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Mark Trushkowsky

@marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
186 followers 194 following 132 posts

math, teaching, adult education, numeracy, music, movies, gardening, play, beauty

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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
A little something I like to revisit this time of year. When I read this in 1998, I had no idea bell hooks was welcoming me to the adult basic education class I found myself teaching in 2001, in a community where I felt whole and where I belonged, two feelings that were novel to me at the time.
"The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom." 

bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Gorgeous sashiko stitching (hitomezashi & moyōzashi) at the Minnesota State Fair.
An indigo blue jacket embroidered with intricate white geometric stitching, displaying a first-place blue ribbon from the Minnesota State Fair.A close-up view of dark indigo jacket with intricate hand-stitched patterns in white thread, including geometric flowers and swirling water-like designs.A large framed fabric panel with two dozen of square sections, each demonstrating a unique geometric pattern made of white stitching on dark cloth.
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Beautiful quilts from this year’s Minnesota State Fair 1/3
A dark quilt with a vibrant diamond pattern with sharp contrasting, bright yellow, orange, red, and blue patterned fabrics.A colorful modern quilt made of mismatched fabric rectangles in a vibrant grid pattern. A blue award ribbon hangs in the upper right.A quilt with a diamond pattern made of blue and off-white fabric triangles that convey a sense of movement.A brilliant geometric quilt made of light aqua, dark teal, navy blue, and white fabrics in a repeating diamond design.
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Phyllotaxis spirals in the leaves and buds of some hollyhock. #ANNMath #plantmath #rehumanizingmathematics #MTBoS
An aerial view of a hollyhock plant, in which you can see new leaves growing at an angle from the previous one in a way that allows them to “fill in the space.”An aerial view of another hollyhock plant, in which you can see new leaves growing at an angle from the previous one in a way that allows them to “fill in the space.”An aerial view of another hollyhock plant, in which you can see new leaves growing at an angle from the previous one in a way that allows them to “fill in the space.”An aerial view of the buds of hollyhock plant, in which you can see new buds growing at an angle from the previous one in a way that allows them to “fill in the space.”
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
I love this part.
A garden bed of lettuces and porchulaca. Swiss chard and a few varieties of kale. 
Squash plantsBed of seedlings, including tomatoes, peppers (ancho, shishito, king of the north), tomatillos (milpa), cucumbers,
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Learned a new word today. Last week I led some folks in an exploration of probability w/ a game of roller derby, where you roll 2 dice and look at the sum. Looking at our results—w/ its messy but triangular distribution & that tower of 7s—I’m calling it a Punktlandung. #ANNMath #MTBoS #ITeachMath
A hand-drawn tally chart tracking the sums of rolling two dice from 2 to 12. The tallies form a rough, messy triangular distribution, with a massive column for the number 7 that tower over the rest of the numbers, shooting completely out of the top of the grid.
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
A literacy crisis means people are struggling to UNDERSTAND what they are reading, not that people can't necessarily read.
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Super excited about the new instructional routine I recently learned that develops data literacy, spatial reasoning, estimation skills, and a conceptual understanding of part-to-whole relationships - Paper Plate Circle Graphs! adultnumeracynetwork.org/Instructiona... #ANNMath #MTBOS #ITeachMath
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
1/n Got to do Countries In Our Closet data activity from @terc-stem.bsky.social EMPower book, Many Points Make A Point. Step 1: Create a graph showing the countries where our clothing was made. What do you notice? What do you wonder? #ANNMath #MTBoS #ITeachMath #statisticalliteracy #data
A graph with columns of post-its stacked over various country names.
Honduras - 5 post-its
China - 6
Thailand - 4
Vietnam - 7
Jordan - 1
India - 3
Pakistan - 1
Bangladesh - 3
Madagascar - 1
Mauritius - 1
Cambodia - 1
Korea - 1
USA - 4
Sri Lanka - 4
Indonesia - 2
Mexico - 2
Guatemala - 1
Germany - 2
Nicaragua - 1
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
It was too bad the the game was called, but what a sky.
Swirling storm cloudsDark swirling storm cloudsDark swirling storm clouds over a softball field
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Say hello to some of my little friends…
A patch of purple irisesPurple indigoPurple tulipPink peony
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
I know you are @triangleman.bsky.social, but I saw all these irregular pentagonal columns outside the MN Aurora game and thought of all you’ve given me to think about over the years. Thank you!
Waist high, irregular pentagonal column made of stoneWaist high, irregular pentagonal column made of stoneWaist high, irregular pentagonal column made of stoneWaist high, irregular pentagonal column made of stone
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Once again, a simple set-up yielded many questions and ribbit holes… ahem, rabbit holes, to explore. Super fun Community of Adult Math Instructors (CAMI) meeting on this swapping frogs problem! nyccami.org/ribbit/ #ANNMath #ITeachMath #MTBoS #AdultEdu
What do you notice? What do you wonder?

On the top row, there are two pink frogs facing right and two blue frogs facing left, with a single space between them. The frog pairs are facing towards each other. 

On the bottom, there are two blue frogs on the left, still facing left, and two pink frogs facing right, with a single space between them. The frog pairs are facing away from each other.
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Wedge LIVE!™ @wedge.live · 03/03/2026
"I fear some [council members] are indifferent." Have you paid someone's rent, organized a fundraiser, gone on patrol, found someone an attorney, done someone's laundry, delivered groceries, held a baby of someone sheltering in fear? "If not you may be too far removed to have good judgment."
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
"Aside from the internment camps used to incarcerate Japanese Americans in the 1940s, such facilities have no precedent in American history..." US Conference of Catholic Bishops statement on Trump's new mass prison camps. Full statement at the link: www.usccb.org/news/2026/th...
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
We did a fraction talk at @adultnumeracy.bsky.social Instructional Routine Club today. #ANNMath #Iteachmath #MTBoS
Text: What fraction of this shape is red? How do you know? How else do you know?

Image: a trapezoid composed of 5 different pattern blocks. Two pink right triangles are arranged to create an equilateral triangle that can be seen as one-third of the area of the trapezoid. A large green triangle in the middle of the trapezoid has the same area as the pink. A third triangle is composed of a red trapezoid and a smaller green triangle. The red trapezoid and small green triangle together have the same area as the pink triangles and as the large green triangle.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
"I'm too old for this imperial shit" - Black Skin, White Masks
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Rachel Widome @rwidome.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Sign made of plywood propped up in a telephone pole by the street. It has ‘We won’t forget what you did. Abolish ICE.’
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Rachel Widome @rwidome.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Plywood sign on sidewalk says, ‘3000 neighbors stolen ICE OUT everywhere’
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
This is lovely. #sidewalkmath #rehumanizingmathematics #mathforidentityandbelonging
A photo of a sidewalk with two circles. Each circle has six smaller circles inside, colored (clockwise from 3 o’clock) blue, purple, teal, red, pink, yellow. In the center of each circle is a pair of bare footprints. Between the two larger circles are the words “mirror me”
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Some friends and I were wondering if these dystopian days will bring about the end of asking each other, “how are you doing?” and it brought me back to these nurturing & sustaining questions, gifted by @teachnexttmb.bsky.social as a better way.
A screenshot of a thread with the following questions:

On the water front -
Are you having enough to drink today? Do you need anything to wash and clean? Can I help replenish any tears you've shed? Are you staying fluid these days? Are your waters calm, still, deep, turbulent, rushing, frozen, evaporated...?

Through the fire -
Where is the sun for you? Are you in enough light? How can I help you stay warm? What's burning for you? Do you need any fuel? What spark are you carrying? Is your blaze to high? Do you need rekindling? What's the smoke?

From the earth -
How grounded are you feeling? What is nourishing your soil? Where are you rich? Are you getting vitamins/minerals? Can I help you stand more firmly? Are you eating your veggies? When was your last rest? Do you need to lay down?

In the air -
Have you taken a breath? What's inspiring you? Have you felt the wind/breeze? What's in your wings/sails? Can I help you stay afloat? What do you need to fly? What whisper would you like to hear?
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
For all my non-Minnesota people, do not think for a second that Frey has anything to do with getting ICE the fuck out of Minneapolis.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 12/02/2026
You can't... repeal... a scientific finding. At that point it's just called lying about it.
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Jonathan Stegall @jonathanstegall.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
I pulled together a small list of body camera-related resources, just in case anybody is curious about how abolitionists think about them. - Mariame Kaba wrote a blog post in 2014 about police reforms to oppose: www.usprisonculture.com/2014/12/01/p...
usprisonculture.com
Prison Culture » Police “Reforms” You Should Always Oppose…
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Becky Hammer @beckyhammer.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
First shot: sugarcane The backbone of Puerto Rico's agricultural economy since colonial times Still used to make rum of course!
A musician playing a guitar in sugarcane that is somehow in the middle of a football field
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Lydilynne @lydilynne5.myatproto.social · 09/02/2026
There is also the Bad Bunny Syllabus www.badbunnysyllabus.com I am here for all of it!! Want to read that dissertation 😍
badbunnysyllabus.com
Home
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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Macbeth: SHIT
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Sean T. Collins @seantcollins.com · 09/02/2026
I'm hardly the first person to note this, but it's enormously instructive that our President and his followers saw the message "THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE" and understood it, correctly, as an attack on them
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Christie Nold @christienold.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Thinking about the fact that the writing on the football was in English. The audience for THAT message - significant. Truly going to be thinking of the incredible brilliance & beauty of that show for a long time! 💛
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
GREATEST HALFTIME SHOW EVER!
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Mark Snyder @snyde043.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Put this family up in the Governor’s Mansion and dare this administration to come get him, @governorwalz.mn.gov Fuck this shit.
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Mary Gillis @marygillis.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
SCORPION: take me across the river FROG: if I do that, you'll sting me S: if I sting you, we'll both drown F: ok, that makes sense *halfway across the river* F: so? S: so what? F: sting me S: what? F: sting me, like you promised S: no F: sting me so we'll both drown S: *crying* what is happening?
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
The testimony of Aliya Rahman, Bangladeshi American & U.S. citizen, before Congress about her violent ICE arrest and detention.
youtube.com
WATCH: Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen Aliya Rahman describes being detained by ICE
YouTube video by PBS NewsHour
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Communal singing led by a Justice Choir tonight at the site of Alex Pretti’s final moments. In case you need a good cry, like I did. “Only through heartbreak did I learn to shake, And the strength And the depth Of my heart.”
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Wedge LIVE!™ @wedge.live · 03/02/2026
Woman with legal status taken from her family home in St Paul by ICE, flown to Texas, held for two weeks before being ordered released by a judge. She lost her job. She's afraid to go outside because agents keep coming to her home. www.kare11.com/article/news...
kare11.com
After ICE release St. Paul woman, she says agents keep returning to her home
Thi Dua Vang legally came to the U.S. two years ago. So when ICE showed up, she thought it must have been a mistake.
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Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
convergence of Trump policies is exponential escalation of the catastrophes he has unleashed
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Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
You have one week left to learn Spanish. #dtmf
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Jason Chavez @jchavezmpls.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
You’re describing an emergency. The world is also watching you and waiting for you to do something. Are you going to establish an eviction moratorium? Rent is due today.
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Zinn Education Project @zinnedproject.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Fugitive Slave Act forced question: "Were Northerners prepared to watch their neighbors, many of whom had lived in their communities for years, be violently removed from their homes or grabbed off the streets? For many, answer was no." - @jelaniya.bsky.social Read ⬇️ www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
newyorker.com
What ICE Should Have Learned from the Fugitive Slave Act
Americans took to the streets to defend their neighbors in the nineteenth century, too.
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Athena Hollins @athenahollins.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Liam has been on my mind constantly the past 2 weeks. This picture was seared into my brain; it is evidence of the total lack of humanity within this administration. Many thanks to @danilawaart.bsky.social for allowing me to recreate this beautiful work as crop art. #cropart #iceout #jamesbaldwin
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taylr @taylordahlin.com · 01/02/2026
plymouth church are singing and marching down nicollet ave to alex pretti’s memorial after their 9am service
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MN Mike @fiveman.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
10/10 ICE protest sign
Protest sign from MN that says, “DEARLY BELOVED.
WE ARE GATHERED HERE TODAY
TODISMANTLE THIS THING CALLED ICE.” with a picture of Prince in the left hand lower corner.
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Joaquin Castro @joaquincastrotx.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Yesterday, five-year-old Liam and his dad Adrian were released from Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night and escorted them back to Minnesota this morning. Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack.
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John Golden @johngolden.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
James Baldwin,1987: "We have yet to understand that if I am starving, you are in danger. People think that my danger makes them safe. They're in trouble."
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
www.jta.org/2026/01/30/u...
jta.org
'Reminds me of Anne Frank': Jewish seniors are offering to hide their Haitian caregivers as Trump's TPS end looms - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The end of Temporary Protected Status has Holocaust survivors offering to hide Haitian staffers, according to the CEO of a senior-living center in Florida.
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Wedge LIVE!™ @wedge.live · 01/02/2026
A lot of respect for people out doing ICE patrols alone in small towns. They box her in and point guns like she's an armed carjacker on a crime spree. youtu.be/EG7bqoDJ9L4?...
youtu.be
Federal agents drew weapons on unarmed woman in St. Peter, Minnesota
Federal agents with weapons drawn approached an unarmed woman in her car in St. Peter, MN, Thursday, Jan. 29. The woman had been observing and recording the agents. They took her into custody but…
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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
One of the detainees speaking out in this article is Nasra Ahmed, a 23 year old US citizen who was grabbed by ICE on her way to the pharmacy to pick up anti seizure medication. She had her papers. ICE didn’t care. She’s been arrested again at an anti ICE protest.
startribune.com
‘No humanity’: Detainees describe conditions inside Whipple Federal Building
Immigration sweep brings overcrowded rooms and overflowing toilets. Lawyers say they can’t visit their clients. The Department of Homeland Security says “all detainees receive full due process.”
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