Recent Posts - page 132

  • Adequate Yearly Progress

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    A Boston Globe article on October 3, 2004, included Weston High School among the schools cited by the Department of Education for failure to make Adequate Yearly Progress on the No Child Too Far Ahead Act. Sorry, I mean the… Read More ›

  • The Achievement Gap

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    Yesterday I wrote about the pressure to take honors math, but I didn’t even consider the reasons for this pressure. The implied one — which I tried to debunk — was that honors math is necessary in order to get… Read More ›

  • Misanalyzing textbooks

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    The Washington Monthly publishes an interesting example of the lies about incorrect analysis of math textbooks by right-wing zealots. Not that I’m a fan of very many textbooks, but a little truth would help.

  • Honors math courses

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    Weston, of course, is really Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average®. Weston’s only public high school has just two levels of math courses: the higher level is called honors, the lower level college-prep. Everyone is above average…. Read More ›

  • Casual Fridays

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    David Allen rants about Casual Fridays. Many of his readers’ comments concern seeing clients in business settings on Mondays through Thursdays. But what about school settings? At Weston High School we’ve had Casual Fridays for many years (though there have… Read More ›

  • Intellectual growth

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    I’m examining an Algebra II book that looks really good so far (Discovering Advanced Algebra: An Investigative Approach, by Murdock, Kamischke, and Kamischke — if you’re interested). But a statement in the Note to Teachers got me thinking: Students will… Read More ›

  • Listlessly

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    It has been so hot and muggy that the cats are just lounging around listlessly. Which means…well, the word seems to suggest that they don’t have any lists. I’ll admit that cats aren’t big list-makers (though they are otherwise fine… Read More ›

  • Phys Ed online?

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    OK, we’ve heard of online math courses and writing courses, but phys ed???? Even as I type this, I’m listening to a report on NPR about the online phys ed option for students in the Minneapolis Public Schools. Hmmm….

  • Comfort levels, parties, & structure

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    Ordinarily I don’t feel very comfortable at parties if most of people are unknown to me. When most of the attendees are friends of mine, I’ll enjoy the party, but my comfort level goes down as the number of strangers… Read More ›

  • Helpful volunteers

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    Three of my sophomore students have volunteered to set up a website for use by our Math Team. They’re designing a database to contain Math Team problems and answers collected from the last n years, typing many hundreds of problems… Read More ›

  • Notes on a textbook

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    This note, written by a junior, was attached to the precalculus book she was returning: Dear Mr. Davidson, Here is my book. I have enjoyed it thoroughly. I read it when I was feeling down, and it raised my spirits…. Read More ›

  • Distribution of U.S. incomes

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    Check out this interesting visual representation of U.S. income distribution. Try zooming out and out and out…

  • Life after exams

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    It’s tough to keep kids focused and engaged after they’ve finished their final exams. As I blogged earlier, our math exams were on the 14th… but school continues until the 23rd! Everyone knows that tests and grades are all that… Read More ›

  • Fermat's Last Theorem limericks

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    Weston High School held a math haiku contest, but maybe we should have had a math limerick contest instead. Here are some math limericks about the proof of Fermat’s last theorem (from a contest held at the University of Illinois… Read More ›

  • Cantor's proofs

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    A lot of my precalculus students today didn’t like and/or didn’t believe Cantor’s proofs of the denumerability of the rationals and the non-denumerability of the reals. A few articulated their disbelief; most were quiet and attentive, but how many of… Read More ›

  • Stunning graphs of equations

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    You have got to go look at the Visual Dictionary of Famous Plane Curves and study some of the stunning images that Xah Lee has collected. I particularly recommend his collection of sinusoids and his gallery of graphics based on… Read More ›

  • Beware the Algebrator

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    Yes, there really is a product called The Algebrator. Their slogan is, “You Type in Your Homework Problem. Algebrator does the Rest!” Here is an excerpt from one of their ads. What’s wrong with this picture?

  • Too hot to think

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    It wasn’t a great day for taking math exams. I opened up the windows and doors in my classroom at 7 AM to get some cross-ventilation, but when the exam started at 7:35 it was already 83 degrees in my… Read More ›

  • Amusing calculus book?

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    The pseudonymous Rudbeckia Hirta writes about “the most amusing book ever written about calculus”: The Historical Development of the Calculus, by C.H. Edwards. I know, you don’t think the competition for most amusing calculus book is very stiff, but I’m… Read More ›

  • The TeachScheme conference

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    The TeachScheme conference (see my post of 5/22) went very well. Because of some changes in the program, we actually were granted 15 minutes for our talk! I came away with quite a number of interesting ideas, both for the… Read More ›