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Lessons Learned: My First Year as an Amplify Desmos Math Professional Learning Specialist

When I began my first year as an Amplify Desmos Math High School Professional Learning Specialist , I knew the experience would challenge me to grow as a facilitator and mathematics educator. What I did not fully anticipate was how much learning would happen before I my launch first session with teachers. This post has been a bit delayed, but I am excited to share my experience from year one as an Amplify PLS. Looking back, one of my biggest takeaways is that becoming an effective Professional Learning Specialist is not simply about knowing the curriculum or being comfortable presenting. It is about understanding the mathematics deeply, experiencing the curriculum as a learner, building relationships, engaging in intellectual prep , listening carefully, practicing, receiving feedback, and continually refining your craft. Although I ultimately delivered only one professional learning session during my first year, at the end of August , I grew tremendously throughout the experience. That...
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3 Ready-for-Monday (Tuesday) Math Activities for Indigenous Peoples' Day

  Oct 9, 2026 · @MrPurdyMath Monday, October 12, is Indigenous Peoples' Day. It's a day to honor the first peoples of this land: their histories, their cultures, and the communities that are still here and thriving today. For a lot of our students, it's also a day off with a name they've never really thought about. That's where we come in. When we take even ten minutes to recognize Indigenous peoples, we're telling students the truth about where they live, and we're showing them that Indigenous knowledge isn't just history. It's math, science, art and language that people are still using right now. If you're anything like me, you've wondered how to fit that into a math class. How do I teach land acknowledgment and explore Indigenous cultures without losing a day of instruction? Here's what I landed on: you don't have to choose. The math is already there. Maya mathematicians used zero centuries before Europe did. Lakota star quilts ar...
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How does America say hello? Using Data Talks to Explore Language, Identity, and Community

What languages are spoken in the United States? How does where you live influence the languages you are likely to hear? And what can data tell us about the communities around us? Nearly 1 in 4 people in the United States speak a language other than English at home. That statistic creates an opportunity to explore percentages, ratios, proportional reasoning, estimation, and data representation while connecting mathematics to language, identity, community, and belonging. I created “How does America say hello?” as a short 5–10 minute data talk using 2024 U.S. Census data to help students make those connections. Starting With Notice and Wonder The routine begins simply. On every slide, I ask: What do you notice? What do you wonder? Students have about 30 seconds to think independently and another 30 seconds to share with a partner. We then hear a few observations and questions before moving into the mathematical prompts. This sequencing is intentional. Rather than telling students what is ...
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Conference Season: Sharing, Learning, and Connecting Through Mathematics

It’s that time of year again— conference season . One of my favorite parts of being an educator is the opportunity to step outside of my own classroom, connect with other educators, share ideas, and learn from the experiences of others. Conferences give us a chance to pause from the day-to-day demands of teaching and think about the bigger questions: How can we create better learning experiences for our students? How can we make mathematics more meaningful? How do we ensure every student sees themselves as a mathematician? This year, I’m excited to have the opportunity to present at NCSM, NCTM, AMTNYS, and AMTNYC . While the sessions have different focuses, there are some common threads running through all of them: student agency, meaningful mathematics, data literacy, equitable access, discourse, and creating learning experiences that center students as thinkers. NCSM: Data Stories for Justice At NCSM , I’ll be presenting Data Stories for Justice: Empowering K–12 Students to Investiga...
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Beyond the Graph: Building Data Literacy Through Classroom Routines

Every day, our students encounter data. They see statistics in social media posts, sports highlights, advertisements, news stories, weather forecasts, health claims, and infographics. They are constantly presented with graphs, percentages, averages, rankings, and claims about what the numbers supposedly tell us. But being surrounded by data does not automatically make someone data literate. As mathematics educators, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to help students think more critically about the data they encounter in their daily lives by asking deeper questions about the meaning behind it. Questions like: Where did these data come from and who is the source? How were they collected? What does this graph show—and what might it hide? Whose perspectives are represented? Whose are not represented? What patterns or variability do we notice? Is there potential bias? And perhaps most importantly: What conclusions can we reasonably make from the evidence? These questions are at th...
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Hispanic Heritage Month 2026: Together We are More

Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the rich history, culture, and contributions of Hispanic and Latinx communities. It is also an opportunity to learn about the people and ideas that have helped shape our society. This year’s theme, “Together We are More,” really made me think about how we define a pioneer. When I hear the word pioneer, I usually think about someone who was willing to try something different. Someone who questioned what had always been done and decided to take a different path. Someone who opened a door that others could walk through. There are a lot of pioneers in mathematics and it is important that we help our students recognize that they can be pioneers! Hispanic Heritage Month begins on September 15, which coincides with the independence anniversaries of several Latin American countries, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days shortly after on September 16 and September 1...
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AI-Resistant Authentic Learning Experiences: Creating Meaningful Learning Experiences in the Age of AI

AI-Resistant Authentic Learning Experiences: Creating Meaningful Learning Experiences in the Age of AI What if the best way to make learning AI-resistant isn’t to ban AI—but to make learning worth doing? I’m excited to share an article I co-authored with my fellow AMLE Teacher Leader, Marri Bayor, AI-Resistant Authentic Learning Experiences: Creating Meaningful Learning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. As educators, we’re navigating a new reality. Students have unprecedented access to artificial intelligence, and it’s easy to focus our energy on restrictions, detection, and preventing misuse.  But what if we asked a different question? How can we design learning experiences that AI can’t replace? In our article, Marri and I explore why we believe the answer starts with authentic learning. When students are solving meaningful problems, collaborating, defending their thinking, creating something that matters, and connecting learning to their own lives, AI becomes a tool—not a s...
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