Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 85

• Three philosophical novels: Goldstein, Sloan, and Barbery

  By ljd42 on August 17, 2013

  

  Three of the novels that I read this summer are explicitly or implicitly built on philosophical themes: Rebecca Goldstein’s 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A work of fiction. With a title like that, you can see why a subtitle… Read More ›

• A white lion?

  By ljd42 on August 16, 2013

  

  As you know, Douglas has a lot of fur. (That’s why his name is Douglas.) So where did it all go? Well, the problem was that his hair is so long and so thick that it kept getting badly matted…. Read More ›

• Ambivalent much?

  By ljd42 on August 15, 2013

  

  I guess this JP family is hedging their bets. Conley? Connolly? Golar Richie? Arroyo? Walczak? Connolly gets two signs, so…  

• Paul Lockhart

  By ljd42 on August 14, 2013

  

  Three and a half years ago I wrote a post about Paul Lockhart’s book, Mathematician’s Lament.  Now he has a new book, oddly titled Measurement. Why, you ask, is that title odd? It’s because the book is only peripherally about measurement. Mostly it’s… Read More ›

• My Short, Happy Life in “Jeopardy!”

  By ljd42 on August 13, 2013

  I reviewed Ken Jennings’s book Brainiac seven years ago. (Was it really seven years ago‽ Yes, it was!) So I figured I should also read the latest book by another Jeopardy champion, Brendan DuBois, whose short fiction I had read several times… Read More ›

• Lobstah Bake at Ashmont Grill

  By ljd42 on August 12, 2013

  

  Mmm…what a feast! Last night was the much-anticipated occasion for the Ashmont Grill’s annual Lobstah Bake, three hours of unlimited grilled lobsters, tuna ceviche, striped bass ceviche, mussels, potato salad, tomato salad, cheddar-and-scallion biscuits, fresh corn on the cob, wine,… Read More ›

• It's better than sleeping on the keyboard.

  By ljd42 on August 11, 2013

  

  Usually Douglas annoys me by sleeping on the keyboard and “helping” me type. I guess this is better.  

• Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.

  By ljd42 on August 10, 2013

  “Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.” So observes Farhad Manjoo, in a well-reasoned article entitled “Space Invaders: Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period.” This  is not a matter of opinion; it’s… Read More ›

• College admissions, the achievement gap, and throwing money at the problem

  By ljd42 on August 9, 2013

  Boston College (2), Boston University (2), Brandeis, Clark, Denison, Framingham State, Hamilton, Harvard, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Northeastern (2), Skidmore, Suffolk, Tufts, U. of Maine, UNH, UMass Amherst, UMass Boston, Union, Wheaton, and Williams. That’s the complete list of where the… Read More ›

• From strangers to family

  By ljd42 on August 8, 2013

  Yesterday evening the Crimson Summer Academy held its Tenth Annual Celebration to recognize the conclusion of another summer’s hard work. (Hard to believe that it’s been ten years!) Among the many fine presenters, one in particular stood out: the junior class… Read More ›

• Surrounded by police

  By ljd42 on August 7, 2013

  “The house next door is surrounded by police, including a swat team.” This wasn’t really what I wanted to hear (four hours ago) in a phone call from Barbara. By now, of course, you’ve probably heard the main story: two… Read More ›

• How many levels should there be?

  By ljd42 on August 5, 2013

  “I don’t want to stay in Honors Geometry. It’s too difficult!” “I’m bored in regular Geometry. It’s too easy!” We hear remarks like these from a sprinkling of students — sometimes both of them  from the same student — usually… Read More ›

• Wall to Nowhere

  By ljd42 on August 4, 2013

  

  Sarah Palin may have her Bridge to Nowhere, but Lesley University in Cambridge apparently has its Wall to Nowhere. I spotted this hard-to-miss wall in the parking lot of the Shops at Porter, part of Lesley University. As you can… Read More ›

• All iPads, all the time?

  By ljd42 on August 3, 2013

  Can we survive in the classroom if we entirely replace laptop computers with tablets? Last summer we converted from laptops to iPads for the incoming sophomores at the Crimson Summer Academy. This summer we expanded the program to the juniors…. Read More ›

• Plagiarism: Pro and con

  By ljd42 on August 2, 2013

  Pro and con? Perhaps you think this is a deliberately provocative title. Every teacher, after all, is vehemently against plagiarism, right? We are justifiably outraged when a student turns in a paper in which whole paragraphs are cribbed unattributed from… Read More ›

• Graphing lines

  By ljd42 on August 1, 2013

  So here’s the question: should we teach students that the slope-intercept form of the equation of a line is y = mx + b ? Or should we teach it as y = a + bx ? And does it matter? I contend that it does matter, and that there are several good reasons… Read More ›

• “It’s all mine,” says Douglas

  By ljd42 on July 31, 2013

  

• Not Harry Potter

  By ljd42 on July 30, 2013

  Just finished reading the first of J.K. Rowling’s two post-Harry-Potter novels. This was The Casual Vacancy, the one she published under her real name. On the whole, my reaction was far more positive than negative. It has very little in common… Read More ›

• T-R-E-A-T-S

  By ljd42 on July 29, 2013

  Now we have to spell out “T-R-E-A-T-S” instead of saying the whole word…otherwise this is what happens:

• Finally resuming the blog…

  By ljd42 on July 28, 2013

  …after a four-month hiatus. Stay tuned…    

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