Mark Trushkowsky
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marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
Mark Trushkowsky
@marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
130 followers 160 following 62 posts
math, teaching, adult education, numeracy, music, movies, gardening, play, beauty
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marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
I was at a meeting today, talking about the future of adult basic education in NYC and folks kept saying "When Mamdani comes...," and every time they did I thought of the song, "When Messiah Comes" from Fiddler. Exciting times, friends. #LiteracyLiftsNYC #AdultEdu
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 11:20 PM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
His words also make a compelling argument for what math and math teaching & learning should be like.
#ANNMath #MTBoS #ITeachMath
markharris.bsky.social Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 3d
Some inspiring words on cinema in the streaming era from the Pope.

Yes, THAT Pope.
The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what “works,” but art opens up what is possible. Not everything has to be immediate or predictable. Defend slowness when it serves a purpose, silence when it speaks and difference when evocative. Beauty is not just a means of escape; it is above all an invocation. When cinema is authentic, it does not merely console, but challenges. It articulates the questions that dwell within us, and sometimes, even provokes tears that we did not know we needed to express.
November 15, 2025 at 6:47 PM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
Thank you, @triangleyou.bsky.social for sharing this task they got from @howiehua.bsky.social!

What patterns do you notice in the table?
Will 1000 appear? If so, where?

I'm not quite there yet, but I'm having such fun, in the spirit in which I received it, I invite others to play!
#ANNMath
A table of numbers. Consecutive odd numbers across the top. Reading left to right: 1, 3, 5, 7... The left column is made up of powers of 2 going down. Reading: 1, 2, 4, 8,... The table can be completed by multiplying the odd numbers across the top by the powers of 2.
November 13, 2025 at 7:14 PM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
Northern Lights from my backyard
Green aurora lights in the sky Purple, pink, red, green, blue aurora lights over a rooftop Streaks of red and white aurora lights in the sky Red and green aurora lights
November 12, 2025 at 8:12 PM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
Minneapolis is doing me right on the jazz front these days.
Brandee Younger Trio at the Dakota with Rashaan Carter on bass Makaya McCraven and Junius Paul at the Ice House
October 28, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Reposted by Mark Trushkowsky
citizenmath.bsky.social
Counted Out, a new documentary about math, democracy, and civic life, opens Oct 3–9 at Cinema Village in NYC 🍿 for a limited run.

Don’t miss the opening weekend Q&As on Oct 3 (5pm) and Oct 4 (6pm). Reserve tickets here: www.cinemavillage.com/Now-Playing/...

#mathsky #realworldmath
September 30, 2025 at 10:11 PM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
Last May’s Community of Math Instructors (CAMI) monthly teachers’ circle meeting started with some attention for some fairly simply-structured figures.

#ANNMath #CAMImath
#MTBoS #ITeachMath

nyccami.org/attention-an...
Two shapes. On the left, an area of 41 squares. One way to describe them is in 9 vertical columns, with 1 square, 3 squares, 5 squares, 7 squares, 9 squares, then 7, 5, 3, and 1. The figure on the right can be described as a similar figure, rotated 45 degrees, except the columns would be arranged 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1.
September 30, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Reposted by Mark Trushkowsky
benjamindickman.bsky.social
Finally! A citable writeup for @jennalaib.bsky.social!

And, as linked in the article, there is the trove of examples freely available at:
slowrevealgraphs.com

#iTeachMath ♾️
September 21, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Mark Trushkowsky
triangleman.bsky.social
Minnesota's Largest Pattern Block Mosaic!

talkingmathwithkids.com/blog/minneso...
Minnesota's Largest Pattern Block Mosaic | Talking Math With Your Kids
To celebrate ten years of Math On-A-Stick, we built Minnesota's Largest Pattern Block Mosaic yesterday at the Minnesota State Fair. Careful study of this next image reveals 24 jaggedy "rows" of 7 larg...
talkingmathwithkids.com
September 1, 2025 at 6:45 PM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
Crop art at the State Fair is always amazing, but this year feels a little next level.
A portrait of Clara Bow, made with seeds Bjork’s 1995 album cover of Post, made out of seeds (and also I can’t believe this album is 30 years old) A portrait of Sly Stone singing into a microphone, created out of seeds The dining hall at the Naniboujou Lodge, made out of brightly colored seeds
August 31, 2025 at 3:59 AM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
Joyful colors and shapes seen in the Creative Activities Building at the Minnesota State Fair.

#MTBoS #ITeachMath #MathArt #MNStateFairMath
A black quilt with rectangular panels of bright colors. Rectangular-ish shapes in bright colors on a black background An array of a spectrum of colored squares on a black background. Quilt: a 3x4 array of circles with star points around their edge and a two-colored star within each. Inset in that array is a 2x3 array of circles separated into pinwheels. Bright colors.
August 31, 2025 at 2:25 AM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
The power of squares in quilt designs at the Minnesota State Fair

#unitchat #MNStateFairMath #MTBoS #ITeachMath
Quilt made of of squares of different blues and greens and brown and whites. A white, brown, and sky blue quilt. A multicolored quilt design of smaller squares, on diagonals, forming triangular points. Quilt made of many small squares, with one larger square on the right side with smaller squares set inside of it.
August 31, 2025 at 1:48 AM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
I love community data collection like this one at the MN State Fair.

Cast your bean and vote your commitment to local food.

What do you notice? How do you feel? What do you wonder? What will you do?

#MTBoS #ITeachMath #creativerepresentationsofdata
Four glass-enclosed frames with space at the top for dropping in a bean to vote for one of the categories. The categories: Grow Relationships, Give Time, Spend Local, & Share Knowledge. Each category has different heights of beans that have been added.
August 30, 2025 at 10:16 PM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
Minnesota State Fair Math

What they have in common is that they are all 2025 champion grains & legumes. But #WODB?

#MTBoS
#ITeachMath
Oats Barley Wheat Soybean
August 30, 2025 at 10:10 PM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
I see you @letterboxd.social
Three circles—one orange, one blue, one green—in a sign for mother earth gardens in Longfellow neighborhood at dusk.
July 29, 2025 at 1:37 PM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
Great week for music in the Twins. Ebo Taylor in town with Pat Thomas, and the Ebo Taylor family band for Jazz is Dead at the Fine Line and then Nubya Garcia at the Dakota with Lyle Barton on keys, Max Luthert on bass, and Sam Jones on drums.
89 year old Ghanaian afrofunk legend Ebo Taylor with a band that included at least 3 of his sons (on bass, keys, and guitar). Also pictured is a tight horn section of trombone and trumpet. Longtime Ebo Taylor collaborator and highlife singer, Pat Taylor on stage. Also visable are bass player, keyboardist, and horn section playing handheld percussion. Two drummers (one on kit and one with conga drums), bass player, trombonist, trumpeter, guitarist, and keyboardist/singer. The Ebo Taylor family band, incredible in their own right. Nubya Garcia on saxophone, Lyle Barton on piano, Max Luthert on bass, playing Water’s Path under blue lights.
April 12, 2025 at 3:18 PM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
Some of Donald Judd’s 15 untitled works in concrete. Marfa, Texas. #mathart #MTBOS #iteachmath
Concrete cubes in shadow and light in the desert Concrete cubes in shadow and light in the desert Concrete cubes in shadow and light in the desert Concrete cubes in shadow and light in the desert
April 8, 2025 at 9:45 AM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
The U.S. Dept. of Education is now soliciting reports on discrimination in schools, but their web address reveals their bias. Don’t let bad-faith actors control the narrative. If you’ve seen attacks on DEI, curriculum censorship, or barriers to access, speak up & submit a response.
A screenshot of a page from the official website of the US Department of Education, with the url: enddei.ed.gov The text reads: "Schools should be focused on learning. The U.S. Department of Education is committed to ensuring all students have access to meaningful learning free of divisive ideologies and indoctrination. This submission form is an outlet for students, parents, teachers, and the broader community to report illegal discriminatory practices at institutions of learning. The Department of Education will utilize community submissions to identify potential areas for investigation." The survey questions: Your email School or school district School or school district ZIP Code "Please describe in as much detail as possible the discriminatory practice taking place (450 Word Limit)" Upload File (optional)
March 3, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Mark Trushkowsky
theradr.bsky.social
"I just don't understand how our country is like this now, this has never been who we are."

1/x
McCarthyism and the Red Scare | Miller Center
The paranoia about the internal Communist threat—what we call the Red Scare—reached a fever pitch between 1950 and 1954, when Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin, a right-wing Republican, launched a ser...
millercenter.org
March 1, 2025 at 12:00 AM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
It's not even my birdy, but my friend Aren built me a tool on Desmos (www.desmos.com/calculator/p...) to explore Josef Albers' theory that our perception of a color is influenced by the colors that surround it.
That all of the center squares are the same color boggles my mind! #mathart #MTBoS
A center square with a square frame around it and a third square frame around that frame. A center square with a square frame around it and a third square frame around that frame. The middle frame has changed color from the last picture. The center square appears to be a different color, but it has not changed - it just looks different because the color of the frame around it has changed. A center square with a square frame around it and a third square frame around that frame. The middle frame has changed color from the last picture. The center square appears to be a different color, but it has not changed - it just looks different because the color of the frame around it has changed.
February 26, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Reposted by Mark Trushkowsky
jennybkowalski.bsky.social
Genuary Day 26: Symmetry.

“History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes” – Mark Twain

#genuary #genuary26 #generativeart #creativecoding #p5js
Dense kaleidoscope image made from overlapping red and blue text on white: history doesn't repeat but it often rhymes Dense kaleidoscope image made from overlapping red and blue text on white: history history history Dense kaleidoscope image made from overlapping red and blue text on white: again and again Image made from overlapping red and blue text on white: history repeats
January 26, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Mark Trushkowsky
nhoskee.bsky.social
22/365
#GraphTheory
METAPHORS. A 2x3 array of points converges into one point.
January 23, 2025 at 7:05 AM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
Sylvan ice crystals on winter windows.
Ice fractals on a window Ice fractals on a window Ice fractals on a window Ice fractals on a window
January 22, 2025 at 10:50 PM
marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
Glorious night of music with Brazilian jazz piano with Amaro Freitas (solo) & Don Salvador (sextet) & then 90 minutes of transcendent jazz improvisation in the round with Makaya McCraven on drums, Theon Cross on tuba, and Ben Lamar Gay on vocals (& trumpet, & various electronics, & conch shell.)
Amaro Freitas playing keys and strings of a piano Brazilian funk jazz samba legend Don Salvador on piano Dom Salvador Sextet (Dom Salvador on piano, Alvetina Wilcox on trombone, Eduardo Belo on bass, Laura Dreyer on tenor, Gracilano Zambonin on drums, David Sneider on trumpet) Makaya McCraven on drums Theon Cross on tuba Ben Lamar Gay on trumpet (at that particular moment)
January 11, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Reposted by Mark Trushkowsky
benjamindickman.bsky.social
#ThisIsMath:
www.pbs.org/video/pov-sh...
POV | POV Shorts: Recorded Memory | Season 37 | Episode 704
Two stories of quilted heirlooms and generational nostalgia.
www.pbs.org
January 1, 2025 at 4:23 AM