[Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:10:38 Hello, and thank you for listening to the Teaching Math Teaching Podcast. The Teaching Math Teaching Podcast is sponsored by the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, a community of math teacher educators learning to teach math teachers better. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:10:49 I'm your co-host, Joel Amidon, and joining me is Dusty Jones. Hey, Dusty, how are you? [Dustin Jones] 11:10:55 Doing great, Joel. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:10:56 Awesome. And Jen, and Jen Wolf. Hey, Jen, how are you doing? [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:11:00 Good. I'm so excited to be with some of my favorite people today. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:11:03 That's right. That's right. Yeah, this is good. The sun's shining and good people in the Zoom room. So here we go. And so today we are talking with Dr. Farshid Safi, who is a K-12 mathematics educator, associate director for teaching and service, and associate professor in the School of Teacher Education [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:11:21 At the University of Central Florida. In addition to those roles, he is also the president of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:11:28 And we are talking to Farsheed today about the upcoming 2026 conference. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:11:33 Call for proposals are due in a couple weeks, folks, and how AMTE is continuing to live out its mission And position statements. Welcome, Farsheed. How are you? [Farshid Safi] 11:11:43 I'm great. Thanks, Joel. Jen, Dusty, thank you for having me again. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:11:47 So I was doing some reflecting and you've been on, you've been on a previous episode of the teaching math teaching podcast. We'll put a link in the show notes. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:11:57 Um and uh What I was thinking is like… We knew each other. I don't think we were friends yet. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:12:05 And like, you know, we've. There you go. There you go. And I know, and Jen, you've been doing work with for sheet for a while, I think. [Farshid Safi] 11:12:06 Right. [Dustin Jones] 11:12:08 I was friends with Parsheed then. [Farshid Safi] 11:12:10 There you go. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:12:16 So it's kind of exciting to kind of the evolution of the relationship but uh You know, so you had that previous episode, you came on and like hearing about all your experiences and And learning about you and your path in math teacher education. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:12:30 But is there anything else you'd like to share before we jump into our conversation? [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:12:35 A little bit about you? [Farshid Safi] 11:12:37 Yeah, I'll share a little bit about me. But first and foremost, I'm so privileged to continue to just evolve in these wonderful relationships and connections with my colleagues around the country. Specifically, I think these beautiful chapters in our lives that continue to change and evolve, make us grow as people. [Farshid Safi] 11:12:54 And they allow us to connect and serve. The needs of our communities at the local, state, national level. And just it is a privilege to be able to serve in these multiple roles, whether it's at the institutional level or whether it's [Farshid Safi] 11:13:09 At the national level through service to AMT. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:13:14 Beautiful. That's beautiful. So we've, and again, with the previous episode, we've hit a lot of the questions that we would normally do uh in the teaching math. But we have some new ones. We come up with new questions and this is one of our favorite ones. What is a word, phrase or quote that helps you center the work you do [Farshid Safi] 11:13:23 Mm-hmm. Great. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:13:34 In teaching math teachers. [Farshid Safi] 11:13:37 Great question, always, because the why we do what we do should always be central. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:13:42 Yeah. [Farshid Safi] 11:13:42 I sort of want to give a two-part answer to that because I can't do short answers. [Farshid Safi] 11:13:47 Number one is more of a way of being. And that is um It sort of stems from a 13th century Persian poet, but it's also at the entrance of the United Nations building in new york city And it's a short Persian poem that the first sort of stanza reads in Persian. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:13:49 It's true. [Farshid Safi] 11:14:16 And that translates into human beings or members of a whole in creation of one essence and soul. [Farshid Safi] 11:14:23 If one member is afflicted with pain, other members uneasy will remain. If you have no sympathy for human pain, the name of human you cannot retain. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:14:34 Beautiful. [Farshid Safi] 11:14:34 And so to now bring that and connect it to what we do as MTEs. [Farshid Safi] 11:14:39 I know we are all engaged in mathematics teacher education But I think it is a myth to say that we teach mathematics because in fact we have the privilege, the joy and the honor of teaching students. [Farshid Safi] 11:14:52 Pause, mathematics, social studies, languages, arts, music, everything else. So I think if it's a phrase that is connected with mathematics teacher education specifically, I would say that we teach students large fonts. [Farshid Safi] 11:15:08 Mathematics. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:15:11 Like it did not expect the 13th century persian poetry, but that's beautiful. Like we turned on the transcripts for this. I'm excited to that have that, but then also too, I could just get it from you as well. That's a [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:15:25 A beautiful word. So, and also too, like thinking about the evolution of our understanding about what we do like You've been asked this question before, but I'm curious to hear what your answer is. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:15:36 Is now. What advice would you give to someone else starting out in a role as a math teacher educator? [Farshid Safi] 11:15:44 I think as I'm going on and as I'm learning more is to learn and collaborate intentionally. [Farshid Safi] 11:15:50 And not do it individually, but do it collectively. With people who will help you accomplish the goals that you knew you had and then other advocacy and allies and assistance that you need to be able to serve people, communities, and efforts that are connected to the larger goals that matter to our communities. [Farshid Safi] 11:16:13 So it would be to not try to engage in things at the individual level but to bring our whole selves. [Farshid Safi] 11:16:20 And yet make sure that we leverage authentic relationships so that we can collectively benefit what we're all trying to do. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:16:30 What a pivot to the next question here because we're talking about some collective goals so One thing, and this is, I think, you know, Dusty and Jen, you probably would agree with me with engaging with the relationship with Farshid and having conversations. One thing I've consistently heard you talk about in [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:16:46 In those conversations related to AMT, the organization that you're now serving as president of. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:16:52 Is pointing to the mission, goals, position statements for the organization. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:16:57 Why is that important to keep? Pointing to the language within these documents. [Farshid Safi] 11:17:04 I think first and foremost, language matters and intentionality really matters. [Farshid Safi] 11:17:09 And the fact that language and commitments are not individual And they're not based on roles, but it's based on a collective commitment. [Farshid Safi] 11:17:18 To do right and to do more right for and with our students, our teachers, our schools, and towards the goals of mathematics teacher education. [Farshid Safi] 11:17:30 And having the language that is arrived at collectively allows us to make sure we come together and allows us to bring our different expertise And our experiences in multiple settings across time and place to be able to accomplish, to engage, to support, and then challenge in the areas that need to be challenged and support and strengthen in areas that need support. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:17:56 Well, and I think, you know, just, and this is a question for the room too as well. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:18:02 Is like whenever I'm thinking about like what's important and like that I think, hey, this is something that I need to be doing within my teaching, within my teaching of math teachers, like to go to a position statement And say like, hey, this organization, the AMTE, NCT, whatever, the position statements and be like. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:18:22 Hey, it's not just me saying this. It is these organizations saying that this work is important, right? It's not just me standing on like, I don't know, Jen or dusty like if you used or leveraged those in order to like [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:18:37 Back up the kind of the work that you want to do. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:18:43 Yeah, I think so. Something that you just brought up with the thinking about the intentionality and then like the language and pointing back to the language is that I don't know if a lot of folks know when these position statements are being made, what is that kind of process? And I think it links back to some of the collaboration [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:19:01 And collectivism that you were talking about before for Rasheed. So I think in using these documents to think about like my own teaching, how might I process that not just by myself, but in community with others, like unpacking what the language is, what was the intention? [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:19:16 And asking those good questions and then seeing how How do I co-construct the courses that I teach in community with others? So that's kind of like what's coming up for me. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:19:27 And then now I'm also thinking about like In what ways might I use these statements with my pre-service teachers as well? [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:19:34 So they need to think about their own positionalities when it comes to teaching and learning. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:19:40 How might I replicate in some ways that collective or collaborative approach to them figuring out like what is their position statement? What is their teaching philosophy? What are their non-negotiables? [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:19:53 So yeah, that's kind of what's coming up for me as we were kind of thinking about this question and AMT's recent position statements. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:20:00 What about you, Dusty? What's coming up for you? [Dustin Jones] 11:20:01 Yeah, I'll agree with everything you said, Jen. And just to add on. [Dustin Jones] 11:20:09 We've used some different position statements from AMTE or other organizations like NCTM For example, in accreditation reports to say here's Here's what we're doing and here's how it fits in with what's going on nationally and It's not just the folks at my institution that think that's a good idea or in my state, but nationwide, this is the direction that [Dustin Jones] 11:20:33 This organization has said, we'll put our weight behind this. And that's helpful. [Dustin Jones] 11:20:40 It also reminded me of when I was growing up and learning to be a teacher. It was during the 90s with NCTM's curriculum and evaluation standards had just come in And so I was learning how to be a teacher when [Dustin Jones] 11:21:01 I'll point back to episode one of the podcast, Bob Glasgow my methods and mathematics instructor said, here's how you probably learned math in high school and here's a new vision of how to do that and then When I was working on my PhD and taking classes, it was in the early 2000s and [Dustin Jones] 11:21:22 It seemed like every fresh article we were reading in the first couple of paragraphs cited the principles and standards for school mathematics from National Council of Teachers Mathematics. [Dustin Jones] 11:21:31 To the point where I'm just learning things. I'm learning about research. I'm learning about mathematics education. [Dustin Jones] 11:21:37 As a profession and the pattern recognition in my brain is saying, well, I guess you've got to quote this document in the beginning of your paper to provide it some legitimacy, but it really does give you some gravitas and, you know, to point to [Dustin Jones] 11:21:53 That book, which is 300 pages, that's a little bit unwieldy. You know, yes, I I subscribe to that. That's sort of like, you know, putting a bumper sticker on your car and saying, yeah, everything that this is that I agree with. [Dustin Jones] 11:22:05 So I like these position statements. For AMT, like AMT has as an example Because they're more targeted and they're two pages maybe uh instead of 300 pages and we can kind of look at that and look at that I'm not saying everyone has to agree with everything that's in the position statement. [Dustin Jones] 11:22:26 But I trust the organization that i trust the organization those have been vetted and these are the points that we do agree on. And if the position statement is silent on something, there's probably a reason for that. [Dustin Jones] 11:22:40 Because maybe there is some respectful disagreements that people have. But here's where we come together. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:22:47 I like that, Dustine. I was also thinking about, I don't know that I actually have this specific language and position statements in my syllabus. So even thinking about like moving forward. [Farshid Safi] 11:22:47 Yeah. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:22:57 I know I've used them to an extent to guide the design of the courses, but I don't know that I've been specific about picking out intentional language from AMT position statements and adding them to my syllabus. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:23:10 Oh no, that's just something I was thinking about. [Dustin Jones] 11:23:12 Hmm. [Farshid Safi] 11:23:13 I think listening to all of these also make me think about the sense of the continued commitment that while our situations evolve, the continued commitment professionally and personally, it's not something that all of a sudden is initiated based on a singular event. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:23:20 Hmm. [Farshid Safi] 11:23:31 Most often, I think having that sense of reflection, that sense of historical perspective, that sense of a commitment that is grounded in research and teaching and service efforts of individuals across time and place and roles. [Farshid Safi] 11:23:44 And so I think position statements help to remind us and they contextualize how we arrived at certain things so that when in March, when AMT released their continued commitment to organizational mission and position statements. [Farshid Safi] 11:23:58 It was to both. Ground to the work that we are currently engaged in, but also to reiterate the commitment that has been going on for public education, for mathematics teacher education in support of teachers and teacher educators and how those [Farshid Safi] 11:24:18 Efforts. Some stay the same and some are in need of evolution as the needs of our communities and our schools and our institutes of higher learning require for us to support them in those intentional ways. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:24:35 Well, and yeah. And I think that's like, again, going back to like we're in a A volatile time right now and like And I can think of other time when I was in leadership at AMT and like You know, you get kind of like almost like think about like some of my children, like when they would get excited, like, like they just, you know, like their, their arms, no one could see this in the podcast, but like waving the hands around just a very excited move and like. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:25:00 And like, for she was like, wait a second. What have we stated? [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:25:05 That we are in where we aligned right Let's look at where our goals are, our position statements. And that's one thing that I want to make sure that I think is. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:25:15 Important for this podcast is like, we're going to put links to those those places on the website, they're there. I mean, you can find them fairly easily, but we'll put links in the show notes to those the position statements page and then also the [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:25:28 Long-term and the mission and the goals for the organization as well. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:25:32 Just to make sure like we need to be reminded. We need to be reminded like what. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:25:37 Why are we coming together as a collective? [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:25:40 Joel, something you just said, oh, sorry. Yeah. I get excited and we're talking. Well, I was just thinking about how position, positionality, position statements How often do we often stop and revisit intentionally what our positionality is. [Farshid Safi] 11:25:40 Yeah, it's almost… Sorry, Jenny, go ahead. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:25:58 You know what I mean? Like, we all go with like job markets or whatever, and you have your teaching statement and you think about what good teaching is and we have conversations with our colleagues. I've had so many conversations with the folks that we're talking with right now, Rasheed and Joel and Dusty. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:26:14 But how often am I intentional and explicit about revisiting that? Not just when you go out for promotion and tenure, not just when you go out for full, not just for when you're being evaluated, but like. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:26:24 Sitting with what's changed and then reflecting on what's changed and why has it changed and what has influenced that change. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:26:31 So I appreciate having this conversation and thinking about having ways I need to be intentional about explicitly sitting down, reflecting with how has my positionality changed and what has influenced it? [Farshid Safi] 11:26:32 Mm-hmm. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:26:43 And how will I continue to grow and Express gratitude. I feel lately I've just been like, how do I express gratitude for all the people in my life who have made me a better human being? [Farshid Safi] 11:26:45 Yeah. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:26:53 It's probably because we're about to wrap up the semester, but I always have these like last few weeks, how do I express my gratitude for those who have made me better? [Farshid Safi] 11:26:54 Mm-hmm. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:27:00 Anyway. [Farshid Safi] 11:27:01 No, that's a wonderful perspective and i uh I think in community we kind of learn to re-appreciate gratitude and contributions. And I also want us to kind of think about in our day-to-day professional practice in our teaching in our [Farshid Safi] 11:27:19 Our learning goals help to kind of direct us and redirect us towards what we pay attention to, what we focus on. [Farshid Safi] 11:27:26 What kind of questions we pose, what kind of activities we choose, right? So our learning goals matter. And that's sort of like at the top of the decision-making thing in our research, there are so many avenues and so many pathways that we could take. But if it's not part of our essential research questions for a specific project. [Farshid Safi] 11:27:44 Then we have to kind of make sure that we center our research towards those research questions of interest Because otherwise, it's easy to not only lose But then we might also not be able to accomplish the goals that we have set out to do. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:28:03 Excellent. So I'm good. I'm like moving along on the questions. I knew that we would have a a good conversation going here today so uh We talked about, like, you had this… this statement that I really want, you talked about this idea of a complete [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:28:21 Are a comprehensive, inclusive approach in math teacher education. What do you imagine as that being like when you when you made when you wrote that again you're Your use of language is it's It's beautiful. And so what do you imagine when you wrote that statement? [Farshid Safi] 11:28:38 Thank you for the compliment. I wish that I could actually do a podcast interview in my first language, Persian. [Farshid Safi] 11:28:45 But I'll do my best in English. But the idea of intentionality with language and the sense of having an inclusive and comprehensive approach is that in general, I think when we think when we stay in a very siloed approach. [Farshid Safi] 11:29:01 We lose contribution. We lose value. We lose context, and we lose relevance. [Farshid Safi] 11:29:08 And we also lose people that can and should contribute to our greater efforts. So by a comprehensive inclusive approach, and we can take these sort of one or two at a time. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:29:13 Yeah. [Farshid Safi] 11:29:19 But part of the mission and goal for me wanting to serve in this leadership position is to be intentionally more inclusive of mathematics education that our students and our schools and our communities need. And that means mathematics education, not the way that mathematics was viewed in the 18 and the 1900s. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:29:19 Yeah. [Farshid Safi] 11:29:37 But mathematics inclusive of efforts in statistics and data science and STEM and STEAM education and modeling. [Farshid Safi] 11:29:44 Because all of those are needed to further the efforts. That we need as a society, but also intentionally to be more inclusive of diverse and representative membership of teacher educators. [Farshid Safi] 11:30:00 Beer a beautiful powerful group of teacher educators, but do we actually have that representation and diversity reflected in our decision making? [Farshid Safi] 11:30:10 In our policymaking, in our research efforts, in our teaching efforts, in our collaborative efforts. [Farshid Safi] 11:30:18 And also, like. Are we being inclusive and comprehensive in the work of pre-K towards pre-k to 16 education with multiple organizations, right? No one of us can do all of this work alone. [Farshid Safi] 11:30:33 A couple more things I'll mention and then you let me know how you wish to kind of take it. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:30:36 Yeah, yeah. No, no. [Farshid Safi] 11:30:38 But to be comprehensive and inclusive has to include the different stages. [Farshid Safi] 11:30:43 In mathematics teacher education from early childhood all the way through elementary, middle, high, and post-secondary. [Farshid Safi] 11:30:50 We don't talk about coherence and progressions in mathematics education without connecting back and forth, right? And yet somehow in our MTE work Sometimes we are so focused that we forgot about the connectors, the extensions, the foundations, and it cannot be [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:30:57 Yeah, yeah. [Farshid Safi] 11:31:09 Inclusive and comprehensive if, for instance, we're not engaging directly with our early childhood educators, with our post-secondary educators, as well as our K-12 educators. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:31:19 Well, that was one thing I was thinking of right there. I mean, my wife has an early childhood educator. [Farshid Safi] 11:31:19 Let me pause. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:31:24 And, you know, just the mission of AMT is to promote the improvement of mathematics teacher education K through 12 and even to what you just said. [Farshid Safi] 11:31:25 Mm-hmm. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:31:32 You talked about going pre-K to 16, right? And thinking about How are we educating our teachers at the undergraduate level with their developing their foundations for some of our secondary or even our uh or other folks, but even to the thing about the pre-k. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:31:47 Level as well as maybe we need to be revisit what even what our mission is. If we're thinking about being an inclusive uh comprehensive and inclusive, right? [Farshid Safi] 11:31:59 Well, it's also the expertise, right? So I think similar to you, I am very fortunate and privileged that uh My partner, my wife, Farina, she's a uh K2 educator, a classroom teacher at the elementary level. But her background in early childhood absolutely informs and adds to what I can do, what I should do and how I can learn. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:32:02 Yeah. [Farshid Safi] 11:32:22 From different spaces. And more than once I will just go and I'll be Mrs. Safi's husband and sit in the back of her classroom so I can learn from her and her students. I will send my doctoral students in their internship. I'm like, you go and learn from her and learn from another K2 teacher and learn from a 3.5 teacher. Even if your focus is on secondary. [Farshid Safi] 11:32:44 Because the experiences that our students have travel with them. And so if you're not learning from them, we're not actually engaged authentically and learning from the teaching, the research and the service work that our colleagues across the stages of math teacher education are invested in. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:33:05 So that was, you know, thinking about the early childhood. What are some other areas as president of the organization that you would like AMTE to be more intentionally inclusive towards this the mission of AMT. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:33:19 To focus on the improvement of math teacher education. [Farshid Safi] 11:33:22 Right. And so… I love learning more from my colleagues. And so from my time with AMT on the program committee. [Farshid Safi] 11:33:32 And then as a board member at large and listening to our membership and listening to how we need to do certain things the same and do certain things differently I think we need to be much more inclusive of different spaces, both formal and informal education spaces. [Farshid Safi] 11:33:48 That intersect with math teacher education. More inclusive of logistics and geographic spaces. I know that, for instance, serving the needs Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, so for instance, I have colleagues that primarily work as math teacher educators in rural settings, right? [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:33:57 What do you mean by that logistic and geographic? Sorry. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:34:08 Yeah, yeah. [Farshid Safi] 11:34:09 A rural setting in florida has similar but different needs than rural setting in California or Wisconsin or other parts. And so these are not single variable issues. [Farshid Safi] 11:34:22 So I think we need to make sure that we learn from and learn with It's just like saying the needs of a needs of a community that happens in a quote unquote urban setting, right? That means those are all comparable [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:34:23 Yeah, yeah. [Farshid Safi] 11:34:37 And while there might be intersections But we need to make sure we are learning comprehensively and specifically from these multiple spaces And multiple colleagues efforts and multiple research efforts, quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods. [Farshid Safi] 11:34:55 As well as just ways that we learn with and from our students, our teachers, our teacher educators our different schools, whether it's formal education as well as informal learning opportunities. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:35:16 Seeing if Jen or Dusty wanted to Anything there? [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:35:22 Because, well, here's what I was going to add. I've been doing some work with the… launch years initiative with John Staley and the uh Hawaii map or launch years map. [Farshid Safi] 11:35:31 Mm-hmm. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:35:34 Leadership Network. There we go. And just even thinking about the evolution of those launch years, which are the last two years of high school and the first two years of college and thinking about how narrow maybe we have defined what the pathways for math were. I know me, it was a funnel towards calculus [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:35:54 Right. And now even the like, oh, there's an addition of statistics and that happened when I was teaching high school. Now thinking about all the different pathways that there could be. I think there's states like Colorado and Washington and California that are doing some [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:36:07 Great work with diversifying pathway and just thinking about What does that mean for what we do? [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:36:14 In training Matthew where it's like… No, we're not just preparing you to be a good AP calc teacher, right? No, we're thinking about data science. We're thinking about all these other STEAM education. We're thinking about all these sorts of other things that we could be doing [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:36:28 Outside of just that singular pathway and just Like, how can we be, again, more comprehensive and inclusive in that space? [Dustin Jones] 11:36:37 Yeah. And Joel, thanks for priming my mental pump on that because uh Our organization is called the Association of Mathematics teacher educators but like you mentioned. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:36:39 There you go. [Dustin Jones] 11:36:48 Statistics showed up at our door and some people think statistics is mathematics and other people say It's different. A good friend of mine, we went to high school together. We went to undergraduate together. [Dustin Jones] 11:37:03 We parted ways. He was a high school math teacher and band director and he he uh emailed me kind of out of the blue after a few years. Hey, I'm teaching AP stats next year. Any advice? [Dustin Jones] 11:37:13 I said, I got one bit of advice, Matt. Statistics is not mathematics. [Dustin Jones] 11:37:18 He's like, okay. You know, we had a further conversation but then about around semester break, he emailed me back, said, hey, you were right. [Dustin Jones] 11:37:28 Like it was really good to realize that those were different. There's similarities. They use a lot of the same tools but Just the difference between what is the answer versus what is an interpretation of this information? [Dustin Jones] 11:37:42 And that grows, you know, I've seen this in the last few years with data science is that statistics? I don't think so, but I think it's related. [Dustin Jones] 11:37:51 And I think it's related to mathematics. And where that's showing up in K-12, tends to land on the person who was prepared to teach mathematics. [Dustin Jones] 11:38:03 And so we need to create some, you know, continue that lifelong learning track to help those folks as they branch into whatever to learn to do that. And then, like you said, another route would be the stem And then whenever I see the word steam with A and I think of our friend Sarah Bush. [Dustin Jones] 11:38:23 I was a proponent of that. Farshid's colleague there at University of Central Florida. [Dustin Jones] 11:38:29 So that sort of work is taking that in a different way and a different broadening And I don't think it dilutes us at all as mathematics teacher educators to to learn some of these other pathways that are you know maybe [Dustin Jones] 11:38:49 Joining mathematics teacher education and then maybe branching off later. I don't think that dilutes our strength. [Dustin Jones] 11:38:56 As an organization or as an individual in what we do as we learn more about these things. [Dustin Jones] 11:39:04 So… [Farshid Safi] 11:39:05 Thank you for that, Dusty. And I think it's crucially important that we don't allow for expertise and differences to actually become hindrances towards improvement. [Dustin Jones] 11:39:17 Hmm. [Farshid Safi] 11:39:18 So it's almost like saying that if most of us develop skill sets and professional expertise over time. [Farshid Safi] 11:39:28 But if it's viewed through a lens of a toolbox Which a lot of us kind of grew up learning about different tools in our toolbox, including our teaching toolbox. [Farshid Safi] 11:39:39 That's helpful and we need to have that, but we cannot ask our future teachers and support our current teachers by being single tool operators. [Farshid Safi] 11:39:51 Because society and the demands of our communities don't come to us in a single disciplinary way. [Farshid Safi] 11:39:59 We are not presented with how to meet the needs that might be environmental or that might be financial or there might be I don't know, connected to a specific context. It doesn't have a sign that says, please use algebra two [Farshid Safi] 11:40:14 To solve this problem, right? That's not how the world operates. And so it might understanding of the arts, the mathematics, the data, some statistical inferences to be able to just make sense to be able to respond to and collaborate with [Dustin Jones] 11:40:16 Right. Yeah. [Farshid Safi] 11:40:33 Other experts. And this is why part of that commitment to be more comprehensive and more inclusive involves being even more deliberate with other organizations. [Farshid Safi] 11:40:44 Whose mission is perhaps a little more narrowly defined so that AMT alone can't do it all. And we're not trying to do it all. [Farshid Safi] 11:40:53 But however, when we combine with and when we collaborate with and are specifically and explicitly present and contributing in each other's spaces, then we all get better. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:40:54 Yeah. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:41:07 Well, one thing I was just thinking of this was, you know. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:41:12 How are we because at AMT, we'll have like uh present sessions where it'll be like. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:41:18 Science and like different different like it's almost like teacher education or math teacher like organizations come together And I keep thinking like. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:41:27 What about the leaders, like those that are like the. Principal associations or like superintendent like like Because, you know, or the people that are doing policy And whatever, because we can have all these plans and things. We're even thinking about having a comprehensive, inclusive [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:41:45 Approach to math teacher education, but if it's not being supported. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:41:50 Through the leaders that are influencing the realm in which we're doing this work Or how would we get voices in those spaces too? [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:41:58 Like it becomes real hard, right? To say like, hey, this is what we know. And now all of a sudden it's like, again, still a narrower exclusive approach, the opposite of your statement. Yeah. [Farshid Safi] 11:42:09 Yeah, I hear you. And so one of the learning spaces that I'm very excited to be in, their meeting is next week. [Farshid Safi] 11:42:17 It's the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences, which is one of these umbrella organizations that brings together, I think, close to 20 organizations from AMTE to the American Statistical association to the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics, to the Association for Women in Mathematics, to the Benjamin Banneker Association, to Todos, to Women in Math Ed, to NCTM, [Farshid Safi] 11:42:42 To NCSM, right? And so And like with Comap and other organizations so that we can sort of be in the same space and learn from common challenges, but also potentially intersecting solutions. [Farshid Safi] 11:42:58 So I think the more that life goes on, the more that I continue to learn and benefit the wisdom and the brilliance of colleagues across disciplines the more that an intersectional approach towards professional support. [Farshid Safi] 11:43:16 Seems to make sense to meet and respond to the challenges that exist. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:43:22 I could see Jen's wheels turning. Just curious. Like if you have a question or a comment. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:43:26 Yeah, I'm just thinking about like I'm on board, but I'm also like, okay. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:43:32 What are the entry points into the work? Like, where do I get started in doing this so that it is sustainable and it sticks with me, right? [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:43:39 So I think about the work that I do now, it took a while to get to where I am in doing that work and doing that thinking about reaching out to other disciplines and then taking that on in a way that I felt [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:43:53 Was manageable and that I could do. So I'd be curious that like What are those kind of entry points into doing this work like where would it start? [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:44:06 I mean, it has to start with me and then it has to be like. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:44:09 An interest or a need that I see. And then, yeah, I'm just kind of curious what other folks think. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:44:15 Because I'm always thinking about that, right? Like anything that we pick up and we do What's the entry into the work? What's the purpose of it? [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:44:22 And then what's going to stick with me so that I actually take action? It's like when we work with our when we work with teachers, right? We think about what are those things that you can do to make changes in your practice that are incremental, right? So that they do stick. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:44:36 So that's kind of what I'm thinking right now. What do you all think? [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:44:39 That we're not supposed to do all the things all the time right now. [Farshid Safi] 11:44:40 Good. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:44:42 Well, I mean… Right, exactly. We didn't ask about the boundaries and Question yet, right? [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:44:47 Sorry, I interrupted somebody. Yeah, yeah. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:44:49 Without taking on all the things and without taking all the things thinking we can do all this work by ourselves, but there is some portion that we need to do on our own, right? [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:44:58 And in collection with other people. So I'm just thinking about like, what are those entry points and just what kind of like thoughts are coming you on that. Yeah. [Farshid Safi] 11:44:58 Mm-hmm. [Farshid Safi] 11:45:04 But I think we do have models, Jen, that we have kind of seen. So for instance, I think historically The ways that math education and special education and or literacy or technology education have learned to come together These are different expertise. [Farshid Safi] 11:45:25 And yet there are definite needs for our teachers to benefit and for us as teacher educators to kind of know where the intersections are. [Farshid Safi] 11:45:35 And how it is that it meets this the needs and the purposes of professional preparation, both initial teacher preparation and then ongoing professional development. [Farshid Safi] 11:45:47 So I think there are models and how that can be done and how the research allows to allows us to learn and collaborate. [Farshid Safi] 11:45:55 And then think through models that exist. I think sometimes, again, this is just my personal lens. This is not me in my AMT leadership role. [Farshid Safi] 11:46:05 I think sometimes people try to defend their disciplinary content as if it's under attack. [Farshid Safi] 11:46:15 As opposed to when you think about, for instance, in other fields like medicine and technology are for a longer period of time have now learned to inform one another. [Farshid Safi] 11:46:28 And so one should not be a threat to the other. What one informs the other. [Farshid Safi] 11:46:34 Pharmacology, chemistry. And say like what we do professionally in medical care and nursing, right? These are all integrated in some way. [Farshid Safi] 11:46:46 So I think as teacher educators, it might help us to kind of revisit and learn from some other disciplines. [Farshid Safi] 11:46:54 And how it is that the human need the academic need and the professional need are all intertwined, whether we acknowledge it and deliberately attend to it or not. [Farshid Safi] 11:47:05 And then learn how we can do that together, both in the short and the long term. But I think part of that comes from being included and also included as collaborators and as a valued contributor in each other's spaces. [Dustin Jones] 11:47:19 Mm-hmm. Yeah, I like what you said there, Farshid. It made me think of… I guess the importance of a couple of things. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:47:20 Hmm. [Dustin Jones] 11:47:31 Coming at a conversation in humility, like ready to listen not coming with the list of here are the five points that I need to make sure everyone are true for me in my field, but listening for what what the issues are being raised maybe from someone else's perspective or from someone else's point of expertise. [Dustin Jones] 11:47:55 And I don't know if, I guess the opposite of humility is probably pride but having maybe not pride, but well, maybe pride. I don't know. A recognition of the expertise that that you are bringing, but also a recognition and a respect for the expertise that [Dustin Jones] 11:48:12 The other person is bringing. And so we are maybe trying to address the same issue from different ways, or maybe we even see this this is making me think of uh radical constructivism talks. Maybe we think we're all working on the same problem, but really we're all [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:48:15 Yeah. [Dustin Jones] 11:48:30 Seeing this from different, seeing something from a different way and we're trying to understand what we understand. [Dustin Jones] 11:48:36 And understand what the others are understanding. [Farshid Safi] 11:48:36 Mm-hmm. I love how you phrase that, Dusty. And it reminds me of the work that I've been continuing with working with the same school district for the past few years. [Farshid Safi] 11:48:47 And I asked them, so after like three years, what are some takeaways that you have from our efforts? And one of the teacher participants said that humility and vulnerability and are actually strengths and not the absence of expertise. [Dustin Jones] 11:49:02 Hmm. Mm-hmm. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:49:04 Hmm. [Farshid Safi] 11:49:05 And I think the more we can engage and commit to that. [Farshid Safi] 11:49:09 The more we can actually on a human level and a professional level. [Farshid Safi] 11:49:14 Continue and then collaborate because vulnerability and humility are critical towards growth. [Dustin Jones] 11:49:21 Mm-hmm. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:49:22 Speaking of community and collaboration, we've got an annual conference coming up like that pivot. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:49:27 There we go. In 2026. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:49:29 That was a good pivot because I was just thinking about like With what we've said here, how can we be like, let's go to the word intentional about carving out space At AMT. [Dustin Jones] 11:49:30 Wow, Joel. Yeah. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:49:37 Yeah. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:49:41 To have these conversations and really be able to do like this deep work Because we go to conferences and we like go to presentations and we learn a lot from there. But I'm just like, how could we dream about other ways that conference sessions could be? [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:49:57 Where we could do this type of work that we know matters. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:50:00 Well, I don't think we have to completely… reinvent the wheel because sometimes it could be like, I want to learn more about what's going on in pre-K classrooms here. There's a presentation. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:50:09 On it, like where someone's going to talk about some things. [Dustin Jones] 11:50:10 Mm-hmm. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:50:12 Yeah. But I mean, like. Carving out like specific time where it's like, Joel, maybe there's a topic you and I want to talk about, but we're always having to find a time that doesn't conflict with some presentation. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:50:13 Um. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:50:23 That maybe it is like, how are we going to do this kind of interdisciplinary work? [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:50:24 Yeah. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:50:28 Where's that time we could carve out to talk about it and then like be intentional about other people coming to it, not just me and you talking about it, right? I don't know. I'm just thinking just putting myself in the perspective of just being a learner and a student right in the [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:50:37 Yeah. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:50:43 Humility and vulnerability to be like Every moment, even, you know, when I'm thinking about my students, like what are they teaching me? [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:50:50 I say that all the time, right? Like every moment is teaching me something And do I have the humility vulnerability and openness to just like take that in and you know Yeah. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:50:51 Right. [Dustin Jones] 11:50:51 Mm-hmm. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:51:02 Yeah. No, no. Well, I mean, I think, so let's just… Well, first, like it's a… A conference are a great place for Again, community collaboration. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:51:12 What you know the in culture code, they talk about these productive collisions. And so getting to that space, getting to that space might involve Putting in a proposal. And so I know, Frasid, do you want to talk about some of those intentional [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 11:51:15 Ooh, culture code. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:51:27 Changes that have been made to the call for proposals, which we This has been a constant evolution of responsiveness, I believe, to the membership so uh I don't know, what's the latest on what's happening with call for proposals this year? [Farshid Safi] 11:51:42 Yeah, I'm really honored in that we rely very heavily on our professional learning division and the work that the program committee does because people bring their brilliance, people bring their experiences and how we take a process that is a pretty well-oiled machine [Farshid Safi] 11:52:00 And yet continue to make it even better. And to make it more inclusive and to make it more in such a way that I think our conference experience simultaneously can affirm can challenge, can extend and connect to other work that is going on in the areas of teaching, research. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:52:00 Yeah. Mm-hmm. [Farshid Safi] 11:52:24 Service partnerships and all the rest. So it's critical, for instance, in our call for proposal We're calling out that we need to have this strong research base and attending to the practices of developing mathematics teachers and mathematics teacher educators in multiple spaces in multiple roles. So we want to hear from [Farshid Safi] 11:52:47 Specialists, teacher leaders, coaches, right? As well as university and community college faculty because the work of mathematics teacher education is not solely done by university faculty at R1 institutions. [Farshid Safi] 11:53:03 I will say that again, and I'm happy to say that vocally Our R1 universities and institutions are critical And so is the work that other institutions and entities are doing. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:53:06 Yes. Yes. [Farshid Safi] 11:53:18 So I think our universities, our community state colleges, our R1, R2, liberal arts institutions, our school districts. [Farshid Safi] 11:53:25 Our state leaders in math education we're all engaged on different dimensions of supporting and contributing to the work of mathematics teacher educators. [Farshid Safi] 11:53:39 So to have not have them and AMTE space to me is something that we need to acknowledge and to address. [Farshid Safi] 11:53:48 But to value people's expertise, not as observers and participants, but as contributors. [Farshid Safi] 11:53:56 So towards that goal, I think we've been a little more explicit in our wording. [Farshid Safi] 11:54:01 In the call for proposal and proposal through the program committee's work and recommendations. And I also want to call out specifically this year's program committee chair, Luke Reinke. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:54:04 Nice. [Farshid Safi] 11:54:15 And the continued great work that Rick Hudson's doing as our VP of Professional Learning in that in our call for proposal this year. [Farshid Safi] 11:54:24 We have that AMTE adopts an expansive view of the term mathematics education. [Farshid Safi] 11:54:29 To include intersections with fields, including but not limited to. That part is key, including but not limited to data science and statistics education, interdisciplinary education, STEM and STEAM education. [Farshid Safi] 11:54:43 Exceptional education or special education and encompassing partners engaged in early childhood pre-K-12 and post-secondary contexts. [Farshid Safi] 11:54:54 So I thought that in working with the committee members, the program chair, and our VP of professional learning that I think we need to actually see that. [Farshid Safi] 11:55:06 Highlighted. We want people to see them valued and then to be present and to contribute. [Farshid Safi] 11:55:13 And then as the president of the organization. My goal is I've been asking board members and committee leaders to tell me, okay. [Farshid Safi] 11:55:21 Who are the individuals, the communities, and the organizations that I can take this call for proposal and directly communicate that with them and saying, we would like you in the A&T space. [Farshid Safi] 11:55:34 And then subsequently, we want to be in that space too so that the learning is bidirectional. [Dustin Jones] 11:55:34 Mm-hmm. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:55:40 Yeah. Yeah. Like you can see yourself within this call, right? It's not like, well, I think I could. No, no, no. It's not tangential. It's like. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:55:48 You're here. And we want you like, and we become better as an organization when we have… the productive collisions that can happen. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:55:57 At the conference. There you go. Productive collisions. [Farshid Safi] 11:55:58 I love that phrase, by the way. Say that again. Okay. I'm going to work that into what I say and do. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:56:03 Yeah. There you go. Well, and… So like… Thinking about that and, you know, as we lead up to the conference and just want to be honor people's time. But what goals do you have In this lead up and you've kind of talked about a little bit, but anything else that you want to put out there? [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:56:24 Of goals leading up to the conference. [Farshid Safi] 11:56:29 I just want to make sure that AMT continues to be a professional home. [Farshid Safi] 11:56:35 For our community members. We have a lot of people that attend our conferences So what we need as a next step is for people who come to our conference further commits to share their expertise and their experiences as members, as volunteers, as leaders. [Farshid Safi] 11:56:55 So that we can do this work collectively together. I know the only reason that I became involved with AMT is how kind and how receptive people were to me. [Farshid Safi] 11:57:06 As a graduate student more than 15 years ago. And so I felt like, okay. [Farshid Safi] 11:57:13 People want me the person here. And then I can develop expertise professionally over time Because we all have that sense of I'm not enough yet professionally. [Farshid Safi] 11:57:26 And sometimes that feeling never leaves. But maybe it can be a force towards continued commitment to improvement. [Farshid Safi] 11:57:33 But if you are supported And if you are seen and when you are valued as a person and as a member of community, then I think we can do this work an intentional human ways and also not to pretend [Farshid Safi] 11:57:50 That we exist outside and completely siloed away from everything that is happening in the world around us. [Farshid Safi] 11:57:58 To me, that separation is a bubble that bursts sooner or later. [Farshid Safi] 11:58:06 And so why not have our professional organizations serve as the professional home to engage, to support, to challenge. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:58:07 Mm-hmm. [Farshid Safi] 11:58:15 But mostly to serve. And that's what I hope to make sure that we continue to do with our colleagues. [Farshid Safi] 11:58:22 Across our committees, across our conference spaces, across our other spaces. Amte is not a singular conference only organization. [Farshid Safi] 11:58:32 So I would love for us to kind of extend our efforts to see how it is that we can meet the needs and the challenges for our community. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:58:40 Yeah, they're just mention the community circles have been another way that people have extended. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:58:46 This podcast, another way that things have extended as well. And speaking of extending and and thinking of ourselves as complete people or, you know, what is something you like to do outside of your role as a teacher of math teachers? What's something you like to do for fun? We had a lot of [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 11:59:01 Fun talking about NBA basketball last week. That was fun. But I don't know if there's anything else you want to mention. [Farshid Safi] 11:59:08 I think anything that I value involves people. And so it's very easy to become so engrossed in what is not good in life. [Farshid Safi] 11:59:20 But also that there are so many beautiful people including our families, our friends, and our students, present, former, and potentially future. [Farshid Safi] 11:59:31 That become members of our family, be it academic be it professional. And so in whatever ways we can connect further with people who have been or are members of our family. [Farshid Safi] 11:59:47 One of the things I truly enjoy as i've i've gain this wonderful sense that with my own children, we can now talk debate analyze things that are happening with movies with music, with sports and then reason with data. [Farshid Safi] 12:00:07 Like what trends do you notice? How would you compare these two? Is there validity in that argument? [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:00:10 Nice. [Farshid Safi] 12:00:12 And I can sort of see Dusty thinking, hmm, there's some reasoning happening there. Maybe there are inferences. [Farshid Safi] 12:00:20 Maybe they're predictive, maybe they're not. But it's the idea that we can engage in what potentially fuels us professionally But it also makes us remain human and it makes us allow for these bonds and bridges between our hearts and our minds [Farshid Safi] 12:00:38 To remain intact. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:00:42 I'm, I'm… I'm trying not to say beautiful after every time you finish a sentence, Farsheed, but it's really tough. It's really tough. I want you to know that that's my challenge. That's my challenge, the thing that I'm bracing right now. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:00:54 So, hey, let's uh let's… [Dustin Jones] 12:00:55 Yeah, I was going to warn you, Joel, when you asked Farshed what something he does outside of his role as a ex, he's going to say, I'm sorry. [Dustin Jones] 12:01:03 I'm just one person. This is there's nothing outside of me. It is all me so [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:01:11 That's awesome. [Farshid Safi] 12:01:12 No, there's more and more of me because I continue to just expand you know and um but But outside of that, I think it is life is joyful and challenging at the same time. So I think it's good to be in community with [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:01:18 Yeah. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:01:25 Yeah. [Farshid Safi] 12:01:27 But like with just this conversation and with our listeners that those connections matter to fuel us So that we have the energy to take on the challenges that exist. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:01:39 Yeah. Being in community. And I think that's, it's a, it's a joy. And so I'm glad that we get to We got to do this today. Let's talk about things that we can promote or share. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:01:50 I'm going to list a few things and you can name other things that could be possible out there. Conference proposals are due May 15th. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:01:57 There's posters, there's brief reports. I mean, there's lots of different ways you can participate. Again, I love what Farshid said. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:02:04 If you've been someone that's attending, you have value to share. And it could be, you know, just again, attending and engaging conversation, but also Put a proposal together. Don't do it by yourself. I always say it's always better to do things together. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:02:19 Do something like that. And then, and that reminds me, Jen, I think we were going to do something. We got to put that together. There we go. Yeah, yeah. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 12:02:24 We are, I think so, yeah. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:02:26 And then award nominations are also due May 15th. We got the Judith E. Jacobs lecture. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:02:32 We got the Nadine Bezouic Excellence in Leadership and Service Award, the Early Career Award. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:02:38 Those are happening. Anything else promoters share? [Farshid Safi] 12:02:42 I think one of the things is this notion that we need people to bring their expertise and their brilliance as members of AMT's committees and volunteers because we are a volunteer organization. [Farshid Safi] 12:02:58 And so please don't feel like you have to have everything figured out. I sure as heck do not. [Farshid Safi] 12:03:05 And have not over the years, but to be able to engage in important work collaboratively through different committees and different roles that might be of interest to you. [Farshid Safi] 12:03:16 Until you volunteer, we have a hard time and shoulder tapping and or bringing people in to help make these processes and these efforts better. [Farshid Safi] 12:03:27 So I encourage all of your listeners as well as your colleagues at the different levels. [Farshid Safi] 12:03:35 School district partners, university partners, school partners, and just colleagues that engage in intersectional work. [Farshid Safi] 12:03:46 Put in a proposal, it's a lot easier to come to a conference especially if you're new to that setting when you're with a colleague. [Farshid Safi] 12:03:55 So put in a proposal that way and then invite people. And so we collectively can learn from each other And then they also gain this sense of belonging and a home. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:03:55 Yeah. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:04:06 Yeah, and then a shout out to the affiliates too, because maybe that's a more approachable way to start and then To get some traction to continue on to AMTE as well. Or if you share something at AMT, also share it with your affiliate as well. You know, like at the main conference, share it. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:04:24 At your affiliates. All right. Thanks. This is wonderful. Absolutely. And are beautiful. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:04:31 Rashid, did you have one more thing to share? [Farshid Safi] 12:04:32 Yeah, one more thing, because I never run out of things. At any times, my role is to help liaison some of these conversations and efforts. So even if you have a fully fleshed idea or an evolving idea. [Farshid Safi] 12:04:45 Just shoot me an email, president at amte.net. And then just then if I can't help you directly, I'll make sure that I put you in touch with those who can. [Farshid Safi] 12:04:57 Because we need ideas. We need ways that we can continue to support each other. And our doc students, our graduate students, our early career people, and our mid-career and late career colleagues to all of us to engage in this work together. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:05:16 Thank you. That's great. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 12:05:17 Thanks, Rasheen. Yeah, just, yeah, shout out to you. You are a great thinking partner. [Jennifer A. Wolfe] 12:05:23 So he means it, folks. Reach out to him. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:05:25 Yeah, send an email. Trust me, it'll be good. So thanks. Thanks, y'all. And thank you. We'll put all the links to the show notes. So thanks to all the listeners out there. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:05:36 For listening to this episode of the Teaching Math Teaching Podcast. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:05:38 If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the podcast. [Joel Amidon (he/him/his)] 12:05:42 We hope that you're able to take action on something you just heard. Lots of stuff there and interact with other math Teacher, educators.