Hello, Mathematicians!

When I write emails to students and their families, I have started using the salutation,
“Hello, Mathematicians and Families of Mathematicians!”  I now do this every time.  Every single
time.  It may sound simple, but I do this for 3 reasons.  First, it is sounds very friendly...and
that is what I am going for:-)  Second, I am addressing mathematicians as well as their families,
so I am interested in being very accurate with my words...we math teachers tend toward precision.
Third, it is a signal to the students, their families and myself that I am the teacher of
mathematicians.  I am the teacher of 24 mathematicians that are able to see things in different
ways, have a wide variety of experiences and lots of diverse strengths, all of which they bring to
the table when studying math.  

My friends who are math teachers...and I have a lot of them at Medfield Public Schools...all agree
on one thing:  Mathematics is about patterns.  Somehow, we gain happiness from noticing patterns,
especially if they involved numbers.  I discovered a math teacher on Twitter over the summer:
Sara Van Der Werf.  She writes in her blog that part of her speech to her students on the first
day of math class involves saying the following:

“The first thing mathematicians do is notice patterns...
Everyone has the ability to notice patterns.  Everybody...
The 2nd thing mathematicians do is describe patterns...
You can describe it any way that makes sense to you....
The 3rd thing mathematicians do is to generalize patterns...
Mathematicians notice, describe and generalize.”

Well, Sara, I couldn’t agree more.  Our #MedfieldMath students notice patterns, describe
patterns and generalize patterns every day in math class.  Their work is amazing and they are all
mathematicians!