Recent Posts - page 78

  • JEB @PA

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    They tell us that students should get to know their teachers. So, every year I show my classes excerpts from Kevin Rafferty’s movie, Regular Guys. This is partly so that my students can get a better picture of my own high-school experience and partly… Read More ›

  • Marauder’s Map

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    Harry would be jealous. Look at this: it’s a real-life Marauder’s Map! But instead of showing where people are, it shows where MBTA subway trains are — right now, in real time. How cool is that?

  • Rails across Canada?

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    For the second time, Barbara and I are planning to take the train from Boston to Chicago this April to visit the in-laws…and to enjoy the journey, of course. But that’s less than half the distance across the continent. At… Read More ›

  • The so-called Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up 

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    What an annoying book! How did it become a New York Times best-seller??? In the words of H.L. Mencken, “no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people,” so maybe that’s the explanation. In The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie… Read More ›

  • Why crypto in high school?

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    So I was out to dinner this evening with some old friends — no, not “old” friends in that sense, but “old friends” if you know what I mean — and one of them was surprised that cryptography is effectively… Read More ›

  • X

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    The last time I wrote about Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone mystery series was two and a half years ago. At that point I was up to V. Then came W — and now, of course, X. But this one breaks… Read More ›

  • Hello Ruby

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    Can young kids really learn about coding (which we used to call “programming”)? If so, do they need a computer, or can they learn it better through reading and playing board games? Linda Llukas is betting on “yes” and “the… Read More ›

  • Oliver Sacks redux

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    I’m gradually working my way through most of the oeuvre of the late Oliver Sacks. Two months ago I wrote about Uncle Tungsten, On the Move, and Hallucinations. Now it’s time for The Island of the Colorblind, Cycad Island, and Awakenings. Once again, all three are fascinating and worth… Read More ›

  • Why he stopped doing interviews for Yale

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    Ben Orlin hits the nail on the head in his brief essay titled “Why I’ve Stopped Doing Interviews for Yale.” The whole admissions process for highly selective colleges has become an unpredictable mess, as many of my recent high-school students will tell… Read More ›

  • Copenhagen

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    So…it’s hard to avoid telling a bad joke about uncertainty…you know, “Heisenberg and Bohr walk into a bar…” But I’m going to try hard to stay away from such jokes, Not that the play isn’t amusing. In fact it has… Read More ›

  • The Ophelia Cut

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    You’re probably wondering how many John Lescroart mystery novels featuring Dismas Hardy I’ve read at this point. No, you’re not wondering that? That’s just as well, since I’m not at all sure; there are 14 in all, and they seem… Read More ›

  • What’s wrong with Strunk and White?

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    The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White, is certainly a popular book, but its popularity is richly undeserved. There, I said it. A recent article by Stanford’s Asya Pereltsvaig in the Languages of the World blog explains why the popularity of Strunk… Read More ›

  • “You’re not actually bad at math.”

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    This picture sits atop an interesting article in Slate magazine, titled “You’re not actually bad at math” and subtitled “A new way to think about how to reason.” Although I call the article “interesting,” it’s ultimately disappointing. It raises several… Read More ›

  • A Little Night Music

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    Yesterday afternoon Barbara and I went to see A Little Night Music at the Huntington Theatre. Go see it! Although I consider myself something of a fan of Stephen Sondheim, I had never seen this particular musical before, either on stage… Read More ›

  • Standards of mathematical practice: A portfolio

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    Check out Tina Cardone’s post about standards of mathematical practice. Her suggestions relate closely to my post of August 30, where I discussed the attributes of a good mathematician and how we’re planning to measure them in Weston. There’s a… Read More ›

  • Common bonds…or One No Trump

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    What do these three have in common? Tea-partiers who distrust experienced teachers and blame them for everything that’s wrong in education. Climate-deniers who distrust scientists. Republicans who prefer any of the three highest-polling candidates (Trump, Carson, Fiorina). They’re all right-wingers, of course,… Read More ›

  • Why?

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    What is the key question? Not to sound like Abbott and Costello, but actually “why” is the key question. A year ago, my boss’s boss, Pam Bator — new in that role at the time — started a blog called“Why?” Note… Read More ›

  • Using primary sources in teaching, even in teaching math

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    Primary sources should provide a significant portion of our information. History teachers know this, of course, but it’s rare among math teachers. Even though my major academic interests are math and linguistics/languages, I was deeply affected by the best course I took… Read More ›

  • Teaching isn’t brain surgery

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    I love the provocative title of this talk by philosopher Harry Brighouse: “Teaching’s not exactly brain surgery, is it?” Brighouse is trying to provoke us into thinking that his talk is going to be a teacher-hating rant by some Tea Partier…. Read More ›

  • Social skills and teamwork are primary

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    Some of my students hate groupwork. I’m sympathetic; I used to hate it too. Working in a group slows you down, these students say; it forces you to cooperate with less-capable classmates; it makes you assume responsibility for other people’s failings. There… Read More ›