Karen Campe

Join us Sunday!
Math Routine Collaborative with @sneffleupagus.bsky.social @mathillustrated.bsky.social @mfannie.bsky.social and me!
#MTBoS #iTeachMath

An open letter to Grammarly and other plagiarists, thieves and slop merchants To everyone at Grammarly, I am writing a book right now, a really challenging endeavor that no doubt someone in Silicon Valley will think it’s fine to steal the day it’s published. I’ve been a profes...

I finally lost my shit about so-called AIs, LLMs, enshittification & everything fucking evil that @officialgrammarly.bsky.social is doing. I'm fucking furious, and not just about what 1 company has done. An open letter to Grammarly & the rest of the LLM hype machine www.moryan.com/an-open-lett...

Oh! And when we are starting logs, I emphasize how important it is to name the base, as in "log base 2 of 16" or "log base 10 of 1000" so I very well might say "log base e of e-squared"

I say "ell-en" as in L-N.
Never never never say "Lon" 🤦‍♀️
#iTeachMath

Math Links for Week Ending Mar 6th, 2026 Featured Links Our last episode of the season is where we ask all of the guests the same question and hear their response. This year we aske...

[New Post] Ontario Math Links - My favourite #math related links from this week:

ontariomath.blogspot.com/2026/03/math...

links and help from @karencampe.bsky.social @howiehua.bsky.social @veganjackson.bsky.social and more #MathChat #MTBoS #iTeachMath

I haven't seen any regular chats besides #ElemMathChat.
Nevertheless list of good convos on #iTeachMath, especially the #MathsToday folks (not US but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

I love The Phantom Toll Booth. Great read-aloud when my boys were younger.

Wow never heard of that one, fun!

Women Who Count: Honoring African American Women Mathematicians

@teakayb.mathsy.space there's an ebook available from American Mathematical Society.
bookstore.ams.org/view?Product...

Howie! great explainer !!
Also, it is a good reminder that saying "factor out the common factor of 2x+1" isn't necessarily meaningful to students... build a bridge from your sense-making sequence to the proper vocabulary & notation.
Thanks!
#iTeachMath

Here's a great book by my friend in Connecticut Dr. Shelly Jones
"Women Who Count: Honoring African American Women Mathematicians"

Yay, thanks for reminder to support!

Hmmmm ... 🤷‍♀️

So X = 10 and Y = 15, n = 25 and k = 23 check it works -->
165x + 166y = k•180
165•10 + 166•15 = 4140 = 23•180
A 25-gon can have angles only of 165° and 166°
Thanks Matt @unsolvedmre.bsky.social & David! @davidkbutler.bsky.social
#TryMathsLive

Cool! Let's turn that into slope-intercept form.
Except Y= yields yucky fractions w/denominator 14.
Instead do X= which gives
X = 360/15 – (14/15)Y
X = 24 – (14/15)Y

This will only give integer value of X if Y is a multiple of 15.
Y = 15 --> X = 24 – 14 = 10
Y = 30 --> X = 24 – 28 = -4 not poss

Found a "solution" and noticed immediately that the X, Y pair that yielded an integer quotient had the quotient X + Y... of course!
X + Y = N (number of sides) so
X + Y = k + 2
Combining that with 165x + 166y = k•180 gives
165x + 166y = (x + y – 2)•180
165x + 166y = 180x + 180y – 360
360 = 15x = 14y

So my sum of interior angles is
165x + 166y = k•180 for some integers x, y, and k.

Note that k = n-2 if n is number of sides, but I wanted simpler formula.

I used spreadsheet w/ cells for X, Y, 165x + 166y, & cell dividing that sum by 180.
Messed around to find an integer quotient in last cell.

Hi @davidkbutler.bsky.social , I waited til your #TryMathsLive was done before posting mine.
@unsolvedmre.bsky.social I really like this problem:

If a polygon only has two distinct interior angle sizes: 165° & 166°, how many sides does it have?

I begin with: sum of int <s is a multiple of 180°

Enjoy! Let us know your working-out thoughts here or on the post.

I almost had symmetry:
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️
⬜️🟩🟩🟨⬜️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
And a lot of misses!!!

^^ @stoodle.bsky.social do you want @suevanh.bsky.social to look this up for you?

I searched on @mathequalslove.bsky.social 's website and found this good set:

mathequalslove.net/category/pre...

#iTeachMath #MTBoS

Love the approach of beginning with the student experience.
And yes, double or triple the time it takes you to do it to estimate student time ... more if you intersperse discussion.
Thanks Fawn!

#iTeachMath #MTBoS

Glad you find them useful!!

That Voice In Your Head When I work with students one-on-one, I get a unique window into their thinking.  Everyone has a test this week, including several students who are taking the AP Calculus exam.  As we are preparing…

YES thanks. It's nice & concise, gets students going on problem-solving when they "don't know what to do". Good general framework for math & more.

I have a list of things I want my Ss to be thinking when they tackle problems, wrote about here:
karendcampe.wordpress.com/2017/05/10/t...
#iTeachMath

March Calendar Problems It is March, and spring can’t come quickly enough for my friends in the northeast US. No matter what the weather, I have the March 2001 Calendar of Problems from 25 years ago for your problem…

The March Calendar of Problems is here! Enjoy some #ProblemSolving yourself or with students. Let us know your thoughts & working-out here or on post.

#MTBoS #iTeachMath #T3Learns #RecreationalMath #MathSky #MathsToday

karendcampe.wordpress.com/2026/03/01/m...

Yes that is what I usually use... more reliable than creating "trinomial" factors to multiply.
(x – (-3 +i))(x – (-3 – i))

Wow great explainer!! ❤️ And no I never could figure out why slide and divide worked before now.
Thanks Howie!!
I used to use AC method, but now I use area model or systematic listing of factor pairs.

Can you say more?