Sarah Quebec Fuentes, Ed.D.
Professor of Mathematics Education, Texas Christian University

Hi, I’m Sarah Quebec Fuentes, a mathematics educator and researcher passionate about fostering meaningful, equitable student-to-student discourse in small-group settings. I taught middle and high school mathematics for 10 years before transitioning to higher education, where I now serve as a professor at Texas Christian University.

Early in my teaching career, I became curious about how to help students talk with each other about math in productive ways. Through cycles of action research, I studied my own practice and discovered that simply using talk moves wasn’t enough—I needed to first understand the group dynamics, the quality of student talk, and my own instinctual responses before choosing the right support. That realization led to the creation of the S3D Approach: a structured, incremental model for helping teachers improve small-group, student-to-student discourse over time.

Since 2015, I’ve developed and refined the S3D Approach through several rounds of professional development with teachers. The approach breaks down the complex work of fostering discourse into manageable, reflective steps that support growth and sustainability in real classrooms.

I’ve presented my work at numerous national and international conferences, including the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), and the School Science and Mathematics Association (SSMA), and Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching (CAMT). My work has also been featured in leading journals and on the Math Ed Podcast and MyNCTM.

Through this site, I’m excited to share the tools, resources, and research that support the S3D Approach—and to build a community of educators committed to deepening math talk in every classroom.