# Top ten numbers of 2011

In numerical order:

1. $\frac {1}{4}$.
I argued with reader Sean and with Common Core writer Bill McCallum this year about whether it made any sense at all to think of 0.5 miles in 15 minutes as a complex fractional unit rate: $\frac {\frac {1}{2}} {\frac {1}{4}}$ miles per hour. Sean and Bill were pro; I was con.
2. $\frac {1}{1}$.
Not “one over one”…”one oneth”. I had a really nice office hour conversation with a future elementary teacher about her always wondering where the oneths place is, and never really getting a satisfactory answer. She got that answer in office hours and I meant to get to it in class as well. Never did.
3. e.
Having worked very, very hard on the topic of logarithms this year, I have convinced myself that e has no business being in the curriculum prior to Calculus-or that if it does, it needs to be accompanied by some more serious intuitive work on limits at infinity than is presently standard.
4. 4.
In the words of the great Mariachi El Bronx, I currently have “four different lovers”. My college, Connected Math, a regional MSP grant and a local charter school. With four different lovers and forty-eight roses, I need a confessional that never closes. Seriously, check out Mariachi El Bronx.
5. 13.
My daughter, Tabitha (4), skipped right over this all autumn long.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/23543459]
On a daily basis she would ask me, “Want to see how high I can count?” Perfect to 12 every time; skipped right to 15, then a random assortment of teens before going straight to 21.
6. 31.
Minnesota state standards call for Kindergarteners to count to 31. I have never understood this. If you can get to 31, surely you can get to 39, right?
7. 39.
Tabitha counted perfectly to 39 yesterday. She’s in public pre-K.
8. 100.
Common Core State Standards expect Kindergarteners to count to 100. This strikes me as a more demanding, but equally peculiar milestone to Minnesota’s 31. One-hundred ten would be more meaningful; far enough to establish patterns past 100.
9. @!!!.
In my math content courses for future elementary and special ed. teachers, we have finally named our number system’s first four-digit number. We have agreed that it is flap. Long story. Read my place value posts and shoot me a comment if you are at all interested.  If you must know, @!!!=625. But @!!! is like 1,000.
10. 10,000.
After meeting Dan Meyer in February and having him link to my site the next week, I started to gain a readership. Ten-thousand page views felt like a remarkable milestone, which I reached in May.

### 5 responses to “Top ten numbers of 2011”

1. Seth

Christopher – which charter school?

2. Christopher

See here, Seth.

3. How about 2012 itself? I was just telling my teachers yesterday that it’s going to be a great year becuase 2012 has so many factors compared to, say, 2011.

And it’s been a satisfyingly square and yet round 25 years since 1987, the Year of the Home Run and a number that sort of rolls off the tongue.

Finally, 2012 is not only a presidential election and Summer Olympics year but it’s also the Year of the Dragon. We haven’t seen it since the millemium and well, that was overrated to say the least.

4. Meg

The video of Tabitha reminds me of the “you cooked her nines!” quote from Man with Two Brains. If only my nieces were four again! Too cute.