Ralph Pantozzi
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mathillustrated.bsky.social
Ralph Pantozzi
@mathillustrated.bsky.social
1.7K followers 770 following 1.5K posts
(a personal account) MoMath Rosenthal Prize • #PAEMST • SciFri Educator • RutgersGSE • NCTM MAA Committee on the Teaching of Undergraduate Mathematics
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mathillustrated.bsky.social
Arguments about #math #education in the 1940's. Sound familiar? #iTeachMath
(1) "Why bother to teach meanings? Children know all they need to know about arithmetic when they can compute quickly and accurately." (2) "We already teach all the meanings which are essential to mean ingful arithmetic. Nothing would be gained by teaching more meanings." (3) "We are frankly agnostic in this matter. If we could be shown that meanings (or more meanings than we now teach) we should be willing to teach them.
October 21, 2025 at 4:01 AM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
Howard F. Fehr
October 19, 2025 at 8:42 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
What do you notice? What do you wonder? #iTeachMath
October 5, 2025 at 12:27 AM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
Make your bots!
Mamdani's war on gifted programs isn't equity—it's sabotage. Eric Adams fought to protect G&T because immigrant families rely on them as ladders out of poverty. Mamdani? He's taking orders from DSA ideologues who think excellence is "racist." His plan mirrors Yugoslavia's collapse: gut meritocracy, replace it with grievance, watch the system implode.
October 3, 2025 at 10:45 AM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
What is real? What is an illusion? #iTeachMath
Man standing on car roof in front of building that is a 7 story picnic basket
October 2, 2025 at 10:34 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
mathotel
September 30, 2025 at 9:17 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
September 6, 2025 at 6:47 AM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
#calculus in the wild #iTeachMath
September 6, 2025 at 12:14 AM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
Silently judging 😆 #Australia
September 5, 2025 at 9:27 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
Gardens of Branching Paths: Discovering Possible Worlds of Research at the Library of Congress

my latest post at the Library of Congress: what do you notice? What do you wonder? #iTeachMath
An image that shows branching tendrils from multiple branches
August 7, 2025 at 1:13 AM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
August 3, 2025 at 3:00 AM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
What do you do when you dream of exploring space, but the spaces in which you travel contain few clear routes to the stars? You do #math.

Cynthia Simmons: Space for Math at the Mathematical Association of America's Math Values Blog. #iTeachMath

maa.org/math-values/...
July 3, 2025 at 3:42 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
Don't Drink and Derive: the story of Isaac Greenwood and the first American #math textbook. #iTeachMath On Youtube: youtu.be/qdn4t-omjTE?...
July 3, 2025 at 12:15 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
Arithmetick Vulgar and Decimal
Cover page of the book, with title and publisher
July 3, 2025 at 12:11 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
#Math Shelfie #iTeachMath
July 2, 2025 at 10:23 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
Inappropriate use of timed tests can cause #math anxiety and avoidance. Other things do too: overemphasis on algorithms kids don’t understand, lack of applications, etc.

Who’s got examples?
#iTeachMath
Advertisement from a company where a mother is helping her daughter with her math homework. The daughter says “when was the last time she did algebra?” and the mom says “Math, I did not miss you.”
June 21, 2025 at 4:47 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
Librarians love open books.
“You read my mind” “Always be reading something”
June 12, 2025 at 9:12 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
"Any impediment to learning, of which there are many, restricts the flow in the entire pipeline. Like cholesterol in the blood, mathematics can clog the educational arteries of the nation."
3/8
May 30, 2025 at 4:54 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
Metaphors for #math #education #iTeachMath "a pipeline for human resources that flows from childhood experiences to scientific careers."

pipelines... Think about their impact on the environment...Where are they placed and why? what else is possible? a 🧵 from 1990
1/8
May 30, 2025 at 4:54 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
Paired posts
May 28, 2025 at 1:39 AM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
If only it were that simple #iTeachMath cc: @covingtonedu.bsky.social
all eyes on her to start the lesson, the teacher uncaps her marker, and clearly and succinctly demonstrates how to add fractions with unlike denominators (Figure 23). While we'll be analyzing a math worked example in this tutorial, we could just as easily be looking at a diagram showing a science process (i.e. the water cycle), or a teacher's explanation of a tricky segment of text (i.e. a Shakespearean sonnet).
May 22, 2025 at 10:55 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
And you think shopping is difficult today #iTeachMath
An image of a poster about shopping under rationing from World War II HOW TO SHOP WITH WAR RATION BOOK TWO ... to Buy Canned, Bottled and Frozen Fruits and Vegetables; Dried Fruits, Juices and all Canned Soups JEACHEN APRICOTS A, B, and C stamps are good in the first ration period 国 回 21 POINTS PEAS พรโหวนะ TOMATOES 1. USE THIS RATION BOOK. You may use one or all of your family's ration books when you shop. You may not shop with loose ration stamps. 18 Points Bea. 8 AND 5 POINT STAMPS FIRST IF YOU CAN 3. THE NUMBERS SHOW POINTS. You will not be able to get "change" in point stamps, so save your low-zalue stamps for buying low-point foods. OUNCE WEIGHT ON LABEL 2. USE BLUE STAMPS ONLY. All blue point stamps marked 4, B, and C are good during the first ration period. add up to 18 points for each member of the family. They CEILING PRICES 157 30 12 56839 pi NOT RATIONED 8 Points 13°ea. 4. LOOK AT THE POINT VALUES before you buy. nothing to do with prices or quality. Points have the same in all stores. Point values will be 5. GIVE THE STAMPS TO YOUR GROCER. Tear out stamps in the presence of your grocer — or tear them out in the presence 6. FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES are not rationed. Use them instead of rationed foods chenever possible. Try out of the delivery boy. recipes that make your rations go further. YOUR POINT ALLOWANCE MUST LAST FOR THE FULL RATION PERIOD Plan How Many Points You Will Use Each Time Before You Shop BUY EARLY IN THE WEEK Foods are going to our fighting men. ration gives you your They come first! Your fair share of the foods that are left. BUY EARLY IN THE DAY CA
May 21, 2025 at 1:49 AM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
In immediate context
Dylan Wiliam @dyla....2d Jerome Bruner, pointed this out over 60 years ago. The whole point of culture is to avoid people having to discover things for themselves... Q1. 172 O5 11236 Ralph Pantozzi @ma....1h s. We should avoid having to recapitulate 1000 years of culture, of course, but students don't learn things without active discovery and reconstruction of what's come before. Dylan Wiliam @dyla...•1h g. "Students don't learn things without active discovery" is manifestly, demonstratbly untrue. 91 24 1240只 囗
May 19, 2025 at 3:19 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
This is so curious “"Students don't learn things without active discovery" is manifestly, demonstratbly untrue.”
May 19, 2025 at 2:48 PM
mathillustrated.bsky.social
Birthday Math Joy
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MATHEMATICAL WORKS PRINTED IN AMERICA THROUGH 1850 BY LOUIS C. KARPINSKI WITH THE COOPERATION FOR WASRINGTON LIBRARIES OF WALTER F. SHENTON ANN ARBOR: THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1940 Copy 2
May 13, 2025 at 4:07 PM