Who is making a living in mathematics that isn't a classroom teacher?

[Sol]

Hi Everyone,

I sent the question below to a number of my LinkedIn contacts and it
was suggested to me to start a discussion here. My interest is in
making a living in the world of Math and I'm looking for not only
ideas but also for inspiration from folks already making a living in
Math 2.0 or in other Math-related endeavors.

Thanks very much.

Sol
______________________________________________________________________________________

What kinds of opportunities are available to connect companies that
make innovative math puzzles, games, books, software and other
products with the people who buy them?

My first love is mathematics, especially in how the right learning
environment can inspire kids and adults to enjoy math. I've been
enjoying various volunteer opportunities that I've created where I
explore math with folks in a way that they get to have Aha! moments
and I love that.

Now I want to monetize my passion and I'm looking for ideas on how to
do that. Some that come to mind are:

1. Represent companies with great math learning products at trade
shows.
2. Create and sell videos that demonstrate my unique approach to
inspiring a love of math.
3. Teach paid classes with homeschool students.
4. Lead workshops in the art of mathematical thinking.
5. Write for publications that cover the educational product market.
6. Sell PR service to companies in the math product niche. (I have
good social network skills, a very popular math blog, and a good
number of contacts in the recreational and educational math world.)
______________________________________________________________________________________

[Alexander Bogomolny]

For those who do not know, Sol is running one of the best math blogs - Wild About Math, where you can find more information about his activities.

Alex

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[Ihor Charischak]

Sol-
Any chance you will be in Indianapolis for NCTM? Hanging out at my booth would a good place to explore possibilities.
-Ihor

Ihor Charischak
CLIME - Booth #326 Indy NCTM conference
Council for Technology in Math Education
Website: http://clime.org
Blog: http://climeconnections.blogspot.com

[Sol]

Hi Ihor,

I don't know that I can justify the expense of a trip to IN right now
but perhaps we can have a virtual cup of tea together!?

You do raise the point that attending relevant conferences would be a
great way for me to learn what the needs are.

I'm in Santa Fe so Albuquerque, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, and Salt
Lake City are accessible to me. Can you, or others, recommend
conferences I can attend that would connect me with the right people
for my exploration?

Thanks.

Sol

[Maria Droujkova]

• Curriculum development
• Social media and online platform consulting
• Gamification consulting

Cheers,
Maria Droujkova

Make math your own, to make your own math.

 

[Bradford Hansen-Smith]

Sol, thirty years ago in Santa Fe I started to explore the geometry of pattern formation. Ten years of work brought me to realize it all goes back to the circle that has origin in spherical compression and when folded decompresses all the patterns, geometry, math, and art stuff which we are traditionally familiar, and much that is unfamiliar. So now for twenty years I have been going into schools working with kids at all grade levels and giving teacher workshops about folding circles. Over the years I have written seven books about the process and discoveries from folding circles and sell them at math, art and home school conferences. I travel extensively doing workshops for many home school groups and conferences. This has allowed me to make a living in this strange world of mathematics and become involved in the confused world of education without having to become a classroom teacher.   The six points you have listed below are good directions and in combination have potential to support you to move forward in your passion. Often in a classroom or workshop I suggest the only place to start anything is where we are right now, which then initiates a good discussion about, “where are we?” And wouldn’t you know it, we have already begun.   Brad Bradford Hansen-Smith Wholemovement 4606 N. Elston #3 Chicago Il 60630 www.wholemovement.com wholemovement.blogspot.com/ facebook.com/wholemovement --- On Fri, 3/11/11, Sol <sol.le...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Ihor Charischak]

Hi Sol,

> I don't know that I can justify the expense of a trip to IN right now
> but perhaps we can have a virtual cup of tea together!?

That would be great. Let's plan to do it! I'll keep you posted on details as we get closer to the conference.
-Ihor

Ihor Charischak
CLIME

[Maria Droujkova]

You can also look through the list of presenters at http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/events to see what people are doing. For example, tomorrow we have a story about math clowning. People from MoMath work full time on organizing a math museum. Colleen King and Amanda Serenevy direct math centers full time.

Cheers,
Maria Droujkova

Make math your own, to make your own math.

 

[Colleen King]

Hi Sol,

If you establish a math learning center in your community, you will be able to simultaneously do many of the other things you outlined:

- Create and sell videos that demonstrate my unique approach to inspiring a love of math.
- Teach paid classes with homeschool students.
- Lead workshops in the art of mathematical thinking.
- Write for publications that cover the educational product market.
- Sell PR service to companies in the math product niche.

While you may not earn a satisfactory income from any single path, you will likely experience a synergistic effect. Over time, you can evaluate which areas are most fulfilling, in terms of both salary and personal satisfaction, and allocate your time and energy accordingly.

Good luck!

Colleen

--

[Juan]

Hi, Sol,

I find your question very interesting, since it's about monetizing
math-related activities. I would ask for a little clarification
regarding the "monetizing" part, because you can make many an
arbitrary distinction between "earning a living" and "making money."
Being a classroom math teacher has long been a classic solution for
many people, as far as earning a living, although some would argue
that hardly qualifies as "making money."

Trying to put these two ("doing math-related activities" and "making
money") together seems kind of tricky but obviously there are very
successful examples, like the Wolfram brothers, of Mathematica fame;
or the creators of Google, with a narrower, more specific application
of math (search).

For many math teachers, math is the easy part, while making money is
the hard one. This reminds me of a quote by the late Jim Rohn, the
grandfather of personal development gurus, who said: "In high school,
if they had offered Wealth 1, Wealth 2, I would have taken both
classes!"

For some people in the Forbes list, math is the hard part but they are
geniuses at making money without doing much math themselves. As John
D. Rockefeller Sr. put it: "You do not need to worry about the
science, you can always hire a scientist."

Now, the reality I see is the vast majority of people in this world
find math hard; and find making any money beyond earning a decent
living, also hard. Please keep me posted, and let me know of any
avenue you find in your quest for monetizing math-related activities,
because I would be very interested in exploring those possibilities,
and possibly participating in a promising project in that direction.
Currently I am about 4 years down the math tutoring path, and always
open to considering new ideas.

Juan Castaneda

[kirby urner]

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 6:42 AM, Sol <sol.le...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I sent the question below to a number of my LinkedIn contacts and it
was suggested to me to start a discussion here. My interest is in
making a living in the world of Math and I'm looking for not only
ideas but also for inspiration from folks already making a living in
Math 2.0 or in other Math-related endeavors.

Thanks very much.

Sol

Hi Sol --

Your strong reputation appears to precede you and that's already good news in terms of developing these relationships.

Here in Portland, Oregon, the Silicon Forest (nickname for our computer industry) and nanotechnology worlds (ONAMI etc.) have helped sponsor an education nonprofit that isn't afraid to experiment with new approaches.  

Through them, I've been able to pioneer some of the ideas I write about here on mathfuture.  

saturdayacademy.org is their web site and my guess is this business model would have application in any number of regions, regardless of whether it's an "open source capital" (one of Portland's claims to fame, aside from being the butt of Portlandia jokes).

In Sonoma county (northern CA), I discovered an experimentally minded group with ties to the University of Illinois and the late Jerry Uhl.  I don't know what you think about Mathematica, but it's certainly a powerful learning tool when not abused.

At this recent business meeting of OST I discovered Peter Scott, author of the Perl track (I'm a teacher on the Python track). 

http://blog.oreillyschool.com/2010/09/new-ost-course-perl-2-intermediate-perl-by-peter-scott.html

(does math include these many machine-executable notations?  Kenneth Iverson thought so.  Are philosophers hold us back?)

Peter is a big fan of Heinlein, the science fiction writer, and shared about this conference he'd helped organize on 07.07.07.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/5487535823/in/set-72157626171714852/

I bring that up because I think folks at science fiction conferences are among the more open minded and futuristic, when it comes to thinking about new ways to learn and teach math.

Go an mingle, give a talk?

I connect to the science fiction crowd myself, when teaching Martian Math for the above academy.

http://www.4dsolutions.net/satacad/martianmath/toc.html

Also at this same Sonoma meeting: Bruce Carpenter, one of the pioneer calculus w/ Mathematica teachers.  

He shared about his early fascination and love for Martin Gardner's columns.  

Your self-description suggests you fall into this camp.  Have you seen ViHart's Youtube's then?  I think most of us have.

I hadn't seen this one yet:  http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart#p/u/0/Gx5D09s5X6U

Bruce himself is a master puzzler.  

There's a bridge between math and stage magician you may also wish to explore, not forgetting The Turk (science fiction in its day).  

"Who was The Turk?"  Buzzzz.  "Your answer, Watson?"

Welcome aboard,

Kirby

related urls

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica/browse_thread/thread/606e9d087add4f0b?pli=1

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/author.html?author=Bruce+Carpenter

http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2005/12/heptagons.html

http://desmoines.metromix.com/movies/essay_photo_gallery/week-in-tv/2459249/photo/2460419

[Andrius Kulikauskas]

Sol,

It's great to learn of you. Thank you for asking!

I want to make a living in math, or especially, in sharing and
documenting "ways of figuring things out", as I am at
http://www.selflearners.net/ways/ I'm also collecting material for a
book and learning materials for adult self-learners of basic math,
http://www.gospelmath.com/Math/DeepIdeas

I think it would be great if you and I and others might help organize
all who wish to make a living from such activities. I myself am keen to
focus on those who are contributing to a Commons, especially material in
the Public Domain, that all can build on. If we highlight such
contributors, and keep encouraging such contributions, then we might get
to know each other and recommend each other for:
* tutoring and teaching in our local areas
* promoting existing learning materials
* working together to create new learning materials
* working together to get funding for such work

I'm very happy for Maria Droujkova's work to bring us together at Math
Future. I'm learning of others who are likewise organizing. What sites
should I be aware of?

I think that wealth is relationships and we create wealth by including
those who are out of the loop.

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
http://www.selflearners.net
m...@ms.lt
(773) 306-3807
@selflearners