Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 19

• This high-school reunion was even deadlier than usual.

  By ljd42 on February 3, 2023

  

  The senior superlatives in my high-school yearbook didn’t include Most Likely to Murder. Did yours? Probably not. But that’s the title of the fourth (and last?) novel in Carole Shmurak’s Susan Lombardi series. I reviewed the first in the series… Read More ›

• Clearly a ¼-pounder is larger than a ⅓-pounder. After all, 4 is larger than 3. Right?

  By ljd42 on February 1, 2023

  

  Americans don’t understand numbers—especially when those numbers are fractions. You may know the true story about Arby’s customers who were convinced that a new ⅓-pound burgers contained less meat than the familiar ¼-pounder, since 4 is larger than 3. Maybe… Read More ›

• Possibly our last dinner at the Ashmont Grill

  By ljd42 on January 30, 2023

  

  Should we be sad about the news, or should we be happy about the wonderful people we met and wonderful meals we ate at the Ashmont Grill over the past 18 years? The answer is on their website: Don’t cry… Read More ›

• In which I read a graphic novel… and give it a surprising A+!

  By ljd42 on January 29, 2023

  

  Graphic novels aren’t my thing. I never read them. Well, actually, that’s not quite true. On average I read one graphic novel every three… three what? three months? No. How about three years? No again. More like once every three… Read More ›

• The town of Lincoln first participated in—and later rejected—this “radical experiment in integration.”

  By ljd42 on January 27, 2023

  

  “Why do you want to mix our children with city blacks? We moved here to get away from that element.” So said a resident of Lincoln, Massachusetts. A white resident, needless to say. Shocking perhaps, but not surprising, even if… Read More ›

• Chynah Tyler on igniting the passion of a new generation of voters.

  By ljd42 on January 25, 2023

  

  Chynah Tyler, member of the Great and General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, more commonly known by its informal name, the Massachusetts State Legislature, has published a fine article in Commonwealth Magazine. You should read it—not just because Chynah… Read More ›

• Farewell, Ashmont Grill 🥲

  By ljd42 on January 23, 2023

  

  This is very sad: Our favorite local restaurant, the Ashmont Grill, is closing its doors permanently in three weeks. I’ve written about the Grill many times. For a few examples, check out these posts: I could go on at great… Read More ›

• A pair of Horowitzes? (Is that the plural? How about Horowitzim?)

  By ljd42 on January 22, 2023

  

  Actually, there’s only one Horowitz that we’re talking about here: Anthony. I’m using the plural metonymically, if that’s the right word, with the author standing in for his books. Thirteen months ago I reviewed A Line to Kill. Two months… Read More ›

• Q: Is AI forcing us to switch to project-based learning? A: Not really, but…

  By ljd42 on January 20, 2023

  

  The newest moral panic, as I’m sure you’ve heard, has teachers and professors clutching their pearls about AI, specifically ChatGPT. A couple of weeks ago I proposed three solutions to this problem, but now I want to address three more… Read More ›

• Making math relevant?

  By ljd42 on January 17, 2023

  

  Good rhetorical question from SMBC: “Do kids ever look up from Minecraft or Pokemon cards or a Harry Potter book and say ‘This is boring because it’s not relevant to real life’?” And yet that’s exactly what too many kids… Read More ›

• Deadmistress

  By ljd42 on January 15, 2023

  

  Yes, you’re right: the title is a portmanteau. It’s not a concatenation of “dead mistress” but a portmanteau of “dead” plus “headmistress.” Get it? This 2011 mystery by Carole Shmurak wasn’t so easy to find. CommCat couldn’t locate it for… Read More ›

• Is anyone still teaching cursive? Does anyone care?

  By ljd42 on January 13, 2023

  

  “Niche scholarship and the blue-moon occasion do not justify a universal policy of childhood education,” observes John McWhorter. As you see, I’ve taken that observation out of context. Without context it’s hard to know what McWhorter means, so let’s unpack… Read More ›

• Yes, it really is by J.K. Rowling, but…

  By ljd42 on January 11, 2023

  

  It’s not part of the Harry Potter franchise. I’m talking about The Ink Black Heart, the sixth novel ostensibly written by Robert Galbraith, the well-known pseudonym that J.K. Rowling uses for her outstanding Cormoran Strike series. Unlike Harry Potter, the… Read More ›

• It Happened One Night

  By ljd42 on January 10, 2023

  

  Romcoms have never held much appeal for me, not even when they were made in 1934 and were called screwball comedies, and not even when they starred Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Nevertheless, I watched It Happened One Night, since… Read More ›

• Before I Go to Sleep (the book, not the movie)

  By ljd42 on January 8, 2023

  

  It’s obvious that author S.J. Watson had seen the movie Memento before writing his first novel, Before I Go to Sleep. What isn’t obvious (at least to me) was that a mediocre movie of the same title was made from… Read More ›

• William says…

  By ljd42 on January 7, 2023

  

  “Tessellations are meant for sitting on,” says William, “as long as there’s a soft rug between me and the tiles.”

• Three ways to rescue writing assignments from the curse of AI

  By ljd42 on January 5, 2023

  

  Following up on my post of December 16: the internet has been atwitter recently (no pun intended) with news about the first artificial intelligence that is likely to pass the Turing Test. (If you don’t know what that is, you… Read More ›

• That feeling when…you’re trying to enjoy Venice during a pandemic

  By ljd42 on January 3, 2023

  

  I mean Venice, Italy, of course. Not Florida or California or Las Vegas or any other inauthentic place. Not that I visited Italy during the pandemic—at least not IRL—but I did manage a virtual visit by reading Give unto Others,… Read More ›

• Returning (again!) to the Grill—this time for NYE

  By ljd42 on January 1, 2023

  

  Completing our Dining in Dorchester holiday week trifecta, Barbara and I followed up Sunday’s Christmas dinner at Chau Chow and Wednesday’s baked stuffed lobster from Adams Fish with New Year’s Eve dinner at our local favorite, the Ashmont Grill. We… Read More ›

• BSL@AFM (mmm…lobstah!)

  By ljd42 on December 29, 2022

  

  Dr. Google seems to think that BSL stands for either British Sign Language or Breed-Specific Legislation or maybe even Biosafety Level. “But what,” you ask, “do any of those have to do with lobster?” Nothing, of course. That’s because BSL… Read More ›

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