Make Math Happen
Make Math Happen (formerly known as PD for the SOUL) is the podcast for educators ready to move with intention and teach with impact. Hosted by math coach and equity-focused educator Laneshia Boone, each episode bridges practice and purpose to help you design instruction that centers students, builds capacity, and makes learning stick—especially for those pushed to the margins.
Every week, you’ll get strategies that work in real classrooms, grounded reflections that challenge the status quo, and conversations with educators who are making bold moves in math education. From planning with purpose to using charts that anchor learning, from building strong routines to disrupting expired rules, this podcast is where meaningful math instruction comes to life.
You’ll walk away with ready-to-use tools, fresh insight, and the confidence to make every lesson count.
Because when we move with care, plan with clarity, and teach with courage, we make math happen.
Make Math Happen
Seeing Math: Area, Surface Area, and Volume
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
This episode continues our Season 4 focus on making connections across mathematical domains and across grade levels. My goal over the coming months is to spark deeper conversations about instruction, sequencing, and sense-making, and to support teachers in taking these ideas back to their professional learning communities.
Area, surface area, and volume are often taught as a list of formulas, but students need a much richer story. In this episode, we explore how these concepts grow from simple ideas about covering and filling space, why decomposing shapes matters, and how visual reasoning developed in earlier grades is essential for success in middle school and beyond.
We connect this work to the Standards for Mathematical Practice and discuss why thoughtful sequencing is especially important for our learners. With developing prefrontal cortexes, students need us to organize learning intentionally so they can reason, make connections, and build understanding over time.
You’ll walk away with concrete ways to model area, surface area, and volume using gridded space, manipulatives, household items, and simple classroom routines. Whether you’re a teacher or a family member supporting learning at home, this episode is designed to inspire deeper thinking, stronger instruction, and more meaningful conversations about how students learn mathematics.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Make Math Happen podcast! If you enjoyed today’s conversation, subscribe on your favorite listening platform, leave a review, and share this episode with your fellow educators.
You can also join the discussion and connect with me directly by clicking the link to join the Math Collective. Together, we’ll keep exploring practical strategies to transform classrooms and inspire students.
Remember, new episodes drop every Sunday at 9:00 am, so mark your calendars! Until next time, keep making math happen, and I’ll catch you in the next episode.
If you like math videos, let's connect: