Blogs are public writing. We want our students to publish their work — to take ownership of it, to take personal responsibility for it, to take pride in it. These goals apply not only to English class but also in… Read More ›
Technology
Distribution of U.S. incomes
Check out this interesting visual representation of U.S. income distribution. Try zooming out and out and out…
Stunning graphs of equations
You have got to go look at the Visual Dictionary of Famous Plane Curves and study some of the stunning images that Xah Lee has collected. I particularly recommend his collection of sinusoids and his gallery of graphics based on… Read More ›
Beware the Algebrator
Yes, there really is a product called The Algebrator. Their slogan is, “You Type in Your Homework Problem. Algebrator does the Rest!” Here is an excerpt from one of their ads. What’s wrong with this picture?
The TeachScheme conference
The TeachScheme conference (see my post of 5/22) went very well. Because of some changes in the program, we actually were granted 15 minutes for our talk! I came away with quite a number of interesting ideas, both for the… Read More ›
Ban Comic Sans!
In a column in this week’s Boston Phoenix, Mike Miliard reports on the worldwide campaign by Dave and Holly Combs to ban the Comic Sans font: …It’s Comic Sans, the goofy, ungainly typeface, meant to mimic handwriting that’s somehow proliferated… Read More ›
Intel, security, and Apple
Paul Otellini, the new CEO of Intel, says that he “spends an hour a weekend removing spyware from his daughter’s computer,” according to a Wall Street Journal article about its recent All Things Digital conference. When asked whether a computer… Read More ›
Where visuals fail
Some of us couldn’t possibly forget the 1969 draft lottery, the new and supposedly “fair” system to pick who was going to be sent to Vietnam. My Algebra 2 class is studying probability and was remarkably interested in learning about… Read More ›
A presentation in 10 minutes or less?
Dennis and Jim and I have been invited to present a paper at the TeachScheme Tenth Anniversary Workshop in Providence on June 11. At first we were allocated ten minutes! Not ten minutes apiece, but ten minutes total. But wait,… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 