@Margaret, thanks for not being scandalized. Wish I could say the same for my dear old mom and dad.

Thank you so much for your work and passion. Bravo to you :)

Looking for feedback, in case you have to do this again? I suspect the biggest thing you could do to improve and do even better, next time, is to say about twice as much. If you re-watch the interview, you’ll notice that the interviewer is really carrying a lot of the load in the interview, and you give mostly short replies that answer the question asked concisely. Don’t restrict yourself to just answering the question asked: take the opportunity to digress a little. Conciseness is good, but instead of just a one-sentence answer, I think you could have given a two-sentence answer. In other words, after question you got asked, I think you could have given the one- or two-sentence answer you gave, then tack on one more sentence or two with a fun anecdote. Tell a little story, or give an example of the general point you just made, or say something about why your methods are meaningful to your kids or to you. It’s OK to use the interviewer’s question as just a jumping-off point: to answer the question, then bridge/segue to some related topic that you’re enthusiastic about. You can prepare before the interview some little stories or neat examples from your class, and have a few of them ready in your head, so that you can sprinkle them into the conversation.

By the way, if it makes you feel any better, I have exactly the same shortcoming: I’ve given live interviews on national TV, and I fell into the same pattern. I think it is for a few reasons: (a) I’m a geeky mathematician, and I’m trained to answer exactly the question asked, as precisely as possible, which means my instinct is to avoid any digression (which is not necessarily the right instinct here), (b) I’m super-aware that I have only a tiny time slot, and so I’m trying to be as concise as possible, (c) I find the experience totally stressful, and I don’t think or articulate well on my feet under time pressure. I don’t know whether any of that applies to you as well, but I mention in case it resonates.

Anyway, I think did a good job. Please don’t take any of this as criticism: I enjoyed your interview, and thought you came off very well! It’s great to see you get some exposure and recognition for your excellent work, and I hope it exposes more folks to the thought-provoking ideas on this blog.

The TED talk on penguins? Can that be made mathematical, like having students research or take info on the penguins and measure it, graph it, make statistical measurements on things like how many penguins die per year, etc.? Can it be made into some kind of algebraic formula, equation, or study?

This would be interesting to do, also bringing reading into math by having the students research the career that leads to someone doing decades long studies on penguins on an island – where does the money come from? What groups are interested? What college major is it? etc.

Kudos friend. I’ll watch cable news if you’re on.

And the backdrop? Where do you teach? Sky High Academy?