Flashback to two months ago: apparently I was the only living person who hadn’t yet heard of Ernest Cline’s Ready, Player One. Now everyone has heard of it, since Spielberg’s film adaptation has just opened. As I’m not going to be seeing… Read More ›
Month: March 2018
Finally… the 16th Annual Fractal Fair
Our plans for the 16th annual Fractal Fair at Weston High School looked good. All was supposed to go smoothly, just as the previous 15 fairs had. Why not, after all? But the weather did… Read More ›
Bach’s Big Birthday Bash
I’d like to give a well-deserved shout-out to my students Laura and Thea for their excellent performance at yesterday’s Boston Bach Birthday Bash celebrating J.S. Bach’s 333rd birthday! Yes, it’s a few days early for Bach’s actual birthday, but that’s… Read More ›
What happened to the Combat Zone?
Yesterday evening, Barbara and I went to an excellent talk by author Stephanie Schorow about her new book, Inside the Combat Zone: The Stripped Down Story of Boston’s Most Notorious Neighborhood. Thank you, Joyce Linehan, for hosting this event at Ashmonticello!… Read More ›
Duolingo
For dual reasons (appropriately enough) I have made myself a commitment to pursue several months of language lessons on Duolingo, which describes itself as “the free science-based language education platform that has organically become the most popular way to learn… Read More ›
The Chalk Artist
I know the characters in this novel. Not literally, of course. But it feels as if I know them. Local author Allegra Goodman brings her characters to life as real people. I’m sure it helps that so many of them are like… Read More ›
Player by Proxy
Online gaming? “IRL”? What’s real life anyway? What’s the virtual world? Is it really possible to be literally addicted to technology? Questions like these are much discussed these days, and they are addressed in the Weston High School Theater Company’s excellent ensemble-written… Read More ›
The Body in the Casket
A cleverly worded summary of The Body in the Casket could easily lead you to think that it was describing an Agatha Christie mystery. As you can tell from the image of the cover, it’s actually a Katherine Hall Page mystery, not… Read More ›
John Green
At the recommendation of several of my students, I recently read two of John Green’s YA novels: The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down. Verdict: Generally very positive. In particular, Green convincingly presents both the characters and their issues. The… Read More ›
What’s wrong with Google Classroom?
Google Classroom? What’s that? If you aren’t currently a student, teacher, or administrator in a school setting, you probably haven’t heard of it, although you may be surmising that it’s part of Google’s plan to take over the world. (Not… Read More ›