Math Learning & Healing
I care deeply about the intersection of math, making, and working towards healing our relationships with math. Below are examples of math-related projects and workshops I’ve developed.
Rehumanizing Math through Maker Education
How can culturally responsive math teaching and maker education be integrated to support the histories and identities of math learners? In this workshop, we engaged in a sample math lesson that makes visible how we can rehumanize math classrooms to be more learner driven and hands-on. We also had time to reflect, discuss, and reimagine how our own teaching practices can incorporate Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s Culturally & Historically Responsive Literacy framework of identity, intellect, skills, criticality, and joy. I designed and facilitated this workshop session for a learning community of college faculty and makerspace staff, as well with educators worldwide in a public-facing workshop.
A sample culturally responsive math lesson plan using Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s framework.
Documentation and Assessment of Math Learning
How can documentation support assessment? How do you know when learners know? What types of learning do we value, but don’t normally assess? I co-designed and facilitated a two-day professional development workshop where we explored these questions while developing a variety of tools and strategies to make learning visible. This workshop centered on a math and maker-centered learning progression where educators learned about ratios through cardboard linkages.
Math Affirmations: I Am a Mathematician
Practicing positive affirmations is a way for us to heal our math anxiety in order to build our math confidence and resilience. I partnered with digital designer, Bri James, to create these downloadable math affirmation cards that anyone can print and post wherever they are!
Let’s Talk Math Anxiety
What is math anxiety? How do we heal math anxiety and build positive math identities? In this blog post, I offer resources and strategies for cultivating more joy in our relationships to math.
Learning in the Making Math Videos
I partnered with educators to create three different episodes with bilingual project guides showcasing math and maker-centered learning for Maker Ed’s online video series.
Shapes in Nature: What shapes do animals use to build their outdoor shelters? Which shapes provide the most strength and stability in different structures? In this two part series, we used newspaper dowels to explore strength and stability in structures while learning principles of engineering, physics, and geometry.
Mathematical Pancakes: Chefs do so much more than simply combine ingredients to make delicious meals, and they have a lot in common with mathematicians and scientists. They rely on scientific principles—especially with baking—and use math for a range of functions, from measurement to ratios, to conversions! Follow along in this video as we make pancakes and talk about the math that happens when we cook!
