Chapter 1: Breaking the Cycle

I gave a brief talk about some of these ideas at ShadowCon 15:

Annie Fetter gave a short talk in tribute of her mother, called “You Call That Math?” Annie’s mother was a brilliant artist who, like my mother, didn’t see what she did as mathematics:

If you choose to create your own word cloud, here’s a page to get you going. If you’d like larger versions of the word clouds, here they are: figure 1-1 and figure 1-2.

Math Autobiographies:

• A robust resource for math autobiographies from Discovering the Art of Mathematics
• A blogpost from Kent Haines about launching the year with student math autobiographies.
• Teachers are sharing their math autobiographies on the forums page. Here’s a powerful example from Joe Schwartz: Part 1 Part 2.

I first heard “Trouble with Math in a One-Room Country School,” a powerful poem from the great Jane Kenyon, on public radio’s The Writer’s Almanac. I was washing dishes and had to stop. I turned off the water and stood at the sink, sponge in hand, listening. When Keillor read, “My shame was radical,” I crumpled. In the moments after, I resolved to write this book no matter what challenges may lie ahead. My mother said this poem spoke her truth best of all.

This video about one student’s humiliation in 6th grade math is a powerful example of how what we feel in math class can connect to our success or failure in math class:

Nalini Joshi, talking about why she’s a mathematician, and how she became one.