DCSD MathFest 2026

Have you ever had a day of teaching math to students that felt more like pulling teeth. You push, pull, twist, bend, do a cartwheel, whatever – and they still don’t budge. But you are not a dentist, and you sure aren't paid like one. Whether it is trying to get them to do an assignment, participate in an activity, or contribute to a class discussion, some days it feels like you are doing all the pulling. Instead of the dentist-derived gymnastics, you'll find tremendous success (and relief) by simply tapping into the brain's natural motivation systems. In this session we will unpack the brain’s three hard-wired motivators that work to motivate any student regardless of age, subject, background, etc. We will explore dozens of strategies that can get students “ready” to learn math at any grade level.

Once students are “ready” to learn, we’ll turn our attention to how to design our instruction to optimize the brain’s natural way of learning. We’ll explore the leading causes of cognitive load and what MTV can teach us about how to create learning that sticks in the brain. MTV revolutionized how we experience music. The same revolution is needed in our math classrooms. In this session we’ll uncover three lessons we can take from MTV to create math lessons that align with the brain’s dominant systems for learning. It will be an interactive and engaging session full of learning, reflection, and applying new strategies to better support student learning.

Tired of spending the first 6 weeks of school reteaching all the math concepts students learned last year? Tired of spending your Monday’s reteaching last week’s content? Learning is only useful if we remember it and can apply it. In this session we’ll dive into the brain’s memory systems to solve the mystery of why students forget what we taught them last week and how to minimize forgetting to maximize retention. Prepare for a multitude of ah-ha’s as you learn the four best tools to make the math stick.