So, why do I have a Facebook account if I don’t do anything with it? That’s an easy question. I have a Facebook account because some of my students kept pestering me to set one up. Apparently Facebook is absolutely… Read More ›
Life
Wordle
I just discovered a cool poster-creating applet called Wordle. In their own words: Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source… Read More ›
Fred the Footrest
My major Hanukkah present from Barbara was a footstool in the shape of a genuine replica of a stuffed bear: We named him Fred the Footrest. You have noticed that William is loyally guarding Fred in case any hunters should… Read More ›
Misreading Larry Summers
Continuing yesterday’s theme… There has been renewed interest in Larry Summers’s supposed sexist remarks. When Senator Obama (I almost said “President Obama”) announced that he would appoint Summers to be his senior White House economic advisor, bloggers and others revived… Read More ›
"Opportunity, compassion, honor, excellence, Davidson"
I saw this catalog the other day, and I found the cover strangely appealing: I’m not sure which part I liked better: the “Davidson Bill of Rights” at the bottom, or the list of words at the top, terminating in… Read More ›
Do I look Russian?
One day I walk into a Russian grocery store in Watertown, and the owner starts speaking to me in Russian; I don’t understand a word. Another day I walk into a Russian grocery store in Waban, and the employee at… Read More ›
Zakiyyah's Concert
Instead of being out in the thunderstorm this afternoon, I attended a beautiful concert performance by my fellow Dorchesterite and former student, coloratura soprano Zakiyyah Sutton. (Yes, I had to look it up too. I used to know what coloratura… Read More ›
What kids call their parents…and their parents' friends
Just getting around to blogging this, but there was a fascinating article a few weeks ago in the Boston Globe, made all the more relevant to me because it mentioned several of my Weston students and was written by the… Read More ›
No surprise: they support Obama.
As I mentioned in my post of two days ago, the sophomore component of the summer course I teach at Crimson Summer Academy focuses on models of voting. Although the emphasis is primarily on applied mathematics, the 2008 course was… Read More ›
Cuteness counts
My regular readers know that I teach Quantitative Reasoning (QR) at the Crimson Summer Academy (CSA) over the summer. (If you don’t how what CSA is, read my blog posts from May 7, 2007, and April 30, 2008.) The theme… Read More ›
All-Dorchester seder
Yes, it was one night early for Passover, but last night Barbara and I attended the 2008 All-Dorchester Seder, which is held every year at the First Parish Church. A seder at a church? Well, yes. In the first place,… Read More ›
Don’t families in Weston talk about politics at home?
Overheard this morning at Weston High School…part of a conversation between two sophomores: “What can you tell me about John McCain?” “Who’s he?” ”Oh, he’s some dude who’s running for President.”
Heroes
As I was reading Paul Graham’s essay, “Some Heroes,” it struck me that I’ve never liked being asked who my heroes are. In his second and fourth paragraphs, Graham reflects on the question itself: I’m not claiming this is a… Read More ›
Which is more important, sports or academics? And what about the arts?
Every school will tell you that academics are more important than sports. After all, it is a school. Even the most sports-minded principal will ban an athlete from playing football if his grades are too low, but no one would… Read More ›
Don’t procrastinate! Goodbye, George, I hardly knew you.
Actually, I never knew you, sad to say. For 15 years now I have been intending to meet George Sanborn and talk with him about the MBTA (since my model railroad layout is based loosely on the MBTA of 1969)…. Read More ›
An Obama/Seeger serendipity
Wow! I don’t often call a PBS show inspiring, but last night I watched the truly inspiring American Masters episode, Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, which had aired on my birthday and TiVo had kindly saved for me. I… Read More ›
Fractals are fractious
(Thanks to Barbara for the title of this post.) Let me begin by setting the stage. On Friday I wrote about this year’s Fractal Fair. Groups of students (generally three in each group, occasionally two; generally juniors, but there were… Read More ›
Listen to the kids? Or listen to the adults?
In Universal Hub this morning, Adam Gaffin quotes Cara Lisa Powers on the subject of the Boston Globe’s coverage of a protest at the John D. O’Bryant High School of Mathematics and Science. The Globe ignored the kids. In this… Read More ›
"Boys and girls,…" What's wrong with that?
One of my colleagues objects when a teacher addresses a group of students as “Boys and girls,…” No, it’s not that she would prefer it if we said “Girls and boys,…”; that’s not the issue, though of course one should… Read More ›
Thinking again about Obama/Bloomberg
A month ago I wondered why nobody was talking about the possibility that Barack Obama would pick Michael Bloomberg as his running mate. It wasn’t that I was seriously supporting such a ticket at the time; it just seemed to… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 