Make 2023 a Fantastic Year for Maths!
Enrich your maths teaching – and get rejuvenated.

Is this you?

You know that it makes no sense to operate in a silo. It is far better (not to mention, far more fun) to get together with other teachers.

You want your students to look forward to maths class because they love having their curiosity sparked by new ideas and interesting problems.

But you’re too busy to search for new lesson ideas that have that magic balance of engaging + meaningful maths, plus do all the necessary preparation that goes with it.

You know that your teaching doesn’t need an overhaul, but you like making iterative improvements to your practice. After all, learning is a lifelong pursuit.

You want practical ideas that you can integrate into your teaching for the long-term. And YOU want to decide – not hand this to some external program or expensive tech product – what these changes will be. After all, you’re in charge of your classroom.

WHAT IF you could meet regularly with like-minded teachers and get new, inspired maths teaching ideas that you could immediately apply with all your students?
Brilliant time at Maths Teacher Circles discussing new problems and pedagogy, but more importantly just taking time out to have a play with maths in a collaborative context.”
– CARMEN BRADING, PRIMARY TEACHER

Circles Membership is designed to inspire and deepen your maths teaching

With a Circles Membership, you will join a community of thoughtful and frankly awesome teachers who aren’t afraid of being open about what they know and don’t know, and who enjoy diving into fascinating maths ideas with others. At every session, you will have opportunities to expand your professional network and collaborate in small groups, so you can make genuine connections that last well beyond each event.

We believe in iterative and meaningful improvement. Unlike one-off professional development, Circles Membership gives you time for ongoing learning, helping you to integrate new ideas into your practice for the long-term.

You will get regular opportunities to learn new ideas that you can take back to your classroom, try out and reflect on, before returning to learn more. We won’t tell you what to do or give you some formula or restrictive model to follow. We respect you too much for that! Instead, we will provide a carefully-designed space, where we (including our guest presenters) share what we’ve learned over time so that you can choose from a selection of practical ideas that will suit your teaching.

We believe that maths is fun, challenging and satisfying and that learning maths meaningfully requires patience, careful thinking and a desire to find out more. We design every session with this in mind, so that you can get teaching inspiration to strengthen your students’ relationship with and understanding of maths and to spark their curiosity for exploring new ideas and problems.

We only share stuff that we believe can make a difference in your classroom. Get regular access to new and high quality teaching strategies, tools and tasks, so that you can spend your lesson planning time more purposefully.

At every session you attend, you will experience new tasks and routines from a student’s perspective, allowing you to develop a FAR deeper understanding of what you learn and be ready to anticipate your students’ needs.

Michaela Epstein

Hi, I’m Michaela Epstein.

After searching for ways to make professional learning more meaningful, in 2020 I founded Maths Teacher Circles in Australia.

Years before, as a new teacher, I was frustrated by the lack of maths professional learning opportunities available to me. 

Students in my classes had the typical spread of capabilities, confidence and enthusiasm for learning maths. I needed strategies and ideas that could help all of them to find maths meaningful and succeed in their learning. And I was keen to learn from what other teachers were doing.

Since then, I’ve learned, tested out ideas AND learned a heap more (I’m still going!).

As President and Board member of the Mathematical Association of Victoria, I looked at teaching and learning from a system perspective and how different parts of that system operate together.

As state representative for the Australian Association of Maths Teachers, I gained insight into the contexts, successes and challenges of teachers nation-wide, noticing that some things are the same no matter where you teach and other things are so very different.

My Masters research at The University of Melbourne helped me to see how a maths curriculum, through its design, can communicate something quite different from its intended goals. 

By working closely with primary and secondary teachers, school leaders, government, ed-tech start-ups and more, I have been reminded time and again that education is so wonderfully complex. The most valuable thing we can do is invest in each other – not in some piece of research, tech tool or model.

Maths Teacher Circles exists so that teachers like you can share your expertise and uncover new mathematical ideas and teaching strategies (not cover the same old topics!) in a safe and empowering space for learning. My aim is to make every Maths Teacher Circles session an incredible experience so that you will be excited again about teaching maths. I hope to see you soon!

“I absolutely love how Michaela runs these sessions! The balance she has between maths with teachers' hats off and maths teachers' hats on is perfect and beautiful and I've not seen anyone else do that as well as she does.”
– JAMES TANTON, MATHEMATICIAN & FOUNDER OF GLOBAL MATH PROJECT
“The way Michaela has structured Maths Teacher Circles sessions and her presentation style encourages people to engage in the conversation online unlike any other workshop that I have been part of.”
– THOMAS MOORE, MATHS EDUCATION CONSULTANT

Circles Membership

Inspire and deepen your maths teaching

COMING UP NEXT

Championing Mathematical Reasoning

Mathematical reasoning – it's the most forgotten, yet the most powerful, proficiency!

At this online session in March, together with guest presenters Margarita Breed and Thomas Moore, we'll explore the depths of what reasoning is really about. You'll see how it connects the other proficiencies of fluency, understanding and problem solving. Plus, you'll get new, inspired ideas for embedding reasoning into your practice, allowing you to help your students to go deeper and better remember what they learn.

Not quite ready to commit to a Circles Membership? Join us instead with a single session registration.

Upcoming Events

“I love Maths Teacher Circles – the opportunities that you provide for my personal development are immeasurable.”
– JJ ZHANG, SECONDARY MATHS TEACHER

What you can expect

Help your students to thrive

  • Get great ideas so that you can help ALL students to become stronger problem solvers and mathematical thinkers
  • Get rejuvenated about teaching, making you ready to inspire a love of maths in your students
  • Develop your classroom practice so that you can help your students to build confidence and better understand what they learn

Cultivate your craft

  • Deepen your knowledge and see maths in new ways, so that you can be confident to tackle new content with students
  • Learn from a variety of creative and insightful Australian and international presenters, so that you can integrate trusted tasks and new techniques that suit your teaching

Grow your tribe

  • Join a committed learning community of like-minded and impressively thoughtful teachers, so you can continue to connect and collaborate beyond each session
“As an educational leader, I find Maths Teacher Circles incredibly beneficial and supportive. I leave these sessions inspired and confident.”
– RHIANNON ROBERTS, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
“I enjoyed meeting and working with other people. It was very collegiate. Some PDs you go to, you just sit together in your school groups. I want to build networks of people that I can email and call, see what they are doing for this and that.”
– SARAH C., SECONDARY MATHS TEACHER
“It’s really good to meet other people who are excited. You get energy and ideas, and just get to talk to them.”
– JO B., SECONDARY MATHS TEACHER & FORMER PHYSICIST

What’s included

With a Circles Membership, you will get:

And some extras too!

“Really and truly, this was a rejuvenating experience. I loved having the opportunity to engage and learn in multiple formats, and the collaboration was invigorating. Thank you!”
– JENNA LAIB, PRIMARY TEACHER & MATHS COACH
“It was inspirational and pushed my understanding of what mathematics is and how it can be taught to new levels
– BRENDON BARRETT, TEACHER EDUCATOR

Spots are strictly limited to keep this experience as interactive and highly valuable as possible.

Don’t miss out on inspiring and deepening your maths teaching. Let’s do this!

Guarantee

We are confident that you’re going to enjoy your experience with us. So, we’re pleased to offer you a 100% no-risk money-back guarantee: if, after attending your first session, you don’t learn anything relevant that you can use with your students or colleagues, just let us know within 7 days, and we’ll refund you in full, minus credit card fees.

Frequently Asked Questions

In the week leading up to the session, we will email you with information about how to access and prepare for the session.

If you have registered for a session but have not received these emails, please check your junk/spam folders. If our emails just haven’t come through, please contact us.

Yes! We record the sessions so that you can go back and re-watch the best bits in your own time.

You will receive a recording within a week of when a session is held.

Maths Teacher Circles are for you, if you:

  • enjoy doing and being challenged by maths
  • are after strategies and recommended resources to help students become better problem solvers and mathematical thinkers
  • want dedicated time to focus and reflect on teaching practice
  • are keen to build meaningful connections and join a like-minded community.

Maths Teacher Circles are NOT for you if you would prefer to listen to a lecture, rather than engage in problem solving and interact with others. 

We also don’t recommend Maths Teacher Circles if someone else is making the decision for you to attend. We want you to join us because you're curious about maths and teaching. Opt-in attendance means you have the choice over how you are spending your time learning.

Yes. While we recommend a Circles Membership, so you can get the full benefits of ongoing learning, we know that this option isn't always a possibility.

To register for an individual session, head to the checkout page and select the session you would like to attend.

There is no minimum required maths skills or knowledge that you need to have.

People who get the most out of sessions:

  • Come ready to be challenged, and know they will not know everything
  • Share their ideas, even when those ideas are half-formed or seem left-of-centre
  • Ask questions.

Presenters carefully select tasks with a low floor and high ceiling – meaning these are tasks that will be widely accessible with plenty of room for extension and to be taken in different directions.

You will meet and collaborate with a wide range of teachers. This is the beauty of Maths Teacher Circles! Each person brings their own experiences and insights, resulting in fantastic discussions and learning opportunities.

Just like in-person workshops can be amazing or not worth your time, we believe it’s the same online.

We want every session you attend to be highly worthwhile and an incredible experience. Each session is practical, interactive and carefully designed so that you have meaningful opportunities to connect with others. 

We also make the most of the online setting, and will introduce you to effective tools for collaborative problem solving and for making sense of mathematical ideas.

Yes! Our sessions are specially designed to allow you to choose from a selection of practical ideas that will suit your teaching.

Here’s a selection of what you might learn about:

  • Low floor, high ceiling problem solving tasks that you can use with a wide range of students
  • Questioning techniques
  • Strategies for supporting students to tackle challenging tasks, organise their thinking, form conjectures, work independently and explain their ideas.
  • How to use new tools, such as maths manipulatives and thinking routines
  • New mathematical ideas and how concepts are connected

Yes! Unlike some professional learning that requires you to follow a program or process, our sessions are designed so that you can choose from a selection of practical ideas that will suit your school context and your teaching. 

For example, you might get new ideas on questioning techniques, how to help students to explain their thinking or tools you can use to explain important concepts.

“People enjoy fantasy, and that is just what mathematics can provide” – Paul Lockhart, mathematician

We believe that maths can be intriguing, perplexing and fun – and that this is the case no matter your age or level of mathematical experience. In other words, students can enjoy coming to maths class, BECAUSE of maths not in spite of it!

At our sessions, you will explore problems and discuss strategies that can help your students to see maths differently and get excited about coming to your classes.

Many people have their registration paid for by their school or institution.

To help make it easier for you to get your registration funded by your school /institution, we made this editable letter so you can request funding.

Session registrations are open up until the day before the session.

With a Circles Membership, you will be automatically registered for all sessions within the 12 months of your membership.

That’s not a problem. Within a week of the session, you will receive a recording AND all session resources so that you can catch up on it in your own time.

You will also still be able to request a certificate recognising the professional learning hours you have done.

Yes! In addition to the online sessions, we also offer face-to-face options. 

We have extensive consulting experience with primary and secondary teachers. Our team is available to run in-school workshops based on the needs and priorities of school teams.

Find out more about the customised professional learning and consulting options today.

To stay up-to-date about great maths ideas and opportunities, including upcoming Maths Teacher Circle events, enter your details here.

Every day, teachers do long hours, putting others first. Now’s the time to invest in YOURSELF. Are you ready?