Last night I saw the Weston High School Theater Company’s excellent performance of The Lie That Binds. What? You’ve never heard of this play? That’s because it was written collaboratively by the cast and crew — namely, the students in… Read More ›
Weston
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 ›
Math Team to State Meet
Congratulations to the Weston High School Math Team for moving on to post-season! We will be competing in the State Meet on April 1 because of our current standing, which is #3 in the state among medium-sized high schools: at… Read More ›
Making order out of chaos
Yesterday evening I delivered the first lecture in our new Beyond the Classroom series, described as follows: Weston High School is pleased to announce a new series of talks for the whole community led by our esteemed faculty members on a broad… Read More ›
Making order out of chaos
BSP*: Come hear my talk on linguistics at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, February 1, at the Weston Public Library! Here’s a description: Making order out of chaos: A conversation about linguistics “Linguistics? What’s that?” This is the usual response I… Read More ›
Negative attitudes
Quotation from one of my students: “I hate it when people don’t like negative attitudes.” (Context: He had been solving a problem at the board and made a negative remark, causing one of his classmates to say that he was… Read More ›
Themes in precalculus
A course ought to tell a story. If it doesn’t, it’s just a collection of topics, not a course. Honors Precalculus at Weston definitely does tell a story. I was thinking about the themes of that story today, and I… Read More ›
Names of polygons
Why do so many of my students use incorrect names for various polygons? They claim that they are merely recalling what they have been taught; maybe this is so, maybe not. I suppose there are two major possibilities: They are… Read More ›
Yankees’ fans in Weston
In my geometry class today, some students caught sight of a file on my computer named Weston+Yankees.pdf, so of course they wanted to know what it was. It turned out to be a Boston Globe article from six and a… Read More ›
Making order out of chaos
My principal has selected me to give the first presentation in a proposed series of talks to be delivered by faculty and staff; the audience will consist of colleagues, students, parents, and community members. I’ve written a very rough description… Read More ›
Don’t dismiss Wikipedia!
The Weston High School Library recently posted a slide show from Rutgers University explaining why students shouldn’t use Wikipedia. This carefully produced polemic deserves a thoughtful rebuttal; I have endeavored to write one here. Be sure to watch the slide… Read More ›
Feeling like a community
A class ought to feel like a community. (Mathematically speaking, that’s what make it a class, rather than a set. Yes, it’s a slightly different meaning of the word “class,” but the resemblance is not a coincidence.) We’ve all been… Read More ›
Weston’s Math Department on nation-wide TV
The Math Department of Weston High School & Middle School was featured in a report on last night’s NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams! Be sure to watch all the way to the end (it’s only two and half minutes), not… Read More ›
Lost in Lexicon Launch Party
Yesterday I wrote about Penny Noyce’s new book, Lost in Lexicon. What prompted that post was that I was on my way to the official launch party for the book. It was a great success, and I saw a couple… Read More ›
Lost in Lexicon
If you regularly see my Facebook status in your News Feed, you may have noticed that it said “I’m lost in Lexicon right now…” on October 17. This status confused some of my students. One of them asked, “How did… Read More ›
Congratulations to the Math Team
Well done, Weston High School Math Team! Congratulations to Alexandra R., Andrew H., Andy Y., Blake W., Caleb T., Daniel P., Jason M., Jonathan B., Julia B., and Pravina S. for a fine performance at this afternoon’s meet at Lexington… Read More ›
Closer connections with students?
In our department meeting today, we had a guest speaker from the Wellness Department* who talked with us about building closer connections with students, an atmosphere of trust, and greater engagement by our students. All good things, certainly. Part of… Read More ›
More thoughts on grading
What are grades supposed to represent? What is the appropriate connection between assessments (whether formative or summative) and grades? I’ve recently been reading some interesting discussions about these questions in several math teachers’ blogs (including those of Matt Townsley, Karl Fisch,… Read More ›
Sixteenth in the state
No, Weston teachers do not have the highest salaries in the state. According to today’s Boston Globe, Weston ranks only 16th in the state in average teacher salaries! At $73,338, we can be compared to a high of $79,444 (Old… Read More ›
Professional Learning Communities
Apparently this is becoming more and more common in Massachusetts. Our students got a four-day weekend in January, but the faculty only had a three-day weekend, in order to schedule a day of professional development. Not that that’s a bad… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 