Summer Math Summit 2026: Free PD for Math Teachers

I'm honored to have been invited to present at this year's Summer Math Summit-- a free math PD event running from June 25-28, 2026.

The Summer Math Summit is a free virtual conference for pre-K through high school, focusing on practical strategies for the math classroom. 

This year there are over 50 sessions to watch, three live make-and take-sessions, and virtual hangouts. There's even a free app this year if you're on the beach and want to watch sessions on your phone!  

GET YOUR FREE TICKET HERE

My session this year Algebra Tiles in Action covers factoring quadratics with algebra tiles, from simple trinomials with a leading coefficient of 1 and all terms are positive, to non-prime leading coefficients with negative terms. It will be an extension of the algebra tiles reels I've been sharing on Instagram and Facebook all in one video with extra explanations. 

Here is a list of Summer Math Summit sessions this year: 

• Helping Students Actually Understand Word Problems (Not Just Solve Them) - Michelle Muggridge 
• Why Your Best Lessons Fall Flat (And How You Can Fix That) - Asia Hines 
• Building a Growth Mindset in Math - Terri Browne 
• Math Stations That Actually Work: A 4-Station System for Stations & Small Groups for Middle School - Twana Kennedy 
• 5 Steps to Help Students Conquer Tricky Math Lessons - Lauren Casias 
• Engaging the Middle School Math Brain - Ellen Levin 
• Mastering Math Vocabulary: Helping Students Understand What Math Questions Are Really Asking - Emily Upton 
• Track Less, Teach Better: A Smarter Approach to Progress Monitoring - Alexandra Brady 
• Math That Feels Different: The Sneaky Learning Shift - Chloe Campbell 
• Interactive Notebooks Made Simple: 4 High-Impact Foldable Templates for Any Grade Level (K–6) - Crystal Mencia 
• One Task, Many Thinkers: Differentiating Math Instruction Without More Time or Prep - Nakasha Kirkland 
• Design Your Own Collaborative Math & Art Projects - Marta Czyrkiewicz 
• Captivate Your Students! Engaging Middle School Math Minds - Kelly Hoffmann
• Math Wheels: Visual Notes for New Learning, Practice & Review - Ellie Nixon
• Making Algebraic Expressions Make Sense - Carrie Wiederholz 
• Thinking Outside the Box for Spiral Review - Tyra Frederick Bauer 
• Guided Math Lessons That Build Independence: Helping Students Take Ownership of Their Learning - Heather Bednar 
• Rethinking Spiraled Math Practice (Without the Grading Spiral) - Morgan Gariano
• Relationships Before Rigor: Engaging Students Through Meaningful Connections - Samantha Hutton 
• Quick Writes, Big Impact: Adding Writing to Any Math Lesson - Karrie Everett
• Empathy in the Math Classroom: How to Build a Relationship with Students Who Refuse to Work - Robin Cornecki 
• Talk Math to Me: Easy Ways to Boost Student Communication in the Secondary Math Classroom - Erica Higashi 
• When Students Say “I Don’t Know”: Building Productive Struggle in Secondary Math - Catalina Perricone 
• Math Moments for Non-Math Teachers: Build Confidence Through Student-Powered Story Problems - Kaci Bolls 
• Count It. Say It. Write It. Daily Math Routines That Build Number Fluency - Keri Brown 
• The Power of Projects in Secondary Math - Emily Wilde 
• Beyond Worksheets: Building Foundational Math through Art - Faigie Kobre
• Simplifying Math Stations: A Practical 3-Station Framework - Cassie Pistoor
• Beyond the Study Guide: Test Prep Strategies for Middle and High School - Caroline Chaput 
• Building a Sustainable & Inclusive Middle School Math Classroom - Alissa Hinz
• Word Problems are Figureoutable: A Simple System That Works - Missy Johnson
• Math 360: Quick Formative Assessment That Drives Small Group Instruction - Kristy Johnson 
• Decoding Division: A 10-Step Framework for Building Confident Dividers (Grades 4–8) - Sarah Noseworthy 
• Review That Doesn’t Feel Like Review: Plug-and-Play Scavenger Hunts for Grades 5–9 - Sandra Orrego Jimenez 
• Leveraging Base 10 Understanding to Help Students Mentally Add Within 100 - Jennifer Foreman 
• Proofs with Purpose: Making Geometry Proofs Practical and Powerful - Jessica Siebert 
• Overcoming Spiral Review Challenges: Building Student Endurance, Independence, and Data-Driven Next Steps - Teresa Gomez 
• Design for Clarity: Mastering Your Math Instruction in 4 Easy Steps - Cassie Tabrizi 
• Turn Any Math Worksheet into a HOTS Challenge - Sabah Hassan 
• Growth Mindset Strategies to Start the Year off Right - Beverley Manikoth 
• Why Isn’t This Clicking? How to Identify and Support Math Gaps in K–2 Students - Zeba McGibbon 
• The Power of Number Talks (Upper Elementary) - Holly Alexander 
• Level Up Your Math Lessons with Canva - Teresa Kwant 
• Math in Motion: Bringing K–2 Learning to Life Through Movement - Andriana Zarovska 
• Two Truths and a Lie: The 5-Minute Math Routine That Gets Every Student Thinking - Kamal Bilkhu 
• Algebra Tiles in Action - Shana McKay

You can grab your free Summer Math Summit ticket here.

If you'd like a 22-hour PD certificate and 180 days to watch the sessions, the option for a VIP ticket should pop up as you grab your free ticket.

Free Summer Math Summit ticket

How to Write an Exponential Function Equation Reference Sheet

It's almost the Massachusetts version of spring break here (April vacation), term 4 just started (hard to believe!) and we just began on our exponentials unit in algebra 2. This is going to be a super short post just to share a cheat sheet to help students remember how to write an exponential function equation given two points.

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The sheet walks students through how to write exponential function equations from a table of values, including the y-intercept and one other point. Students are shown how to solve for the exponential's base b, then how to write the equation using this base and information from the table.

You can download this cheat sheet free here.

Normal Distribution Curve Reference Sheet

 

We started our statistics unit in algebra 2 and so far have reviewed box and whiskers plots, dot plots, histograms and learned about skewed data, interquartile range and experimental vs. observational studies. Last week, we started learning about normal distribution and will be on this topic for a little while. We move onto z scores tomorrow.

We gave students a simplified version of the curve with whole number percentages to make calculations easier to manage. I wanted to share this reference with you in case it would be helpful for your students, too. If you'd rather keep the decimals in the percentages, there's also a blank curve in the file.

We printed a bunch on this orange paper (the orange reminded me of that funny normal distribution ghost meme) and laminated them so that students can write on their curves while working.

You can download this normal curve reference here from my Google Drive.

Probability error analysis

If you teach probability, I recently made a "2 truths and a lie" error analysis activity that covers independent and dependent compound probability.

Browse statistics activities

More algebra 2 activities

Factoring Trinomials with Algebra Tiles Visual Guide

This week, I worked on a visual guide for how to factor quadratic trinomials using algebra tiles. It has 10 examples, and each example includes the number of tiles needed with any zero pairs, notes about the example and a common student misconception about arranging the tiles for that trinomial. 

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If you have never used algebra tiles to factor trinomials and want to give them a try, I wrote this guide to make it easy to get started.

The guide covers quadratic trinomials where A=1 and where A>1, including when zero pairs are needed because of negative C values. 

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There are 10 factoring examples in the guide with their common misconceptions, along with 2 additional examples for simplifying a quadratic expression in vertex form and solving a quadratic equation by completing the square.

I've been making algebra tiles factoring videos for social media and YouTube, and thought it would be nice to have a printable algebra tiles visual guide that also shows some of the misconceptions students may have about arranging the algebra tiles when factoring quadratics.

Examples in the guide include:

• x² + 5x + 4 
• x² – x – 6 
• x² + x – 6 
• x² + 5x – 6 
• x² – 4x + 3 
• x² – 9 
• 2x² + 7x + 3 
• 2x² + x – 1 
• 3x² + 4x + 1 
• 3x² + x – 2
• Simplify (x + 3)² – 4 
• Solve x² + 2x = 3 by completing the square

If you find there's an example you'd like added to the guide, please send me an email. I'm happy to add it in. You can find the guide here.

Algebra Tiles Visual Guide

Algebra tiles connect nicely to the area (box) model of factoring trinomials for when it's time to move past these concrete models. There's a free factoring quadratics cheat sheet here for the area model, along with one for the AC grouping method. 

factoring trinomials cheat sheets

I like to teach the AC grouping method to students who struggle with multiplication facts because it takes out all guessing, but the box method has been growing on me! It's like a puzzle for students to figure out.

Additional resources:

Algebra tiles blog posts

Algebra tiles YouTube playlist

Algebra tiles reels on Facebook

Rounding Decimals Escape Room

A few weeks ago, I shared a free rounding money cheat sheet that a teacher had asked me to make. Then just last week, a neighbor asked if I could help her daughter with her rounding whole numbers homework. It seems everyone is rounding all of a sudden! 

In this post, I want to share a new rounding decimals math escape room. There's also a special code below:)

Solving equations visually using cut paper algebra tiles

Algebra tiles help make math visual for students, and paper algebra tiles take it a step further because we can cut them into fractions. In this post are a few short cut paper algebra tiles videos for solving 1-step and 2-step equations that include when x is a fraction.

This first equation is a simple 1-step equation where x is being divided by 4.

 

Next up is another 1-step equation where the coefficient of x is a negative fraction. 

Rounding Money Cheat Sheet for Middle & High School Math

A teacher emailed to ask if I could make a math cheat sheet for rounding money to the nearest cent. It took me a few weeks to come up with the format. I hope it ends up being helpful in your classroom if your students are solving rounding problems to the nearest hundredth. 

How many times have you heard, "wait, does $45.678 round to $45.67 or $45.68?" Your students are in the middle of solving compound interest problems, and suddenly you overhear an elementary skill rearing its ugly head-- rounding. Why is rounding money to the hundredths place such a sticking point for students, even older students in middle and high school?