#playwithmath

Celebrating math as social, creative, and energizing

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Dear Math Teachers’ Circle Network,

Summer is exciting for us, because MTC immersion workshops are happening all over the country. I like seeing the updates in real time, on Twitter. Your enthusiasm for all things math and problem solving is contagious!

Here are some recent tweets I enjoyed from MTC immersion workshops in Cleveland, OH; Greeley, CO; and Kapolei, HI, respectively:

With each tweet, the underlying message is clear: “Math is social, creative, and energizing.” We like that Math Teachers’ Circles play a part in encouraging this attitude. We also like seeing teachers treated to a mathematical vacation for a few days. They earned it!

In this issue of the MTCircular, we hope you find some fun outside-the-box math problems to try with your MTCs. In A Problem Fit for a Princess, Chris Goff traces the 2000-year history of a fractal that inspired his MTC’s logo. In Daydreams in Music, Jeremy Aikin and Cory Johnson share a math session motivated by patterns in musical scales. In Polygons and Prejudice, Anne Ho and Tara Craig use a mathematical frame to guide a conversation about social issues. And for those of you looking for ways to empower your MTC participants’ mathematical thinking, Chris Bolognese and Mike Steward’s Using Problem Posing to Empower MTC Participants will provide plenty of food for thought.

Helping regions and states build networks of MTCs continues to be our biggest priority nationally. We are delighted to help encourage the development of additional regional networks of MTCs by providing consulting, expert mentors, and seed funding if available. Please contact me (brianna (at) aimath . org) if you are interested in finding out more.

Happy problem solving!

Brianna Donaldson, Director of Special Projects
Hana Silverstein, Special Projects Assistant

This article originally appeared in the Summer/Autumn 2017 MTCircular.