I recently posted Jo Boaler’s 7 Math Norms in the front of my room, and I’m in love with it.

I regularly tell students that “mistakes are helpful, we need them”, and while the message eventually gets through, it is SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL  when I say it while pointing directly at the norm “Mistakes are valuable”. Students know I’m not just covering for their mistake in front of their friends. I took the time to print and post these things – I really mean them. Continue reading “Quick, Impactful, Awesome: Post Math Norms”

I got an email reminder, per the suggestion of Sam Shah, about my goals this year, and one of them is written reflection for myself. So here goes.

I’m now 3 weeks into teaching HS and it’s… mostly really good. I feel good going to work, I feel good when students are in my room, I generally look forward to each day. Still, there’s a lot of adjusting to do.  Continue reading “So I guess I teach HS now…”

Part I here.

After the phenomenal time I spent last weekend at Math on a Stick, I signed up for 2 more slots this week – making a total of 4 for this year. Here are some more stories about why it’s so great and then some teacher musings.

The Stepping Stones

Math on a Stick is blessed to have Max Ray-Riek and Annie Fetter as volunteers, and while I have sadly missed working with Annie this year, I have gotten to spend a fair amount of time there with Max. He is extraordinarily awesome.

 

‘Twas Wednesday evening when Max came over to tell me he’d just had a great experience at the stepping stones with a mom and daughter. I hope he’ll write up his version of events, because I came in only halfway through. Anyhow, he told me this girl was so excited about them that he’d exhausted the problems he usually uses (count by 2s; 23 minus 24, etc.). They even counted PRIME NUMBERS on the stepping stones. They also did it in an awesome way. They figured out which stones they would not step on if they were skip counting, and stepped on those! (Mom did a lot of carrying her daughter between stepping stones that were too far apart.) Awesome!

Continue reading “Math On A Stick, Part II: Stepping Stones, Parent Talk, Teacher Lessons Learned & Mathematical Depth”

I often feel very odd speaking about this project in the negative:

The project is about not white male mathematicians.

Part of me enjoys the bluntness of calling out the issue as starkly as that, and part of me likes honoring that “not white dudes” is how the student who sparked the whole thing put it.

That said, I can also acknowledge that if I want this project to be open and inviting to as many people as possible that perhaps putting it in a positive sense…

The project consists of mathematicians with an oppressed identity.

…might put less people off. 

(Note: I’m stealing that language from Jonathan Osters. He put together a beautiful write up for his students which you can see here.)

I would appreciate any thoughts you have on this. My goal has never been to prevent my students from learning about white-male mathematicians. It’s just that they will learn about white-male mathematicians if they happen to learn about any mathematicians at all. They will likely not learn about any others unless we make the conscious decision to include them.

Please add any thoughts you have in the comments. Thanks!

A few people have asked how I made the fabric hexaflexagons.

Here is a rough tutorial. The one I made above is cotton fabric with directionality. The one I make in this tutorial is felt – those tend to be very durable. Continue reading “How to: Fabric Hexaflexagons”

Math on a Stick is easily one of my favorite things…in the world. That’s not hyperbole. I really love it that much. The 3 days (2 last year, and then this morning) that I’ve volunteered for it have been among my favorite times as a teacher.

It. Is. The. Best.

 

Here are 3 reasons why:  Continue reading “Math-on-a-Stick!”

I’ve had my first day back. I’ve met with new colleagues at a new school. We’ve started making plans. I’m full of hope and belief in the new year, but I can already see the mountain of work ready to bury me in its immediacy and distract me from my goals.

Thus, I’m stating my goals here so you can all hold me to them. If you have ideas or thoughts about them, I would love to hear what you have to say. Continue reading “The Dream – Help me out here, #MTBoS”

This is a pretty specific post.  You’re all welcome to it, but it’s likely only helpful for Minneapolis Public Schools Advanced Algebra and Geometry teachers.

Continue reading “For MPS Adv Alg & Geometry Teachers”

This was the original blog post. I’m no longer updating this page, but absolutely still updating the list. The most up to date list is here. Resource list here.

What is the Mathematicians Project?

The Short Version:

• We as math teachers tend to only talk about white male mathematicians.
• Most of my students don’t look like that, and thus, they have few mathematical role models they can identify with.
• Take 10-15 minutes a week to research (read Wikipedia, that’s all you need) a not-old-dead-white-dude mathematician, and then take 5 minutes in class to tell your students about them.  Include a picture. It’s worth it, I swear.

Continue reading “The Mathematicians Project: Mathematicians Are Not Just White Dudes”

I’m teaching geometry this year and want to have a deeper understanding of how some things are constructed. This has led to a borderline unhealthy binge on Geometer’s Sketchpad. Thus, here are a lot of gifs. I hope someone can make use of them. If you are looking for one and can’t find it, request it in the comments. No promises, but I’ll do my best to make them if it’s in my skill set. OR if you have suggestions on how I could do any of these more effectively, let me know. I’ll update this as I make more gifs.

Constructing a circle through 3 points:

Continue reading “Math GIFs”