A Fork in the Road
April 26, 2012 | 
Author Our Pillar of Knowledge
The Math Guru presents…
Our Pillar of Knowledge!
That’s right kids. Starting RIGHT NOW, we will be awarding 3 students per week, with a much-coveted spot on our Pillar of Knowledge! Each Friday, we will announce all of the nominees for the week. Sunday night, we will announce the winners ~ and Lindsay will reveal her epic awards in fluorescent-sticky-note form!
Awards for WHAT you ask? Awesomeness. Straight up.
Let’s get this party STARTED!
This week’s nominees are…
Steven D: Dude got accepted to 7 universities, including his top choice!
Nikki G: Aw yeah – 100% on her quiz!
Jennie M: Increased her mark by…44%! Actually.
Sawyer L: Buddy actually did his homework! (2 years later…)
Maliya K: 100%. 100%. 100%!
Shannon M: Girl finally showed her teacher who’s boss ~ and was legit excited about it!
Aight. Stay tuned for this week’s winners…Sunday!
vv
Graphing Made Awesome. The Sequel.
- Friends don’t let friends use ugly graph paper.
So you’re in class, trying to copy down your teacher’s notes from the board, and you’re like ‘OMG, I really want to copy down this GRAPH but I ain’t got no graph paper.’ So you try to draw a grid on your page buuuuuuut the scale is all messed up and your parabola looks more like a lopsided grin than a perfectly symmetrical smile, and your x-intercepts are WHACK, and all you can think about is how AWESOME it would be if you could just magically make a coordinate grid appear RIGHT in the middle of your page so that you could just straight up ACCURATELY plot those (x,y) points, you know?!
WELL. I hear you bro. Bigtime. THAT’S why I created THESE. AWESOME. STICKY GRAPHS!
They stick RIGHT into your notes – no graph paper necessary EVER AGAIN. BOOYAH.
Grab ‘em!
Small but Sweet ~ 3″x3″ ~ 50 Sheets ~ $2/pad!
HotHOT XY ~ 4″x4″ ~ 50 Sheets ~ $3/pad!
If you want to purchase these bad boys online ~ I’m happy to mail them out! Email me at vanessa@themathguru.org and we’ll talk details!
peace.love.pi.
v!
Posted in Education, Math, Math Tutoring | 
Tags: math, math education, math teaching, math tutoring, mathrocks, mathsupplies, pretty lecture notes, school supplies | 
No Comments »
Sh*t Calculators Say
Yep. I went there. Believe it.
“Math is a universal language, but our kids aren’t learning how to speak it”
I just wanted to draw attention to a great article that Maclean’s published this week.
It’s ridiculous that what curriculum developers are calling ‘progress’ is actually fully screwing kids over. Rote learning (drills in order to absorb math facts such as multiplication tables, addition, fractions, etc) is necessary in certain cases. While it may be boring – it’s been proven to work time and time again!
It’s also completely ridiculous that teachers, responsible for teaching math at the elementary level – a crucial level for building a mathematical foundation upon which students are expected to build upon – require minimal math knowledge.
This quote says it all: “If they don’t know their math facts, she says, they won’t be able to do fractions, which means they won’t be able to handle algebra, which means calculus is out, which means they can’t be engineers, doctors, pharmacists, economists, programmers, or any discipline that requires math, including skilled tradeswork. But one thing they can become? Teachers, who can go through the system with minimal math training and arrive in class expected to inspire children to create and conceptualize their own mathematical knowledge”
Totally worth the read ~ click here to check it out!
Have your pi(e), and eat it too!
Okay, let’s get serious. Remember about a week ago, when you all thought I was whack for getting all crazy about Treasure (P)island? Well, whatever. It’s ALL happening RIGHT NOW. We just entered our epic creation into the ultimate Pi Day Baking Challenge. We can legit win an ipad. IF YOU VOTE FOR US!
Click here to check out details of the behind-the-scenes madness that happened at our Pi Day Partayyyy ~ and to vote! Hey, it’ll only take like, 3.14 seconds of your time…do it!
(Sidenote: If you’re having trouble finding our entry, sort by recent entries, and look for a blue, colourful pic. Yay us!)
peace.love.pi.
Imagining A World Where Paris Hilton Loves Mathematics: Published!
Ever wonder it might be like if celebs promoted the awesomeness of math, rather than like, the awesomeness of acting ditzy, wearing no clothes, and sloppy partying? Well, I do ~ So I wrote an article about it. Imagining A World Where Paris Hilton Loves Mathematics was just published in Power and Education, and you can check it out here! If you don’t feel like subscribing, email me at vanessa@themathguru.org and I’ll send you the article for FREE!
~ peace.love.pi. ~
Posted in Discourse, Education, Femininity, Geek Chic, Gender, Popular Culture | Tags: femininity, genderandeducation, girlsandmath, matheducation, mathematicseducation | No Comments »
If You Want Respect, You Gotta Give It Back.
Who doesn’t get straight up pissed off about the double standard that seems to exist when it comes to respect? Why is it that teenagers are supposed to ‘respect their elders,’ but that they should be a-okay with the fact that adults treat them like crap? Not this kid. Listen to one of The Math Guru’s fave students, Sawyer, rant – that’s what he does best.
vv
Posted in Popular Culture, Uncategorized | Tags: give and tak, life adviec, rant, teen, teenagers vs adults, words of wisdom | No Comments »
Treasure (P)island: The Final Product!!!
- 15 pies’ worth of crust. 15 pies’ worth of pumpkin/pecan filling. 25 kids’s worth of creativity and enthusiasm. You do the math!
Okay, I know. You’ve all been sleepless allllll weekend, WAITING for a pic of the epicness that took place this weekend. Well folks, eat your hearts out. Literally.
That’s right. Lindsay and I stayed up all night Friday, and legit made 15 pies worth of pie crust, THEN filled it with a layer of pumpkin pie filling, THEN a layer of pecan pie filling…and then…and THEN…the ACTUAL epicness began.
Seriously, we cannot beLIEVE the creativity of these crazy kids. Turtles, beach balls, a sunburnt fat dude with an ice cream cone, banana trees, a volcano, fish, sailboats, a (pi)rate skull & crossbones…like, total insanity. Speechless over here. (And not just because my mouth is STILL FILLED WITH PI(E)!)
Ya, my floor MAY be totally covered in fondant and corn syrup and sparkly-unidentifiable-potentially-edible things, but it was SO WORTH IT!
Now it’s time to win the Serious Eats Pi Day Baking Challenge! Stay tuned for our huuuuuuge blog post, which will detail how this madness went down, who was involved, and how to cast your vote to help us WIN AN iPAD!
Posted in Education, Geek Chic, Uncategorized | Tags: 314, baking contest, geek, math, nerd, pi, pi day | No Comments »
Help Us Win An ipad with Pi(e)!
Okay, yes March = March Break.
But to ME, March means that…PI DAY IS COMING UP! For those of you who think I’m crazy, pi day is a legitimate thing, and occurs on March 14th (get it?! 3.14?!). Unfortunately, this falls over the break this year, BUT that won’t stop us from celebrating!
This Saturday March 3rd, from 2:30-5:30pm we are concocting Treasure P(island) for an epic Pi Day contest! That’s right. We’re building a pi shaped island – out of PIE. AND WE NEED YOUR HELP! We would love LOVE for y’all to drop in between those hours, and be a part of it, by creating a little something to add to our creation ~ we will have candy, calculators, and sparkly edible things ~ all enthusiastic friends/family are totally welcome to join!
So, to recap:
When: THIS Saturday March 3rd
When exACTly: 2:30-5:30
Where: The Math Guru
Who: The awesome crew at The Math Guru, you, and anyone you want to bring – as long as they don’t make fun of us!
Why: Um, hello! Because who DOESN’T want to help build a pi shaped island OUT OF PIE?! Oh, and we could win an ipad. NBD.
What: Come over. I have candy. You have an artistic vision (slash: enthusiasm). A Match made in math heaven.
See you Saturday ~ v!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: 314, baking contest, math, math contest, math party, pi, pi day, serious eats | 2 Comments »
