Engagement and Excitement in the Classroom

By Shanise Walker As a new semester begins, I find myself reflecting and pondering the following questions: What was exciting and engaging to the students who took a course with me previously? What more can I do to engage and introduce mathematics to students in a way that initiates discussion, inquiry, and challenge? In what...

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The (Soul-Crushing) Sound of Silence

By Lew Ludwig You’ve done your part. You presented the material, laid the groundwork, and gave the possible arguments. The air is ripe with anticipation. Your teaching senses tingle. It is time to ask a well-phrased question demonstrating that your students are ready to take their learning to the next level. How often have I...

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My Best Rejection

By Allison Henrich My friend Aaron Wootton and I were chatting at a conference recently, and he told me a great story about a time he tried to get something published that was rejected over and over only to later turn into something far better. It got me thinking… I have a story like that!...

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Welcoming Prospective Mathematics Teachers into Communities of Practice

By Erin Moss, Co-Editor, DUE Point, Millersville University The Broadening Engagement in Mathematics Participation and Readiness Education Project (BE-MathPREP) aims to establish a supportive and engaging learning community, affirm the value of the teaching profession, and inspire undergraduate students to pursue careers in mathematics education. The project utilizes a tiered mentorship model to support preservice...

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Testimonios: Dr. Mariel Vázquez Melken

Testimonios, a new publication from MAA/AMS, brings together first-person narratives from the vibrant, diverse, and complex Latinx and Hispanic mathematical community. Starting with childhood and family, the authors recount their own particular stories, highlighting their upbringing, education, and career paths. Testimonios seeks to inspire the next generation of Latinx and Hispanic mathematicians by featuring the...

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Yoko Ogawa’s “The Housekeeper and the Professor”: Representation of a Mathematician

By Alexis Newton Alexis Newton Sometimes I think about how weird it is to the rest of the world how I — we! — are fixated on math, and how that looks to everybody else. Because the average person doesn’t do math in the same way a mathematician does. They do, however, seem to like...

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Inreach is the New Outreach: An Implementation

By William Yslas Vélez (Photo credit for cover photo:  Dr. Donald Cole. Photo also appears on the Math Alliance website.) Bill and Bernice Velez Beginning in the late 1980s I began my efforts to help minority students succeed in calculus. As I worked with minority students it slowly dawned on me that majoring in mathematics...

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Being There

By Kira Hamman, Joseph Fields, and Rick Gillman Kira Hamman The Mathematical Association of America’s decision to hold MAA MathFest in Tampa in spite of Florida legislation hostile to many members was the subject of a robust, and necessary, discussion prior to the meeting. And now the meeting is over. What were the experiences of...

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Exemplary Questions

By David Bressoud @dbressoud David Bressoud is DeWitt Wallace Professor Emeritus at Macalester College and former Director of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences. davidbressoud.org Last month, in Quantitative Reasoning with Definite Integrals, I discussed the work of Oehrtman and Simmons in which they explain the different processes involved in modeling a particular accumulation...

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Attend to Precision. Why?

by Keith Devlin  @KeithDevlin@fediscience.org The James Webb Space Telescope. Using mathematics, NASA was able to position and assemble it remotely at a precise, stable location in space one million miles from Earth. NASA image. The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) document leads off with a list of eight basic practices for doing and...

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