Changing the Way Students Think About Math

What does it take to help every student succeed in mathematics? In this episode of The Voice of the District, we sit down with Tito Planas, Director of Mathematics for Bridgeport Public Schools, to discuss the district's vision for math education and the work underway to strengthen instruction across every classroom. Tito shares how educators are helping students build confidence, develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and see mathematics as a foundation for success in school, college, careers, and everyday life. Whether you're a parent, educator, student, or community member, this conversation offers an inside look at how Bridgeport Public Schools is preparing students for the future—one lesson at a time.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

All right, good morning everyone, and welcome to The Voice of the District, the podcast that shines a spotlight on the outstanding educators, leaders, and initiatives making a difference across Bridgeport Public Schools. Today we're talking about a subject that impacts every student's feature, mathematics, from developing critical thinking and problem solving to preparing students for college, careers, and everyday life. Mathematics plays a vital role in education. And joining us today is Tito Planus, the Director of Mathematics for Bridgeport Public Schools. Mr. Planus leads the district's efforts to strengthen math instruction, support educators, and ensure all students have access to engaging and rigorous learning experiences. So, Mr. Planus, thank you for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Thank you. Thank you for having me here today.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Absolutely. So let's start a little bit about you. So can you tell us a little bit about your journey, how you came here to Bridgeport Public Schools, and now into your role as the director?

SPEAKER_01 1:00

So I grew up in Puerto Rico and I came to Bridgeport when I was 13. I entered uh eighth grade at uh actually I went to three different schools, believe it or not. Uh, but I graduated from Wheeler School in 1985. And and as I went through my my journey uh in those years, I discovered that there was so much in the United States that uh was available. And then I developed a passion for helping others in terms of tutoring and mentoring and doing things like that. Uh, and and little by little, though I I studied computer science, which was my passion at that time, uh, I found very quickly that it wasn't just about making money and writing programs, it was more about how to change the world. One kid at a time. And when I did student teaching at uh the University of Bridgeport and Basic High School, I I discovered the the true love of what it is to help students and to help them grow, even even at the high school level. And uh and that's where I began. I began at that time. Um I I then taught at Columbus School. I was a fifth grade bilingual teacher, and and I discovered there that it was about teaching students about the culture and about how, like me, when I came from Puerto Rico, how different and how similar at the same time it is, and and and how how if you if you try hard, you could really accomplish any of your dreams here in the United States. So that's um throughout the years, you know, my love and passion for math obviously ha has grown to to where I am today, and uh helping students in in getting better in mathematics, and not only students, but also families in understanding what math is all about. It's the science of thinking and thinking numerically and and and more than just numbers.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Right. Absolutely, and numerically, so it's like it's a universal language, right? There's access to it for everyone. And if you know Mr. Planus, if you've met him before, you know that he's always living the dream.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Living the dream. We're living the dream.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Absolutely. So can you share with us, you know, what are some key strategies and supports the district is providing to ensure that every student has high-quality mathematics learning and instruction and supports?

SPEAKER_01 3:26

That's an excellent question. You know, one of the things we're doing is we're we're taking the content and ensuring that teachers uh understand the content and know exactly what should be taught in each grade level and how to in assessing exactly what students need uh at that time. So we've developed pacing guides so that teachers know exactly uh what where when and where in our curriculum this needs to be taught and learned. Not only taught, but also learned, which is more important. Um we are also working with principals, because that's my job. My job is basically working with principals to lead. Uh, and we're creating guides for the principals to know across all grade levels where all the grades have to be, right? So that they don't have to go to each pacing guide and look individually. And we're also uh ensuring that they have assessments, uh, very, very important assessments that are aligned with the SPAC assessment, our main assessment, so that uh teachers, students, uh staff, principals know exactly how their students are growing throughout. So my job is it's in many forms, you know, one person kind of guiding this whole notion of content. Um and then we have the family component, which is helping schools in ensuring that they have activities to support mathematics. So we have math family fun nights across uh all the uh schools to engage parents in the same activities as students are learning and teach them games that they could work at home. Um and then we work with the community in bringing in people that are in math. Also, I'm also in charge of financial literacy. So bringing in people from financial literacy to speak to our students and ensure that they know that there's a world out there where math belongs.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

So it's uh it's all in one.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Right, right. Well, it sounds like you're one person, but doing a huge job. And in it sounds, you know, you know, I hear like the the you know, the balcony view, right? Like you're creating systems, you are creating um consistency, aligning the district, and then you're also drilling all the way down to the student and the families and the community.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yes, yes. We're we're also always looking at data and ensuring that all schools are moving in the right directions. And if they're not moving in the right direction, my job is to then go and support support the staff, the teachers, and also the principal in ensuring that we have a path for students to continue to grow.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Amazing, amazing. And so you talked a little bit about families and helping families to get the support and and the opportunities and the ideas to to help with their students um at home. So, what are some ways that families can support students with the math at home?

SPEAKER_01 6:21

That's a that's a great question, and I'm glad that we're talking about that because it's one thing that that I love to talk about. You know, one of the things is is ensuring that they talk positively about math. I think that's that's the key there. If they don't do anything with math, at least talk about math in a positive way.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Uh ask, ask uh when you're in the supermarket, you know, ask, what do you think this is gonna cost? Or or how much money should I have if I want to buy three of these and four of those? You know, help with the estimation. Because sometimes kids don't see a place in their own lives. Um if they're buying gas, wow, talk about how expensive gas is and and how how much it was before, how much you save by it. And if I buy it for this price versus this price, how much would more would I need, or how much less would I need? And that way they see it in the construct of their own lives. Um, you you the second thing they could do is also uh have parents ensure that students are engaging, engaging in activities, engaging in school. Um they shouldn't say that I hated math when I was your age, but they should say, man, we're gonna work together and learn this together. I get a lot of parents that call me and talk about, you know, the math, how difficult it is, uh, and how different it is from when they were learning. And I and I think that the beauty of what those parents who call is that they're willing to learn.

SPEAKER_03 7:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Learn the strategies because we're using new research. We're using research that allow us to see better ways to um add numbers and better ways to to help students learn the mathematics without just memorizing. See, the age of memorizing is it's gone. Right. You know, we have calculators on our cell phone. Although that's important, it's important to know the basic facts and recall them very quickly. Many of the things that we used to do in the past to memorize are are gonna be extinct when computers, um, although they're taking the stage, when they take a deeper stage, and with AI, everything is changing.

SPEAKER_03 8:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

So ensuring that parents uh are involved in the process of learning, ensuring that they're speaking positively about mathematics, ensuring that um students are doing the activities throughout, using the resources. You know, we have we have programs like Dreambox and Moby Max, you know, ensuring uh at the high school we have a kind academy, which which is it's it's a world on its own. Ensuring that they're doing those things throughout is essential for uh our students to forge ahead. And if they don't have the resources to access those things in the computer, go to the library. Take them to the library, yes, read, but then do some math. When you go upstairs in the library here at at Burroughs Library, they have a whole computer system there that they could access.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Absolutely. And and you you you kind of hinted upon this too about you know, parents or people might say that they weren't good at math or they didn't like math. And I think of all the subjects, it's the one that we hear the most, right? And sometimes our first automatic, and sometimes I feel like it's almost like a defense mechanism, right? Because we're not we're a little bit concerned or or have a little anxiety around the math, the math. And so to be able to say, I don't like math or I'm not good at math, sometimes is the first response.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

And so how do we kind of change that culture?

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Yeah, it's it's something that we have to be accepting of first. We have to accept that math is here to stay in the math in our real life. Um many people think that they don't do math every day.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

But math is all over everything we do. You know, you're driving a car, um you like right now, they have all these cameras. You know, you have to go under 35 miles per hour, you have to gauge miles per hour. If you want to get somewhere and you could only go 35 miles per hour, it's gonna take you a longer time than before when you used to go 40. So, I mean, even that little bit has math in it.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

So, so recognizing that math is here with the price of things increasing. You know, many people just throw things in uh when they go to the supermarket, they throw things in the uh in the little carriage. Uh and it's important for them also to think uh how much more they're spending by maybe going to another store and saving the money or buying things in a different way. Uh so even as adults, you know, we need to understand and ensure that we recognize a place for it. And once we do that, kids will buy into that idea.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

You know, in my house, my father used to build things. And so I get my math, you know, from him and my mom, she used to loved to cook. So between her cooking with the fractions and ensuring that, you know, how much would I need for 10 people to make this cake? Or my father, you know, I want to build this, but it's not the right dimensions. I if I um if I think about you know how many people will fit in this place that I build and I make this this there's a certain uh area and perimeter and um structure in a certain way, you know, would it work?

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

And so that's where math comes in.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Absolutely. I love that. Math is not just like when you sit down to do a a ditto or a worksheet, right? Exactly. Math is embedded in our day-to-day, every living. And I think you're right, once we recognize that, it doesn't seem as intimidating anymore, right? Because it's we operate with math all the time.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Exactly. You know, that's a great comment because in the classroom, we are trying to do that. We're trying to ensure that we we we have the application of mathematics in every single lesson.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

I was having a conversation with with my colleagues about about how math needs to change in the classroom. I think that's one of the most important pieces. We have to bring real life into everything that we do in math, not only so kids could see the connections, but also they could feel the need to learn it.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

Absolutely. That makes so much sense. Thank you, Tito, for that. Um and so let's kind of wrap it up about um what excites you the most about the future of mathematics in education and mathematics education in Bridgeport Public Schools. And for our students and our families, hopefully that are listening, you know, what can they look forward to? What should they be excited about as well?

SPEAKER_01 12:45

So so one exciting aspect of uh what we're doing in Bridgeport is first of all, we're working together to ensure that whatever we put forth is for the benefit of our kids.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

We are raising whatever funds are needed. And for the first time, I see I see the fact that, you know, money is important and we might not have all the money, but if we're gonna work together, we're gonna fight for the needs of our students. And that is amazing. That is amazing because it didn't happen before. You know, we needed we needed books that we didn't have. Um, and so we didn't make that a priority at some point in time. Now we do. We see the necessity that everyone needs to have one common program, uh, which is incredible. But the most important part is we see growth. Bridgeport in math is growing. We might not see achievement right now, which is you know that that that S BAC assessment and seeing how many kids are in the level three or four. But if we look deeper at the data, we see that kids are growing. And it's like a marathon.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

You know, to run a marathon, you can't run 25 miles straight.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

You you have to start, you know, five miles at a time and then time yourself and see how fast you go five miles. And then all of a sudden you're running 10 miles and you're breaking your record. And by the time you look, you're at the 25 mile marker, breaking, making it right, and breaking those records. The same thing applies to this. To to to to ensure that kids that we narrow the gap in mathematics, we have to have growth. But we have to have growth above the one year mark. And so that's essential. And and and we see that uh this year. I mean, you know, I I don't have the data in front of me, but uh I at least at least one-third of our students are growing above one year. And so, and so that is amazing because it was not happening before. And it's gonna continue happening as long as we continue working on this.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Absolutely. Well, Mr. Palanos, thank you so much for all of the work that you're doing for Bridgeport Public Schools, your dedication, you know, your your time here, um, your focus on the students and families, and not just in math, but just growing them to be successful in all aspects of life. And um, so to our listeners, we want to thank you for tuning in to another episode of The Voice of the District. We're grateful to our educators, students, families, and community partners for their continued commitment to excellence and opportunity for all. Any last closing remarks, Mr. Polanas, before we go?

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Just excited about uh the future of Bridgeport. And you know, from the perspective of someone that graduated from Bridgeport schools like like yourself, you know, I I see our kids um more prepared now than ever before. Excited about the future.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Thank you for this opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Of course, thank you. Thank you for all your work. Have a great day, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

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