Your institution invests in professional development for your teachers and faculty, tutoring programs, advising, and curriculum reform. And still, students are avoiding math (and spaces that require math), switching majors in college, and dropping out of school.
The problem isn’t the interventions. It’s that none of them address what’s actually in the way.
Dr. Geillan Aly is a mathematics education researcher, PhD, and former university professor who has spent her career at the intersection of math education, trauma recovery, and systemic equity.
Drawing on her Compassionate Math Framework and the literature on collective trauma healing, Dr. Aly challenges audiences to rethink foundational assumptions: that math ability is innate, that anxiety is the whole story, that tutoring is enough. She makes the case — backed by research — that math trauma is a collective experience rooted in systemic inequity, and that healing it requires meeting students where they actually are.
Audiences leave with a clearer understanding of the seven factors behind math trauma, why they compound intersectionally, and what meaningful intervention looks like in practice.
Born in Giza Egypt, and raised in Queens, NY, Dr. Geillan Aly, the Founder of Compassionate Math, is a math educator who centers the socioemotional factors that contribute to success in mathematics. She holds the fundamental assumption that learning math is both an emotional and cognitive endeavor.
A former award-winning Assistant Professor who has taught for almost fifteen years, Dr. Aly transforms math classrooms through engaging professional development and student-focused workshops that center emotions while establishing a culture of engaging with rigorous mathematics. She has spoken across the United States and internationally and has worked with several school districts to support math teachers.
Geillan received her PhD in Teaching and Teacher Education and Master’s in Mathematics from the University of Arizona. Her research focuses on the emotional side of learning mathematics and includes how computer-centered learning has affected students’ abilities to control their learning environment and how meditation may reduce mathematics anxiety. Underlying Dr. Aly’s work is a dedication to equity and social justice.
Her dedication to math education stems from the belief that mathematics is one of the closest ways that we humans can talk to God because it helps us understand the world and the universe around us. She enjoys traveling and seeing live music and is an avid chef, wife, and mother to a beautiful boy. They live near Hartford, CT.
Bring socio-emotional learning (SEL) to your math class and transform your teaching and your students’ outcomes.
The session was very interactive to help us she how to interact with students using the shared board. Great explanation of Inquiry Based Learning and how it works.
I really enjoyed this session by Geillan Aly. It was very informative and engaging, and it gave me a fresh perspective on how I approach teaching. The session was eye-opening because it introduced me to new techniques and strategies that I can use to make my classes more interactive and student-centered. I left feeling inspired and motivated to try these ideas with my students to improve their learning experience and help them stay actively involved.
Thank you! I liked that we shared ideas. Plus Geillan gave great specific ideas.
In teaching math, it's just as important to recognize the feelings and associations someone might have with a topic as the actual content that you'll be covering. Acknowledge and affirm the bad and harness the good.
A great workshop to help you dive deeper into the introspection of your teaching.
This is very eye opening for me. And helped me feel positive about moving forward. I feel confident to go back to my math work, and less scared of math when I encounter it in my biology work.
Applicable to daily teaching and realistic with helping students persevere. Geillan was approachable, easy to talk to, and more than willing to offer suggestions and advice!
You are very well spoken! I am very impressed. I was dreading coming to math because I just don’t like it. I always feel dumb and never want to do it. But sitting here today gave me a better idea of how to move forward. How to be motivated. And how to motivate my future students.
It was a workshop full of great techniques and knowledge on Mathematics that will relieve my imposter syndrome. I am glad I attend the event because my perspective on math has shifted, and I am more confident going into my next math class, knowing I can succeed is just the methods and mindset I apply to it.
Real, relevant, and useful!
I would explain that this session is very valuable to connecting with others who have had ‘bad’ math experiences which makes you feel more supported in similar experiences as well as giving good tips for future math classes
Compassion is the third stool leg along side content and pedagogy in math instruction.
It was a very passionate talk with patience and real life scenarios where Dr. Aly's tips could be used.
One of the more enjoyable workshops I’ve attended in years.
A must attend for anyone committed to teaching and learning at any level.
