Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 129

• Should we use textbooks?

  By ljd42 on November 15, 2005

  Almost all math teachers (and 63% of teachers of other subjects as well*) distribute textbooks in our courses at the beginning of September. But then four different styles emerge: Some teachers go through the textbook chapter by chapter — in… Read More ›

• An unsolicited testimonial

  By ljd42 on November 13, 2005

  I love my new Neoprene laptop case. It’s soft, it’s extremely lightweight, and it opens up in such a way that it’s remarkably easy to keep the case on while using the computer. What more can I say?

• Stopping to ask directions

  By ljd42 on November 12, 2005

  An activity in one of my Saturday Course classes this morning was a crypto treasure hunt. Each group of three fifth-graders had to decrypt a cryptogram, leading to a somewhat mystifying plaintext, which in turn took them to a location… Read More ›

• Killing five birds with one stone

  By ljd42 on November 9, 2005

  At a recent Math Department meeting, we discussed the question of whether we should offer more math electives. Currently the only non-AP electives that Weston offers are two one-semester Comp Sci courses, but we’re a small high school and probably… Read More ›

• The T Word

  By ljd42 on November 6, 2005

  Why is it politically incorrect to point out that mathematical talent is one of the necessary components of doing well in high-level math courses? No one would expect that just any random kid could make the varsity football team. We… Read More ›

• Does the school day start too early?

  By ljd42 on November 5, 2005

  Tracy Jan’s article in yesterday’s Boston Globe indirectly quotes Brighton High School basketball coach: To boost attendance, alertness, and academic achievement, Mahoney said, high schools should start later. High schools around the Bay State are considering the idea because federal… Read More ›

• Disappearing statistics

  By ljd42 on November 4, 2005

  A wire-service article appeared yesterday on the Boston Globe’s website, boston.com, but now the article has mysteriously disappeared. Fortunately most of it is still available elsewhere, so we can examine its questionable use of statistics. It begins by reporting some… Read More ›

• Not yet reading

  By ljd42 on November 3, 2005

  Yesterday we held our regular first-Wednesday-of-the-month professional development activity. This time it was a planning session for an event three months hence — a day based on Tracy Kidder’s latest book, Mountains Beyond Mountains. (This book comes with two slightly… Read More ›

• Logs

  By ljd42 on November 2, 2005

  Why are logarithms so difficult? Algebra students who are consistently competent in other topics often stumble when they get to logs. Sure, they can memorize an algorithm for switching from exponential form to logarithmic form and vice versa, and most… Read More ›

• An invitation from Tufts Health Plan

  By ljd42 on November 1, 2005

  

  The form letter begins as follows: Dear Rosalita Davidson, Do you have a plan for retirement? Remember, there’s more to consider than the size of your pension or 401(K). There’s also your health insurance. Medicare is important. But it may… Read More ›

• We so-called experts have been wrong for almost 7 years

  By ljd42 on October 30, 2005

  Those of us who teach math and computer science have been proud of our knowledge that a kilobyte is really 1024 bytes, not 1000. So “Y2K” doesn’t really refer to 2000 but to 2048. Similarly, we believe (and teach) that… Read More ›

• Pythagorean Theorem in so-called real life

  By ljd42 on October 29, 2005

  Reading this case might prove helpful for some students who think that math is useless in real life (at least those who plan to be lawyers or drug dealers). But shouldn’t the court have used Taxicab Geometry for its distance… Read More ›

• Irrationality considered harmful

  By ljd42 on October 28, 2005

  “I refuse to deal with irrational numbers until they’ve calmed down,” says one Jeff Schult, who claims that math is a cult. Read the whole article. I hope it doesn’t represent what Weston students think about math. We shouldn’t use… Read More ›

• Should honors classes be open to all?

  By ljd42 on October 27, 2005

  At least on political grounds, it’s tempting to argue that honors and AP classes ought to be open to all who wish to enroll in them. It’s also tempting to argue it on educational grounds. We believe in giving everyone… Read More ›

• What is trigonometry?

  By ljd42 on October 24, 2005

  “Trigonometry is algebra tainted by geometry,” according to one of my students.

• Logarithms and the Hippocratic Oath

  By ljd42 on October 20, 2005

  I just finished reading The Oath, a novel by John Lescroart. A hospital is suffering from deep financial woes. One character says: Every day the hospital’s troubles are increasing logarithmically! I guess there isn’t much that they have to worry… Read More ›

• Charging what the market will bear

  By ljd42 on October 17, 2005

  The folks at TechFusion must be good guys, right? After all, their company is one of WBUR’s underwriters. And they advertise “No Job Too Large or Too Small.” Of course I was suspicious in the first place when I heard… Read More ›

• Globe speaks out for Dorchester!

  By ljd42 on October 11, 2005

  What does the Globe normally say about Dorchester? Well, the three most frequently reported topics are crime, crime, and crime. So it was welcome news to see a large article right on the first page of Metro/Region in yesterday’s Globe… Read More ›

• The power of visual representations

  By ljd42 on October 10, 2005

  In middle- and high-school math classes, we spend a lot of time helping students learn different representations of mathematical relations: words, equations, graphs, tables, etc. One of the big ideas is that a particular representation may be more powerful than… Read More ›

• Anti-Semitism?

  By ljd42 on October 9, 2005

  Conversation overheard in the Math/Science Office the other day: Ms. X [to Student Y]: I need a babysitter for my kids. Do you babysit? Student Y: Yes, I do. Ms. X: You aren’t Jewish, are you? Student Y: No. Not… Read More ›

• ‹ Older Entries
• Newer Entries ›