Podcast appearances and mentions of andy norton

Amy Hackenberg, Understanding Units Coordination ROUNDING UP: SEASON 4 | EPISODE 11 Units coordination describes the ways students understand the organization of units (or a unit structure) when approaching problem-solving situations—and how students' understanding influences their problem-solving strategies. In this episode, we're talking with Amy Hackenberg from the University of Indiana about how educators can recognize and support students at different stages of units coordination. BIOGRAPHY Dr. Amy Hackenberg taught mathematics to middle and high school students for nine years in Los Angeles and Chicago, and is currently a professor of mathematics education at Indiana University-Bloomington. She conducts research on how students construct fractions knowledge and algebraic reasoning. She is the proud coauthor of the Math Recovery series book, Developing Fractions Knowledge. RESOURCES Integrow Numeracy Solutions Developing Fractions Knowledge by Amy J. Hackenberg, Anderson Norton, and Robert J. Wright TRANSCRIPT Mike Wallus: Welcome to the podcast, Amy. I'm excited to be chatting with you today about units coordination. Amy Hackenberg: Well, thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be here, Mike, and to talk with you. Mike: Fantastic. So we've had previous guests come on the podcast and they've talked about the importance of unitizing, but for guests who haven't heard those episodes, I'm wondering if we could start by offering a definition for unitizing, but then follow that up with an explanation of what units coordination is. Amy: Yeah, sure. So unitizing basically means to take a segment of experience as one thing, which we do all the time in order to even just relate to each other and tell stories about our day. I think of my morning as a segment of experience and can tell someone else about it. And we also do it mathematically when we construct number. And it's a very long process, but children began by compounding sensory experiences like sounds and rhythms as well as visual and tactical experiences of objects into experiential units—experiential segments of experience that they can think about, like hearing bells ringing could be an impetus to take a single bong as a unit. And later, people construct units from what they imagine and even later on, abstract units that aren't tied to any particular sensory material. It's again, a long process, but once we start to do that, we construct arithmetical units, which we can think of as discrete 1s. So, it all starts with unitizing segments of experience to create arithmetical items that we might count with whole numbers. Mike: What's really interesting about that is this notion of unitizing grows out of our lived experiences in a way that I think I hadn't thought about—this notion that a unit of experience might be something like a morning or lunchtime. That's a fascinating way to think about even before we get to, say, composing sets of 10 into a unit, that these notions of a unit [exist] in our daily lives. Amy: Yeah, and we make them out of our daily lives. That's how we make units. And what you said about a ten is also important because as we progress onward, we do take more than 1 one as a unit—like thinking of 4 flowers in a row in a garden as a single unit, as both 1 unit and as 4 little flowers—means it has a dual meaning, at least; we call it a composite unit at that point. That's a common term for that. So that's another example of unitizing that is of interest to teachers. Mike: Well, I'm excited to shift and talk about units coordination. How would you describe that? Amy: Yeah, so units coordination is a way for teachers and researchers to understand how children create units and organize units to interpret problem situations and to solve problems. So it originated in understanding how children construct whole number multiplication and division, but it has since expanded from just that to be thinking more broadly about units and structuring units and organizing and creating more units and how people do that in solving problems. Mike: Before we dig into the fine-grain details of students' thinking, I wonder if you can explain the role that units coordination plays in students' journey through elementary mathematics and maybe how that matters in middle school and beyond middle school. Amy: So that's where a lot of the research is right now, especially at the middle school level and starting to move into high school. But units coordination was originally about trying to understand how elementary school children construct whole number multiplication and division, but it's also found to greatly influence elementary school children's understanding of fractions, decimals, measurement and on into middle school students' understanding of those same ideas and topics: fractions ratios and proportional reasoning, rational numbers, writing and transforming algebraic equations, even combinatorial reasoning. So there's a lot of ways in which units coordination influences different aspects of children's thinking and is relevant in lots of different domains in the curriculum. Mike: Part of what's interesting for me is that I don't think I'm alone in saying that this big idea around units coordination sounds really new to me. It's not language that I learned in my preservice work[, nor] in my practice. So I think what's coming together for me is there's a larger set of ideas that flow through elementary school and into middle school and high school mathematics. And it's helpful to hear you talk about that, from the youngest children who are thinking about the notion of units in their daily lives to the way that this notion of units and units coordination continues to play through elementary school into middle school and high school. Amy: Yeah, it's nice that you're noticing that because I do think that's something that's a strength of units coordination in [that] it can be this unifying idea, although there's lots of variation and lots of variation in what you see with elementary students versus middle school students versus high school students versus even college students. Some of the research is on college students' unit coordination these days, but it is an interesting thread that can be helpful to think about in that way. Mike: OK. With that in mind, let's introduce a context for units coordination and talk a little bit about the stages of student thinking. Amy: Yeah. So, one way to understand some differences in how children up through, say, middle school students might coordinate units and engage in units coordination is to think about a problem and describe how solving it might happen.  Here's a garden problem: "Amaya is planting 4 pansies in a row. She plants 15 rows. How many pansies has she planted?" There are three stages of units coordination, broadly speaking—we've begun to understand more about the nuances there. But a stage refers to a set of ways of thinking that tend to fit together in how students understand and solve problems with whole numbers, fractions, quantities, and multiplicative relationships. It's sort of about a nexus of ideas, and—that we tend to see coming together and students don't usually think in a way that's characteristic of a different stage until they've made a significant change in their thinking, like a big reorganization happens for them to move from one stage to the next. So students at stage 1 of units coordination are primarily in a 1s world and their number sequence is not multiplicative. That's going to be hard to imagine. But they can take a group of 1s as one thing. So, they can make a composite unit and that means in the garden problem, they can take a row of pansies as 1 row as well as 4 little ones, and they can continue to do that over and over again. And so they can amass rows of 4 pansies and keep going. And what it usually looks like for them to solve the problem is they'll count by 1s after any known skip-counting patterns. So, in this case they might be like, "Oh, I know 4 and 8; that's two rows. 9, 10, 11, 12; that's three rows." Often using fingers or something to keep track, or in some way to keep track, and continuing to go up and get all the way, barring counting errors, to 60 pansies. And so for them the result, 60 pansies, is a composite unit. It's a unit of 60 units, but they don't maintain the structure that we see at all of the units of 60 as 15 fours. That's not something—even though they did track it in their thinking—they don't maintain that once they get to the 60, it's really just only a big composite unit of 60. So their view of the result is very different than an adult view might be.  So, the students at stage 1 can solve division problems, which means if they give some number of pansies and they're supposed to make rows of 4, they can definitely do it, they can solve that. But they don't think of multiplication and division as inverses. So let me say what I mean by that. If they had this problem next, so: "Amaya's mom gave her 28 pansies. How many rows of 4 can she make?" A student at stage 1 could solve that problem, and they would be able to track 4s over and over again and figure out that they got to 7 fours once they get to 28. But then if immediately afterwards a teacher said, "Well, so, how many pansies are there in 7 rows of 4?," the student at stage 1 would start over and solve the problem from the beginning. They wouldn't think that they had already solved it. And that's one telling sign of a student operating at stage 1. And the reason is that the mental actions they engage in to do the segmenting or the tracking off of the 4s and the 28 pansies are really different to them than what they use then the ways of thinking they use to create the 7 rows of 4 and make the 28 that way. And so they don't recognize them as similar, so they feel like they have to engage in new problem solving to solve that problem. So, to get back to the garden problem, students at stage 2 have a multiplicative number sequence, so they think of 60 as a one that they could repeat. Iterating is a term we often use. They could imagine it just being repeated over and over again. And this is a contrast to students at stage 1 who think of 60 as like, "Oh, I got to have all 60 pansies there if I'm going to think about a number like 60." Whereas students at stage 2 do have a multiplicative number sequence and so they think, "Oh, I don't have to have all my 60 pansies. I can just think about one pansy and I just repeat it however many times I need, to have however many pansies I want to imagine in my problem solving." So they anticipate 60 as 1 sixty times. And that's obviously a great relief for kids who are dealing with big numbers. You can imagine it feels really onerous to think about 1,000 if you feel like you have to have 1,000 items in your mind, "Oh, how could I possibly do that?" But, "Oh, I don't have to have 1,000; I can just have 1 and I can repeat it." That's a great economy, efficiency in thinking that happens.  So in terms of the garden problem, students at stage 2 also have constructed a row as a thing to count, so a composite unit's one item as well, so 4 little items. And they can amass 4s just like I was talking about with students at stage 1. But what they are also able to do is break apart 4s as they go along. They might say, "Well, I've got 4 and 4 is 8 and one more [4] is 12 and one more is 16 and one more is 20 and one more is 24 and one more is 28." Maybe at that point they say, "Oh, let's see. I don't know what one more 4 is, but two more [4s] is 30 and then two more is 32." So they can take the row apart. They don't all do this, but they can; they have the mental capabilities to do that because they're not right in the midst of making the coordination happen. They're sort of a little bit able to stand above the coordination and take their rows apart if they need to. Mike: It sounds like part of what happens at stage 1 is you might have a kid who potentially could count by 4s for lack of a better way of saying it. And they might say, "Well, 4 and 4, so 2 sets of 4s, [is] 8." And then at some point it kind of breaks down where that memorized list of what happens when you count by 4. And then kids are back to saying, "OK, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16." And if you were watching this, listeners, you would see that I stuck out four fingers and then I'm like, "OK, so that's 3 fours, and so on." And so I would see a student who might appear to be thinking about units, but tell me if I'm correct in thinking that it's more a function of that they know a set of numbers in accounting sequence for counting by 4s. Amy: So students at any stage may vary in the skip-counting patterns they know. I call it knowing a skip-counting pattern, to know automatically, like, 4, 8, 12, 16, or whatever it is. So you could have a student at stage 2 who doesn't know their skip-counting patterns very well, and you also could have a student at stage 2 who counts by 1s. So that's the issue there, is you can't always tell just from what you see if you have to do more than the test of what I'm saying. It's just to give a sense of the stages. But the main thing is the outer boundary of what they can do at stage 2 is they don't have to count by 1s. They can do other things because of the fact that their composite units have this special feature where they're multiplicative in nature. I mean the fancy term for it is they have iterable units of 1.  But let me say a little bit more about what happens when they get to 60. So, let's say a student at stage 2, they've gotten up to 60, there are 60 pansies and there are 15 rows of 4. They will think of the 60 as 15 fours as they make it. So we call it a three levels of unit structure. 60 is a unit of 15 units, each containing 4 little ones. They'll think about [it] that way as they solve the problem, but as they continue to work further and add more pansies on or do a further extension of the problem, they wouldn't maintain that three levels of units structure that we see. So that's important because it has implications for how they can build from what they've done. Mike: How would you know that they hadn't maintained it? What might they say or do that would give you that cue? Amy: Well, so you see it most if, let's say I say, "Oh, guess what? We got 12 more pansies and you're going to put 'em in rows of 4. Can you put those on?" And then they put 'em on. OK, they find out it's 72 now. "OK, so how many rows are we talking here?" It would be a new problem for them to figure that out. It wouldn't be like they would be able to maintain that, "Oh, I had 15 rows and then I now have the 3 more added on." Mike: Got you. OK. Amy: So, you see they're having to remake stuff as adult learners. We would think, "Oh, you should already know that that's 15 fours, right?" But they'll have to redo that in solving an extension of the problem like I was talking about there.  So students at stage 3, they also can definitely take 4 as a row of 1 and also 4 pansies. They can arrive at 60 and view it as a unit of units, but they also can view it as a unit of 15 units, each containing 4, and they maintain that. So, if they were asked a further problem, like, "Hey, we're going to rearrange this garden; we're going to actually 3 rows together at a time. Can you do that, and how many rows would you have and how many pansies in each row? And what would be the total?" They'd be able to say, "Oh, yeah, I can, let's see, put my 3 rows together, that's going to be 12, and then I'm going to end up with 5 of them." And now they've created 60 as a unit of 5 rows, each containing 12, and they can still think of 60 as a unit of 15 units, each containing 4, or 15 rows, each containing 4. So they can switch between different unit structures.  It doesn't mean they automatically know it without thinking it through, but they can do it and they can go back and forth. And that has great implications for anticipating and for solving division problems and seeing them as inverses of multiplication and a whole lot of stuff: proportional reasoning, fractions, lots of things. [laughs] Mike: I think what's really interesting about this is I really appreciate you walking through the mental processes or maybe even the mental scripts that the kids might engage in to help see behind the curtain, for lack of a better word. Because what strikes me is that there is a point, probably early in my teaching career, where I would've attended and focused mostly on, "Did they get the answer?" And I think what you're helping remind me of is that it's the "how," but there are particular ideas. And now I think I understand why the notion of units—plural—units coordination matters so much because a lot of what's happening is their ability to coordinate a unit made of units and then to be flexible with the units within that unit of units. Am I making proper sense of that, Amy? Amy: Yeah, for sure. That's great; that's exactly it. So the process and what units get created and how they get thought about and used is actually really, really important in trying to support kids' multiplicative thinking among other kinds of thinking too. Mike: I think this is a great segue because I suspected a lot of teachers are wondering about the kinds of tasks or practices or questions that they might use that could nudge students' thinking regarding units coordination. And I'm wondering: What are some ideas you'd recommend for teachers as they're trying to think about how they assess but also advance their students' thinking when it comes to units coordination? Amy: That's a great question. And, I mean, the big response is: Have students engage in lots of reasoning with units—composite units, breaking apart numbers strategically, thinking about different solution pathways. So not just one solution pathway, but can you come up with multiple solutions for the problem? Really sharing student solutions that involve breaking apart units. So if you're doing something like 5 sevens and finding out that kids are thinking of it as 5 fives and 5 twos, let's share that. How else could we break apart the 5 sevens? 5 fives and 5 twos? Why is that maybe helpful compared to other ways we might think about it? We might know 5 fives and 5 twos more easily than other ways of breaking it apart. And then even how are kids thinking about the 5 twos and the 5 fives and evaluating each of those. So basic things like that are super important. How many rows can we make with 36 flowers with 4 per row? Thinking strategically about that, like: I know that 5 fours is 20 and I need 16 more flowers, so that's 4 fours because it's double 2 fours, so 8, so that means 9 rows total. So I'm just kind of really briefly talking through, but posing these kinds of tasks and then asking for how students can break them up and think about them and presenting and making public that kind of thinking and reasoning. So valuing it in that way and sharing it.  Same thing with lots of even more advanced multiplication problems. So for example, my daughter's in fourth grade right now, and so we've been working with her on, like, 30 times 20 and doing something other than knowing 3 times 2 and then putting 0s on because she doesn't remember that. So to do 30 times 20, we asked her about 10 twenties. Oh, she can figure that out; that's 200. And then can I iterate? Oh yeah, another 10 twenties, another 10 twenties. And then we did like 40 thirties, which was definitely harder. And so as part of the process of that, after she figured out 10 thirties, when she was iterating her thirties, that was harder than iterating the twenties. She had to break apart numbers. When she got to 90 plus 30, she had to think about 90 plus 10 plus 20. So doing embedded, breaking apart of units with the prospect of trying to figure out a larger multiplication problem, is super important. And interestingly, she could do 900 plus 300 and figure out that that was 900 and 100 to get 1,000 and then 200 more. So that's additive reasoning, but it's the breaking apart of units and reconstituting them. That's what's really important in the process of solving multiplication and division problems. So that's my big thought about [laughs] that. And the other thing is to not go to patterns too soon. I mean, this is related to what I just said about not thinking that I can just do 3 times 2 and then add 0s and count the 0s because that really doesn't develop. It misses so much in what you can do with units. And so even if some kids do remember that and get the answer right, they're really robbed of the experience that we're trying to give to my daughter of really thinking about, "Well, how can I figure out 40 thirties or 30 forties or 30 twenties?" [laughs] Right now I'm a big advocate of actually doing lots of counting by decade numbers because I feel like it's a way of really enhancing kids' work with larger multiplication. Mike: I've been sitting listening to you talk about this, Amy, and there are multiple things where I'm like, I need to ask her about this. I need to ask her about that. I need to ask about this other thing. So I'm going to ask you a couple of follow-ups.  One of the things that is just an observation is the language you used when you were talking about your work with your daughter. When the original task was "30 times 20" and you shifted the language to say "30 twenties," and then you step back even a little bit from there and you said, "Well, what's 30 tens?" This language that you were using, I wonder if you could be explicit about what you think that shift in language accomplishes. Amy: Yeah, I've been also thinking a lot about this, so it's great. Yeah, one of the problems with multiplication notation is that it doesn't make clear anything about what the group is and what the number of groups you have are. And so just saying "30 times 20," I mean, you can think of that as "30 twenties" or I can think of that as "20 thirties," but the language doesn't contain it, so it doesn't refer to the action I might do in thinking about how to actually figure it out. And kids have to bring a lot to the table, then, to really read that into that multiplication notation. It's even more so with fractions. I can say more about that in a second. So I really am advocating with my preservice teachers is that we speak in iterative language with the multiplication. So we try to always say, "I'm talking about 5 sevens," or "I'm talking about 7 fives, 30 forties, 40 thirties." And then of course with the decade numbers, knowing that we can go down to 10 of something and that that's easier to figure out, and then we can build on that. So like 10 twenties and then, "Oh, I'm going to need 3 of those 10 twenties to get to 30 twenties." Mike: Which really to some degree is helping them make meaningful sense of the associative property as well. Amy: Right! Yeah, exactly. It's very mathematically rich. Unfortunately, it's not necessarily worked on [laughs] a lot, I am finding, and I think it's a real missed opportunity. Because I think there's a lot that kids could do with that that would really build strong meanings for multiplication and strong ideas of base ten as well. Mike: Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the things that I've been obsessed with lately is this notion of "nudge" or small-sized shifts in my practice that I can make. Part of what I'd like to mark for the audience is the shift in the language, as you described—30 twenties or 5 sevens—those are moves that a teacher could make to help clarify the fact that units are involved and help students visualize with a bit more clarity what's going on. That feels like something that a teacher could take up and really have an impact on students' understanding. Amy: Yeah, I think so. I think it is something that is reasonable, and what's nice is it also can flow right into fractions because then instead of saying just, "three-fifths," we say, "3 one-fifths, 4 one-fifths, 5 one-fifths, 6 one-fifths, 7 one-fifths." It allows for fractions larger than 1 to have maybe more of an iterative meaning. Not that that's a simple thing at all; that's a whole nother podcast we could do, but [laughs] I've done a lot of research on that. Mike: Well, I think you're hitting on something important, though, Amy, because this notion of, "What is a unit fraction?," it's really, "Four-fifths is a group of 4 one-fifths," right? And that's a critical understanding that I think often floats underneath students' understanding in ways that, if we could make that clearer or help build that understanding, that also has huge ramifications for what comes later in their mathematics learning experience. Amy: Yeah, so I'm a big proponent of iterative language there as well. Mike: You have me thinking about something else too, which is the importance of context and having students deal with measurement division problems specifically as a way to build their understanding. And I know I'm using language right now for the audience that might not be super clear, but I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about what measurement division means in context and maybe why that would be valuable for students. Amy: Yeah. Right. So, in multiplication and division structures, if we're talking about equal groups, there's always some number of equal groups, some number in the equal group, so a size of the group, and then a total number of items. And so, with measurement division, we know the total number of items, and we know the number of items in a group, but we don't know the number of groups. So my example of, "You've got 36 flowers, and you want to put them in rows of 4" would be a measurement division problem because we know that there are 4 in each row, and we know we have 36, but we don't know how many rows we're going to make. And so those are really nice to pair with work on equal groups multiplication problems because they are very closely related. And for kids, they can become closely related as they solve them and realize, like, "Oh, I can use my multiplication strategies to build up my 4s and find out when I get to 36," and, "Oh, then I do, I know how many rows I've made." So it's highly linked to what we're talking about here. Mike: What I found myself thinking about is that in solving that problem, one of the ways that a kid could do that is they're iterating a set, right? So, potentially, they're iterating a set of 4s multiple times, and then they're finding out how many of those sets of 4 they have, right? So I think part of what you're helping me think about is the way that the structure of a measurement division problem maybe shines a flashlight on this notion of groups and the number in each group, and also some of the ideas you were talking about earlier with units coordination. Amy: Yeah, for sure. And in terms of continuing the theme of using iterative language, then when you get the result of that problem, 9 rows, "Oh, what does that 9 mean?" "Oh, it means 9 fours make 36." So that's a meaning both for 4 times 9 equals 36, as well as 36 divided by 4 equals 9. So it's nice to emphasize that. And yeah, as students build those meanings and have repeated work with that kind of thing, they usually, often—[laughs] we don't know all the mechanisms here—but they usually come to be able to at least make that coordination in their problem-solving activity, and ultimately make it so they can anticipate it, like we're talking about with stage 3. Mike: One of the things that is really helpful is, in the course of this interview, we've talked a lot about what might the behavior of a student at stage 1 or stage 2 or stage 3 not only look like, but what might it mean for how they're thinking. And I think what I'm really appreciating about this, Amy, is there are a few practical things that an educator could do to support students. One is iterative language as we've been talking about. And the other is measurement division, using a particular problem structure like measurement division to shine a light on these parts that we think are really important for kids to attend to if they're in fact going to make some of the shifts that we're hoping for. Amy: Yeah, for sure. And then also exploring the boundaries of what the kids' strategies are and asking for multiple solutions. Because you might see kids, even students at stage 3, that might be counting by 1s, and so you want to [prompt], "Oh, can you solve that another way? Is there another way you can do it?" And so seeing what they see as possible, what they're able to think about is also really important to support units coordination. Mike: Absolutely. Before we close, I typically ask a question about resources or training or learning experiences that would help someone who's listening continue learning or continue to think about how they could take up these ideas in their practice. You, particularly, I know have written some work around this and I also suspect that you might have some recommendations in terms of organizations that can help educators really dig into these ideas if they saw that as something that was important for their growth. Would you be willing to talk a little bit about resources, organizations, or even the types of experience you think support teachers as they're making sense of all of this? Amy: Yeah. Well, yes. I was planning to talk about Integrow at this point because Integrow Numeracy Solutions has a lot of great supportive materials for all this kind of work. And everything that I'm talking about is something that is sort of built into much of what they do. For people who are unfamiliar, it's a bit—council, used to be called a council, of people who got together and have really developed materials that are supportive of teachers working one-on-one to support students who might be struggling as well as whole-group instruction all around developing strong number sense. And it's a very well developed set of materials, both for classroom use as well as for teacher development.  And we—meaning me and my two coauthors, Andy Norton and Bob Wright—wrote a book in the series for teachers on fractions called Developing Fractions Knowledge. And that was published—oh my gosh—nine years ago now. So Andy and I are working on a second edition right now, and in that book we address units coordination and talk about its usefulness for teachers. It's mostly, though, a book about fractions and about how units coordination is relevant in trying to support students' fractions knowledge and to help assess students' thinking and also promote their learning. So that is one resource I can recommend on units coordination with a revision coming in the next year [2026]. Mike: That's fantastic. So I'll say for listeners, we'll include a link to Integrow Numeracy Solutions if you want to check out the organization. And Amy will also add a link directly to the book so that if someone wanted to dig in and explore that way they had the option.  I think that's probably a great place to stop, although I certainly would love to continue. I want to thank you so much for joining us. It's really been a pleasure talking with you. Amy: Yeah, likewise, Mike. I've really enjoyed it, and I look forward to further conversations. Mike: This podcast is brought to you by The Math Learning Center and the Maier Math Foundation, dedicated to inspiring and enabling all individuals to discover and develop their mathematical confidence and ability. © 2026 The Math Learning Center | www.mathlearningcenter.org

Join the Marks on episode 237 of Making Tracks as they walks the aisles of Echo Base Live 17: Galaxy of Creatures at the Kingfisher Shopping Centre in Redditch, taking in the many stalls of vintage and modern items, chatting with folks as they go including Start Your Engines co-host Paul Naylor, Dave Tree from All the Cool Stuff, the Sci-Fi-Nalia team, Andy Norton from The Vintage Rebellion, Mark M's Facebook pal Phil Parker, and trying (and failing) to not bump into every other person in this jam-packed 236th episode of Making Tracks. Remember to tune in to Good Morning Tatooine, LIVE Sunday evenings at 9.00pm UK, 4.00pm Eastern and 1.00pm Pacific on Facebook, YouTube, X, Instagram and Twitch and check out our Fantha Tracks Radio Friday Night Rotation every Friday at 7.00pm UK for new episodes of The Fantha From Down Under, Planet Leia, Desert Planet Discs, Start Your Engines, Collecting Tracks, Canon Fodder and special episodes of Making Tracks, and every Tuesday at 7.00pm UK time for your weekly episode of Making Tracks. Thanks to James Semple for the Fantha Tracks intro, Blues Harvest for our Making Tracks opening music and Mark Daniel and Vanessa Marshall for our voiceovers. Subscribe and tune in to all of our shows at https://radio.fanthatracks.com And of course for all your Lucasfilm and Star Wars news 24/7, 365 days a year head on over to https://www.fanthatracks.com You can contact our shows and send in your listeners questions by emailing radio@fanthatracks.com or by leaving a comment on our social media feeds: https://www.instagram.com/fanthatracks https://www.facebook.com/FanthaTracks https://www.x.com/FanthaTracks https://www.threads.net/@FanthaTracks https://www.reddit.com/r/fanthatracks/ https://mastodon.social/@fanthatracks https://bsky.app/profile/fanthatracks.com https://www.pinterest.co.uk/fanthatracks/ https://fanthatracks.tumblr.com/ And be sure to check out our live streams and video content at: https://www.youtube.com/@FanthaTracksTV/ https://www.tiktok.com/@fanthatracks https://www.twitch.com/fanthatrackstv All of our links can be found at https://links.fanthatracks.com/

Ep. 159 – Andy Norton (Praise)We sit down during LA Book Fair weekend with Andy Norton, lead singer of Praise and member of Guilt Parade and Desperate Measures.We talk about his childhood, Pearl Jam, early hardcore years, Minor Threat, developing his art, and more.Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

“Man becomes an image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion.”~ St. John Paul IIHow do men connect with others?What makes it hard for men to have strong marriages & friendships?What can a man do to create healthier connections with others?This special episode of This Whole Life is the first "Relationship Roundtable," tackling issues related to human connection and struggles in relationships. Pat Millea is joined by an outstanding panel of guests, including Ben Baker, John Braun, and Andy Norton, who dive into the vital topic of men's relational health. They explore what it looks like when men are truly connected with others—be it their wives, parents, children, friends, or coworkers. The episode unpacks the dynamics of honor, vulnerability, self-reliance, and the often-complicated nature of friendships. From pop culture references to real-life anecdotes, the conversation reveals both the strengths and pitfalls that men often face in relationships. Each guest offers insights from their own experiences, linking them to mental health and the Christian life. With practical steps and spiritual encouragement, they challenge men to take bold steps toward deeper and healthier connections. Whether you're a man seeking to improve your relationships or someone who loves one, this episode offers valuable perspectives and encouragement.Episode 70 Show NotesChapters:0:00: Intro & positive & negative examples of men connecting with others18:22: When men are in healthy relationship with others25:30: Self-reliance, withdrawing, & struggles for men in relationships29:58: The cycle of shame in men38:21: Relationship goals & reaching out for connection45:41: Practical ways for men to foster healthy relationships58:02: Challenge By ChoiceReflection Questions:What is one specific thing that stuck with you from this conversation?When men are in healthy relationships, what are they doing well?When men are struggling to be connected to others, what are the pitfalls or temptations?How can men have strong, connected relationships while maintaining a sense of personal competence and strength?Men: How can you reach out to someone for greater connection? Women: How can you support the men in your life with their relationships?Send us a text. We're excited to hear what's on your mind!Join the community of supporters of This Whole Life! ❤️

Nerds? Nerds you say, on the Vintage Rebellion Podcast? Surely some mistake! But yes listeners, this month we open our doors to the lovely David Jackson from Nerd Matters, as our main interview guest. Pete chats about buttons, badges, pins and patches from the galaxy far, far away. The lads are in maudlin mood as they discuss what might happen to their collections when they're gone, and then shed a tear for the very last Action Figure Face-Off - who will claim the final victory? Andy Norton takes us back to school with a GCSE inspired quiz, and we hear about some great acquisitions - and re-acquisitions. It's a busy Rebel Briefings as the team asks about Ahsoka, calls out a colourful Facebook group, considers conventions at Echo (past) and Farthest From (future), finds about about Faucourt's French figures folio, and covers TVR competitions. There's a brand new prize on offer, a fantastic light-up figure stand from Mark Sinclair aka Oldie Yoda - listen in for a chance to win. Licensee this month is Stuart Hall - no, not that one - as we take a canter through notebooks, exercise books, sketch books, portfolios and the like. All this and more, with lots of craic and banter along the way, look out for the podcast in all the usual places.

We are back after a bit of a break due to holidays and the such. Plus we had to wait for Jason to get through customs after he was detained trying to smuggle acres of Canadian cardboard in his luggage and down his britches. Our feature this month is The Nelvana Reunion panel featuring John Celestri, Larry Jacobs, and Brian Lemay and they talk about their experiences working on the Holiday Special, Droids, and Ewoks cartoons! The panel took place at ‘May the North be with You' in Toronto on August 5th - Thanks to Chris Porteous. Action figure face-off is nearing its conclusion as Andy Preston defends Dengar, Andy Norton loves Luke Jedi, Jason Smith wonders over Warok and Peter Davis delights over the Death Star Droid. Richard Hutchinson has an impossible job trying to choose the winner.  Rebel Briefings is jam packed with wondrous tales of collecting, Richard interviews Tom Scaife & others regarding a Pre-production find in the USA, the mystery of Willrow Hood is finally revealed and so much more Star Wars collecting goodness is discussed. The licencee section finishes it all off looking at Fundimensions and their small but perfectly formed releases. 

The twelve outlaws in Dorthonion fight for survival. Sauron deceives Gorlim, and convinces him to betray his companions. Beren wanders in the wilderness for four years, eventually making his way through the Girdle of Melian into Doriath. He encounters Melian's daughter, Lúthien. 01:19 Greg reads pages 162-167 from the Silmarillion, 2nd Edition 21:55 Recap 22:51 Discussion with special guest Andy Norton "Among the tales of sorrow and of ruin that come down to us from the darkness of those days there are yet some in which amid weeping there is joy and under the shadow of death light that endures." ⁠Watch this Episode on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠ Send feedback to beforethefellowship@gmail.com Follow us as we follow Tolkien: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TWITTER⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠DISCORD⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Rings of Power comes to Amazon, but nothing compares to the real story JRR Tolkien wrote. Is the Silmarillion his masterpiece? The Silmarillion is a book everyone should read, but it can be intimidating. Go on a journey with us. Witness the creation of Tolkien's universe, meet the villain that's bigger and badder than Sauron, and hear a love story that will leave you in tears. We are not experts, we're just fans like you. And we're having a blast going through this masterpiece of fiction, 15 minutes at a time. Grab a cup of tea or your favorite scotch (or your steering wheel!) and join us every week! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beforethefellowship/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beforethefellowship/support

“Man cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.”~ St. John Paul IIIt sounds so simple: do good things that make me healthy, happy, & holy and avoid the things that stop me from thriving. But so often we feel like St. Paul: "For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want" (Romans 7:19). How do we practically move toward greater wholeness in our thoughts and actions, and how do we make that journey in the context of a marriage?Andy Norton joins This Whole Life to share a valuable tool that he and his wife developed called Integrated Pathfinding. Integrated Pathfinding is based on a therapeutic intervention called Behavioral Activation, which they adapted with a foundation of faith into a weekly process for the good of their marriage and family life.If you have a desire to follow the Lord more consistently and to be more connected to your spouse in the process, you'll love this conversation and the resource it offers! Be sure to check out the Episode 25 show notes for a pdf step-by-step guide to Integrated Pathfinding.Andy Norton is a passionate and mission-driven Catholic man with a desire to foster wholeness and holiness in the lives of God's people. He worked in ministry for 14 years, including evangelization work with FOCUS and NET Ministries. Andy is a graduate of the Franciscan University of Steubenville with a Master's in Theology from the Augustine Institute. He now works as a Production Support Developer and lives in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife Sarah and their 4 children. Chapters:0:00: Introduction and Highs & Hards15:22: Introducing Andy Norton24:08: Context for Behavioral Activation36:45: The value of Integrated Pathfinding40:37: Marriage isn't about keeping score46:18: Healthy boundaries in self-discovery52:33: Shared meaning in the midst of conflict56:47: Challenge By Choice & step-by-step Integrated PathfindingThank you for listening! Visit us online at thiswholelifepodcast.com, and send us an email with your thoughts, questions, or ideas.Check us out on Instagram & FacebookInterested in more faith-filled mental health resources? Check out the Martin Center for IntegrationMusic: "You're Not Alone" by Marie Miller. Used with permission.

Twelve men make a final stand against the armies of Morgoth in Dorthonion: Barahir, his son Beren, and ten others. Sauron takes Tol Sirion and transforms it into an outpost for Morgoth. Morgoth captures many men and elves and makes them his thralls; but he also releases many back into Beleriand to sew treachery. 01:04 Dan reads pages 154-161 from the Silmarillion, 2nd Edition 24:57 Recap 26:11 Discussion with special guest Andy Norton "Rumour came to Morgoth of these things, and he was unquiet amid his victories; and he desired greatly to learn tidings of Felagund and Turgon. For they had vanished out of knowledge, and yet were not dead; and he feared what they might yet accomplish against him. Of Nargothrond he knew indeed the name, but neither its place nor its strength; and of Gondolin he knew nothing, and the thought of Turgon troubled him the more. Therefore he sent forth ever more spies into Beleriand." Watch this Episode on YouTube⁠⁠⁠ Send feedback to beforethefellowship@gmail.com Follow us as we follow Tolkien: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TWITTER⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠DISCORD⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Rings of Power comes to Amazon, but nothing compares to the real story JRR Tolkien wrote. Is the Silmarillion his masterpiece? The Silmarillion is a book everyone should read, but it can be intimidating. Go on a journey with us. Witness the creation of Tolkien's universe, meet the villain that's bigger and badder than Sauron, and hear a love story that will leave you in tears. We are not experts, we're just fans like you. And we're having a blast going through this masterpiece of fiction, 15 minutes at a time. Grab a cup of tea or your favorite scotch (or your steering wheel!) and join us every week! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beforethefellowship/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beforethefellowship/support

Charles Humble talks to Apostolis Apostolidis (aka Toli) and Andy Norton from Cinch, arguably one of the UKs most successful start-ups.  They discuss: how the company got started, how Team Topologies, the Spotify Model, and the Theory of Constraints influenced how the organisation was designed; building a learning organisation; migrating from Kubernetes to Serverless; and observability and SRE practices at the firm.

Praise. What a band! I have loved the band ever since their "Lights Went Out" LP and it's been a fun ride watching the band evolve and frankly, get better and now we are here with Andy Norton, the vocalist of Praise. We discuss taking creativity seriously, how to work with friends and writing lyrics.  Buy 100 Words Merch HereSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Jeremy interviews vocalist Andy Norton of the band Praise On this episode Andy and Jeremy talk the release of All in a Dream, New Jack Swing, Gin Blossoms, learning how to play bass, his first bands, Mike Dirnt, playing with Kill Your Idols, the anxieties of recording vocals, writing lyrics, Husker Du and The Replacements, his first European tour, photography and getting his photo in a Sick Of It All record, the first Praise show, singing live for the first time, and so much more! For a bonus episode where Andy answers questions submitted by subscribers and so much more - SUBSCRIBE TO THE PATREON Follow the show on INSTAGRAM and TWITTER

YO! It's us again. Twice in one week, too! We have a special REV-elation for you today with Andy and Austin from the band Praise who will be releasing their new record "All In A Dream" via Revelation Records this spring. We didn't want to dive in too deep as we will need to save something for when we get to that number in the ol' catalog but had a nice discussion nonetheless. Make sure to visit the Praise Instagram account (@llinadream) to stay on top of all the latest updates.   The record release show for "All In A Dream" will be taking place at the Metro in Baltimore, MD on May 28th at 7:00 PM with Glitterer, Anxious, Demand & more! Tickets are available here:   https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/5752707/un-booking-presentspraise-all-in-a-dream-record-releasewith-glittereranxiousdemand-and-more-tba-baltimore-metro-baltimore  

Andy Norton and I open by talking about how COVID has impacted FOOTASYLUM and how the business responded when the team started working remotely in 2020. We go on to talk about how Andy's team has implemented practices to help make them more 'antifragile'. Andy speaks openly about the shortcomings of the codebase that his team had inherited and the steps they've taken to try and modernise it.Andy Norton on LinkedInAntifragile by Nicholas Nassin TalebThe Phoenix Project by Gene KimWhat is an Andon cord?

Learning about more fly fishing, but this time it is ocean fly fishing for bonefish, tarpon, and permit. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Andy Norton worked in software development at organisations both big and small, with a keen focus on people, delivery and pragmatic solutions based around agile, lean and DevOps practices. After graduating from The University of Salford with a degree in Computer Science and computing, he has worked in the field as a Software Developer, Senior Developer, Software Architect, and now finds himself as a Software Development Manager at FOOTASYLUM, which is a streetwear fashion retailer with 65 stores across the UK and an online store. Andy also mentors engineers, helping them to level up in their own career. He has spoken at various events and meet-ups across the U.K. on a wide range of technologies including Azure, Augmented Reality, DevOps and Serverless architecture. And is also a co-organiser of Lancashire Tech Talks meet-up. We spoke about finding simple solutions to complex problems, “what problem are we trying to solve?” or “what’s the outcome we’re looking for?” in the often complex world of DevOps and Engineering. Show Times 0:50 - The service FOOTASYLUM provides. 1:21 - Andy's 15 years in the industry and his role now at FOOTASYLUM. 2:26 - Optimising for flow across a process, removing waste from a process to provide effective delivery of an end goal. 4:40 - Think of development as a production line. 5:30 - Creating short feedback loops. 8:40 - Strong product management, how to get a team to deliver as a unit. 10:50 - The horror stories of Code Reviews. 15:30 - Online code schools and boot camps. 22:00 - How Andy has adapted to hiring remotely. 27:00 - Andy's approach to finding the right people. 33:21 - Taking a less hands-on approach to solving problems. 41:00 - The best new piece of tech in the last 10 years.

Today I sit down with Andy Norton, we met discussing the importance of building relationships over a long career and ensuring success by making sure each client is well served. GREAT listen for anyone in the industry or sales in general!

Sam Otten and Chuck Munter from the University of Missouri discuss their experiences at the recent PME-NA conference in Greenville, SC, and provide brief summaries of the four plenary sessions. The plenary speakers are listed below, and the lead organizers of the 2018 PME-NA conference were Tommy Hodges, George Roy, and Andy Tyminski. Full 2018 PME-NA Conference Proceedings Marta Civil Laurie Rubel Corey Drake Elham Kazemi Maggie Niess Jeremy Roschelle Andy Norton Julie Sarama Meet us in St. Louis for the 2019 PME-NA conference! The submission deadlines are February 15, 2019, for research reports and brief research reports, and March 1, 2019, for poster and working group proposals. http://2019.pmena.org/ Complete list of episodes

Security firm Lastline recently took a close look at threats to the Office 365 cloud environment, taking advantage of the insights they gain protecting their clients.  Andy Norton is director of threat intelligence at Lastline, and he joins us to describe their findings.  The research can be found here: https://www.lastline.com/blog/malspam-malscape-snapshot-malicious-activity-in-the-office-365-cloud/ The CyberWire's Research Saturday is presented by the Hewlett Foundation Cyber Initiative. Thanks to our sponsor Enveil, closing the last gap in data security.

Friends don't lie and fandoms don't quit. In today's podcast we talk about the hype, the storytelling, and the combination of the two found in the hit Netflix series, Stranger Things. In addition to the nostalgic thrill of adventure the show has to offer, Dan, joined by Ryan O'Hara and Andy Norton, discusses his admiration for the cast as they navigate the uncertainty of exactly what has become of their hometown. What causes our fascination with these imperfect yet fiercely loyal characters? Join us as we dive headfirst into The Upside Down of the show's relationships, mysteries, and intense likeability which, amongst theories of Eleven's true origins and the full extent of her abilities, beg the question, “How can we as Christians tap into the the deeper meaning of our entertainment?” Special Guests: Andy Norton and Ryan O'Hara.

Andy Norton from Virginia Tech talks about the article, "Students' units coordination activity: A cross-sectional analysis," published in the Journal of Mathematical Behavior, Volume 39. (Co-authors: Boyce, Ulrich, Phillips) Andy's Professional Webpage See the comments for references mentioned during the interview. List of episodes

The holiday season is in full swing and what better way to soak in the spirit than listening to a podcast. This week on the show Bill goes over some music that needs to go, and what needs to be added into the Christmas music rotation. In the interview segment of the show Bill talks with Andy Norton of Praise and Champion. Andy talks about the effects of Minor Threat on a young boy, the Champion days, and anxieties that go along with being a front man. In the non edge column Bill talks with Damian Abraham of Fucked Up about Canadians punk and hardcore, Home Alone style self defense, and medical marijuana. One of the best episodes of the year coming at the very end. This episode is brought to you by the fine folks over at The Hard Times. www.thehardtimes.net