Search Results for: bridges math and art conference

I always enjoy taking time at the end of the year to review my blog. It’s a great way to reflect on what I did and what I was thinking about, and it always reminds me how busy the year was! And 2015 was definitely a busy year.

The Presidential Award

Without a doubt, the highlight of my professional year was being named a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST).

I traveled to Washington, DC with other awardees to meet with representatives of the National Science Foundation, the National Academies of Science, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. And the highlight of trip was meeting President Obama at the White House!

The trip to DC was part of an active professional summer.  I presented my paper “Monte Carlo Art” at this year’s Bridges Math and Art conference, and the following week I ran a fun workshop called “Games on Graphs” at the MOVES conference at the Museum of Mathematics. At the end of a very busy few weeks, I was surprised to find myself in this terrific New Yorker piece, “Cogito, Ergo, Summer” by Siobhan Roberts!

Speaking

In addition to presenting at Bridges and MOVES this summer, I traveled to Washington, DC earlier this year to speak at a policy briefing hosted by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) during the first ever National Math Festival. I spoke about building the profession of math teachers, and was a bit intimidated to follow Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Al Franken! I also ran a variety of workshops on math and technology for teachers, and hosted Math for America’s 4th annual Master Teachers on Teaching, a great evening of talks from MfA Master Teachers.

Teaching

I always try to do new things in my classroom and my school, and 2015 was no exception. I’ve been having fun playing around with 3D-printing in a variety of classes, building demonstrations for geometric ideas, printing hard-to-imagine surfaces, and getting students creating with mathematics. I continue to develop and teach an integrated mathematics and computer science course, and I have taken on a part-time role as our department’s instructional coach.

Writing

For a variety of reasons I write less frequently than I used to, but I did surpass 1,000 total blog posts this past year! My work critiquing the New York State Regents exams continues to get attention,  and I was informally consulted for an excellent report by the Center for New York City Affairs about the serious issues facing New York state’s algebra exams that eventually caught the attention of the New York Times. And I continued my work with the New York Times Learning Network, contributing math lessons on evaluating compulsory retirement savings plans and asking students “Why Do Americans Stink at Math?”

So a great year comes to an end, but here’s hoping 2016 is just as challenging, productive, and rewarding!

Related Posts

• 2014 — Year in Review
• 2013 — Year in Review
• Years in Review

A nice consequence of maintaining a blog is that it makes year-end reflecting very convenient.  And 2013 was certainly a full, challenging, and fun year!

In February, my talk “g = 4, and Other Lies the Test Told Me” was featured in GothamSchools.  The talk highlights how standardized testing often works in opposition to the work that teachers do, and was part of MfA’s inaugural Master Teachers on Teaching conference.  Video of my talk can be seen here.

In April, I hosted TEDxNYED 2013.  After speaking at the previous TEDxNYED, I was proud to be a part of bringing the event to Brooklyn Tech.  Many students attended and were able to enjoy a number of great, thought-provoking talks.  And two of my students gave a TED talk on the peer-to-peer math enrichment program they created!  You can see the video of their talk here.

In May, I was featured at Scientific American as one of the winners of the inaugural Rosenthal Prize.  And later in the year, my award-winning lesson on Sphere Dressing was published and made freely available by the National Museum of Mathematics.

In July I traveled to Enschede, the Netherlands, for the Bridges Math and Art conference, where I presented a short paper on teaching math through image manipulation and displayed some pieces in the Bridges art gallery.

In August, I ran a workshop at the inaugural MOVES conference at the Museum of Mathematics.  That month, I also wrote a piece for GothamSchools on how the new, common core-aligned New York State tests looked remarkably like the old exams.  The piece generated a lot of great conversation, and led to a thought-provoking blog-exchange with noted educator and curriculum specialist Grant Wiggins about testing, rigor, and mathematics.

In September I was named a New York State finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). 

In October I ran a workshop on teaching and social media through Math for America, and met Fields Medalist Cedric Villani.

In November I ran a workshop at the annual TIME 2000 conference, and hosted artist and computer programmer Nathan Selikoff at Brooklyn Tech, who inspired our students with a talk about the history and practice of algorithmic art.

Coming full circle, in December I gave a talk at the second annual MT^2 conference, on my mathematical relationship with change.

And throughout the year, I continued to contribute to the New York Times Learning Network, writing many Test Yourself Math questions, and pieces on teaching the mathematics of infinity, how math is beautiful, Bitcoin and currency, and science and religion.

All in all, it was a busy, fun, and productive year, maybe even busier than 2012!  As is tradition, I’ll end this year hoping for a little more downtime in the next.

Related Posts

• 2012 — Year in Review
• Years in Review