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 ›
Life
Could it have anything to do with her gender?
I don’t quite know where to begin. It’s not just that a highly respected math educator (a professor at Stanford, no less) has been unfairly attacked by a couple of mathematicians. The shocking thing is that the attacks are so… Read More ›
Walking through the brick wall
Because of the expansion and renovation of our physics classrooms, the doors were all relocated over the summer. The old entrance to Room 12 was bricked over, but the old sign remains. As it’s hard to walk through the brick wall, someone altered the… Read More ›
Douglas
We have a new cat, a long-haired white beast with some dark gray smudges. He’s apparently about eight years old, according to the vet. We had to adopt him because he was a stray who had been hanging around on… Read More ›
Franklin Park Zoo
Spent a lovely morning walking around the Franklin Park Zoo today. I started with the zebra and the aptly named wildebeests, who were running around like…well, like wildebeests, dashing from one end of their huge enclosure all the way to… Read More ›
Radical Equations and related matters
A couple of years ago I got around to re-reading Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project, by civil-rights activist/math teacher Robert Moses. Just now I realized an interesting resonance with the post I wrote last week about… Read More ›
The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to be a Better Husband
In keeping with the current trend of giving books excessively long titles, this memoir by David Finch tries to pack as much as possible into 19 words. But the title still raises more questions than it answers — and that’s… Read More ›
The helpful RMV
My inspection sticker expires this month, so I took the car to our dealer this morning (in case any work was needed) and discovered that our registration had expired two months ago! The current registration was nowhere to be found…. Read More ›
Please do not poster on this gate
Apparently poster has become a verb. If Harvard says so, it must be true. This sign appears on the gate of the fence that separates Harvard Yard on the south from the Science Center and Memorial Hall on the north:
LEDs as street lights?
The City of Boston is installing new lights on the sides of the streets in my neighborhood and others. But there’s a lot of controversy about these LED bulbs. On April 14 the Dorchester Reporter published an article under the… Read More ›
The big cat-drawing contest
My D Block class was even more hyper and less focused than usual today, since it was the afternoon of the last day before vacation. Some of them really wanted to have a cat-drawing contest, so I gave in and… Read More ›
Diversity at dim sum
Once again we had delicious dim sum at Chau Chow in Dorchester…but one thing was different this time. Usually it happens that either Barbara and I are the only non-Asians in the place or else maybe there are one or… Read More ›
Something new every ten years
“We should all embark on something completely new every ten years,” said Roy Strong, as quoted by Susan Hill in Howard’s End is on the Landing. When I read this opinion, I paused, closed the book, and thought for a… Read More ›
Bartok, Dvorak, and the “Top Ten Composers”
About seven weeks ago, music critic Anthony Tommasini took on the thankless task of listing the “the top 10 classical music composers in history, not including those still with us.” Of course this task is impossible; no matter whom he… Read More ›
Invisible children
At school yesterday we had a special assembly sponsored by our local Amnesty International chapter. Here is the official description we were given ahead of time: At the assembly on March 3, Thursday, the non-profit organization Invisible Children will be… Read More ›
Yankee?
They really shouldn’t be displaying a frayed flag. And I think they would get more business if they changed their name, perhaps to Red Sox.
Chanukah is not the Jewish Christmas
Do read this excellent piece by Penelope Trunk. Although her focus is on Christmas in the workplace in the context of promoting diversity, her views have much wider applicability. Here are a couple of brief excerpts: It seems there should… Read More ›
An international Thanksgiving
It was another international Thanksgiving at my sister’s house this year — nine Americans and nine visitors from abroad. I counted three from Germany, one from France, one from Korea, three from Taiwan, and apparently one from somewhere Spanish-speaking, but… Read More ›
Daylight saving time
Why is it that so many people say “daylight savings time” when the correct phrase so clearly is “daylight saving time”???? Do they think it’s like a savings account, where you put an hour of daylight in at one time… Read More ›
Facebook “friends”
Listen in on this conversation: Teacher 1: I hear that you friend your students on Facebook. Teacher 2: Not exactly. I accept friend requests from current and former students. But I never initiate them. Teacher 1: Even so, it’s a… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 