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Drawn Together - Picture Book by Minh Le & Dan Satat (A-1)

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Drawn Together - Picture Book by Minh Le & Dan Satat (A-1)

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Book info

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Freedom Writers (4/9) Movie CLIP - I Am Home (2007) HD

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@englandcjno1
What Would u do For Your Grade🤔
♬ original sound - CJ

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First time in US, school shooting drill (A-4)

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First time in US, school shooting drill (A-4)

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That ice pack must’ve been from Ohio                                     #fyp #foryou 

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@aarabheymamas
That ice pack must’ve been from Ohio #fyp #foryou
♬ original sound - Taimaa🤠

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My least favorite memory of being a teacher was calculating marks for students. While my calculator was getting a workout, it would be pretty disingenuous to infer that what I was doing was anywhere near the statistical analysis that I was ostensibly doing.

Sure, my gradebook was littered with numerical grades for students-that's actually an appropriate word to describe the garbage that I was doing-but while they were truthful entries, they would be used fraudulently to come up with one final two-digit entry for student achievement.

Even former math colleagues would hum and haw about "bumping" a student's mark from something like 77 to 80. First of all, the second number only has aesthetic value in that it is tied to honor rolls, A's, and those awful bumper stickers proclaiming being a proud parent of this statistical nonsense. However, the worst infraction is the gatekeeper pausing done by teachers in believing that they have statistical jurisdiction to not get fast and loose with these numbers.

Are you kidding me?

The calculation of grades must be one of the most ludicrous beliefs that statistical validity, hence integrity is being maintained.

First off, let's start with any assessment outline handed out in any subject in the history of education. Every mark breakdown always has numbers that end with a 0 or a 5. You know, 10% for quizzes, 15% for assignments, 50% for tests, and 25% for the final exam. Funny, I have never found a mark breakdown that had something like "23%". Because, you know, we would laugh at that arbitrary precision. But, if we have our numbers being base 10 or base 5, somehow that randomness gets to inherit mathematical literacy. And so, the madness now officially begins.

How many assessment pieces shall we have? 5? 11? 23? What's the "magic number" that will inform how well a student is learning? I used to have the bare minimum because I knew that I had to "show something", but no way was I going to roll out more than that and contribute more to this numerical folly.

The absolute worst was the final exam, always worth some confident amount ending in the aforementioned 0's and 5's. Help me out here. How can this assessment piece over 2 hours-which is usually a K-Tel Greatest Hits of the whole year-be fairly compared to the knowledge assessed over the whole year? 75% for 8 months and 25% for 2 hours. How is it that calculators are not made to barf at this gross input of statistical sloppiness?

Let's stop before the exam. Do you really need more information as to what the student has learned? Haven't three seasons of grade mania been enough to commit to a number? Nope. Need the final exam. Not because of any logical merit, but because it is tradition and students need to learn to write exams in college and universities, where the silliness continues, albeit less embarrassingly with GPA-which at least tries to factor in the variance of grades to begin with.

While I did mark thousands of tests and exams, my grading practices were sloppy-so I could mirror the sloppiness that was already baked into the system of grades. The best I could muster in terms of demarcation was something like pass, 60ish, 70ish, etc. Even schools themselves quietly admit the silliness in grades. In one of my schools, you were not allowed to report a mark of "50". If the student honestly passed(not sure what that means), they were assigned a mark of 51. If they had a mark between 45 to 49, it was at the discretion of the teacher to pass or fail them. Somehow, grading has a slippery zone when deciding a steeper academic fate of a student.

All of this was what I have just written was put to the test over a decade ago, when one of my calculus students did poorly on a final exam, falling far below the required grade needed for his baseball scholarship in the United States. We all have bad days. And those bad days are more likely to happen during high pressure exams, where your whole future unfairly rests with.

So, I gave him the mark that he needed. And, to be honest, even I doubted my own decision a little bit.

A decade later, that student contacted me on Facebook. The message he sent is below, and I shared it on Twitter. It got 5000 Likes.

‍

‍

Grades are not only statistically useless, they have been acting as academic gatekeepers for millions of students, unjustly sorting, sifting, and selecting which students get to go where and why.

It's reassuring to know that so many teachers and schools are going gradeless. It's not just a moral decision, it's a mathematical one. Continuing to apply grades are visible reminders that schools are not only amoral-and anachronistic-in their philosophy, they are also mathematically illiterate.

The first one can be debated, the second one cannot.

Checkmate.

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Grading Gets An F: A Mathematician's Guide To The Absurdity of Numerical Assessment | Human Restoration Project | Sunil Singh

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Grades are not only statistically useless, they have been acting as academic gatekeepers for millions of students, unjustly sorting, sifting, and selecting which students get to go where and why. Published by Human Restoration Project, a 501(c)3 organization restoring humanity to education.

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This for the timbaleros, percussionists, tin-tun-teros,
those who tap with spoons on their stoves
with pencils on their desks
with nails and knuckles on tables, beds, their own heads
with fists against walls
and fingers on the spines and curves of their lovers, dancers.

This for the congueros, drummers, bongoseros,
those who never rest
with their staccato heels always hammering the skin of the floor
stomping in their dreams filled with maracas, güiros and claves,
these dancers with steps so smooth
and hips that move like their high hats and snares.

This for the timbaleros, percussionists, tin-tun-teros.
They are bad asses with their cymbal storms
their games of sticks that fly like wings. How scampish
their tricks that won't let us work or sleep
only dance and sing, sing and dance
and sometimes move the earth a little.
Poema para los tin-tun-teros
Este para los timbaleros, los bateristas, los tin-tun-teros,
los que tocan con cucharas en sus estufas
con lápices en sus escritorios
con uñas y nudillos en mesas, muebles, sus propias cabezas
con puños contra paredes
y dedos en las espinas y curvas de sus amantes, danzantes.

Esta para los congueros, los tamboristas, los bongoseros,
los que nunca descansan
con sus tacones siempre golpeando la piel de piso,
zapateando en sus sueños llenos de maracas, güiros y claves,
estos bailadores con pasos tan suaves
y caderas que se mueven como sus high hats y tarolas.

Este para los timbaleros, los bateristas, los tin-tun-teros.
Son chingones con sus tormentas de platillos,
sus juegos de palillos que vuelan como alas. Qué malas
sus trampas que no nos permiten trabajar ni dormir,
solamente bailar y cantar, cantar y bailar,
y a veces mover la tierra un poquito.

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This for the timbaleros, percussionists, tin-tun-teros,those who tap with spoons on their stoveswith pencils on their deskswith nails and knuckles on tables, beds, their own headswith fists against wallsand fingers on the spines and curves of their lovers, dancers.

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Mathematicians Are Not Just White Dudes (A-6)

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Mathematicians Are Not Just White Dudes (A-6)

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This was the original blog post. I'm no longer updating this page, but absolutely still updating the list. The most up to date list is here. Resource list here.

The Short Version:

We as math teachers tend to only talk about white male mathematicians.

Most of my students don't look like that, and thus, they have few mathematical role models they can identify with.

Take 10-15 minutes a week to research (read Wikipedia, that's all you need) a not-old-dead-white-dude mathematician, and then take 5 minutes in class to tell your students about them. Include a picture. It's worth it, I swear.

Here is the presentation from NCTM Regionals in Chicago
Here is a SEARCHABLE SPREADSHEET LIST of mathematicians
Explanatory Blogs

I've blogged at MTMS about this project in far more detail than I have here. Check out those four posts below.
Post #1 The Mathematician Project Post #2 How to Enact the Mathematician Project Post #3 What I Learned About My Students Post #4 Extensions of the Mathematician Project
For the super excited, you can read the paper I wrote about the project below.
Mathematicians Paper
List of Mathematicians (Or use this spreadsheet)
Men (alphabetical by last name) Women (alphabetical by last name)
This book is a great resource for many of these women.
Trans Mathematicians FYI, I should say that I cringed to use the labels "Men" and "Women" because of a former student who has graciously educated me more about transgender and non-binary people, but I recognize that those labels are still helpful as categories.
General Resources for Researching Mathematicians
Lego NASA Women Women of NASA to be Immortilized in Lego Form Biographies of Women Mathematicians Black Heroes of Mathematics Black Mathematical Excellence Grandma Got STEM Intersections - Poetry and Mathematics Math Mentoring Project Mathematically Gifted and Black
Mathematicians of the African Diaspora (h/t Keith Devlin)
Macarthur Fellows
Mathematicians Born/Died on this Day This has a huge number of mathematicians. You'll have to seek a bit for the non-white-male ones, but you can look at the Birthplace Index to help out. (h/t Andrew Thomas)

Math History Course Notes courtesy of commenter below. Includes Sophie Germain.
"On Being a Black Female Math Whiz During the Space Race" NYTimes
Beyond Banneker: Black Mathematicians and the Paths to Excellence by Erica N Walker
African American Registry Mathematicians of the African Diaspora Special Articles
I have no good visuals for this project. The best I've got is this map that 1) Is scaled to accurately represent area 2) Gets pins for the location of each mathematician we introduce to class.

I also have added a Hidden Figures poster with tags on each of the women.

Each of which I like and students enjoy. But Brian (on twitter @_b_p and blogging at https://lazyocho.com/) has made some excellent printable posters to put up and he's been kind enough to share them here! What a nice guy!
Beyond_White_Dudes_Mathematicians

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The Mathematicians Project: Mathematicians Are Not Just White Dudes

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This was the original blog post. I'm no longer updating this page, but absolutely still updating the list. The most up to date list is here. Resource list here. What is the Mathematicians Project? The Short Version: We as math teachers tend to only talk about white male mathematicians.

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@thiccpapij
#walmart #backtoschoolshopping
♬ original sound - Julio Alvarez

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Don’t hate cuz I ate #teachersoftiktok #slay #math #mathtok #fyp directed by @ravens_soup_spoon and @aly 

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@tdelazz1
Don’t hate cuz I ate #teachersoftiktok #slay #math #mathtok #fyp directed by @ravens_soup_spoon and @aly
♬ i dont even like phonk songs - mais

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#fyp #math #learnontiktok #pain #logic #goat #yes #yourmom 

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@mrmathking
#fyp #math #learnontiktok #pain #logic #goat #yes #yourmom
♬ original sound - Mr Math King

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The Pi Song  (Memorize 100 Digits Of π) | SCIENCE SONGS

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Math isn't hard, it's a language | Randy Palisoc | TEDxManhattanBeach

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Use of Trigonometry | Edukators Club | Trigonometry

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Oct 2, 2021 - This Pin was created by Edukators Club on Pinterest. Use of Trigonometry | Edukators Club | Trigonometry

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The paradox at the heart of mathematics: Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem - Marcus du Sautoy

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Reply to @sanyog08 Is this what y’all wanted? #math #proof #foryou #fyp #1

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@hadi_sr
Reply to @sanyog08 Is this what y’all wanted? #math #proof #foryou #fyp #1
♬ a new kind of love by frou frou - ████

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What’s the Point of Math? [DK] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. What’s the Point of Math?

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Save this for later ☺️ #LearnOnTikTok #TikTokPartner #pinkpencilmath #fyp #mathtrick #fractions #percent #multiply #teacher #tutor #add

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@pinkpencilmath
Save this for later ☺️ #LearnOnTikTok #TikTokPartner #pinkpencilmath #fyp #mathtrick #fractions #percent #multiply #teacher #tutor #add
♬ The Big Day - Alex Arias & Alexander Julius Wright

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The Quadratic Formula Song - With Harmony

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r/mathmemes - Might as well post it here

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11,334 votes and 117 comments so far on Reddit

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How students think mathematical proofs happen (C-3)

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How students think mathematical proofs happen (C-3)

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r/mathmemes - All of the Hypercomplex Numbers!

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12.5k votes, 437 comments. 376k members in the mathmemes community. Give me some mathematical memes.

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r/mathmemes - Different ways math students look at continuity

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6,996 votes and 203 comments so far on Reddit

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Difference between Diameter and Radius (C-8)

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Difference between Diameter and Radius (C-8)

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14.3k votes, 93 comments. 376k members in the mathmemes community. Give me some mathematical memes.

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FoxTrot comic strip by Bill Amend - December 1, 2019 - Math, Root Beer, Cartoons, Sunday Comics

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Math is so simple: https://t.co/LlND6D5n19

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Math is so simple: pic.twitter.com/LlND6D5n19
— Astro Joke of the Week (@JokesAstro) December 6, 2022

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Math is so simple: https://t.co/LlND6D5n19

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Math is so simple: https://t.co/LlND6D5n19

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r/mathmemes - I am on the crowbar's side

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10.5k votes, 65 comments. 376k members in the mathmemes community. Give me some mathematical memes.

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@nanilemons
#dadjoke #programmerhumor
♬ Dad jokes with TikTok Terry - Terry Turner

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@wojciechtrefon
#programming #softwareengineer #programmerhumor #programmingmemes #programowanie #programista15k
♬ Up by Olly murs. - 💙 Havy 💙

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12.8k votes, 56 comments. 376k members in the mathmemes community. Give me some mathematical memes.

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@coffeecupenglish
Who can relate? #english #vocabulary
♬ original sound - CoffeeCupEnglish - CoffeeCupEnglish ☕️

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There are many strategies for determining the shape of a graph given its equation. In this activity, students will find the shape of a parabola by using its form to reveal its characteristics. The activity begins with a review of both the characteristics and forms of a parabola.

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1,936 votes and 140 comments so far on Reddit

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@mattgreen.jgm

♬ original sound - Matt Green

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The Periodic Table Song (2018 Update!) | SCIENCE SONGS

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@nanilemons
#programmerhumor #computerscience
♬ Dad jokes with TikTok Terry - Terry Turner