Marilyn Burns

I was teaching 8th grade math when Tom Lehrer released the album with New Math. I played the song at back-to-school night. (I was required to teach new math with the SMSG materials.)Tom Lehrer was a wonder.

And Cricket isn't natural to me. I'm still puzzling.

I loved this!

I'm stumped.

I read The Way It Spozed to Be by James Herndon in the 1960s as a beginning teacher and it spoke to me then. I haven't reread it. Then The Having of Wonderful Ideas by Eleanor Duckworth, which I've gifted to new teachers and which I've revisited over the years.

Oooh, I liked this string about squares and rectangles. Some new ideas for me.

How Bees, Beer Cans and Data Solve the Same Packing Problem (Gift Article) Trying to fit it all in? There’s a trick to it, even in 24 dimensions.

Nice! www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

This reminds me of what I learned from my undergraduate advisor Bob Davis. He said that a student's wrong answer is the right answer to a different question. My job is to uncover that other question and move from there.

I really appreciated the openness and civility of this exploration of differing perspectives of the ‘science’ of mathematics. A good listen.

Thanks. Yup, a typo for pronic. I also checked Wikipedia. Sometimes automatic spell check is really annoying.

Zero is a phonic number? I'd never heard of phonics numbers. Cool.

Thanks, @mpershan.bsky.social, for this quote and your blog. And thanks, @larryferlazzo.bsky.social, for hosting and posting.

How did I get this far without ever learning about semiregular tilings? Cool. polytope.miraheze.org/wiki/List_of...

I love this blog post . . . for so many reasons.

Not for everyone, I know, but I found this to be a really good read.

I'm interested in what you learn.

I asked a student today which of these fractions was not equal to 1/2. He said, "It has to be one of those with a 3 on top--they can't both be 1/2" I'd never heard that before.

I hesitated before sending it, but I couldn't resist.

The Physics That Keeps a Crowd From Becoming a Stampede (Gift Article) A group of scientists studying the San Fermín festival in Pamplona, Spain, believe there’s a way to predict the motions of a large crowd.

I found this fascinating. You can read this gift article from The New York Times for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/s...

Comparing and Ordering Decimals - MARILYN BURNS MATH When half of the fifth graders selected 0.45 as the smallest of 0.8, 0.45, and 0.125, I had my work cut out for me. I planned a lesson that went wonderfully. Those are the days that remind me of how g...

"On an assessment about comparing decimals, 5th graders were asked to circle the smallest of three numerals & explain why they made their selection." 10 of 20 students chose 0.125; the other 10 chose 0.45. What do you do next? If you're @mburnsmath.bsky.social, you teach this lesson!

Yup, I use m-dashes regularly and happily. And n-dashes, too.

Ooooh, I like this.

Math Academy Wants To Supercharge Your Learning A review of the online learing program

Hey I remember how to write about math teaching. pershmail.substack.com/p/math-acade...

This is great! I was just re-teaching decimal places (to 7-8-9th graders...) as part of physics and these examples would definitely hit with them too.

What a lovely post! I really like the short video clips as a way to introduce new strategies — named after the Ss who made them, just like you’d do in class. It neatly solves the “What if my Ss don’t organically arrive at this?” problem.

I was surprised and delighted by that.

Comparing and Ordering Decimals - MARILYN BURNS MATH When half of the fifth graders selected 0.45 as the smallest of 0.8, 0.45, and 0.125, I had my work cut out for me. I planned a lesson that went wonderfully. Those are the days that remind me of how g...

I spent this weekend writing about the decimal lesson I taught on Friday. I really liked how it went. Take a look. I'm interested in any feedback. marilynburnsmath.com/decimals/com... #Iteachmath #MTBos

I'm lucky to live in the same community where I taught and seeing former students happens fairly often. It's soooo good.

Really well! I'll blog about it this weekend, a perfect thing to do when rain is predicted. I hope to post soon, but you know how writing can go.