Notes on math, learning, and building PrepBox
Practical essays on conceptual math learning, mental models, mathematical fluency, and how PrepBox makes student thinking visible.
What a Math Mark Can—and Cannot—Tell Us
A mark shows performance, not the depth of understanding beneath it. MathGraph adds the connected learning picture that a mark leaves out.
I Was a Math Champion. I Was Also Memorizing More Than I Understood.
A former school math champion explains how correct answers can hide procedure-only learning — and why children need connected mental models, not more rules.
How Can You Tell Whether a Child Really Understands Math?
A score records one result. Learn what evidence a strong math program should preserve to show whether understanding survives changed problems and time.
Why Reverse Percentage Problems Feel Like a New Skill—and Why They Aren't
One four-part model explains both a 25% discount and the reverse problem of finding the original price—without memorizing two disconnected rules.
Teaching is the original taste job
A great math teacher isn't great because they mark fast — they're great because they notice. Here's what we built to give teachers back the time to act on what they've already seen, and two real student charts that show what that looks like.
Math Isn't a List. It's a Graph.
When your kid does math, they’re either building a list of procedures or a graph of connected ideas. The graph has a name — substrate — and it’s the only thing worth measuring. Here’s how we’re trying.
Old Math Isn't Wrong. It's Just Not Enough Anymore.
A parent shows me their kid’s homework. Boxes and circles and "number bonds" where they expected columns and carrying. They want to help. They can’t. This is the most common version of a quiet worry I hear from parents — and it’s pointing at something real.
How PrepBox K-6 Started: A Dad, His Daughter, and a Bar Model
Three years ago, my daughter came home with a math worksheet I couldn't immediately solve. That was my introduction to Singapore Math — and to the gap it exposed in North American math classrooms.