Fabulous Blog: Republic of Mathematics

Definition of Blogcrush: You've got a simple small task x that should take oh, about 15 or 20 minutes. You use Google to find some good sites related to x, and you find a blog that makes you forget your initial task entirely, spending the next 3 or 4 hours reading posts, following links, thinking deeply. You're in love, at least for the moment.

I was looking for some good explanations of the distributive property. My personal professional development this semester will focus on what some people are calling the inverted classroom. (See Kate Nowak and Robert Talbot.) So I'm gathering online resources for our first topics in beginning algebra (which are reviews of pre-algebra toughies). I woke up early and thought I could knock out resources for a few topics before my son got up. Huh? What's that? He's up?! I haven't even started...

I think my last blogcrush was Math for Love. Today I discovered Republic of Mathematics, by Gary Davis. I know I've seen it before, but I must have been rushing. It didn’t get into my Google reader and went off my radar. Today I savored it.

Here's a partial list of posts I loved:

• Depression and problem solving in mathematics: the art of staying upbeat
• The Rascal Triangle: how magic can happen if you listen to kids
• Doing mathematics in groups – a personal experience
• To work in groups or not to work in groups? Is that the question?
• Should students memorize the quadratic formula?

Gary's posts bring together a lot of deep ideas, so it's hard for the title to give enough information. Each of these has gems that you won't expect from its title. Enjoy!