Mahnaz Fazeli Mathblog

  The artwork we chose We chose Tom Verhoeff's Dear Cor Always Busy from the Bridges 2026 Math Art Gallery. The piece arranges the four words Dear, Cor, Always, Busy in all  4!=24 4!=24 possible orders, each word given its own colour. It looks like a poem, but every row is determined by a systematic rule. Our reproduction We reproduced the artwork by building it from scratch in LaTeX. We used the same four words, the same four colours (Dear = green, Cor = yellow, Always = blue, Busy = pink), and the same alphabetical ordering of the 24 rows. Reproducing the piece by hand taught us how easy it is to repeat a row or skip one, which is exactly why a systematic method is needed. Our extension We extended the artwork in two directions, asking two questions the original does not ask: Parity. If we count the number of inversions in each arrangement (pairs of letters that are out of alphabetical order), we can colour each row by whether its inversion count is even or odd. The result i...

 Reading through the history of math education, I had to pause a few times, realizing how closely teaching choices are tied to politics and culture.   My first stop was the 1960s "New Math" movement. Seeing how political panic over the Sputnik launch rushed hyper-abstract topics into classrooms without caring about everyday classroom realities opened my eyes to the dangers of top-down educational reforms.    My second stop was the "Math Wars" of the 1990s. Watching technical debates about inquiry-based learning and NCTM standards get dragged into political, partisan, and cultural fights made me see just how vulnerable math education is to polarization.    My third stop brought me face-to-face with widespread math phobia. Confronting this deep-rooted fear and the generational cycle of unprepared teachers reminded me that our biggest barrier isn't a bad textbook, but a pervasive culture of fear and avoidance

 

 My favourite mathematics teacher was my Grade 12 algebra teacher in high school, to whom I owe most of my mathematical knowledge. His teaching style was like dissecting a problem, breaking down every single step of the solution to explain the rationale, the underlying deep meaning, and its connection to subsequent concepts. Critical thinking was genuinely evident in his instruction, which fostered a dynamic classroom environment. The mastery they instilled in me has consistently benefited me in math-related subjects, especially physics. I wish him all the best! On the other hand, my least favourite math teacher was my grade 11 teacher, who treated mathematics as a rigid set of fixed algorithms that failed to apply if even a minor change was introduced to the problem model. I will never forget when she was teaching how to calculate the arc length of a circle given a central angle, where the formula is the radius multiplied by the angle in radians. The teacher insisted  that th...

  While reading Skemp's article, there were several points that caught my attention and made me reread it. I would like to point out three of them: First was when he talks about students who want instrumental learning and teachers who want to teach relationally. This situation is very familiar to me. During my years of teaching mathematics, I have tried as much as possible to convey the deep meaning and concept to the student, rather than just the blind use of formulas. Therefore, I understood with all my heart the teacher's frustration and despair described in this section, knowing that a student just wants to cling to a formula like a lifebuoy in the middle of the sea and cares about nothing else .  Second, when modern mathematics was discussed, and the idea that if it is going to be taught instrumentally, the traditional syllabus is better taught instead . This part made me think; I had never looked at it from this perspective before. Although traditional syllabi, combined ...

 Hello all, So excited to start this inspiring journey!