Math Munch!

If you’ve come here looking for Math Munch, click here!

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If you’re not here looking for Math Munch, let me explain.  This past weekend, Paul and Anna and I created a new blog called Math Munch.  It’s an idea that I’ve been kicking around for a while now–a venue for curating some of the fabulous mathematical content that exists on the internet for my students.

I’ve learned so much math and found so much math to enjoy through the internet that it’s just crazy.  I mean, I love good math books as much as anyone, and person-to-person mathematical discourse is irreplaceable.  But the math content that exists on the internet is astoundingly deep and varied and gorgeous. I want my students to have these gems as part of their relationship with mathematics, and I want them to have an empowered and seeking relationship with learning where they know that they can reach out for knowledge that will delight and inspire them.

This kind of independent and personal-growth mindset has to come from somewhere.  The usual classroom techniques of chalk and talk don’t go far enough, at least in my experience.  It has taken me years to build for myself the habits and touchstones that make for a fruitful experience of learning with the internet as a tool.  Connecting students with the wealth of resources that the world has to offer is a first step in realizing that this is even possible.

Math isn’t just in me the teacher.  It’s not just in my classroom, the worksheets that I share and the problems we put up on the board–as good as I try to make these.  The truth is that there is an enormous, multifarious, unbelievably rich ecosystem of mathy people and stuff that is out there.  I have some significant experience with it and want my students to have an experience of it, too.  Math Munch is an attempt to make that happen.  Like it says in the inaugural post, “Here you will find links to lots of cool mathy things on the internet.  We’ll post some new items each week for you to enjoy.  We hope you are as inspired and excited by these creations as we are!”

Each week I’ll ask my fifth graders to do a journal entry about something they’re jazzed about from the mathematical internet.  I’m hoping these researches will inform and guide the way they choose to spend their free-choice time in class and the way they spend their time outside of school.  We’ll see where things lead!

So finally, the proximate cause of this post is that I got several search hits on I Choose Math that were clearly trying to find Math Munch.  Hence the redirect. But I’m also so glad to share this new venture with you!  You’re of course welcome to read Math Munch yourself, as well as to share it with your students as you find useful.  And if you have some cool mathy links that more people should know about, please send them my way!

“Bon appetit!”