Recent Posts - page 123

  • Big Picture Curriculum Day

    By on

    Today was the assigned date for the Math Department’s Big Picture Curriculum Day, which meant a full-day workshop with no math classes. Although we were not thrilled about having to miss two consecutive days of math classes — especially troublesome… Read More ›

  • Career Day

    By on

    Just completed another successful Career Day at Weston High School. We started with keynote speakers: Barry and Eliot of Jordan’s Furniture — actually only Eliot, as Barry didn’t show up — or maybe it was Eliot who didn’t show up… Read More ›

  • What is probability?

    By on

    We’re having a small disagreement here concerning just what probability is. One colleague claims that it’s an indication of belief: if I say that there’s a 30% probability of rain, then that means that I believe that there are about… Read More ›

  • Not too much eye contact

    By on

    I wonder how many Weston students would want to go to Pensacola Christian College. Check out the fascinating article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, which reports an interesting set of written and unwritten rules: At Pensacola any physical contact… Read More ›

  • Too much homework in fifth grade?

    By on

    What’s happening with the lives of fifth-graders these days? Too many of my Saturday Course students have lives that are completely filled with homework, sports, music lessons, and all sorts of other activities. I suppose most of those have been… Read More ›

  • The Plot to Save Socrates

    By on

    Just finished The Plot to Save Socrates, by Paul Levinson, an intriguing but ultimately unsatisfying science-fiction novel. In many ways it’s in the classic time-travel genre, with the usual issues about preventing paradox and taking future knowledge back to an… Read More ›

  • Who has time to read blogs?

    By on

    “Who has time to read blogs?” asked one of my colleagues. She went on to guess that blogs can’t have very many readers, since no one has time to read them. “Actually,” I replied, “some blogs have large numbers of… Read More ›

  • A student speaks out on MCAS

    By on

    Michael Bendetson [real name used by permission] is a sophomore in my Algebra II class. Today he emerged from the first of many MCAS sessions with the observation that MCAS is supposed to promote education, and yet his math class… Read More ›

  • Homework: punishment or reward?

    By on

    More than 400 students at Weston High School are participating in the Relay for Life, a fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society. Everyone is justifiably enthusiastic about this, since it’s a community effort supporting an excellent cause. But that’s not… Read More ›

  • Birkenstocks

    By on

    According to movie director Jason Reitman: Nothing says “I want to tell you how to live your life” more than Birkenstocks.

  • Campaign for the education of the whole child

    By on

    Schools must ensure every child has access to a rich array of subjects, including social studies, world languages, science, art, music, physical education, and recess, as well as reading and math… [T]he state must provide adequate resources to ensure that… Read More ›

  • Getting help from tutors and parents

    By on

    “Everyone in Weston has a math tutor,” says my neighbor in Dorchester. “Kids in Weston do well in math because they all get help from their parents. And they all take math courses outside of school.” Of course this is… Read More ›

  • Toast

    By on

    Just finished reading Nigel Slater’s memoir, Toast. Don’t bother.

  • Two kinds of skepticism

    By on

    As I mentioned in my post of March 11, some interesting issues were raised on the unfortunate March 10 episode of Numb3rs. There was no explicit mention of the dispute between two kinds of skepticism, but that was actually the… Read More ›

  • Taking the mission seriously

    By on

    Earlier this year I tried to figure out whether I had a common mission in all the math classes that I teach. Here’s what I eventually came up with: To empower all students to represent the world quantitatively and to… Read More ›

  • Turning back the clock

    By on

    One of the many virtues of writing in a wiki is that previous versions of a document are always readily available. I’m still trying to get used to this. Want to turn the clock back to the way your document… Read More ›

  • The Murder Room

    By on

    Just finished listening to the audio CD version of The Murder Room, by P.D. James. It makes an interesting contrast to the Greg Bear novel that I discussed in yesterday’s post. (No, I don’t find it confusing to listen to… Read More ›

  • Darwin's Children

    By on

    I’m currently reading the last chapter of Greg Bear’s Darwin’s Children, the sequel to Darwin’s Radio, which I read last month. I wish I liked this one better than I do. You know how sometimes you have the experience of… Read More ›

  • Not surprised by model railroading

    By on

    One of my students was surprised — not to mention perplexed and amused — to hear that one of my hobbies was model railroading. “Why are you surprised?” asked one of his classmates. “He’s a math and computer science teacher… Read More ›

  • If the IRS had discovered the quadratic formula

    By on

    As you’re sitting there figuring out your taxes, take a look at what the quadratic formula would look like if the IRS had discovered it.