district math specialist

Sue Totaro.

District Math Specialist & Educator

Sue has spent her career asking why mathematics fails so many learners — and building the conditions where it does not. Her answer centers on one thing: authentic real-world context, before the numbers ever arrive.

Sue Totaro on humanizing mathematics · 2:14

28 years searching. nothing else like it.

Sue Totaro: think about the person before the numbers · 2:08

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It's not the workbook page. It's the real world.

Sue Totaro, District Math Specialist

in her own words
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Math is about authentic, real-world problem solving. It's about empowering every single child in that classroom to look at the world in a way that lets them be the best mathematician they can be.

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Not every child is represented in the world of mathematics. Students of color are systemically kept out. We don't see enough girls. Allowing students to see through the lens of authentic world problems gives them the opportunity to say: this is why I do math.

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The wordless video creates the story. They can take the mathematics out of that story, decontextualize it, work with the numbers in a purposeful way, and put them back into the story.

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There are ten other problems your students can create from that story. They don't stop when you finish the story. That's where the rigor comes in — and that's where the curiosity takes over.

for district math leaders

what changes when math has a human story behind it.

Sue's framing is practical: educators are overwhelmed. Curriculum that adds one more thing on top of math standards will not be used. What works is curriculum where the human story and the math problem are the same thing — not separate moments in a lesson plan.

Reweave is built around that insight. Real people from across the world. Real stories with real math embedded in them. Fractions, rates, measurement, proportional reasoning, all grounded in a story that makes every learner want to understand the numbers, because they already care about the person.

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questions about humanizing math.

Sue Totaro's approach, in plain language.

What is humanizing math?
Humanizing math means grounding mathematical work in authentic human contexts so that every learner can see themselves as a mathematician. Sue Totaro uses this term to describe curriculum where the story and the math problem are the same thing — not a word problem bolted onto a number task, but a real situation that naturally contains the math.
How do wordless stories help math learners?
Wordless stories level the playing field before the math even begins. Because there is no narration to decode, every learner in the room — regardless of reading level or first language — enters the story at the same moment in the same way. The story creates genuine context, so when the math arrives, it belongs to a situation the learner already cares about.
What did Sue Totaro say about real-world math?
Sue Totaro describes real-world math as empowering every child to look at the world as a mathematician. She argues that not every child is represented in traditional math curriculum — and that authentic context from real people, embedded in a story, gives every learner a reason to engage with numbers that goes beyond the workbook page.
Is reweave aligned to math standards?
Yes. Reweave is designed to align with math standards including fractions, word problems, rates, measurement, and proportional reasoning. Sue Totaro worked alongside the reweave team to ensure the embedded math in each story meets the standards districts are already teaching — so reweave is not an add-on, but a context for the math that was already required.

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