Math Magic – Math For Love

But it still felt as if no one knew how to touch it. As if it stunk and we all just needed to scaffold it with nose plugs to get through.
Then every once in a while, I would get a glimmer. I’d hear from someone, child or adult: I like math.
What are these “math is beautiful” people seeing that I don’t see?
And it would rattle me. How can you like math? What do you see that I don’t see? How can some people say math is beautiful, elegant, and playful when my lived experience and the experience of so many is that math is something to get through? Something you must buckle down and force, nose to the grindstone and all that, just to get on with your life. What are these “math is beautiful” people seeing that I don’t see?
It took me ten years of teaching, using silly gimmicks that felt like tricks to keep the kids eyeballs glued to the lesson, until I found it. Like entering a hidden cave studded with gemstones, my math world opened up when I learned about the work Dan Finkel and Katherine Cook are doing at Math for Love.
In Finkel’s TEDx talk, he pleads, “Right now we are squandering our chance to touch life after life with the beauty and power of mathematical thinking.”
Finally, I’d found someone who can verbalize the beliefs that have been rattling around in my gut all these years. There aren’t math brains and non-math brains. There are rich, authentic, and relevant ways of teaching math and there are not.
I started seeing energy, joy, and light in the children when we moved into math time. On days we had to skip math for field trips or special assemblies, the class would gasp and ask why we have to miss it.
I began reading everything I could at Math for Love and experimenting with their curriculum in my second/third grade classroom. The results were staggering and I found myself feeling like a math magician, performing math magic, and the kids loved it. I started seeing energy, joy, and light in the children when we moved into math time. On days we had to skip math for field trips or special assemblies, the class would gasp and ask why we have to miss it.
It all starts with an opener – a chance to jump as quickly as possible into math doing. There are several that I love, but my favorite is called Unit Chats. This is where you project an image with an interesting arrangement of things and quite simply ask, “how many?”
When I start this with a new group, they always ask, “how many what?” And I say with a confident shrug, “Up to you.” They take two to three minutes to look at the image quietly, doing their own counting, thinking, and examining. Then I ask them to turn to someone next to them to share their “how many.”
Without fail, the class erupts with a buzz of energy.
Without fail, the class erupts with a buzz of energy. Everyone turns to find a partner to share with, to explain their idea, and to listen to the other. Each idea is different and, as the class gains experience with this practice, they start to reach deeper, finding more interesting and unique ways to count.