Meet your New Math Coaching Partner: The AI Math Coach Pedagogy Assistant

Are you a K-8 teacher looking for support with your math instruction? Looking for someone to help you think through challenging concepts, find great activities, or just talk through what's happening in your classroom? The AI Math Coach Pedagogy Assistant is here to be your on-demand coaching partner.

What is the Pedagogy Assistant?

Think of the Pedagogy Assistant as an experienced math coach with 40 years of teaching experience who is available whenever you need support. Unlike a traditional coach who might visit once a week or just for a few weeks out of a school year, this AI powered assistant is ready to help you think through teaching challenges, explore new approaches, and find resources day or night.

How the Pedagogy Assistant Supports You

Coaching through teaching challenges: The Pedagogy Assistant asks thoughtful questions to help you discover insights about your practice. Rather than simply telling you what to do, it guides you to think deeply about:

• Student thinking and reasoning.
• Why students might be struggling with particular concepts.
• How to build on what students already understand.
• Ways to structure lessons that let students construct their own understanding.

Example: If you share that students are struggling with subtraction with regrouping, the assistant won’t give you a procedure to teach. Instead, it will ask about what your students already understand, what models they have used, and help you think through approaches that build conceptual understanding.

Finding Just Right Activities from Our Resource Library: One of the most powerful features is access to our extensive library of research based math activities. The Assistant can:

• Search for activities that match specific grade levels and High Leverage Concepts (HLCs).
• Recommend problem solvers, windowpanes, games and journal prompts for math menu.
• Help you find number sense routines that keep math moving forward.
• Provide downloadable links so you can access materials immediately.
• Explain how each activity supports student learning.

Example: “I am teaching fraction equivalence to third graders and need some activities that let students explore with area models.” The Assistant will search the library and provide specific activities and links, along with guidance on implementation.

Pull Together Materials for Custom Math Menus: Need a set of activities for your Math Menu time? The Pedagogy Assistant can curate a collection of activities from our library that:

• Target specific grade level concepts.
• Include variety (problem solving, windowpanes, games, journal prompts).
• Offer multiple entry points for diverse learners.
• Support the All Learners Network (ALN) lesson structure.

Each recommended activity comes with a link and explanation of how it builds mathematical thinking.

Understanding Math Content and Pedagogy

The Pedagogy Assistant is always available to answer questions or support you around content knowledge and pedagogy. It draws from extensive resources about

• High Leverage Concepts for every grade level: What they are, how to teach them, the best strategies and models to work for the most students.
• The ALN Lesson structure: Support in how to do launch, how to open up the main lesson for more students, how to get started with math menu, good closure questions to ask.
• Constructivist teaching approaches: supporting students in building their understanding of number sense and mathematics.
• Ideas for facilitating student discourse and reasoning.
• Supporting students with learning differences.

What makes it different: The Pedagogy Assistant always emphasizes student centered approaches. You will not get suggestions to “demonstrate” or “explain” concepts to students. Instead, you will get ideas for how to elicit student thinking and help them build their own understanding.

What the Pedagogy Assistant Does Not Do

To use this tool effectively, it is important to understand its boundaries.

Will Not Create Original Materials: At this time, the Pedagogy Assistant cannot create new math materials including tests, windowpanes, games, problem solvers. However it can search our extensive library to find existing resources that meet your needs. It can also suggest ideas for additional materials if it cannot find enough of what you need in our files. At some point, we will likely add additional capabilities for AI Math Coach to support you in creating original materials when it cannot find enough in our resource library.

Not For Formal Intervention Planning: If you need a detailed, day-by-day intervention plan for a specific struggling student or group, this Assistant will direct you to the specialized Intervention Assistant, which is designed for this purpose. The Pedagogy Assistant is best for general teaching strategies and broader support.

How to Get the Most From Your Coaching Sessions

Start with What Is On Your Mind: Simply tell the Assistant what you are working on or what challenge you are facing.

• “My second graders are struggling with three digit subtraction”
• “I need some activities for introducing ratios”
• “Help me think through how to support students who have memorized procedures but do not understand the concept”

Expect Questions: The Assistant will ask clarifying questions to better understand your situation. This is not a delay, it is how good coaching works! These questions help ensure the support you get is relevant to your specific context.

Be Specific About What You Need: The more specific you are, the better the support will be and the less rounds of question answering you will need to engage in.

• Instead of “Help with fractions,” try “I’m teaching equivalent fractions to fourth graders using area models”
• Instead of “My students are struggling,” try “My students can add two-digit numbers but do not understand regrouping with the three digit numbers.”

See more examples of writing good prompts and read more about why it is important.

Use It For Real Time Support: Working on lesson planning? Reflecting after a lesson? Preparing for tomorrow or next week? The assistant is available whenever you need coaching support.

A Conversation, Not a Script

The Pedagogy Assistant uses a warm, supportive communication style. It will:

• Ask you what you would like to be called and use your name.
• Listen actively to understand your situations.
• Sometimes share perspectives through stories or examples.
• Always check if you want clarification or more information.
• Help you think through challenges rather than just giving answers.

The Bottom Line

The Pedagogy Assistant is designed to be what every teacher deserves: a knowledgeable, supportive coach who is there whenever you need help thinking through your math instruction. It combines deep pedagogical knowledge with access to a comprehensive resource library, all delivered in a supportive, coaching focused way.

It won’t do your planning for you, but it will help you think more deeply about your teaching, find excellent resources, and develop approaches that help all your students build strong mathematical understanding.

How Do I Access AI Math Coach?

ALN’s AI Math Coach is included in All Learners Online Unlimited. If you are already an ALO Subscriber, find the link to register for AI Math Coach on your ALO dashboard.

Not on ALO yet? Individual subscriptions as well as district discounts are available. Click here to learn how to access AI Math Coach and our comprehensive platform.

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