Historically, no school subject has seemed to be able to elicit fear, hatred, and apathy from students quite as effectively as Mathematics. What a tragedy that so many emerging mathematicians are turned off from the subject by unengaging, inflexible, procedural mathematics instruction; that was certainly my experience when I was a young math student. Thankfully, academia is now churning out a wealth of resources, strategies, and philosophical ideals that suggest a better way of teaching math, a way that promotes reasoning, critical thinking, problem solving, visualisation, creativity, and collaboration; a way that empowers students to be the mathematicians their brains are designed to be. This session will explore evidence-informed strategies to engage students in the classroom, to empower them by deepening their understanding of numbers and number sense, and to communicate and collaborate using the language of math. We will explore effective instruction and assessment strategies that are tried and tested in my own classroom, as well as others around the world, to help students become fearless little mathematicians.