Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 44

• School-reopening plans

  By ljd42 on August 5, 2020

  

  Harvard staff writer Colleen Walsh asks whether we are “agonizing over school-reopening plans.” We certainly are! In fact, that’s all I seem to be reading about these days. Should schools open in-person, remote, or hybrid? Whether it’s Donald Trump’s screeds… Read More ›

• Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso

  By ljd42 on August 4, 2020

  

  Two or three weeks ago I wrote a piece about the complications of Hispanic surnames. Despite the complications, there is definitely something appealing about taking your surname from both parents, not just from the father. The problem, of course, comes… Read More ›

• Model trains are not cat toys!!!

  By ljd42 on August 3, 2020

  You can skip to 1:20 if you’re impatient:  

• High school students! You can learn linguistics online!

  By ljd42 on August 2, 2020

  

  Linguistics is the science of language. While most often classified as a social science, it’s really an interdisciplinary field that sits at the intersection of social sciences, humanities, and STEM – language is such a fundamental piece of our collective… Read More ›

• The myth of “learning styles”

  By ljd42 on August 1, 2020

  

  It says here that 90% of teachers believe two related claims: There are four different learning styles — visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinesthetic. Lessons need to address all four. For several reasons I have long been skeptical of statements like the… Read More ›

• He’er, his’er, him’er: Pronouns in the news, 1912 edition

  By ljd42 on July 30, 2020

  

  Pronouns again! There are (at least) two different issues swirling around pronouns: Singular they, which I wrote about in 2018 Calling someone by their preferred pronouns (in terms of gender), which I wrote about earlier this month Both of these issues… Read More ›

• I can’t give secure assessments in a remote teaching-and-learning setting!

  By ljd42 on July 28, 2020

  

  Don’t tell anyone: there’s a dirty little secret here! I have some bad news: people cheat. More specifically, students cheat on tests and other assessments. So, how do you give secure assessments in a remote teaching-and-learning setting? It’s all too… Read More ›

• Stuck in the past

  By ljd42 on July 27, 2020

  

  You say you didn’t learn cryptography in high school or college? And you didn’t learn it on your own, as some of us did? It isn’t too late! In that case you’ve probably never heard of the Vigenère Cipher, so… Read More ›

• A comfortable pillow?

  By ljd42 on July 26, 2020

  

  Vincent is ignoring William, who thinks that he’s resting his head on a comfortable pillow:  

• Ashmont Grill has reopened!

  By ljd42 on July 25, 2020

  

  The Ashmont Grill has reopened! Barbara and I ate dinner last night on the spacious and beautiful back patio. Barbara had their special New England Lobster Dinner (steamers, lobster, chorizo, corn on the cob, potatoes), with Nanny Sheila’s renowned carrot… Read More ›

• Your last name is always your last name, right?

  By ljd42 on July 23, 2020

  

  “Of course my last name comes last,” you reply! “That’s why it’s called my last name!” Well, no. Your surname is not always your “last” name. And I’m not talking about the “Doe, Jane” construction used in bibliographies and official class lists… Read More ›

• The Just City: science fiction and Plato

  By ljd42 on July 21, 2020

  

  I am overwhelmed! By unanimous consent, Jo Walton’s The Just City has now been added to my top-ten books list (which already had 12 books on it). There was no doubt about it. In a sense, this book is science fiction…. Read More ›

• English history, fractals, and Donald Trump

  By ljd42 on July 19, 2020

  

  The Fractal Geometry of Nature may be Benoit Mandelbrot’s most famous book, but have you ever heard of the fractal geometry of history? I hadn’t either — until I watched the six-minute video “The Abandoned Hill with Two Members of… Read More ›

• “How to Read 50 Books in a Year (Even When You’re Busy)”

  By ljd42 on July 18, 2020

  

  As we discussed a few days ago, a Pew poll showed that Americans don’t read very much. More specifically, it’s non-college-educated adults don’t read many books, but also reading in general is way down — reading of almost all types… Read More ›

• What’s up with Hispanic surnames?

  By ljd42 on July 17, 2020

  

  Over the years I have taught many students with Spanish-language surnames, and I’m never sure how to alphabetize them, since it seems that there are multiple systems of doing so. It turns out that it not only seems that there are multiple… Read More ›

• Irregardless of what you may think, “irregardless” is a word.

  By ljd42 on July 15, 2020

  

  OK, so I slightly modified the headline on an NPR article from last week. Go read this short article to find out what I did, and to learn something. I will wait. … The problem is that the world is… Read More ›

• How many books have you read this year?

  By ljd42 on July 14, 2020

  

  According to Pew, the average adult reads — wait! median adult or mean adult?— OK, the median adult reads 12 books per year, whereas the mean is only 4. Ponder that discrepancy for a minute! We all know — though… Read More ›

• Performances? Performances!

  By ljd42 on July 12, 2020

  

  A published book is a performance. A translation is a performance. Actually, I never used to think of either of them that way, but John Talbot and James Harbeck have convinced me. In JT’s case it was an oral conversation… Read More ›

• Think of the veterans. And think of the cats… and dogs.

  By ljd42 on July 11, 2020

  

  Think of the veterans who are your neighbors. Think of the cats and dogs who are your pets and your neighbors’ pets. They are assailed by endless illegal fireworks every night. Fireworks can trigger PTSD in veterans, and they can… Read More ›

• Justice Alito has strong views about pronouns (and gender).

  By ljd42 on July 10, 2020

  

  Justice Samuel Alito warns that Bostock not only opens up bathrooms and locker rooms to sexual predators, it runs afoul of the First Amendment by forcing people to use gender pronouns against their will. … Alito implies that somehow this deluge… Read More ›

• ‹ Older Entries
• Newer Entries ›