Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 69

• Nine ways (or six, she said originally) to do linguistics in high school

  By ljd42 on September 16, 2017

  Unfortunately, I’ve never heard of a high school offering linguistics courses or indeed knowing much of anything about linguistics. So writes distinguished linguist Gretchen McCulloch. After all, everyone knows that linguistics is purely an undergraduate and graduate subject in colleges… Read More ›

• York. Book One: The Shadow Cipher

  By ljd42 on September 9, 2017

  Yes, it’s a YA novel; I don’t teach middle school, so why did I read it? The Shadow Cipher (Book One of Laura Ruby’s promised trilogy, York) is clearly aimed at intelligent seventh-graders. Yes, it got great reviews — but still, why would… Read More ›

• Ancient Babylonian trigonometry? Really? Really???

  By ljd42 on September 7, 2017

  It’s pretty clear what this clay tablet says, right? Obviously it’s written in… Oh, wait, maybe it isn’t so obvious. You probably don’t read Babylonian, or Akkadian, or Sumerian, or whatever language these cuneiform carvings represent. But this tablet has… Read More ›

• The first day for all

  By ljd42 on September 5, 2017

  Although the first day for faculty and freshmen came last week, yesterday was the first day when all who should be here were present at Weston High School. From where I sit, it was an especially smooth opening day. As… Read More ›

• Do negative numbers exist? And why do two negatives make a positive?

  By ljd42 on September 4, 2017

  A brief interchange on Facebook yesterday and today with three of my former students prompted this discussion of the two questions stated in the title of this post. It all started with this implausible claim from a reliable math website:… Read More ›

• New York 2140

  By ljd42 on September 3, 2017

  Most good science fiction takes a single premise (which may or may not be believable) and spins out the consequences of that premise. To be convincing, there should just be that one premise, since most readers are willing to suspend disbelief… Read More ›

• School of Rock

  By ljd42 on September 1, 2017

    I really didn’t think I would enjoy this movie. “Not my style,” I said to myself. But I was wrong. Although it’s true that it is not my style, I still enjoyed it a lot. In case it’s not… Read More ›

• A portal for parents

  By ljd42 on August 29, 2017

  There’s an excellent article in last week’s New York Times on the downside of checking kids’ grades constantly through an electronic portal for parents. Here are a couple of excerpts: The reality, at least in high-pressure school districts, is that some parents… Read More ›

• I Know a Secret

  By ljd42 on August 27, 2017

  

  Don’t read Tess Gerritsen’s newest Rizzoli and Isles novel, I Know a Secret, if you (like someone I know) are prone to having nightmares based on books and movies. The rest of us will find it fascinating and suspenseful. To a large… Read More ›

• “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” (Rethinking quadrilaterals)

  By ljd42 on August 26, 2017

  

  Why on earth would we spend two whole days rewriting our Honors Geometry quadrilaterals unit? Our textbook, after all, contains a perfectly serviceable sequence of four lessons on this topic: These lessons are adequate. In the words of the standard… Read More ›

• New furniture!

  By ljd42 on August 25, 2017

  

  Arrived yesterday to find new furniture for students to use in our Math Office. As you can see, the chairs have wheels and the tables are modular (eight of them, though not all are visible in this photo). This combination… Read More ›

• Coding in middle school math

  By ljd42 on August 24, 2017

  

  Google Blockly? What’s that? And should we say coding or computer programming? We’ll deal with that terminological question in the last paragraph, but let me first tell you about Blockly and about the workshop we had yesterday. A group of… Read More ›

• Confessions

  By ljd42 on August 23, 2017

  This psychological thriller by Kanye Minato is not a typical book, at least not in my universe. Some say that it’s a lot like Gone Girl — but I wouldn’t know, since I’m apparently the only person on Earth who hasn’t read Gone… Read More ›

• Don’t get lost: mark your place!

  By ljd42 on August 22, 2017

  

  Who uses paper maps anymore? At least they can be recycled, but what if they’re already laminated? Barbara sliced one apart and turned them into bookmarks!

• Watermelons?

  By ljd42 on August 21, 2017

  

• Damaged

  By ljd42 on August 19, 2017

  

  If you’ve never read any of Lisa Scottoline’s South-Philadelphia-based Rosato & DiNunzio thrillers, Damaged would not be a bad place to start. (Note: I really like all the Rosato & DiNunzio books, though I don’t particularly recommend Scottoline’s so-called emotional thrillers. But maybe… Read More ›

• Standards-based grading?

  By ljd42 on August 17, 2017

  

  What’s wrong with grading on a curve? Or what’s wrong with grading by straight percentages? Twelve years ago I wrote a post about why grading on a curve is destructive and counterproductive — and why grading by straight percentages isn’t actually… Read More ›

• The Fight for English

  By ljd42 on August 15, 2017

  It seems that I have to write about David Crystal once a year or so. This expert popularizer of linguistics always provides well-informed but accessible antidotes to common myths about language, such as the one alluded to in the subtitle… Read More ›

• Back from Manchester (but which one?)

  By ljd42 on August 14, 2017

  

  No, not that one! Not Manchester, New Hampshire. Not Massachusetts. (Oh, you’re right, that one is now “Manchester by the Sea.“) Not Connecticut. Does every state around here have its own Manchester? Not even Manchester, England. (Or do I mean “Manchester,… Read More ›

• The War Room

  By ljd42 on August 13, 2017

  

  How I miss Bill Clinton! Yes, he certainly wasn’t a perfect president — and yes, he wasn’t Obama — but… [You can finish the rest of the sentence yourself.] The War Room is a documentary about Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 campaign… Read More ›

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