Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 110

• Is Prisoner's Dilemma still teachable?

  By ljd42 on February 8, 2008

  For over three decades I’ve been teaching the Prisoner’s Dilemma. This is a classic problem — perhaps the classic problem — of game theory, the misleadingly named field that lies at the intersection of mathematics and economics (with a dash… Read More ›

• Maybe Yelp knows…finally…that Dorchester is part of Boston

  By ljd42 on February 6, 2008

  Like many people, I occasionally visit Yelp to see what people are saying about local restaurants and other businesses. More often, I visit it to find out about out-of-town restaurants when I need that information. So Chris and Erin immediately… Read More ›

• Mad Mouse

  By ljd42 on February 4, 2008

  Mad Mouse is the third book by Chris Grabenstein that I’ve reviewed in this blog. I was enthusiastic about Tilt-A-Whirl, but far less so about Hell for the Holidays. So now I’ve finished reading Mad Mouse, another book in the… Read More ›

• The Beautiful Miscellaneous

  By ljd42 on February 2, 2008

  I have to confess that I have mixed feelings about The Beautiful Miscellaneous, a novel by Dominic Smith. I was initially attracted by the premise of the book: a physicist’s son who does not live up to his father’s hopes… Read More ›

• When am I ever going to use this stuff?

  By ljd42 on February 1, 2008

  I know, I’ve written about this topic before, but it bears further consideration. Too often I hear the question, “When will I ever use this stuff?” This is a common question in Weston, and surely elsewhere as well. Sometimes the… Read More ›

• How do you read email when there's so much spam?

  By ljd42 on January 31, 2008

  Mark Bernstein has an observation and a question: I no longer trust my email. If you send me mail, I will probably receive it, but I’m far from certain that it won’t be lost in the vast deluge of spam…. Read More ›

• How about an Obama/Bloomberg ticket?

  By ljd42 on January 30, 2008

  Now that Obama is starting to catch up with Clinton in the national polls, and now that Edwards has dropped out, some people are starting to talk about the possibility of an Obama-Edwards ticket. While that would have a certain… Read More ›

• Courtesy: a double standard?

  By ljd42 on January 28, 2008

  One of my colleagues has asked us not to cut in line in the cafeteria, correctly pointing out that “adults set the tone and serve as personal examples of respectful behavior.” I agree with the text, but I have some… Read More ›

• Surely the Globe can't be wrong! But the oldest house in Boston is actually in Dorchester, not in the North End

  By ljd42 on January 27, 2008

  It’s simple logic: A sentence begins this way in today’s Boston Globe: The grounds of the Paul Revere House, Boston’s oldest building and a historic Colonial landmark,… The Paul Revere House was built in 1680 (plus or minus a year… Read More ›

• The Witch of Agnesi

  By ljd42 on January 25, 2008

  What math teacher could resist a mystery titled The Witch of Agnesi. Of course if you’re neither a math teacher nor a mathematician, you’re probably scratching your head right now, wondering, “What is he talking about?” Well, the Witch of… Read More ›

• Defaults

  By ljd42 on January 24, 2008

  “Default, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves…” No, that doesn’t seem quite right. I don’t think Shakespeare had Cassius talking about defaults, did he? But it’s what I think of when we just assume that defaults… Read More ›

• Collaborating with colleagues

  By ljd42 on January 23, 2008

  We had an interesting K–12 professional development (PD) day yesterday (as our students were enjoying a four-day weekend and we teachers had to settle for three days off). The theme for the year is differentiated instruction (DI); the specific focus… Read More ›

• Firing a teacher, part two

  By ljd42 on January 22, 2008

  A first-year teacher was fired last week for making a bad judgment call. Depending on the version of the story you believe, he either duct-taped a student’s mouth shut or gave her some masking tape and asked her to tape… Read More ›

• I'm delighted to learn that I was wrong

  By ljd42 on January 21, 2008

  In my review of Transit Maps of the World a couple of days ago, I made the following observation: I have to admit that it will appeal strongly only to readers who are fascinated both by cartography and by railroads,… Read More ›

• Adults and math: Who needs a formula?

  By ljd42 on January 20, 2008

  OK, this is just one example. It’s purely anecdotal evidence, and therefore it doesn’t prove anything. But it’s still indicative of a problem with adult attitudes toward math. A bit of background first: if you don’t have the good fortune… Read More ›

• Transit Maps of the World

  By ljd42 on January 19, 2008

  This gorgeous book — I might even call it stunning — must have a rather limited audience. Although I’m tempted to add it to my list of favorite books (see my profile in this blog), I have to admit that… Read More ›

• Mathematicians are Platonists

  By ljd42 on January 17, 2008

  In this past Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, Jim Holt wrote a mildly interesting review of the new book by John Allen Paulos, Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up. Since I haven’t… Read More ›

• Life imitating art: Academy X & Firing a teacher, part one

  By ljd42 on January 16, 2008

  Continuing my accidental theme of reviewing works of fiction about life at elite high schools, such as Prep, Restless Virgins, and Dangerous Admissions, I have just finished reading Academy X, a satirical novel by Andrew Trees. It’s not clear whether… Read More ›

• No comment

  By ljd42 on January 15, 2008

  A reader of both this blog and Adam Gaffin’s Universal Hub asked why I’ve turned off comments in my blog. Naturally he had to ask the question on Universal Hub. I replied as follows: I have comments turned off because… Read More ›

• The fuzzy math of Huckabee's FairTax

  By ljd42 on January 14, 2008

  There are many things to dislike about Mike Huckabee’s proposal for a 30% national sales tax, the so-called Fair Tax, such as the fact that it’s thoroughly regressive. (It would lower taxes slightly for the poor, lower them tremendously for… Read More ›

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