Gene's Corner Overview

A Change of Scenery

Since it's inception over a decade ago, I've used Gene's Corner to express my views about mathematics education-views that evolved over a half century of teaching mathematics and a quarter century of developing teaching materials.

Just as my views about mathematics education changed over time, so have my views about mathematics. I no longer see mathematics as I saw it when I first began teaching or, before that, as a mathematics student. What I intend to do in the next five years of Gene's Corner, or however long it takes, is to describe elementary mathematics as I now see it, especially those topics that are normally taught in elementary school.

A Play on Numbers

The pictures that come to my mind when I think about various topics are the result of my effort to develop a cohesive view of elementary mathematics that could inform my teaching and writing and provide me with a coherent story line. Some of these pictures may be familiar to you-many of them have found their way into Math Learning Center materials or have been adapted from other sources.

My intention is to present my views as a sequence of scenes, with commentary, that will appear in Gene's Corner; past scenes to be archived as new scenes arise. I intend for a new scene to appear every two or three weeks, although I make no promises in this regard.

The pictures one has of mathematical constructs is a personal matter. Some may have pictures that differ from mine, or no pictures at all. Whatever the case, I hope this series of mathematical vignettes helps others, especially those who teach elementary mathematics, develop their own mathematical views.  View A Play on Numbers »

Gene's Writings

Dr. Maier's previous series of essays have been collected in the Article Archive.