Today, I’m taking my chances with traffic and driving up to Idaho to try to get in the path of eclipse totality. (Fun fact: according to my back-of-the-envelope calculations, if everyone in the country went to the path of totality, its population density would be a bit higher than that of Salt Lake City. Get more eclipse math from Bedtime Math and NASA. Don’t have eclipse glasses? Ask the past how to behold it safely.) While I’m on my sojourn, my spouse and millions of other teachers and students will be getting back to the classroom. Last year around this time, I posted a roundup of some of my favorite math education blogs. It’s a good list, and you should check it out.
Welcome back to school! Image: US Department of Education.
This year, I want to add a few more recommendations for good math resources for parents, teachers, and students.
Not awful and boring ideas for teaching statistics I’m a sucker for this blog name. Are you teaching statistics? Do you want some ideas that aren’t awful and boring? Here you go! The author, Jessica Hartnett, is a professor in the psychology department at Gannon University. She finds interesting data in the news and other places and gives her advice about how to use it in a statistics class. She’s recently posted about a Harry Potter sorting quiz, unpopular wedding songs, and the statistics that indicate that ride-sharing apps might curb drunk driving. (I’ve idly wondered about this myself while waiting for a ride after pub trivia night.)
Math Hombre John Golden is a math teacher and math education professor at Grand Valley State University. Follow his blog for posts about teaching teachers and making cool math art, games, and designs.
On This Day in Math Pat Ballew rounds up math-adjacent births, deaths, and events every day. I also enjoy the quotes he includes at the top of each post.
MatthewMaddux Education University of Saskatchewan math education professor Egan Chernoff compiles this feed of articles and blog posts related to math and math education. It helps me keep up with the latest news, especially in mainstream media outlets I don’t normally check for math stories.
inclusion/exclusion My co-blogger Anna Haensch wrote about this new AMS blog here a few months ago. It’s not specifically about teaching, but as math professors make up a lot of the intended audience, it discusses aspects of teaching that intersect with its mission of addressing diversity and inclusion in mathematics. In light of the heartbreaking, infuriating events in Charlottesville earlier this month, Brian Katz wrote about how to discuss justice on the first day of class.
Have other suggestions? Feel free to add them in the comments. If you’re a teacher, parent, or student, have a great beginning of the school year!