About

Hi, I’m Robert. I’ve been an educator since 2003 as a classroom teacher, teacher specialist for Downey Unified School District, instructor for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), consultant, and presenter at conferences around the world.

I’m also the author of Open Middle Math: Problems That Unlock Student Thinking, Grade 6-12, creator of the #ObserveMe movement, president of Grassroots Workshops, and run the website Open Middle.

I’ve written for Edutopia, Education Week (2012 | 2015 | 2016), Teacher2Teacher, and the American Educational Research Association (AERA). I’ve been quoted in Quanta Magazine and am also an author for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt high school math textbooks.

I’ve been fortunate to consult for many organizations and provide professional development to educators across the United States and around the world. I’ve also been featured on the Mix and Math, Math Therapy, Teachers Need Teachers, Math Knights, TeachThought, Reimagine Schools, MathEdOut, Making Math Moments That Matter, The Bedley Bros., Lesson Impossible, Educational Duct Tape, Math before Breakfast, Leader of Learning, Mr Barton Maths, Make Learning Magical, Unprofessional Development, Teach Like Ted Lasso, Instant Relevance, Ready, Set, Growth, EduMagic, Debate Math Podcast, and 10 Minute Teacher podcasts.

 

Build relationships
Growing up, I had few people I could really count on. As an adult I cherish the relationships I have with loved ones and friends and work hard to nurture them.

Empower others
I would not be where I am now without the generous mentoring and support from people who asked for nothing in return. The only way I can repay this debt is by doing the same for others.

Groups are smarter than individuals
I love working with others because the ideas that we create together are almost always better than any single person could have done on their own.

Always keep learning
There was a point where I truly thought I knew it all. Now I realize that the more I learn, the more aware I am of how much I still don’t know. I try to embrace this feeling and keep growing.

Share insecurities
Too often I feel insecure about something and then later realize that other people feel the same way and that it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. So I try to share parts I’d prefer to hide away in case it will help someone else.

Make a disproportionate impact
While I enjoy helping individuals, I look for scalable opportunities that allow me to positively impact as many people as possible.
 

When I’m not working alongside and training mathematics educators, I can be found spending time with my son, Owen. We love to play video games, watch TV shows and movies, go to baseball games, and eat delicious food. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you really want to know more, here are five random things that you may not know about me…

• I love to travel because it gives me such a broader, richer perspective of my place in it. Growing up in Southern California, it’s unfortunately easy to feel like everything revolves around you. So, when I graduated from college I immediately spent 8 weeks backpacking through Europe and Japan. It blew my mind to learn that much of what I thought I knew was so out of touch. The more I learn about other cultures, the more I realize I will never learn it all… but it sure is fun to keep on trying.
• My three favorite children’s books are The Phantom Tollbooth, The Monster at the End of This Book, and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (except I always skipped this part because the creature freaked me out and I was too scared to look at it)
• I made a rap video for my school’s test prep celebration that has over 21,000 views on YouTube. In related news, I knew I had nothing left to accomplish in life when I saw that MC Hammer followed me on Twitter.
• I used to be a very picky eater and didn’t eat produce like strawberries (those seeds on the outside were weird), peaches, plums, most vegetables, etc. until I was in my twenties.  Over time I got braver, and the most adventurous thing I’ve eaten to date was octopus sushi.
• I have been in two TV commercials… and somehow I’ve never managed to see either of them finally found one of them! I’m the second kid here who says “a 10 plus” (apparently I was already into numbers back then). The other was a short testimonial for a home loan company after I refinanced.

 

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about me.

 

 

 

P.S. I hope we get a chance to collaborate soon, so please click here so I can email you about news and updates.