I’m not adding up the non-sleep hours it took to make this happen. This rebuild of visualpatterns.org had been nagging at me for a while, and I wanted it done before the school year starts. It didn’t help that I got an email to pay the annual subscription to host the site—which I paid, 11 days before I decided to leave.
So I thought: where can I build this for free, or at least cheaper, since I want to make sure it stays up forever for free? Turns out AI had an answer, and it was way better than what I had before. This is genuinely the first time I’ve found AI incredibly helpful—I couldn’t have even attempted this without it. I asked for what I needed, and it suggested GitHub and walked me through it, step by step.
A lot of the actual rebuild was still on me: hundreds of the 500 patterns, redrawn by hand. I hunted down duplicates—patterns whose visuals looked too much alike—and nixed the ones that were true repeats. Plenty of patterns share the same equation, and that’s fine, even the point: same math, different picture. Then I changed all the silly objects, puppies to ninjas to flowers, into plain squares instead. The visuals are cleaner now, and a lot less distracting.
The new “Random Pattern” button at the top is fun—it pulls from all 500 patterns, not just whichever page you’re on.
The second big thing AI helped me build is the answer key: a clone of the site, but with the equation sitting under each pattern. Change something on the site, and the key updates with it, automatically, both ways. Here’s the key with equations for all 500 patterns.
(I don’t want to put the key on the site itself—I really do want it to stay teachers-only, so I’ll keep asking people to email me for it. But since you’re reading this, you can just have it. And it’ll keep updating on its own.)
I think 500 patterns is plenty. So I’m not soliciting new ones—but if you’ve got a fun or fancy one you want to see live, email me anyway. I won’t add a 501st. I’ll just retire one of mine and swap yours in.
Looking at each pattern again, I get to see all the people who contributed—students and teachers across the country, and some international. I’m grateful. This is our site.
What teachers say:
This is amazing. I use these in my classroom on a consistent basis. It’s amazing how quickly kids pick up on strategies, ideas, and move into equation writing through a few patterns a month. I just want you to know how much your work and sharing is appreciated. Thank you! —Kelly
WE LOVE YOUR VISUAL PATTERNS! We use them often and watch our otherwise unengaged, “I can’t do math” students thrive! Thank you! —Maureen
I love the visual patterns and have been using it as weekly math talk with my students for years. —Grace
I was asked to share a 15 minute lesson with the Governor when he visited. I picked out a pattern, sent him to the board with my seventh grade class and let them do their thing. They were rock stars, coming up with three different ways to see the pattern. Then a fourth student clearly demonstrated how the three were equivalent. Thanks to you, we all looked good!
I can’t imaging teaching math without them! They make the transition to abstract thinking seamless! —Terry
It is such a great stretch assignment for helping them to develop algebraic thinking. They shared their patterns with the adults they invited on Grandparents' and Special Friends Day and invited them to problem solve together. —Pei Wei
Thank you so much for your time rebuilding the site! I know it's no easy feat! And the link to the equations key is epic! So cool. 😎
Thank you for your tireless work. I've been using the site a lot.
I may need the archive.org version for puppies and things, though. That was quite useful in itself.