Are You A Mathematician?

I flew out to New York last Sunday. An older gentleman on the airplane sitting next to me saw me working on this idea in Desmos and simply asked, "Are you a mathematician?"

I hesitated. Not sure I know why…

I think my hesitation roots from me having this impression that mathematicians exist only at the college level. They do math all the time. On chalkboards. Wear white coats. Have frizzy hair. Stand in front of chalkboards full of symbols and equations. Yes, I know. Very stereotypical.

AND VERY WRONG!

Why did I hesitate?

Yes, I am a mathematician.

I love thinking critically. 

Yes, I’m a mathematician.

I love building number sense.  

Yes, I’m a mathematician.

I'm scared of math problems in which I lack the skills to solve. 

Yes, I'm a mathematician. 

I love being challenged by a good [math] problem.

Yes, I'm a mathematician.

I love using numbers to make sense of the world around me.

Are you a mathematician?

Yes. Don’t hesitate. 

YES!

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2015 Ignite at NWMC

I delivered my second Ignite Talk at the 54th Annual Northwest Mathematics Conference in Whistler, Canada this past weekend.

I start my Ignite saying:

Take 10 seconds to think of the most forgettable parts of your math class.

I am so grateful for the wonderful BCAMT program committee (<---follow them). They worked extremely hard to put a great conference together. Thank you Chris, Marc, Sandra, and Selina for inviting me out. Whistler is so beautiful this time of year and I learned a lot from the great sessions and speakers. It was a pleasure to hang with some old math friends and make new ones too!

There were some other great Ignite talks and I hope that someone part of the BCAMT was able to record them in order to post online. To the entire Ignite team: Marian, Ron, Robert, Allison, Janice, Carole and Marc (emcee). WE DID IT!

Ignite,
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*P.S. Here's my first Ignite talk.

OCMC Keynote: Tools for Student Thinking

The wonderful people at Orange County Math Council have asked me to be the Keynote speaker tomorrow night, Monday, October 19, 2015.

OCMC is hosting the 2015-16 Math Tech Night in Tustin, CA a la EdCamp Style. Math teachers will have the chance to share with and learn from other teachers their math tech tools, secrets, and favorites.

The title of my Keynote is: Tools for Student Thinking.

I've scheduled my TweetDeck to tweet out parts of my Keynote during the keynote, starting at 5:00 pm (PST). Hopefully you can follow along or tune into the #OCMC15 hashtag at your convenience. I'm really pumped.

Tech,
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