It doesn’t feel that long, but it turns out that it was three and half years ago that I reviewed Amy Chua’s previous book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Her new book, written in collaboration with her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, is… Read More ›
Teaching & Learning
Common Core State Standards: Ten colossal errors?
How can I possibly digest the gigantic amount of material that has been written about the controversial Common Core State Standards (CCSS)? Like it or not, these standards are about to have a big impact on my professional life, so… Read More ›
Free haircuts for straight A’s?
I don’t know why this sign on a barber shop in Dorchester Lower Mills rubs me the wrong way, but it does:
Why?
Several of my colleagues are wearing buttons that say “Why?” — and you may well wonder why. No, they’re not disaffected teachers who are questioning authority. Au contraire, they are the authority…and they want us to help each kid understand why s/he is doing what… Read More ›
Explore mathematics
Sam Shah is always worth reading. (I think I’ve said that before. That’s OK. It’s still true.) Back on February 12 he published a post called “Explore Mathematics” — a good title, since isn’t that what we all want our… Read More ›
The South Korean education system
South Korea has one of the best education systems in the world, right? After all, even President Obama thinks so. But not so fast. Read the “rest of the story” in an excerpt from Amanda Ripley’s book, The Smartest Kids… Read More ›
The importance of letting students stumble
One consequence of being away from blogging for over six months is that I’ve let some interesting posts from other bloggers just lie hanging without commenting on them. So, let’s look at two KQED essays on almost the same topic,… Read More ›
“Off-track geometry”
JD2718 is always worth reading. I used to know his real name, but I’ve lost track of it. No matter; he teaches geometry, studies cryptography, and just turned 50, so we know he’s a good guy. A few months ago… Read More ›
What do teachers do?
Must reading: The Teachers, by Sarah Blaine. Click on the link. Go read it before you get any further in this post…. … Finished? Read Blaine’s last paragraph again: The problem with teaching as a profession is that every single… Read More ›
Why private schools are better than public schools…or are they?
Everyone knows that private schools are better than public schools, right? Of course that’s a gross generalization — for instance, no one would claim that a third-rate private school is better than Weston High School — but surely it’s true… Read More ›
Don’t keep calm.
A refreshing change:
What works in education
It’s hard to know where to begin this post. Perhaps I should simply ask you to read “What works in education” by Grant Wiggins — including the comments. Wiggins discusses John Hattie’s extensive statistical studies that compare the effectiveness of… Read More ›
Bring Your Own Technology: A brief progress report
Six months ago I wrote a post about the “Bring Your Own Technology” initiative at Weston (BYOT). It’s time for an informal progress report (from my own point of view — which of course is objective and completely unbiased). On the… Read More ›
Come to the Fair!
Come visit Weston’s Twelfth Annual Fractal Fair, which is being held on Valentine’s Day this year! That’s Friday, February 14, 10:05-12:15 in the Weston High School Library. The exhibits and presentations by 70 Honors Precalculus students (mostly juniors) will focus on… Read More ›
Suppose math tells you something that goes against your preconceived beliefs. What do you do?
Yale Law School’s Dan Kahan and three other researchers make the case that those more skilled at math are less likely to come to the correct conclusion on controversial matters—even when the numbers to support that conclusion are clear, empirical,… Read More ›
Cryptology? Cryptography? Crypto?
One of my students claimed that I was being inconsistent because I sometimes wrote cryptology, sometimes cryptography, and sometimes just crypto. What’s going on here? I suppose I could quote Walt Whitman on the subject of contradicting myself, or I could quote Emerson on the subject… Read More ›
Data visualization
“Chartjunk?” you ask. “What’s that?” The term comes from Edward Tufte, whose work I have admired for thirty years. If you only have a small amount of time to read what he has written, I recommend the beautiful, 200 page classic, The… Read More ›
Grant Wiggins and Diane Ravitch
It’s always difficult when you admire two different people and they’re in a bitter dispute with each other. Grant Wiggins and Diane Ravitch both have appropriate, well-thought-out views on education. But they deeply disagree on the role that teachers can… Read More ›
PD and edX
Yesterday was the fourth day of a long weekend for my students, but a professional development day for us teachers. It was surprisingly productive. As a department we constructed a list of every unit in every math course in grades… Read More ›
What is a proof?
High-school math teachers and those who know them need to be concerned with what a proof is. That certainly isn’t a new claim. But for most students a proof is something you learn to construct in high-school geometry class and… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 