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Math-Positive Teaching
Questions and Answers for Elementary Educators
Using a question-and-answer format as a guide through her book’s chapters, author Carrie S. Cutler equips readers with effective tools, strategies, and considerations for how to more clearly demonstrate mathematical concepts, ease student anxiety, and improve their own confidence as math instructors along the way.
Build confident mathematicians in your classroom
Ignite a positive approach to math in your classroom with Carrie S. Cutler’s Math-Positive Teaching, part of the Growing the Mathematician in Every Student series. This book dismantles the belief that only a few are capable of learning math, proving instead that everyone can learn and teach it. With practical routines, content examples, and strategies for embracing mistakes, Cutler provides thoughtful methods to encourage students, from basic counting to complex algebra.
K–5 teachers will:
- Develop classroom routines and teaching strategies to cultivate math-positive mindsets
- Build confidence in explaining and demonstrating math concepts using diverse methods
- Reduce math anxiety through revised assessment practices that promote math positivity
- Create supportive math learning networks beyond the classroom with students’ parents
- Enhance their math teaching with more effective practices and innovative strategies
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“Math-Positive Teaching: Questions and Answers for Elementary Educators is an insightful, practical guide that empowers teachers to shift both mindset and practice in the math classroom. Its well-organized table of contents makes it easy to locate specific questions you might have, while activities, lesson ideas, reflection prompts, and actionable next steps help educators cultivate a math-positive culture where all students see themselves as capable mathematicians. The book also supports effective instruction across the major domains of elementary mathematics by offering targeted, developmentally appropriate strategies grounded in research. If you're an elementary teacher of mathematics, this book is for you!”
“Empower your math teaching with Math-Positive Teaching: Questions and Answers for Elementary Educators - a practical guide designed to help you build a math-positive classroom where every student sees themselves as a mathematician. With clear answers, research-based strategies, and ready-to-use activities, this book supports effective instruction across all domains of elementary mathematics. A must-have resource for any elementary teacher of mathematics!”
“Whether you have been teaching more than two decades or you are a pre-service elementary mathematic teacher, this book is a must read for all elementary mathematics educators. Embracing a positive approach to teaching mathematics should be at the core of every elementary mathematics classroom!”
“In Math-Positive Teaching, Carrie Cutler does what every great educator hopes to do: transforms fear into confidence, compliance into curiosity, and routine into joy. With honesty drawn from her own early struggles in the classroom, Dr. Cutler invites teachers into a practical, research-based, and refreshingly accessible guide to making mathematics come alive for all students. Structured in an easy-to-use Q&A format, this book provides not only clear explanations but also reproducible tools, reflection prompts, and strategies you can implement tomorrow! Whether you are a new teacher searching for direction or a seasoned educator seeking renewal, Dr. Cutler’s insights will remind you that math isn’t about perfection; it’s about thinking, exploring, and empowering students to see themselves as capable mathematicians. Math-Positive Teaching bridges theory and practice in a way that is accessible, actionable, and transformative and is a must-have for any teacher committed to building a math-positive classroom.”
“As an experienced math instructional coach, I find Math-Positive Teaching: Questions and Answers for Elementary Educators a must-read for elementary educators who want to foster confident, enthusiastic young mathematicians. Cutler blends practical strategies with real-world connections, giving teachers concrete ways to build math confidence in their classrooms and extend that positivity to families through homework ideas and family math nights. In the second part, she highlights the importance of deep teacher knowledge, presenting rich tasks and essential academic vocabulary. This book is both inspiring and immediately useful for creating a truly math-positive culture at school and at home.”
