Xi "CiCi" Yu
@xyu119.bsky.social
they/them math educator, dancer, designer co-creator of @playwyourmath.bsky.social with @joeykelly.bsky.social currently dissertating about magic × math × mom
And geometry logic problems about security guard or security camera coverage. #iteachmath #iteachmaths #mathsky
Rev. Dr. Everett Howe@ewhowe.com · 2mo agoMathematicians stop phrasing logic problems in terms of death row prisoners challenge. [Inspired by reading the current issue of an official publication of one of my professional societies.]
workshop w/ 2nd graders today. my colleague calls me over: Hey CiCi, the kids at this table want to ask you a question. A: Are you a boy or a girl? Me: Oh! That's a really great question. What do you think? B: I think you're a girl. A: I think you're a boy. C&D: I think you're a girl. 🧵1/9
at a grad student writing retreat where they just offered some boxes up front in case anyone wants to "voluntarily turn in their phone to help keep themselves accountable to working." 🩷 so tickled that this feels so diff fr the taking-phones-away-fr-children admin have teachers do in our classrooms.
on thurs, i defended my dissertation proposal and passed. i'm way deep into analysis/writing rn, so it was more of a formality and a lovely feedback session. despite, i'd still procrastinated big time & was captioning my last video clip on the bus ride there... here's to all the moms in it 🩷
poll for ppl w/ 2nd grader experience: do we let 2nd graders use glue guns in our makerspace activity? a) YES. if they burn, they'll learn! but pls say "glue squirters," not "guns." b) NO. lawsuit waiting to happen, or worse, crying children w burns that were your fault. c) other??
when you're headed to work to plan a 2nd grade making activity about pollinators and you've just put on a mask outside bc the irl pollen is out to take you down, THE IRONY IS NOT LOST ON YOU ... ah-choo
was co-planning w a teacher a project based off of @benjamindickman.bsky.social's "graph your name" activity. needed a provocation to get kids to start talking about names b4 graphing. this spoken word poem popped back into my head. how could i have forgotten! #mtbos www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvah...
Pages Matam, Elizabeth Acevedo & G. Yamazawa - Unforgettable
YouTube video by Button Poetry
youtube.com
i'm defending my diss proposal this thurs. starting on slides now and thought i'd dig up my first attempt at this... THREE YEARS AGO... omg how do ppl do academia for a living at this pace. title has changed, frameworks have changed, pronouns have changed, my mom has... changed.
this moment... i'd just asked my mom if the secret to a magic trick was brute force/practice, and she'd said yeah. long pause. she whispers/shows me the gimmick to the trick (it's not brute force; her mic still picks it up!), tells me not to write abt it, and then we both burst into laughter.
saw an ai-mediated professional modern dance performance at my local contemporary art museum this weekend. was deeply disturbed by it, not in a good way. i want to talk about it. not sure how to. i left the theater and opened my phone to the shooting stuff, so that was uh. interesting timing. 1/?
hot take: i'd rather be misgendered as "auntie" than be called the more accurate "pibling." esp. in the collective, e.g. "our aunties visited this weekend." i cannot stand the sound of "pibling" (for now).
i was kindly asked by my readers to tone down the grumpiness in my diss proposal... i just reread this, which i had written ages ago, but HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. yessss point taken. soooo grumpy. and sorry, toni morrison. 🩷
sometimes my mom says something in an interview, and i have NO IDEA what she is saying. yesterday, it was the first magic trick in a "set list." sounded like “ran3pe4." i try googling it. nothing. i send the clip to @yumemhx.bsky.social. she's stumped too!! huh. oh wait, i have another angle...
from a dear friend: "i think to get more followers, you should clarify that you're 'currently dissertating about magic x math x DEAD mom'" 😆😭
today's transcriptions: my mom talks me through her journal that she uses to plan magic tricks for each performance. at the top of each page is the date (starting in 1987), location, potential audience. then, a "set list" of tricks for that performance. i ask her about the strikethroughs.
in the middle of transcribing/translating my 4th hour of interviews with my mom (directly from spoken mandarin chinese to english). i keep struggling to find an english word for "师父/shifu" that is not "master." even though i'm pretty sure my mom meant it as "master."
hi. haven't known what to post here since i left twitter. i was in a good dissertation writing groove jan-mar this year, but lost it apr 1. i think i'll "memo" here as i work. ty for bearing with me as i try this out!!