"I was inspired to begin writing by a basket of dominoes. One day while tutoring math in my daughter's first grade class, I noticed that every dot on the dominoes we were playing with had a pencil mark, which meant kids were counting them one at a time instead of adding them up quickly. It immediately struck me that working with patterns of dots would be a great visual way to teach arithmetic and an effective way to teach problem solving.
"My challenge was to figure out how to make this idea fun and instructive. Instead of dots, I thought about things kids would like – acorns, snowflakes, bugs and sea shells. I began designing problems, and by giving some thought to the arrangement, color and spacing of the objects I was able to add a little twist to each one. My goal was for kids to be able to work on their computational skills and at the same time become better problem solvers. I wanted them to see firsthand how far a little common sense and clever thinking went.
"I'm working on a series of books that I hope will give kids a better understanding of math, from counting all the way through calculus. I really enjoy writing these books because they combine my love of math, words, games, graphic design and teaching, and hope kids and adults have as much fun reading my books as I have creating them.
"My first book The Grapes of Math was published in 2001, and since then I have written Math For All Seasons, The Best of Times, Math Appeal, Math-terpieces, Math Fables, Math Potatoes, and Math Fables Too. I'm currently writing a sequel to Math-terpieces about women and ethnic artists."
"My first book The Grapes of Math was published in 2001, and since then I have written Math For All Seasons, The Best of Times, Math Appeal, Math-terpieces, Math Fables, Math Potatoes, and Math Fables Too. I'm currently writing a sequel to Math-terpieces about women and ethnic artists."
Greg Tang grew up in Ithaca, N.Y. with his two sisters. His father taught electrical engineering at Cornell University and his mother taught mathematics at Ithaca College. Greg earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in Economics from Harvard, and later earned an M.A. degree in Math Education from New York University. He is certified as a high school and middle school math teacher.
Greg began his business career at Pfizer in New York City. He worked in both their Systems and Strategic Planning Groups, and served as speech writer for the CEO. In 1989, Greg founded Technovations Inc, a multimedia and systems design company with offices in New York City and Boston.
In 1997, Greg moved to Boston, where he opened a Tae Kwon-Do school and managed the health club Fitness First in Arlington. Shortly after, he signed on with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and created the Go Fast Go Far Mental Math Series for their elementary textbook program.More recently in 2011, Greg created an online, supplemental math program for Scholastic. Today, he is working hard to create a free (but priceless!) online math site called GregTangMath.com that will make his strategies, concepts and teaching materials accessible to students and teachers everywhere. Greg's dream is to make math understandable and enjoyable for every child and adult, regardless of their ability, education or economic circumstance.
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Got Technology? Greg's wife Tammy Worcester Tang is a nationally-known speaker and author of nearly a dozen best-selling technology resource books. Her website "Tammy's Tips for Teachers" (TammyWorcester.com) is a popular online resource used by teachers around the world.