and erodes trust.

3. Stop avoiding math-specific language in your feedback because you don't feel qualified. Compliance gets coached, not sense-making, and the gap between what leaders see and what teachers need widens every semester.

Now you’ve got:

✔️ A focal point for your very next observation that will reveal what students actually understand.

✔️Feedback that lands because it's grounded in real classroom evidence.

✔️Teachers who stop performing for observations

✔️Teachers who trust the feedback you provide.

That shift won't come from using a district-provided generic observation form. It comes from having a framework that tells you exactly what to look for, what to listen for, and what to say next.

This is not a checklist; it’s something you have to build with the right tools and the right guidance.

PS. The Math Feedback Reset was built for exactly this moment. One focused session. A framework you can use starting with your next observation. If you are tired of leaving math classrooms with nothing useful to say, let's fix that.

Drop a comment or message me, and let's talk.