Meet Rosalba
Math Rebel!
Renegade
Teacher
Let’s face it Math isn’t the most popular subject out there. There’s so much fear and anxiety around it quite often people just try to avoid it. That’s where I come in! I’m a renegade thinker! I love making a noise about Math. For over a decade I have helped elementary teachers, students, and parents unlock their inner mathematician.
This is not about teaching Math as we have always done it. This is for the teachers who want to make change. Who want to develop critical thinkers in their classrooms, rather than clones. Zenned Math is about reframing our mindsets so we can reframe lessons. I’ll take you to a place where Math teaching becomes second nature.
Revolutionary
Reframer
Revolutionary
Reframer
This is not about teaching Math as we have always done it. This is for the teachers who want to make change. Who want to develop critical thinkers in their classrooms, rather than clones. Zenned Math is about reframing our mindsets so we can reframe lessons. I’ll take you to a place where Math teaching becomes second nature.
Zenned Math
Guide
Think of me as your Math guide. To become zenned, we have to get uncomfortable. I help teachers lean into that discomfort, tackle that anxiety, and – dare I say it – even learn to love the subject. I provide teachers with strategies to make math more engaging and empowering not only for their students but for themselves. I truly believe that students, teachers, and parents deserve to love math. So join the Math ZEN-volution and let’s get started,
So who am I and why do I want to help teachers love math?
Once upon a time I was not the child in your classroom you might expect. I bet you thought I was the math nerd at the front of the classroom, scoring high marks in the mid terms and acing my way through math bees, right?
Wrong. I was certainly no math genius. It’s been a helluva rollercoaster to get where I am today. To become a math lover. To adore teaching math and instilling a love of learning it in others.
Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with my entire life story, but I will say this:
My childhood taught me to be resilient. Stability didn’t feature much. I struggled. But as I got older, I developed a drive to not become a statistic. And so, in my twenties, I went back to school and took the long, winding road that eventually led to me becoming a teacher.
What does this mean?
It means I have a very different perspective when I face my students. And as a coach, I know how to help you connect with those “hard to reach” kids, because no one ever tried with me. I was overlooked and undervalued; assumptions were made about me and I was never challenged. For this reason, although I focus mainly on Math I also make cultural awareness a part of my coaching.
Teaching
I know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed and unprepared as an educator. There was even a time that I didn’t enjoy math. Like most teachers, I understood the lessons and objectives but math wasn’t fun for me and, honestly, I didn’t understand why until my principal, observing a lesson, asked a particularly insightful question about the math concept I’d just taught my students.
“Why does that work?” I was asked, but I couldn’t answer.
The source of the anxiety I’d had about math was suddenly revealed: I could tell you how and when a concept worked, but I couldn’t tell you why.
This spurred something in me: if I expect my students to be active participants in their learning, shouldn’t I at least do the same? I dove head-first into math and, after reading all the pedagogy and attending all the conferences, I became a K-5 math coach.
Why?
Well, I certainly know the answer to that one:
Teachers and students deserve to love math.
That’s how Zenned Math got its name; it’s how math should feel.
Calm. Zenned. Balanced like an equation.
So after a decade in the classroom and supporting my colleagues across the district, helping them to improve their math teaching and accelerate the learning in their classrooms, and after seeing the awesome results, I swiftly realised the huge potential that my methods had.
I quit my job and set up Zenned Math.
And boy oh boy is it going well. Not only do I get to help nurture a love of math in fellow educators, but I get to rebel against the system by revolutionizing how we teach!
Book a discovery call to learn how I can bring the latest math strategies to your district.
