What is r? Why am I looking for it?
It started with my blog. Not this one – the other one: Rethinking the Third R. It’s where I write about math education and things closely related to math education. This, however, is much broader in its scope.
Since I am an educator at heart, I tend to think about “r” in two ways. The first involves the work around the new three r’s: rigor, relevance, and relationships.1 In my life, I’m looking for all of these. Rigor is what makes me think, a challenge to use the knowledge I’ve collected to do something more; life would be so boring if all I had to do was remember facts all day. Relevance gets me up in the morning – it makes life worth living. And relationships are the key to all of this – indeed, “the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.”2
The other way that I think about “r” is likely a result of my mathematics background. In statistics we use r to represent Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient, a measure of the relationship and interaction between two variables. Although r cannot tell us the cause of the relationship, it says a lot about the strength of the relationship.
To summarize, when I’m looking for r, I might be looking for any or all of the following:
- Rigor – things that challenge me and make me think about what I know in new or different ways;
- Relevance – opportunities to apply the thinkgs I’ve learned;
- Relationships – with family, friends, and others; or
- Interactions between the variables in my life, and finding balance.
Who am I?
My name is Matt Christiansen. I am a husband to Julie and father to three beautiful children. I’m currently working as the editorial director for math for Sopris West Educational Services; a technology nut; and an advocate for improving mathematics education everywhere. I have a math education blog and enjoy writing about things that are important and relevant to me.
Our family actively participates in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I fulfilled a two-year mission in Perth, Australia from 1996 to 1998.
I recently concluded two years of service as the annual conference co-chair (with my friend Ann Summers) for the Colorado Council of Teachers of Mathematics. If you want to know more about my professional life, take a look at my curriculum vita.
Feel free to email me: mattc [at] q [dot] com.
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1For example, see the work of Willard Daggett at the International Center for Leadership in Education.
