Welcome to a blog dedicated to helping us connect to kids, and to all learners.

We all want kids to learn and to feel inspired. Ask them and they'll tell you: the surefire way to make elevated learning happen is to forge a meaningful human connection with them. Before we can address concepts such as math anxiety or other behavioral/learning/technological challenges we face, our foremost job is to connect to students as people. Then we all flourish.

These posts take a lot of time and effort to produce, thus they are not the most frequent in the history of blog-land. To receive new posts privately and securely to your email as soon as they're live, you're invited to join our mailing list at the bottom of the page. Enjoy!

Podcast Interview: How to Alleviate Math Anxiety

Robert Ahdoot

Nov 16, 2019
1 min

Podcast Interview: How to Alleviate Math Anxiety

We define “math anxiety” and the effects it has on people of all ages. Then we offer tips on how to alleviate the fear math elicits.

95 views0 comments

Podcast interview: Parenting Then and Now

Robert Ahdoot

Mar 20, 2019
1 min

Podcast interview: Parenting Then and Now

Want a good conversation starter for fellow teachers and parents? It’s easy and fun, and you probably do it all the time already. Simply compare what being a kid was like “back in the day” to how it is now, and you’ll set the room alight. Same with pitting parenting styles today vs. then, or what it was like as a student now vs. then. Certain parenting acts, for example, could be construed either as “motivation” or as “child abuse”, depending on the culture or decade. And as

69 views0 comments

Are teachers biased towards students? Yup.

Robert Ahdoot

Feb 16, 2017
5 min

Are teachers biased towards students? Yup.

(This piece was picked up on Smartbrief Education, as does collaboratively on a monthly basis.) Gulp, someone said it. As much as we take for granted that students are graded solely on their work alone, we know in our hearts that our personal biases towards each student can play a factor in how we assess them. If you’re an automaton who’s unaffected by your students’ behaviors and thus immune from human emotional trappings, please feel free to stop reading. But if you’re lik

721 views0 comments

Robert Ahdoot

Nov 16, 2016
6 min

Lessons from Mister Rogers

(This piece was picked up on ASCD Smartbrief Education, as does collaboratively on a monthly basis.) (Special thanks to the Fred Rogers Center, for taking an interest in this article and sharing it with their readers, who also recognize Rogers' brilliance. Here is their retweet of Yay Math's article.) On May 1st 1969, a young and dapper Fred Rogers offered testimony to the Senate Subcommittee on Communications. The far less known Rogers made his case before the initially brus

385 views0 comments

What video would say if it was watching us.

Robert Ahdoot

Nov 2, 2016
4 min

What video would say if it was watching us.

(This piece was picked up on ASCD Smartbrief Education, as does collaboratively on a monthly basis.) Hi. I’m an educational video. Check me out on YouTube; I’m everywhere. You probably know that so much has been written about me -- how I’m changing the face of education, how I’m revolutionizing the way students learn, yadda yadda. Yes, all that is true. But what you don’t know is how the world looks like from my particular vantage point. You may think that you’re only watchin

88 views0 comments

My truth: leaving the classroom, staying the course

Robert Ahdoot

Aug 7, 2016
4 min

My truth: leaving the classroom, staying the course

With sheer exhilaration, coupled with some nerves and nostalgia, I decided to step down after 11 full time years in the classroom. The time has come for a change. Here's what's coming up for me, and for Yay Math. Where do I begin? Let's begin with the truth. Then more of it, then we'll close with the same. Indeed it's been 11 years. That's a lot of years. I began in my mid 20's to my now late 30's, from chasing girls back then to chasing two baby girls around the house now. S

426 views0 comments

Robert Ahdoot

May 2, 2016
5 min

Is email your tool, or are you its?

(This piece was picked up on ASCD Smartbrief Education, as it does collaboratively on a monthly basis.) To: myemailpractices@anyschoolusa.com CC: myproductivity@, mywork-life-balance@ BCC: myinnerpeace@ Subject: Some ideas to improve both of us – urgent Dear email, I hope it’s ok that I reach out to you about this; it’s been on my mind for a while now. I would do it in person, but well, you know… you’re email. I’ll say this once, and then we can move forward and figure this o

12 views0 comments

Everything you need to know to give the wrong commencement address

Robert Ahdoot

Mar 30, 2016
4 min

Everything you need to know to give the wrong commencement address

(This piece was picked up on ASCD Smartbrief Education, as does collaboratively on a monthly basis.) “Graduates: just know that if you work hard enough, and follow your passions, then you can do anything that you sent your mind to. Congratulations.” Quick, pass me the program so I can pretend to read it while zoning out until this guy’s done talking. Can you spot the main problem with this person’s well-intended message? Read through it again and see if something about it mis

17 views0 comments

Robert Ahdoot

May 15, 2015
1 min

Listen to Yay Math on LA Talk Radio

What a conversation! Thank you Dr. Cheryl Lubin, host of In Our Times, for such a valuable and meaningful time together. Click the image or link below to listen to the topics listed, and let your next commute include a dose of inspiration. Click here to listen to Robert Ahdoot on LA Talk Radio 0:35 start of our conversation 4:38 How the logical/numbers part mind shuts down when in "fight or flight" 6:56 What is so unique about Yay Math? 9:30 Can teachers get report cards? Wha

203 views0 comments