I hope you’ve been bookmarking, fav-ing, feedly-ing, and whatever else you do to keep track of the math blogging posts that you’ve appreciated this past year. Last year’s Math Blogging Retrospectus got a really nice response, if only from myself (I like to reread it from time to time for inspiration and entertainment). I asked for math blog posts so I’d have something to read and wound up just assembling your recommendations into a catalog.
A brief primer can be found here, but an even briefer primer is as follows:
It’s incredibly difficult to keep track of the ever-growing Math Blogosphere. Keeping up with posts is like trying to hold water in your hands. I’m looking for timeless or timely math blog posts that inspired, touched, and/or entertained you. This decidedly NOT a voting thing. It’s NOT a ranking. And for the love of all things holy, it’s not an EDUBLOG award thing. If a blog post touched a single person, I’d like to capture it: chances are it’ll touch another. There are math blogs that I and you do not even know about, but someone reading this does. Let’s all partake in some shared sharing. Share a link to a few (or several!) blog post that you truly enjoyed, I’ll do some of my patented copying and pasting and attempt to assemble it into a tome that can be downloaded or printed out. They could be short posts on instructional practices or problem ideas. They could be longreads of reflections on teaching and systemic issues. Any and all types are welcome.
I’ll start.
Here are ten blog posts that I really appreciated this past year (though I’ve clearly appreciated many, many more):
- Robert Kaplinsky’s “What Does It Mean To Understand Mathematics?”
- Fawn’s Three Cents on Common Core
- When Fawn Let Them Own The Problem
- Timon’s Encouraging Thought
- “DruinOK”‘s really cool composite functions activity
- Kate Owens on Gender and Mathematics
- “The Unengagables” by Dan Meyer
- Max’s 26 Questions You Can Ask Instead (with some bonus updates at the bottom!)
- Jeff’s Protocols for Mathematical Discussions
- Michael Pershan takes on a common trope, guns ablazing.
Needless to say, you needn’t share 10 blog posts. Share one, or a few (or none, and just come back later to see whatever other folks posted!). Feel free to post links in the comments. And don’t shy about “+1″ing or “ditto”ing a post if someone stole it from you.
emergent math 
I have a big doc with about 20 more posts that I liked this year, but here are 10 that seemed like they might be good for wider readership.
Lessons or Problems:
http://lostinrecursion.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/imbalance-problems/
http://numberwarrior.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/inverse-problems-in-education/
http://christopherdanielson.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/measurement-explored/
http://fractad.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/conics-hide-and-seek/
http://ispeakmath.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/quadratic-frames-totally-nguyening/
http://samjshah.com/2013/04/05/introducing-conic-sections/
http://reasonandwonder.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/mistakes-radicals-rational-exponents-and-partitioning/
Commentary:
http://relearningtoteach.blogspot.com/2013/11/day-62-explorations-and-lack-of-effort.html
http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/dear-parents/
http://function-of-time.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-tests-matter.html
http://doyle-scienceteach.blogspot.com/2013/08/dear-new-science-teacher.html
http://christopherdanielson.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/partitive-fraction-division/
http://alwaysformative.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-idea-is-easy-part.html
http://researchinpractice.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/kids-summarizing/
Oh obviously I typed the above comment while I should have been planning a lesson, so I said something ridiculous like “here are 10 posts” when I then linked to a bunch more. Disregard the nonsense. Now, back to planning!
These are great, Michael! And I’m seeing and re-enjoying some excellent posts that I’d forgotten.
Some of my favorite blogs:
http://blog.matthen.com/
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/
http://picturesofmath.tumblr.com/
Very cool website:
http://world.mathigon.org/
Fresh of the press:
http://blogs.plos.org/scied/2013/12/02/using-math-to-make-guinness/
Some of the posts worth mentioning:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/08/29/are_women_bad_at_math_graphs_refute.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=making-music-with-a-mobius-strip
http://www.kavlifoundation.org/science-spotlights/kavli-origins-of-math#.UeBxyANYdYE.facebook
http://www.nature.com/news/first-proof-that-infinitely-many-prime-numbers-come-in-pairs-1.12989
http://skullsinthestars.com/2013/11/24/infinity-is-weird-whats-bigger-than-big/
What first came to mind for me:
Robert’s “What Does It Mean To Understand Mathematics?”
Fawn Nguyen’s http://fawnnguyen.com/2013/07/08/deconstructing-a-lesson-activity—part-2.aspx
Scott Keltner’s http://scottkeltner.weebly.com/1/post/2012/12/coupon-composition-just-in-time-for-the-holidays.html (technically 2012, but probably missed last year’s submission deadline)
Ben Orlin’s http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2013/10/16/two-column-proofs-that-two-column-proofs-are-terrible/#more-858
And your PrBL starter kit: https://emergentmath.com/2013/10/30/a-problem-based-learning-starter-kit/
And my favourite comment of 2013 can be found here: http://mr-stadel.blogspot.ca/2013/05/cent-ed-whiffle-balls.html
HAHAHAHAHA. This definitely gets a special place in the 2013 Retrospectus!
Oh, man. So funny!
Oh, it got hyperlinked…
This blog post really got me where I live: I shared it with my entire department and then some:
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=17193
The Unengageables by Dan Meyer
Teaching philosophies examined: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=17539&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dydan1+%28dy%2Fdan+posts+%2B+lessons%29
A trig graphing activity I haven’t used yet, but plan to: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=17501&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dydan1+%28dy%2Fdan+posts+%2B+lessons%29
I thought I’d show this at the beginning of the year, decided against it. Reconsidering it now, will probably decide against it. Will consider again at the end of the year. https://emergentmath.com/2013/07/24/great-moments-in-cognitive-coaching-scrubs-edition/
This post was great because I’d picked up a subtle idea that caring about the social and emotional well-being of math students was for push-overs and shallow thinkers. This post let me know that it isn’t taboo in the mathedublogosphere after all. https://emergentmath.com/2013/10/03/a-critical-ingredient-missing-from-my-math-blogging/
This post helped me come up with a creative writing prompt for my math students. The kids had fun writing scripts like this and I had fun reading and grading them! http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2013/07/11/learning-is-a-flourescent-light/
The Global Math crew shared these links tonight:
Dan Meyer http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?cat=102
Glenn Waddell http://www.ediblegeography.com/the-pickle-index/
Geoff K http://jdevarona.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/discussions/
Glenn http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2013/11/everything-thats-wrong-with-traditional-grading-in-one-table.html
Glenn https://emergentmath.com/my-problem-based-curriculum-maps/
Dylan Kane http://www.danielwillingham.com/1/post/2013/09/the-association-of-tracking-and-math-self-concept.html
Dylan http://coxmath.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-real-flip.html
Dylan http://rationalexpressions.blogspot.com/2013/11/out-of-class-interventions-never-look.html
Megan HG http://function-of-time.blogspot.com/2013/06/making-gift-more-valuable.html
Justin http://jdmahlstedt.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/duckface/
Gregory Taylor http://christopherdanielson.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/open-letter-to-sal-khan/
Dylan http://mrhonner.com/archives/11643
Megan Schmidt http://christopherdanielson.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/mr-khan-you-got-some-splainin-to-do/
Fawn http://mathymcmatherson.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/sbg-my-standards-my-assessments/
Dylan http://langerkogutmath.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/routines/
Fawn http://nicoraplaca.com/one-way-introduce-ratios-make-sense-students/
Dylan http://shawncornally.com/wordpress/?p=3878
Gregory https://learnandteachstatistics.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/about-blogging/
Fawn http://audrey-mcsquared.blogspot.com/2013/12/projectile-projects.html
Jasmine http://rationalexpressions.blogspot.com/2013/12/blogging-twitter.html
Recording of the presentation is here.
One of my favorite posts of the year:
http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2013/10/23/the-student-every-teacher-dreams-about/
One of my favorite posts is here:
http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2013/10/23/the-student-every-teacher-dreams-about/
Yeah, this one was good.
+1
I meant to share this one last night. Mike Poliquin is a math teacher in Kansas, trying PrBL in his classroom, and working alone. He done some wonderful reflection on his work and learning.
http://poliquinmath.net/
This may not be what you are looking for, but I have been really interested in online videos that can be used to engage students around mathematics. Here are three of my favorites this year:
1) Your life in jellybeans: http://flowingdata.com/2013/11/27/your-life-in-jellybeans/
2) Wealth Distribution in America: http://flowingdata.com/2013/04/16/wealth-distribution-in-america/
3) Math Nerds: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL78B0B96038FC9D9C
These are great, Tamara, but it’s difficult to make an all-video post to read by the fireplace. For what it’s worth, I’m editorially removing one of my own suggested posts due to its video-heaviness.
Most retweeted from my feed:
http://infinitesums.com/commentary/2013/3/15/rules-of-ipad-engagement.html
http://mathforum.org/blogs/max/26-questions-you-can-ask-instead/
+1 on that Max Ray post. I have worn out some of the tubes that hold the internet together referring back to that one!
Oh! We never got Nix The Tricks! http://www.nixthetricks.com/Download.html
Sam
Yeah, I won’t reproduce Nix the Tricks, but definitely mention it. Starting to feel an Appendix of “Special Projects” needs to be included…