Actually, privacy is a fine idea. But anyone who thinks we have it anymore is deluded. Basically, everything about you is available to anyone who looks hard enough. But that doesn’t mean that we should give it up voluntarily. The… Read More ›
Month: October 2012
What is school for? Eight things in education that will change.
Set aside 17 minutes, and go watch this video by Seth Godin. Then watch it again. It’s not that I agree with all of Godin’s eight points — in fact, there’s a lot that I disagree with. Nevertheless, the 17… Read More ›
Sandy
Power just went out…then it came on…then it went out…then it came on…then it went out for a longer time…now it’s back on (obviously)…. So I’m sitting here grading geometry quizzes, while Douglas naps on my left side (when he… Read More ›
"Questions are more important than answers."
A new book by…Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana…, Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions, documents a step-by-step process to help students formulate and prioritize questions about nearly everything. So writes Katrina Schwartz. Not that the idea… Read More ›
Ex-Marine turned teacher: "Stop demonizing me and my profession."
That’s the pull quote that a recent Washington Post column uses as a headline for a link to a must-read piece. I love the juxtaposition of “ex-Marine” and “teacher,” so I’ve kept the headline. There are not very many teacher-haters… Read More ›
The travel(l)ing salesman: a movie?
If you’re into advanced discrete math, you know all about the Traveling (in the U.S.) or Travelling (in other English-speaking countries) Salesman Problem. If you aren’t, you don’t. I won’t attempt to summarize it here; just go read about it… Read More ›
What can goats teach us about problem solving?
A lot of people take their dogs along for a hike…but never before had I heard of taking one’s goats hiking. “What,” you may ask, “does this have to do with math?” Read Dan Finkel’s excellent post. And be particularly… Read More ›
BYOT
It seems that we will soon be following in the footsteps of other schools that have adopted a “bring your own technology” plan. Many of our students already bring MacBooks, PC laptops, or iPads to school, so the idea is… Read More ›
AP classes are a scam (says John Tierney).
In a recent article in The Atlantic, John Tierney claims that “Advanced Placement courses [are] one of the great frauds currently perpetrated on American high-school students… The AP classroom is where intellectual curiosity goes to die.” Like most other provocative essays, Tierney’s piece… Read More ›
McCall Smith for the fifth time…or maybe sixth?
I’ve written about Alexander McCall Smith before — several times. Maybe this is my fifth post…or even my sixth. It’s not that McCall Smith’s a great writer, nor that his books are especially thought-provoking. It’s just that they are truly entertaining… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 