Our Top Ten (Math)

Courtney LaRoche

Wayzata Public Schools

MCTM VP Middle School

 

I was recently in the art classroom at my daughter’s school.  I noticed a series of “Top Ten Art” posters that, written in kid language, described what artists do while at the same time, crushing some of the stereotypes that students often assume make a “talented” artist.  Here is an example of the first 5….

Through my math lens,  I started to think about how we culturally communicate what it means to be a good mathematician.  Do students even want to be mathematicians? I wondered what would happen if I simply replaced the word art with math.  Does it still work?  Would this now be a list of what mathematicians do?  Would it help crush some of those math stereotypes that students hold, especially around math and speed?  I posed this question to a group of math teachers at a variety of grade levels who had just finished reading parts of A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart.  Check out how they adapted the list.  

What would be your “Math Top Ten”?  How could the “Math Top Ten” frame the teaching and learning in your classroom?  Use this blank copy to have a discussion with your PLC or math department.  (If you haven’t read A Mathematician’s Lament, reading the first couple pages would be a good intro to this activity!)