A note on the name of this blog. I listened to the most beautiful description of what we want to build in mathematicians several weeks ago. A brilliant colleague of mine (Pete Prince, to be specific, who is co-head of the math department here at Nightingale) discussed the goal of K-12 math education as not simply to develop adept problem solvers, but students who seek out the math themselves and ask the interesting and mind expanding questions that they then persevere in attempting to solve.
The world, after all, is not pre-loaded with straight-forward mathematical questions. Rather, it is pre-loaded with great mysteries that mathematics somehow always seems to find a way to describe. I often talk about how as teachers we don’t want to build human calculators… we have iPhones and AI for all of that. Rather, we want to develop calculating humans. Humans who can seek out those questions and problems ever present in the world and then apply their wits and imagination to developing thoughtful solutions….
And all of this begins in the elementary school years.
Want more? Please navigate to Eddie Woo’s Tedx talk shared on Earth Day for a glimpse into that wonder.
Seekers & Solvers is the public-facing home for my capstone project for my Master of Arts in Math Teaching through Mount Holyoke ‘s Math Leadership Program. The blog is a space for parents, teachers, and the math curious to think together about what it really means to do math in the early grades.
My research has focused on how to educate families about and engage them in the magical world of elementary mathematics. Expect posts about the math your child is doing and why it’s taught that way, the strategies behind the strategies, a few detours into math history and the remarkable people who made it, and an open invitation to ask questions, discover, and do some math.