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Mark Trushkowsky

@marktrushkowsky.bsky.social
185 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
Even more amazing quilts from the Minnesota State Fair. 3/3
A patchwork quilt with hidden details arranged into a landscape of a bright yellow sun rising over red, orange and green rolling hills, with a blue river.A close-up art quilt with a green tree frog with red feet, large orange eyes, and black Buddy Holly glasses with colored circles, against a light yellow background.A geometric triangular pattern in muted shades of olive green, mustard yellow, gray, and cream.
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
More beautiful quilts from the Minnesota State Fair. 2/3
A rainbow quilt with an optical illusion design of a curving tunnel, using geometric patchwork blocks fading into a bright yellow center against a dark frame.A multi-colored quilt featuring a grid of bright rectangular blocks.A quilt made of repeating star, triangle, and square patterns, created with rainbow-colored fabrics framed by bright white fabric.A rainbow quilt featuring a central black flower with colorful fabric ribbons spiralling out against a textured gray background.
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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 · 02/07/2026
Sun and rain make food.
An explosion of multiple types of lettuceA thriving batch of greens… two types of kale and Swiss chardA forest of robust squash leavesA garden bed with tomatillos, several types of tomatoes, a few types of peppers, cucumbers
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
We miss you too, @triangleman.bsky.social. Give us another chance!
A tall hollyhock plant with at least 21 pink flowers A detail of a hollyhock plant with three black/dark purple hollyhock blossoms.
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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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Reposted by Mark Trushkowsky
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
4/4 Shout out @triangleyou.bsky.social for leading a engaging session. Check out the sample lesson of what we did here: www.collectedny.org/frameworkpos...
collectedny.org
Countries in Our Closet (EMPower Math)
This lesson is made up of three activities that help students develop their statistical literacy. Specifically, students will categorize and compare data with frequency graphs, identify a graph &#8…
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
3/n Step 3: We cut out our bars, taped them into one long bar, taped the ends to form a circle and then used it to estimate a circle graph. Like every good Gather/Show/Tell data cycle, I uncovered some surprises, I answered a few of my questions, and I raised new questions. #ANNMath #MTBoS
a rough estimate of a circle graph. The red section (countries with 0-9.9% of the workforce in labor unions, based on the countries on the labels of our clothing) is roughly 30% of the graph. The green section (10-19.9%) about 42%. The orange section (20-29.9%), a sliver at about 2%. The blue (40-49.9%), a little more than a quarter at 25%.
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
2/n Step 2: Use group data to make another graph that has fewer categories. I used a Statista page that gave the % share of the workforce from various countries who are members of labor unions (as of 2020). I did it based on the countries (19) and then using the number of post-its (50).
A bar graph with two bars for each category.

0 to 9.9% (Red) - one bar is 7 rows tall (7 out of 19) and the other bar is 15 rows tall (15 out of 50).

10-19.9% (Green) - one bar is 8 high (8 out of 19) and the other is 21 high (21 out of 50)

20-29.9% (Orange) - each bar is one row high (1/19 and 1/50)

30-39.9% - No bars (0/19 and 0/50)

40-49.9% (Blue) - 2/19 and 13/50

Next to the graph is a list of countries with the percentage of workforce in unions: Honduras (2.6%), China (44.2%), Thailand (3.3%), Vietnam - (49.62%), Jordan - ?, India (19.8%), Pakistan (4.7%), Bangladesh (11.9%), Madagascar (7.2%), Mauritius (27.7%), Cambodia (9.6%), Korea (12.4%), US (10.3%), Sri Lanka (10.1%), Indonesia (13%), Mexico (13.2%), Guatemala (3.1%), Germany (16.3%), Nicaragua (5.3%)
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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
Yellow LilySweet WilliamBleeding heartsChives
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Yellow indigoRosesWhite peony blossomLilies
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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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Reposted by Mark Trushkowsky
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
At Instructional Routines Club, someone commented that one of the benefits of virtual manipulatives is that you can cut/decompose them. I used that idea to represent my reasoning behind one of my equations. #ANNMath #Iteachmath #MTBoS
At the top is a pictorial equation: a pink triangle and small green triangle on the left side of the equals sign and a red trapezoid on the right side. 

Below are five steps, linked by arrows. Step one has all three shapes from the equation. Step two has the green triangle placed over the red trapezoid, covering a portion of it. Step three has the pink triangle place over the red trapezoid as well. A triangular piece of the pink triangle is sticking out above the area of the red trapezoid. The only part of the red trapezoid still visible is a red triangle. Step four has the pink triangular piece slide over to be above the visible triangular piece of the red trapezoid. Step five shows that the access pink triangle exactly covers the remaining red triangle. This shows that the areas of the pink triangle and the small green triangle together are equal to the area of the red trapezoid.
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
I started making equations using only the shapes to show different relationships between the pieces. #ANNMath #Iteachmath #MTBoS
1. One pink triangle equals 2 small green triangles
2. One red trapezoid equals 3 small green triangles
3. One red trapezoid and one small green triangle equals one large green triangle equals to pink triangles equals four small green triangles
4. One pink triangle and one small green triangle equals one red trapezoid
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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
It was a virtual meeting, and some of us used Polypad to noodle with the shapes. Inspired by a colleague, I started making wordless visual representations of my reasoning. #ANNMath #Iteachmath #MTBoS
A trapezoid divided up into 12 congruent triangles. 3 of the triangles are red, together forming a smaller trapezoid within the larger trapezoid. The remaining 9 triangles are green. 

3/12 of the triangles in the larger trapezoid are red. An equation. On the left side of the equal sign, a larger trapezoid is composed of three smaller orange trapezoids and 3 small triangles. On the right side are four trapezoids. Three are the same as the smaller orange ones on the left side of the equation. One of them is composed of the three small yellow triangles, arranged to show they have the same area as each orange trapezoid. 

My colleague created this representation for showing that the red trapezoid 1/4 the area of the original shape. Her goal was to get there without finding the 3/12 and then reducing. I had a similar approach, but loved how clearly her model conveyed our thinking without words.  The original trapezoid rearranged as three large triangles. 
The triangle on the left is pink. The middle triangle is green. The triangle on the right is broken up into 4 smaller, congruent triangles. Three of those are red and one is green. 

The goal was to show that the red trapezoid can be seen as 3/4 of 1/3.
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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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Reposted by Mark Trushkowsky
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
Hey @triangleman.bsky.social, maybe a new Math-on-a-Stick station?
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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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Mark Trushkowsky @marktrushkowsky.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
What game?
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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
“We call ourselves a civilized nation, but we lack rules and accountability around what a person claiming to be law enforcement is permitted to do to another human being. I am not afraid and I am not afraid to keep working on this problem even after ICE is gone." - Aliya Rahman Hero.
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