Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 58

• Tolkien, the movie

  By ljd42 on May 24, 2019

  

  The new biopic, Tolkien, was clearly written for me. But you’ll enjoy it too. What, you may wonder, do I mean by claiming that it was written for me? Of course that is not literally true: the film-makers don’t know… Read More ›

• How many ml in a liter?

  By ljd42 on May 23, 2019

  

  So I’m in a certain store in Jamaica Plain today — name kept anonymous to protect the oh-so-innocent — and I ask the clerk if they sell Hennessy Privilege (a cognac, for those of you who don’t know). She says… Read More ›

• High School SCOTUS

  By ljd42 on May 21, 2019

  

  Can high-school students conduct an excellent interview and write an excellent article about it? Anna Salvatore and Joe Hanlon certainly can! No, I have never taught these two. I have never even met them. But I highly recommend Anna’s blog, High… Read More ›

• A Raspberry Pi class

  By ljd42 on May 19, 2019

  

  This time the student teaches the teacher! I had a great time yesterday at MakeIt Labs in Nashua, participating in a four-hour class taught by a former student of mine, Johnathan Vail, who was in two or three courses of… Read More ›

• The Odd Clauses

  By ljd42 on May 17, 2019

  

  As you know, the President of the United States takes an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” And of course our current president does that faithfully — right? — but not everyone is familiar with… Read More ›

• “Math teachers should be more like football coaches.”

  By ljd42 on May 15, 2019

  

  As you probably know, John Urschel is both a professional mathematician (at MIT, no less) and a recently retired professional football player (in the NFL, of course — recently retired from the Baltimore Ravens). What a combination! A few days… Read More ›

• Arabic numerals? Oh, no!

  By ljd42 on May 14, 2019

  

  Did you hear that they’re teaching Arabic numerals in public schools? I’m shocked, shocked. In America, no less! What is this world coming to? A recent poll showed that 56% of Americans don’t want public schools to teach Arabic numerals…. Read More ›

• Why do Americans think that Asians mix up R and L?

  By ljd42 on May 12, 2019

  

  Speaking of Asia, why do so many Americans think that Asians mix up R and L? (Asians? East Asians? Chinese and Japanese? How far does this stereotype go?) Before we answer this question, I need to point out a more… Read More ›

• Writings by a former Weston student

  By ljd42 on May 10, 2019

  My former student Julia Metraux is a staff writer for The Tempest, an online magazine that describes itself like this: The Tempest is the guide for diverse women to share, feel, and claim their voices – and power. We’re the… Read More ›

• William’s iPad

  By ljd42 on May 9, 2019

  

  William is helping with the iPad:

• Back from New York, Part 4: Food, transportation, and ethnicities

  By ljd42 on May 8, 2019

  With one notable exception, Barbara and I enjoyed our meals in New York. We had decided to try to pick walkable destinations whenever possible, and that wasn’t difficult since our hotel’s Murray Hill neighborhood contained a bunch of restaurants that… Read More ›

• Back from New York, Part 3: Museums

  By ljd42 on May 7, 2019

  We were in Manhattan, after all, so we spent a portion of each day at a museum. I’ve already reported on the Tolkien exhibit we saw at the Morgan. The next day we went to the National Museum of Mathematics,… Read More ›

• Back from New York, Part 2: The High Line

  By ljd42 on May 5, 2019

  

  On May Day I wrote about the Tolkien exhibit and promised to discuss the rest of our NYC trip in my “next post.” Unfortunately that task turned out to be far too big for one post, so it is being split among… Read More ›

• Puzzle of the Week

  By ljd42 on May 2, 2019

  

  It’s a dark panel in a dark elevator, so I’m not sure how well you can see the details, but this is the elevator panel in the hotel where Barbara and I have been staying in NYC. The puzzle is… Read More ›

• Back from New York, Part 1: The Tolkien Exhibition

  By ljd42 on May 1, 2019

  

  “No masks, wizard staffs, scepters, axes, bow and arrows, or swords are permitted.” Yesterday was the first time I’ve ever been to a museum show with such a rule! As I had promised in this space back on June 17 of last… Read More ›

• Some other favorite podcasts

  By ljd42 on April 29, 2019

  Two days ago I wrote about my favorite linguistics podcasts. Now check out my five favorite non-linguistic ones, especially the first two: Pod Save America Stay Tuned with Preet Hidden Brain Serious Eats Unorthodox  

• Weston: New England Math Champions!

  By ljd42 on April 27, 2019

  

  Congratulations to Weston High School for finishing first in this year’s medium-size schools division of the New England Math Championships! Weston earned 97 points to capture first place. Avon, CT, came out of nowhere to score 93 points, providing a… Read More ›

• Linguistics podcasts updated

  By ljd42 on April 26, 2019

  

  A year and a half ago — forever, in tech terms — I reviewed four linguistics podcasts: Lingthusiasm, The World in Words, Very Bad Words, and Lexicon Valley. Since then, the second and third of these have unfortunately ceased to… Read More ›

• The Silk Road, the Noodle Road, and Confucius

  By ljd42 on April 24, 2019

  

  You surely know about the Silk Road, even if (like me) you went to school before courses like World History existed. But do you know about the Noodle Road? If not, you should read Jen Lin-Liu’s excellent memoir, On the Noodle… Read More ›

• An upcoming reunion — words and all

  By ljd42 on April 22, 2019

  

  Yikes! My 50th college reunion is coming up! (You already know this if you happen to have read a certain post that I wrote a couple of months ago.) What was the famous class of 1969 like? “All happy graduating… Read More ›

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