Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 45

• 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 ›

• Tavolo is back!

  By ljd42 on July 8, 2020

  

  It was so nice to be able to see our friends at Tavolo last night for the first time dining there (not just takeout!) since the pandemic began. We’re talking safe dining on the improvised outdoor patio on Dot Ave,… Read More ›

• Zoom vs. MCET: compare and contrast.

  By ljd42 on July 7, 2020

  

  Everyone knows Zoom (the teleconferencing platform, that is, not the old PBS kids’ show). Everyone knows Zoom. Now, raise your hand if you know MCET. I thought so: everyone knows Zoom, but very few know MCET, which provided my first… Read More ›

• It can’t happen here.

  By ljd42 on July 5, 2020

  

  In 1964, when Barry Goldwater was running for president, Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here came to my attention, so I promptly checked a copy out of the library and read it right away. In case you’ve never heard of… Read More ›

• I survived my first week of Zoom-based teaching.

  By ljd42 on July 3, 2020

  

  Today, on July 3, I am telling you that I survived my first week. Not my first week of teaching, of course: what I survived was my first week of teaching with Zoom — although sometimes it did feel like… Read More ›

• On the other hand… Gödel (but not Escher or Bach)

  By ljd42 on July 1, 2020

  

  In my previous blog post, I wrote about — and included a cartoon about — one aspect of math teaching. The cartoon asserted that “no one can impart perfect universal truths to their students,” with the punch line “…except math… Read More ›

• Sanity through math

  By ljd42 on June 29, 2020

  

  Why is Jonathan Halabi called “Mr. D.”? I mean, it’s an excellent way to refer to a math teacher — isn’t it? — but I’m puzzled by “D” as the abbreviation for Halibi. Oh well, who am I to object?… Read More ›

• Is this an offensive slur?

  By ljd42 on June 28, 2020

  

  QOTD: Is it OK for a young Jewish woman to call another young Jewish woman a JAP, or is it an offensive slur? Here’s the three-part context behind that question: A friend (Jewish and female) replied to my post about… Read More ›

• Finally venturing out to a restaurant (outdoors, of course)

  By ljd42 on June 26, 2020

  

  Yesterday evening was the first time since the shutdown began that we actually went out to a restaurant to dine, instead of getting takeout or delivery! Strictly outdoors, of course, at dbar on the patio. All in all, it was an… Read More ›

• Eye chart

  By ljd42 on June 24, 2020

  

  Stand 20 feet away. Good luck!  

• Resources for non-linguists

  By ljd42 on June 22, 2020

  

  So you want to dip your toe into the waters of linguistics, but you don’t want to take a linguistics course? A course would be full-body immersion, after all, not just dipping a toe. So what do you do? There… Read More ›

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