Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 68

• The Body in the Casket

  By ljd42 on March 9, 2018

  

  A cleverly worded summary of The Body in the Casket could easily lead you to think that it was describing an Agatha Christie mystery. As you can tell from the image of the cover, it’s actually a Katherine Hall Page mystery, not… Read More ›

• John Green

  By ljd42 on March 8, 2018

  

  At the recommendation of several of my students, I recently read two of John Green’s YA novels: The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down. Verdict: Generally very positive. In particular, Green convincingly presents both the characters and their issues. The… Read More ›

• What’s wrong with Google Classroom?

  By ljd42 on March 3, 2018

  

  Google Classroom? What’s that? If you aren’t currently a student, teacher, or administrator in a school setting, you probably haven’t heard of it, although you may be surmising that it’s part of Google’s plan to take over the world. (Not… Read More ›

• Revisiting The Industry

  By ljd42 on February 28, 2018

  It was time for our annual visit to The Industry, Dorchester’s best restaurant. I say “annual,” but it was only our second visit: I first reviewed it shortly after it opened, about seven months ago. It’s still great. Before commenting… Read More ›

• Retiring

  By ljd42 on February 27, 2018

  I am retiring in four months. To paraphrase a colleague whom I have never met, “I will be retiring from Weston, not from education.” After 21 years at Weston — and 44 years altogether in teaching — it’s time. I told… Read More ›

• Shadow of the Lions

  By ljd42 on February 25, 2018

  

  Thirteen years ago [has it really been that long?] I wrote an essay called “Literature & math: imaginary gardens with real toads.” The phrase following the colon quotes from Marianne Moore’s characterization of poetry, but I was connecting it with math in… Read More ›

• Spirals & fractals at the MoS

  By ljd42 on February 24, 2018

  

  Another museum visit on my staycation was to the Museum of Science: the special exhibit Numbers in Nature, continuing through April 25. My capsule summary is that it is generally high in quality but low in quantity. Yes, I agree that… Read More ›

• DreamLand Wax Museum

  By ljd42 on February 23, 2018

  

  Sometimes a Groupon just leaps out at you and demands to be purchased. It’s a bah-gain, after all, so how could you resist? That’s how Barbara and I ended up visiting Boston’s DreamLand Wax Museum as part of our staycation this week…. Read More ›

• Why teach programming/coding? For the nth time…

  By ljd42 on October 27, 2017

  This seems to be an endless debate: why should we teach programming? (Or coding, if that’s what you prefer to call it.) We have to split the question into at least three versions, and probably more: Why should we offer… Read More ›

• Still Life

  By ljd42 on October 23, 2017

  What a beautiful collection of locally grown early-Autumn produce provided by one of my colleagues (looks like a still life, doesn’t it?)

• “Why are more American teenagers than ever suffering from anxiety?”

  By ljd42 on October 22, 2017

  The cover article in the New York Times Magazine from 10/15 (yes, I’m just now catching up) asks, “Why are more American teenagers than ever suffering from severe anxiety?” The author, Benoit Denizen-Lewis, continues with this observation: “Parents, therapists and schools are… Read More ›

• Y is for Yesterday

  By ljd42 on October 21, 2017

  So we’re down to Y. Just one more to go. As I’ve previously reviewed some of the other novels in Sue Grafton’s alphabet series, I should write something about this one as well. I listened to the audiobook this time,… Read More ›

• Introverts and group work

  By ljd42 on October 19, 2017

  I hear that you hate group work (and other collaborative work)? Why? Perhaps it’s because you’re an introvert. Or perhaps not. There are three other reasons why some of my students hate group work; I identify with all three reasons… Read More ›

• Should you take the math course you want to take?

  By ljd42 on October 15, 2017

  A brief anecdote posted by The Math Curmudgeon and a comment from a reader a couple of days ago raise two different but interlocking issues: how do you take school administrators seriously when they directly contradict themselves, and should students… Read More ›

• Happy Hangul Day!

  By ljd42 on October 14, 2017

  Happy Hangul Day — five days late. Sorry that I missed it! “What’s Hangul Day?” you ask. You mean you didn’t follow the link in the previous paragraph???? Or perhaps you do know what Hangul is but you don’t know… Read More ›

• It’s Complicated

  By ljd42 on October 13, 2017

  

  I almost never write about a book that I didn’t or couldn’t finish, unless there’s just something egregious about it. Some people, of course, feel a sort of moral obligation to finish reading any book they’ve started, but life is… Read More ›

• The Puffin of Death

  By ljd42 on October 12, 2017

  Puffins? OK, I guess, but I’m not really into birds, though my colleague from Newfoundland probably approves of puffins. Despite the usual connection with Newfoundland, the puffins in this mystery are actually in Iceland. And therein lies most of the… Read More ›

• Caption, anyone?

  By ljd42 on October 11, 2017

  

• The Late Show (no, not that one)

  By ljd42 on October 10, 2017

  This Late Show is the newest police procedural by Michael Connelly, famous for his intertwined Harry Bosch series and Lincoln Lawyer series. Although they say you can’t tell a book by its cover, this cover clearly reveals that The Late Show is the first… Read More ›

• Couldn’t happen to me!

  By ljd42 on October 9, 2017

  Or could it?

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