Join us for MAA MathFest Family Day on Aug. 8 for a free, fun-filled celebration of math! Enjoy hands-on puzzles, games, and activities for all ages, including a Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival and Math Playground hosted by The Young People’s Project. Register today: https://bit.ly/4g1VjCY

We are one week out from the Grading Conference (@thegradingconference.com)! Check out all of the happenings on Day 1 of the conference in this blog from @empittsdonahoe.bsky.social.

I absolutely 100% would not have become a teacher -- wouldn't have felt comfortable at the front of a room, wouldn't have even considered pursuing a career in education -- without experience performing improv in high school and college. Getting on stage genuinely changed my life.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen.com · 2mo ago

This is a really cool piece on how Alan Alda has funded an initiative to help researchers better communicate their findings to the public through learning improv skills.

Back in the Clover: Vegetarian chains says it's coming back from the dead www.universalhub.com/2026/back-cl... #Boston #CambridgeMA

If you agree that grades "should reflect whether students meet the learning objectives of the course, not how they perform compared to their peers", maybe you'd like to join us at the Grading Conference in a few weeks to learn about different ways to do exactly that. thegradingconference.com

Cara Jackson@carajackson.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Caps won’t fix grade inflation. Better teacher training will www.statesman.com/opinion/colu...

Say it ain't so! Clover has been a wonderful local chain for vegetarians in Boston

No matter how much you want to, you can’t just redefine how percentages are calculated. It just doesn’t add up. open.substack.com/pub/kityates...

Then They Came For Mathematics

There are two ways to calculate percentages: a right way and a wrong way.

open.substack.com

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3mo ago

RFK Jr: "A Democratic senator claimed it's mathematically impossible to have a drug drop by 600%. I said, 'Well, if the drug was $100 and it raises to $600, that would be a 600% rise. If it drops from $600 to $100, that's a 600% savings.'" Trump: "Right"

These "odd couple" columns are usually asinine, but this one had an unexpectedly relatable passage in the middle: www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu... "I used to think I had the best job in the world. And now, well, I don’t know how to do the thing I used to feel (somewhat) competent at."

**Implementing Alternative Grading** The Center for Grading Reform and the RIOS Institute are hosting a six-week Learning Community on alternative grading. Participants will apply a structured approach in a course. Prior familiarity and a target course required. Starts May 5: bit.ly/48J4sMF

RIOS Learning Community Application: Implementing Alternative Grading

The Center for Grading Reform, in partnership with the RIOS Institute, is pleased to sponsor a Learning Community on Implementing Alternative Grading for post-secondary faculty. In this six week…

bit.ly

Absolutely heartbreaking. So many mathematicians I know studied there, men AND women. Maryam Mirzakhani studied there. If this isn't enough to cancel/relocate from the US the International Congress of Mathematicians #ICM2026, nothing will be.

Reza H. Akbari@rezahakbari.bsky.social · 4mo ago

American and Israeli missiles hit Sharif University in Tehran tonight. Often called #Iran’s MIT, the institution has been home to some of the country’s best and brightest minds in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics since 1966. 1/2

There are not "math people" and "not math people." School math represents a sliver of mathematics as a discipline, and there is a lot more in there that the so called "not math people" could really dig and be good at.

M. Nolan Gray 🥑@mnolangray.bsky.social · 4mo ago

What's something that experts/practitioners in your field universally agree upon, but that remains a "hot take" among the general public?

Mathematics lives inside our biggest social questions. Data, percentages, and models can inform—or divide—depending on how we see them. What might it mean to develop a shared mathematical lens that helps us reason, question, and find common ground? #MathEquity #iTeachMath #EduSky #Blusky

Elizabeth Warren@warren.senate.gov · 4mo ago

Today, I'm introducing my wealth tax — and more than 50 members of Congress are joining me. It’s time for the government to start working for American families, not just the ultra-rich.

More than 1,500 mathematicians are demanding that their field’s most prestigious meeting be moved from the U.S.

Why mathematicians are boycotting their biggest conference

More than 1,500 mathematicians are demanding that their field’s most prestigious meeting be moved from the U.S.

scientificamerican.com

"Leibniz wanted a much more algebraic, symbolic, notation-focused calculus [...]: 'I dare say that this is the last effort of the human mind, and when this project shall have been carried out, all that men will have to do will be to be happy.' I mean, he sounds like an AI hype guy or something."

Quanta Magazine@quantamagazine.org · 4mo ago

Mathematical notation is more than just a tool. David E. Dunning thinks it’s a social, world-building technology. www.quantamagazine.org/how-writing-...

Strong recommendation to teaching faculty to just say no to this stuff, even if you are AI curious/enthusiastic. This is meant to reduce faculty autonomy and capture human labor with automation. You're selling out your future self and the profession as a whole. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

Canvas Unrolls AI Teaching Agent

The new AI agent aims to save faculty time on “low-value tasks,” but stops short of fully automating grading. But some experts worry that the rise of agentic AI could lead to a dead classroom, where c...

insidehighered.com

"We need to think about cognitive fitness the way we think about physical fitness. There should be a simple rule for being a thinker in an age of AI: Don’t let AI write anything for you. Writing is to cognitive health what steps are to physical health." www.chronicle.com/article/is-a...

Is AI Making Us Stupid? Cal Newport Is Worried.

The Georgetown computer scientist on resisting the temptation to automate hard thought.

chronicle.com

I'm at this webinar right now about #RCV and Santa Claus just entered the chat !?!?

FairVote@fairvote.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Join us TODAY at 2pm ET for a deep dive into NYC's #RankedChoiceVoting primaries! During this webinar and Q&A session, you'll get on-the-ground insights and brand new analysis. Register now ⬇️

Great point about product vs. process in this book review on AI in education: "Learning requires critical engagement with productive failure," but "learners often mistake our intentions because education systems and our culture put so much emphasis on grades" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

My "Math, Revealed" series is freely available to anyone -- no paywall! -- in the thread below.

Whenever someone reports a percentage but not an absolute number, ask yourself why; whenever someone reports an absolute number but not a percentage, ask yourself why

Techdirt@techdirt.com · last yr.

Assaults On ICE Officers Are Up 700%… Which Just Means There Have Been 69 More Assaults Than Last Year The DHS finally decided to provide the underlying stats for its exponentially increasing claims of sky-high numbers of assaults on ICE officers. Earlier this year, DHS spokesperson Tricia…

"Next semester, do less that means more" Thinking about what this might mean for a calculus course. What can we do less of to make space for more meaningful learning experiences?

John Warner@biblioracle.bsky.social · last yr.

My recommendation for adjusting your pedagogy to accommodate the existence of LLMs is to focus down to the essence of the learning experience, rather than layering on more stuff. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

My 7-year-old has made up something she calls an "equation joke": Q: Why was 3 afraid of 5? A: Because 5 8 13! #TMWYK

My new #math series in the New York Times, "Math Revealed," is aimed at everyone, whether you love math or not. Have a look! You can read it here for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

In Taxicab Geometry, Pi Equals 4 and Circles Aren’t Round (Gift Article)

In the world of taxicab geometry, even the Pythagorean theorem takes a back seat.

nytimes.com

Today's example of Betteridge's Law of Headlines comes to us via the Boston Globe: Trump says Harvard is teaching ‘remedial mathematics.’ Is there any truth to that? www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/08/n... Explanation of Betteridge's Law: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteri...

We lament that students are disengaged from the important parts of learning and yet here are professors modeling the same kind of disengagement. Where does this end? I'm very sympathetic to the problems of too many students, not enough time. Those were the circumstances for my entire career.

...allowing an LLM to make your presentation from your notes is to actively avoid what is, in reality, part of the creation of that presentation. I've been doing a couple of these things a week since January and I can tell you that making the slides always always always results in changes.

2. But the more pernicious risk may be what I call "self-alienation" that is you gradually remove yourself from the experience of your job until you've entirely lost touch with what is and meaningful about this work. Processing student writing with an LLM is not the same thing as reading it...

1. Faculty who use LLMs for core aspects of their labor are inviting their own replacement. This is obvious and a cycle that will mirror what happened with adjunctification. You are showing you are unnecessary. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blog...

Great ready for faculty bot-ification

If we want there to be such a thing as college faculty, that is.

insidehighered.com

We are right at one month away from the 2025 Grading Conference (June 11--13), and have just posted the schedule. Check out all the amazing presentations we will have this year! www.centerforgradingreform.org/grading-conf...

The new pope has a BS in mathematics from Villanova, which explains how he was so successful at becoming the largest cardinal.