I am on a mission to make math irresistible for students and teachers.
I help teachers use simple strategies to spark student curiosity, encourage productive struggle, and foster meaningful discourse to develop deeper conceptual understanding and promote joy in the mathematics classroom.
I’ve had the privilege of speaking and keynoting at international, national, and state conferences, including NCTM and the National Math Festival. I also deliver professional development and coaching for individual schools and districts throughout the U.S.
In-person and Virtual Workshops
All workshops and keynotes are interactive, engaging, and practical. Trust me, you’ll be doing math, sharing and learning with colleagues, and walking away with strategies and lessons you can use immediately.
Making Math Irresistible
This keynote inspires teachers to adopt practices that support a student-centered classroom where all students can engage in rich tasks and persevere in solving them.
For a preview, watch my TEDx talk. This session is a deep dive into how teachers can turn students into confident problem-solvers who enjoy mathematics.
Curiosity and Surprise
Math should be surprising and spark curiosity. Unfortunately, kids perceive school math as dry and boring! We will reconnect with how amazing school math can be as we explore simple strategies to supercharge the curiosity factor of your lessons.
Math is… Questions
Questions are at the heart of mathematics and discovery. But in most math classes, the teacher asks the questions and students attempt to compute answers. We will investigate the value of flipping this script. You’ll learn how to give students more ownership over questions, how easily craft extension and differentiation questions, and how to use questions to get kids unstuck.
Math is… Visual
The seminar will demonstrate the power of visual diagrams in explaining school mathematics. Visual models help students develop number sense, aid in understanding difficult algorithms, and assist in problem-solving. You will discover several ways to help students bridge the gap from concrete to abstract thinking. Several models will be discussed, including number lines, area models, Exploding Dots™, and more.
I offer several additional workshops as well as long-term PD and coaching programs. Click the button to start an inquiry and find out if working with me is the best solution for your needs.
Online Workshop
Why is it that kids love video games and are quickly engaged, willing to persevere, and excited to learn new strategies? How do we apply that knowledge to math class so that students love learning and won’t give up so easily?
That’s what this online workshop is all about. We’ll begin by discussing why video games are so addicting and what we can learn from them. Then we’ll explore how to apply those principles to make math class feel like a game. Next, we’ll talk about applying what we’ve learned, including launching engaging math tasks and rapidly transforming boring exercises into exciting, rich tasks. Finally, we’ll talk about how to create tasks where kids don’t want to give up and when these tasks should be used.
What Teachers Say
“First, I have to tell you how much my gifted teachers LOVED your presentation at the OAGC Teacher Academy! We met today and they kept going on and on about how wonderful you were, how great the presentation was, and how many ideas/concepts they were able to take away from your session!”
“Dr. Shah’s full day workshop was awesome! Two days later, we are still talking Math!!! It was a wonderful PD. Thank you for your time, insight AND activities.”
“We want to thank you for presenting to our teachers. They were very engaged and excited about your presentation and enjoyed the activities. We need everyone to hear your message!”