TODOS Podcast · TODOS Mathematics for ALL

S5E5: Cracking the Code with Sylvia Celedón-Pattichis, Carlos LópezLeiva, and Marios Pattichis

·53 min·3 clips

A student told the teacher, 'computer, write me a program' before the first coding lesson.

Theodore Chao opens by welcoming listeners and pointing to upcoming Todos book study webinars, including another session on March 25 and a final gathering at the conference in June in Garden Grove, California. He then introduces Carlos Lopez Leyva, Marios Patichis, and Sylvia. Carlos comes in through bilingual and mathematics education, learning ecologies in and out of school, and decolonizing language practices and ideologies. Marios brings an electrical and computer engineering lens, especially around supporting young bilingual learners as they work through the complexities of computer science and engineering. Sylvia is part of the same work around supporting students across language and school settings. A big part of the conversation centers on an after-school program built to create a school culture that could outlast the adults who started it. Students moved through the program and later returned to teach younger children. That shift mattered. The guests say many of the students were nervous about teaching at first, but the experience changed how they saw themselves and what they thought they could do. Carlos describes how the setting was built for students, including language flexibility from a Vietnamese co-facilitator and a bilingual middle school student who moved back and forth to help. The conversation connects that support to visual representations and to mathematics students can actually use. It keeps circling back to the value of showing learners how math shows up in real life. Toward the end, the guests argue that coding should not wait until senior year of college or show up first as an intimidating class. They frame AP computer science as too late for many students if earlier experiences are missing. The closing turns into a call to action around creation. Theodore cites a question from page 140 of the Todos book: how often do your students use mathematics to create something? The episode leaves that question hanging in a useful way. It asks teachers to teach math and coding so young people are making, not only receiving.

As heard by us

A warm, practice-minded conversation about bilingual math, coding, and students teaching students.

TODOS treats bilingual mathematics as lived practice rather than theory. Theodore Chao speaks with Carlos Lopez Leyva, Marios Pattichis, and Sylvia Celedon-Pattichis about learning ecologies, translanguaging, and ways to make coding and math feel less like gatekeeping and more…

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Why you'd press play

You want bilingual math talk that stays close to classrooms and students and ends with students teaching students.

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