Category Archives: Math Teaching

Solvitur Ambulando

An algebraist, a finitist, and a determinist walk into a statistics classroom. They are all the same person and worse: the teacher, so the joke is on the students. For reasons still partly obscure to me, my department has given … Continue reading

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How to Divide by Zero: An Interview with Bill Shillito

For this post, I interviewed a colleague about a new project he is working on: a website where he encourages his readers to consider the possibility of dividing by zero.  Bill Shillito has a Master’s degree in Secondary Mathematics Education … Continue reading

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Ingredients of a Class Activity

Non-lecture math education seems to be getting its advocates in the math communities at all levels. Every alternative to the traditional math education involves some sort of class activity, where students are given tasks to complete in groups or pairs. … Continue reading

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The Sliding Scale of Academia

When I start thinking about where I am going in the future – or when someone asks me the age-old question, “What do you want to do when you graduate?” – I hesitate to answer. My hesitation is well-warranted. It … Continue reading

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Mathematics Students and Legitimate Peripheral Participation

One of the things that mathematics educators often talk about is the idea of teaching the norms of the discipline of mathematics to students, starting at a fairly young age.  In Jo Boaler and Cathlee Humphreys’ book Connecting Mathematical Ideas: … Continue reading

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