This Week in Math Ed: June 3, 2016

Math Ed Said

May 27: Graham Fletcher questions prizes and incentives in his post, "The Multiplication Sundae and the Bad Taste of Incentives."

Shared by: Graham Fletcher, Tracy Johnston Zager, Kassia Wedekind, Judy Keeney, Christina, Richelle Marynowski, Julie Kubiak, Jennifer Lawler, Megan Schmidt, Shauna Hedgepeth

May 28: Fawn Nguyen lists 51 things she's learned about teaching and growing in a post called, "Half Century Plus One." It's more about teaching and learning than eating and growing, but some items on the list are more about kindness.

Shared by: Bridget Dunbar, Laura Wagenman, Megan Heine, Jeremiah Ruesch, Amy Hogan, Daniel Luevanos, Brian Bushart, Nate Goza

May 29: Fawn Nguyen is back for a second day in a row to share about a resource called Dudamath. I've only played with it for a moment to get an idea of how it works, and I'll be interested to see if or how teachers find ways to apply it to problems of student learning.

Shared by: Fawn Nguyen, Sharon Vestal, Bridget Dunbar, John Golden, Ed Campos Jr, MathDDSB, Adrianne Burns

May 30: In a Scientific American blog post, Evelyn Lamb writes, "The Male Gaze in a Math Book." It's a reminder of all the gendered and sexist moments that we experience, and how unnecessary (and often hurtful) they are.

Shared by: Ashli Black, David Butler, Josh Giesbrecht, Michael Pershan, Evelyn Lamb, Amy Hogan, Joshua Bowman, Dave Radcliffe, Patrick Honner

Is Eli Luberoff looking at you to be a Desmos teaching fellow?
May 31: Desmos announced the Desmos Teaching Fellowship, an opportunity for a teacher to work with Desmos starting with a weekend visit to Desmos HQ in November and the possibility of paid, part-time work with Desmos after that. Applications are due June 30, 2016.

Shared by: Desmos.com, Dan Meyer, Eli Luberoff, Christopher Danielson, Andrew Shauver, Michael Fenton, Sara VanDerWerf, Shelley Carranza, Geoff Krall, Karl Fisch, J.J. Martinez, Vanessa Garcia

June 1: People were excited to share about a new proof related to the pattern-matching card game "Set." Reported in Quanta, "Set Proof Stuns Mathematicians" illustrates the game, previous approaches to the problem, and the relatively simple proof that surfaced last month.

Shared by: M Sgbi, Sherri Burroughs, Dan McQuillan, Steven Strogatz, Ilona Vashchyshyn, Bowen Kerins, MAA, Brian R Lawler, Ryan R Ruff, Museum of Math, Cassy Turner, Jennifer Cook

June 2: In another Desmos story, Ontario has approved the use of Desmos for a standardized math exam. Previously used in Texas, this enables an exam mode in Desmos that constrains use of the app in ways that allow it to replace a traditional graphing calculator in a testing environment. I thought TI might do this themselves with their own software, but thankfully Desmos is providing some needed competition in the calculator market.

Shared by: Dan Meyer, Jennifer Blinzler, Pam Wilson, Jon Orr, Patty Stephens, Kyle Pearce, Cathy Yenca, Julie Reulbach, Heather Theijsmeijer, Julia Finneyfrock, Rachel Rosales, Matthew Oldridge, Bryan Anderson, Mark Chubb, Gregory White, Judy Keeney

Around the Math Ed Web

My eyes haven't spent a whole lot of time pointed at social media the past week or two, so I'm a little futher out of touch with the math ed web than usual. Still, there's always the Global Math Department:
If you're curious, there's still no mention of a due date for NCTM Research Conference proposals. I'll let you know when I see it.

Research Notes

Anne Garrison Wilhelm
The June 2016 issue of the American Educational Research Journal has one math ed article and I'm eager to read it:
The South African open access journal Pythagoras has their first article of 2016:

Math Ed in the News


Math Ed in Colorado

There's been a relative quiet as school years end, at least from my listening post. I hope everyone finished strong!

PD Opportunities:
Job Openings:
  • NEW: The Clear Creek School District is looking for a middle school math teacher. Apply on their website.
  • Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, CO, needs a math teacher for grades 9-12. At this time, the schedule includes Algebra 1 and several honors classes, including Precalculus. Bailey is a beautiful, small mountain community about an hour southwest of Denver and PCHS enrolls about 300 students. Class sizes are in the twenties or lower. Please apply to www.plattecanyonschools.org.
  • There are still openings for math teachers in Eagle County. See here (elementary/intermediate) and here (high school).
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Location: Boulder, CO, USA