S5E8 TODOS Book Club with Luz Maldonado Rodríguez and Monica Gonzalez

This is it, the last episode of Season 5! Theodore, Shari, and Shakiyya close out the season with a conversation about the TODOS Book Club, the year-long companion project that ran alongside the podcast all season.Theodore and Shari sit down with Luz Maldonado Rodríguez, a professor at Texas State University and longtime chair of the TODOS PD Committee, and Monica Gonzalez, a professor at East Carolina University and author of a new book on equity in elementary math instruction. Both are Texans, and both have known Theodore for years through TODOS work.Luz and Monica walk through how the book club came together, starting from a publicity committee meeting where the idea first came up, through a board pitch at the TODOS Conference at Cal State Fullerton. The book club became four online sessions built around the book's five sections culminating in a session at the TODOS conference. They talk about the choices that shaped it: keeping sessions unrecorded so people could speak freely, using the discussion questions the chapter authors had already written, and eventually inviting those same authors to join live so members could ask questions beyond what came up on the podcast. They also get honest about what worked and what didn't, like realizing an hour wasn't nearly enough time once people started digging into an action step, not just a discussion.The biggest takeaway: Community. Luz talks about how the book club, like TODOS itself, gives people a place to talk about math inequity with others who already get it, without having to explain or convince anyone first. Monica and Luz also thank the long list of PD committee volunteers: Josh Males, Kyndall Brown to Rosa Chávez, Crystal Kalinec-Craig, Dee Crescitelli, Kelly Costner, Karen Recinos, and Bob McDonald, who kept the sessions running behind the scenes.Of course, no TODOS episode wraps without food. Luz talks about growing up crossing the border from El Paso for pan dulce, and how she still can't resist the tray-and-tongs bakery experience whenever she finds it. Monica shares how moving to North Carolina meant giving up fresh HEB tortillas, so she taught herself to make her own, and now it's the one thing everyone in her life asks her to bring.Before signing off, Luz and Monica each share a guiding phrase. Monica keeps a Maya Angelou quote on her office door: do the best you can until you know better, and when you know better, do better. Luz's comes from Dr. Erika Bullock's work on systemic change in math education: we've been asking the wrong question.In the reflection that follows, Teddy, Shari, and Shakiyya look back on the whole season, from the authors they interviewed to the book study itself as a model for how educators can learn from each other's stories. It's a warm, grateful send-off to a season built on connection.Thank you to everyone who listened this year. If this episode has you curious about the book itself, Antiracist Mathematics Education: Building a Practice of Equity and Justice is available through TODOS, and you can catch up on any Season 5 episode you missed wherever you listen to podcasts.