TODOS Podcast · TODOS Mathematics for ALL

S4E2: Building Your Teaching Community with Michelle Lo

·1 hr 2 min·4 clips

A one on AP Calc made Michelle Lo ask, “am I even Asian anymore?”

The episode opens with Theodore Chao and Sherry Kaku naming the season's focus on Asian American math identity. They connect that focus to the model minority myth. The mission of TOTOS is stated plainly: equity and high-quality mathematics education for all students, especially Latino students. Michelle Lo joins as a high school teacher at UCLA Community School in Koreatown, Los Angeles. She is also stepping onto the TOTOS board as the new director of member services. The hosts describe her as a Taiwanese-American, second-generation Taiwanese-American mathematics teacher who has already been inspiring to them. Michelle talks about starting as a teacher during the pandemic. She comes back to the idea that math should be something students can use if they want access to it. It should not be treated as a saving grace. It should not be sold as a way to escape poverty or leave a neighborhood. That distinction opens into a wider conversation about the message many families hear to major in STEM as a path to money and status. Michelle names how that script can shape immigrant and Asian American households. The conversation then widens to the model minority myth as a structure that shows up in nearly every discussion of Asian Americans in the United States. The hosts trace that myth into the post-1965 immigration patterns that favored professional-class newcomers from several Asian countries. They talk about how those conditions helped produce the stereotype of the educated, high-achieving Asian American. From there, the episode turns toward solidarity with other groups and the question of what community responsibility looks like. Michelle's language keeps the focus on care rather than abstraction. The hosts respond with the same warmth, restating her points before moving deeper. The episode ends with a note about good trouble and the hope that Michelle will carry that spirit wherever she goes. The closing thanks and playful goodbye keep the conversation human, even as it stays serious about identity and justice.

As heard by us

Math is a tool here, not a rescue ladder.

Michelle Lo's conversation on TOTOS stays close to Asian American math identity and the model minority myth, then turns that lens on teaching.

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Why you'd press play

Hear how math, immigration, and teaching identity meet in one teacher's story.

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