Author Archives
In 2018 I semi-retired by retiring from Weston High School after my 21st year teaching mathematics there. This was also my 44th year as a teacher altogether. In 2023 I retired fully, adding in my 18 years at Harvard’s Crimson Summer Academy each summer. For 21 years I had taught at the Saturday Course in Milton, MA, and I used to serve on the board of the Dorchester Historical Society.
I read, cook, and spend a lot of time building my model railroad. For some reason I’m left with less free time than would be ideal, considering that I’m supposed to be retired, but somehow I also manage to devote time to my wife, Barbara, and to our varying number of cats (once up to six, but now sadly down to one).
Larry Davidson
ljd@larrydavidson.com
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Defining a trapezoid
This is the cue for my students to roll their eyes… Yesterday I got into a heated discussion with another math teacher about an important issue: how to define a trapezoid. He was arguing in favor of the position that… Read More ›
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Paper clip update
Paper clips are up to 25 now: Getting closer to donuts.
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Comic Sans Redux
If you’re a long-time reader of this blog, you will recall that I wrote a post four years ago entitled, “Ban Comic Sans!”, in which I linked to the ban comic sans site. Now Gizmodo has a new take on… Read More ›
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Finally, The Lion King
Somehow this post got delayed from earlier in the year. Oh, well…hakuna matata. Anyway, earlier in this calendar year — but it was last academic year — two of my Weston sophomores were aghast to hear that I had never… Read More ›
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The Jane Austen Book Club: the book and the movie
Two and a half years ago I read Karen Joy Fowler’s novel, The Jane Austen Book Club, and I am surprised that I didn’t write a review of it at the time. I no longer remember why. Perhaps I was… Read More ›
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A wandering past participle, or a new idiom?
Maybe I am inadvertently committing the Recency Fallacy, but it seems to me that up until last year or so the past participle of pet was petted: “Where do your cats like to be petted?” <http://www.mihav.com/en/forum/share-amp-chat/where-do-your-cats-like-to-162014> “pet; petted; petting” <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pet>… Read More ›
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Friday cat blogging
This is William of Orange, who seems to think that a plastic bucket in an old bathtub is a perfectly reasonable place in which to sit:
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Pie for Thanksgiving? No, a pie chart from Fox News
This pie chart from Fox News speaks for itself:
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Are you smarter than a fifth-grader?
“Do you know about the Xerox Alto and Xerox Star computers from back in the ’70s?” asked one of my fifth-graders in The Saturday Course. “Yes,” I replied, “but I’ve never before met a fifth-grader who knows about them!” This… Read More ›
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An interview in Wildcat Tracks
Junior Lauren Avery, one of the editors of Weston High School’s student newspaper, Wildcat Tracks, asked if she could interview me. Of course I said yes, and the result was a half-page article that focused on my transition from linguistics… Read More ›
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Roadside Crosses
Although Jeffery Deaver’s Roadside Crosses is far from one of his best novels, it’s still worth reading — or listening to on audiobook, as I did. As with all of his works, the plotting is clever, starting with an opening… Read More ›
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dBar revisited
I’ve written about dBar twice before: on January 17, 2006, and on February 15, 2008. It has maintained its high standards. Barbara had mussels, followed by steak tacos, and she reports that both were excellent. I started with a scrumptious… Read More ›
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The Good Woman of Setzuan
Congratulations to the Weston High School Theater Company for another first-rate production! The last time I saw Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Woman of Setzuan must have been at least 20 years ago, so I didn’t remember much about it except… Read More ›
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Friday Cat Blogging
Vincent posed specially for this photo, because he liked his contribution to all the strong vertical lines — particularly the line from his right ear through his front paws, the nearly vertical sweep of his tail, and of course all… Read More ›
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Struggle
At this week’s Math Department meeting, we spent the first 15 minutes or so discussing what we do to help “struggling students” succeed in our courses — particularly what resources we provide. Something was bothering me about the whole discussion,… Read More ›
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The early bird gets the…copies?
You have to get up early in the morning to get ahead of the rest of the Weston faculty. (No slackers here!) I got to school at 6:30 this morning, figuring that I could use the photocopier without competition… but… Read More ›
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Before and after
A major topic of high-school math is the study of transformations. My colleague, Jim McLaughlin, wants you to know that his desk has somehow undergone a miraculous transformation: Before After
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How can you lose a quiz while you're taking it?
It doesn’t seem possible for a student to lose his quiz while taking it. If it’s possible at all, it should surely be a once-in-a-lifetime event. But no! For the second time in my years at Weston, this unlikely event… Read More ›
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The Catch
Apparently I’m reviewing one of Archer Mayor’s novels each year. I see that I wrote about St. Alban’s Fire on February 3, 2007; and I wrote about The Second Mouse on March 8, 2008. Unfortunately I have to report that… Read More ›
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Friday cat blogging & a geometry quiz
One of my students asked me what Friday Cat Blogging is all about. You can read the answer here or here or especially here. In other news, since today is Friday the 13th, we had to have a pop quiz… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 