Maria Positselskaya

Head of Curriculum in Funexpected Math

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

@abakcus

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

@abakcus

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

@Math_files

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

@PhilosophyOfPhy

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

@distnuel Did you know that the acceleration due to gravity is related to the number π? The connection appears in the formula for the period of small oscillations of a simple pendulum.

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

Did you know that today is Pi Day (3.14)? My congratulations!

It seems we managed to create a Pi Day event that is accessible even for very young children.

Suppose you have a bicycle wheel that is 1 foot tall.If you lay its tire out in a straight line, its length will be a little over 3 feet. That "little over 3" number is what we call Pi.This special number is hidden inside every circle in the world. That’s why Pi is so important to mathematicians!

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

Beautiful!

It’s interesting to ask for which values of n a similar traversal of the entire board is possible. For n less than 4, it’s obviously impossible. For odd n, a cyclic tour is impossible — the knight changes color with every move. But perhaps a non-cyclic tour might still exist?

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

My grandmother developed an addition and multiplication unit for one of the first Soviet computers. The machine occupied an area of about 200 square meters and could perform up to 2,000 operations per second. Data input was carried out using punched cards, and the output was printed on a printer.

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

@howie_hua I'll divide 360 by 4, it's 90. And half of 90 is 45.

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

@howie_hua

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

I think thinking itself is impossible without stereotypes, and of course any textbook is full of them.

In my view, stereotypes about countries should be tested on the people who live there: they should agree that the description simplifies reality, but does not distort it.

For example, it’s unlikely that Israelis would find it offensive or fundamentally wrong to say that in Israel Sunday is a working day, while on Shabbat shops are closed and public transportation doesn’t run. Of course, not all shops are closed — but as a first approximation, it’s fair.

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

Celebrating success is probably the most effective part of learning — the moment when a person realizes what they have actually achieved through all that effort, which вершины they have conquered.

At the end of 2025, everyone in our company made short presentations listing what they had accomplished during the year. It turned out to be a wonderful way to prepare for the holidays.

At a school where I used to work, we were implementing personalized learning. It was exhausting, because teachers had to design detailed achievement scales and create a huge amount of material to measure learning outcomes.

Back then, we started two optional weekly seminars. In one, we discussed mathematics close to the school curriculum — things like ideals in rings or the Chinese Remainder Theorem. In the other, we explored psychological and pedagogical articles (I especially remember a piece about vulnerability). And at the beginning of that psychology seminar, we had a “circle of successes and gratitude” — a few minutes when everyone could thank themselves and others for what had been achieved during the week.

I think children who are learning need something like this, too.

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

@sciencegirl Our app has a special event dedicated to Hanami — the contemplation of cherry blossoms.

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

Observation is underestimated as a pedagogical tool.

Once, a psychologist gave me an assignment: for half an hour, write down every word and sentence my little son said. I took a notebook and started recording — and I was amazed by the richness and variety of his speech. Neither before nor after that did I see such diversity; usually he limited himself to simple, necessary phrases.

A child who babbles does so out of a desire to move and experiment with sounds. But adults give those sounds meaning when they rejoice and say, “You said Mama!”

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and meaning is in the eye of the observer.

The greatest thing we can give our children is meaning.

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

At school, we used to make simple paper animations with two frames. You had to roll the top sheet of paper around a pen and move the pen quickly back and forth to hide and reveal the bottom layer.

The same animation principles are used in programs like Logo and Scratch to teach children coding.

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

@deepetanwar @sciencegirl Nice!

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

I used to work at a private school, and on St. Valentine’s Day we would place a mailbox in the lobby. Students could write something kind to a classmate, a teacher, or the principal. During recess, these letters were delivered by special “mail carriers” — two children from each class.

Students would write to us, “Thank you — because of you I finally understood how to add fractions,” and “I never thought electricity could be so fascinating.”

Of course, it required a lot of careful preparation from the tutors to make sure no child was left without a letter.

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

@sciencegirl I think St. Valentine’s Day is a good opportunity to promote inclusion in schools as well.

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

A few days ago, my mother-in-law developed a pain in her side. It was very painful for her to get up from a chair or from bed. We were sure it was something internal, because she hadn’t fallen or injured herself in any other way. She could easily walk up and down four flights of stairs — only the act of standing up from a seated position caused a problem.

Of course, it scared me — after all, an elderly person who can walk manages life much better than someone who is bedridden.

She insisted that I lift her up, but it seemed more important to “give her a fishing rod rather than a fish.” So I approached the situation as a pedagogical task.

I baked a cheesecake and invited her for tea — so the motivation issue was solved. She could sit up on the bed, but attempts to stand seemed rather hopeless because of the sharp pain. At the same time, many other movements, as well as complete rest, were entirely painless.

From my own experience practicing the Feldenkrais method, I knew how many different ways there are to solve the same movement problem. So we began experimenting.

My first idea — to push up using her arms on the healthy side — turned out to be wrong, because rotating the torso was also impossible due to pain. We tried many suggestions from ChatGPT, but nothing seemed to work.

Finally, I placed a chair in front of her and asked her to put her hands on the top of the backrest. Then I slowly began moving the chair forward. “As soon as it hurts, say stop,” I told her. But there was no pain, and I was able to move the chair quite far. Then I turned the chair so the seat faced the bed and suggested she lean her elbows on the seat. No problem at all. Rock her pelvis back and forth? Easily. Up and down? That turned out to be possible too.

I reminded her about the cheesecake once more and asked her to rock up and down and lift her pelvis up to stand. Then she straightened her torso and walked away. It turned out to be an effective and painless alternative. We placed objects of suitable height in the bathroom and near the chairs she usually sits on.

A few days passed, and her ways of standing up became more varied. Now she can lean her elbows on the table, push off her knees with her hands, or simply recall the right posture to initiate movement without pain.

The conclusions are familiar from any pedagogical task:
https://t.co/JnI0wqr5ov a person do it themselves — don’t do it for them.
2.Provide external supports instead of physical lifting.
3.Look for alternative ways to solve a task that initially fails.
4.Go through effort, not through pain. Effort strengthens muscles; pain makes them go into spasm.

[Maria Positselskaya @MariaPosicel]

A wonderful example of meaningful reading!

I would combine these heritage learning materials with writing down the child’s own stories. It’s also great to write letters or create little quests where the child has to read the clues independently.

From the traditional approach, I would take the best parts — which you are already doing. And I would give up correcting mistakes at the early stages of learning to write. If a child has written a fairy tale, the first thing to do is celebrate such an achievement. Maybe draw illustrations and turn the story into a little book.

If you keep this work of art in a desk drawer, then a year later you can revisit it and work on the grammar. And typing the text on a computer is no sin, in my opinion. That would make another book — a more professional one (though perhaps not quite as sweet).