Today was a very successful Career Day at Weston High School. I highly recommend the concept to other high schools — if you have a dedicated, highly organized team of people to take care of all the logistics. People who… Read More ›
Weston
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 ›
Crazy Chinese words?
Don McLeroy, chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, certainly understands cultural sensitivity with his global perspective: “What good does it do to put a Chinese story in an English book?” he said. “You learn all these Chinese words,… Read More ›
What's the matter with math today?
What’s the matter with math education today? No, it’s not that kids don’t know the basics, despite what some people say. And it’s not that teachers are teaching “fuzzy math,” despite what some people say. Paul Lockhart has the correct… Read More ›
“You’ll enjoy the same success and happiness…”
Novelist Elinor Lipman wrote an excellent essay in the Boston Globe the day before yesterday, entitled “If I ruled the admissions universe.” I would like all high school juniors to read it. I just wish I could agree with it…. Read More ›
MCASitis
Today was the first day of disruptive MCAS testing. One of my sections of college-prep Algebra II was wiped out, the other was barely affected. There will be a repeat performance on Thursday. Somehow this is supposed to improve education,… Read More ›
Wellness Day
Today was Wellness Day at Weston High School — a day off for the students, and a day of professional development workshops for the teachers. “Professional development”: what thoughts does that phrase conjure up? FWIW, let’s see what Wikipedia has… Read More ›
Fractions
That’s fractions, not fractals. (There is, actually, a significant and non-coincidental connection between the words, but that would be something of a digression.) I’m noticing two recent and diametrically opposed views on fractions — views that I want to discuss… Read More ›
Preparing for Pi Day
To get ready for Pi Day, which of course comes the day after tomorrow, you should get yourself a Pi Plate, watch the music video of the first half of Mathematical Pi, and listen to the audio version of the… Read More ›
Maple
Yesterday afternoon we had a half-day workshop on Maple, a computer algebra system. At least that’s how we think of it, but here’s the description on their website: Maple is the leading all purpose mathematics software tool. Maple provides an… Read More ›
Teaching boys and girls separately — and differently?
There’s a fascinating pair of intertwined articles this week, one in the New York Times Magazine and one in Language Log. The Times article is the cover piece for the issue: “Teaching Boys and Girls Separately,” by Elizabeth Weil; the… 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 ›
The Sixth Annual Fractal Fair
You’re familiar with the fact that high-school students often display their creativity in the fields of art, music, and theatre, and everyone has heard of science fairs, but similar opportunities in mathematics are all too rare. Today we held the… Read More ›
Curriculum B
Every curriculum can be viewed at several different levels of granularity. Let’s look at what’s important when we’re teaching math. At one level the curriculum is obvious: Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, etc. But of course that’s much too broad,… Read More ›
Applying Yourself
I’ve been catching up on some back reading over vacation, so I just now got to my copy of the January issue of Harvard Magazine. After reading “Applying Yourself,” by college senior Liz Godwin, I am convinced that this essay… Read More ›
Girls can't do math.
Got your attention, didn’t I? I figured that such an outrageous claim would have that effect, even though there are people who actually believe it, as portrayed satirically in yesterday’s XKCD cartoon: The clueless guy on the left is a… Read More ›
A calculator that promotes understanding
I try not to plug specific products. I especially try not to plug products that I haven’t even seen yet. But… the new calculator from Texax Instruments is clearly not just another calculator. From its specs, the TI-Nspire looks like… Read More ›
Post #500!
According to Blogger, this is my 500th post! It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve written 500 of these short (and sometimes not-so-short) essays. One of my Weston students asked in class why anyone would bother keeping a blog,… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 