Recent Posts - page 94

  • Levels vs. tracks

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    Adult friends often ask me about “tracking” at Weston. Apparently they’re referring to their own high school experiences, in which a student entered high school in a certain “track,” such as honors or business, and then remained there forever. This… Read More ›

  • Shades of Grey

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    Don’t read Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey if you dislike offbeat science fiction. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Red Dwarf come to mind…although Fforde’s novel is a bit more down-to-earth, so to speak. Maybe it should be considered… Read More ›

  • Among Others: one comment

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    “Reading it is like being there.” That was a comment (on The Lord of the Rings) uttered by Mori, the narrator and protagonist of Jo Walton’s fascinating novel, Among Others. It was that comment that hooked me on this novel, which… Read More ›

  • A plate at Bella Luna

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    As is the case in most restaurants, when you sit down at a table at Bella Luna you see a place setting in front of you. But at Bella Luna you get a plate that has been drawn or painted… Read More ›

  • The Square Root of Murder

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    Of course I wanted to like this book. What could be better than a mystery about a Massachusetts math teacher? But unfortunately this novel by Ada Madison (pen name of Camille Minichino) falls flat, IMHO at least. Apparently my opinion is… Read More ›

  • MCAS again

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    It’s easy to find plenty to dislike about MCAS, but I was particularly struck by the cogency of Sanjoy Mahajan’s piece entitled “Public School Math Doesn’t Teach Students How to Reason.” Aside from the usual arguments against MCAS — it… Read More ›

  • Working hard is not enough.

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    This post, like part of yesterday’s, brings up an educational dilemma:

    On the one hand, we want students to work hard. That means that we need to provide incentives as rewards for working hard. Grades are pretty much the only currency we have in high school, so students expect to get good grades if they put in a lot of effort.

  • College-prep? City council candidates and math education!

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    City council candidates and math education? Those are two utterly unrelated topics, aren’t they? But there turns out to be a connection. First of all, this afternoon I had already been intending to comment on an op-ed piece from this morning’s… Read More ›

  • The age of distraction?

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    A recent article in Salon opens with the conventional view of “kids today”: They live in a state of perpetual, endless distraction, and, for many parents and educators, it’s a source of real concern. Will future generations be able to… Read More ›

  • Marcia Muller

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    Over the years I’ve read many books (more than two dozen) by the great mystery writer, Marcia Muller, who actually has a website now. Why is that surprising? Well, here’s the explanation in her own words: For those of you… Read More ›

  • Favorite numbers

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    On yesterday’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” on NPR, there was a five-minute segment on “What’s Your Favorite Number and Why?” The interview with British mathematician Alex Bellos is definitely worth listening to; you can find a listen-to-the-story link on that webpage…. Read More ›

  • Inverting the classroom

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    Several different threads have recently been coming together under the heading of “inverting the classroom.” The basic idea is that modern technology has let some of us come to the conclusion that the traditional model of the classroom has it… Read More ›

  • The helpful RMV

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    My inspection sticker expires this month, so I took the car to our dealer this morning (in case any work was needed) and discovered that our registration had expired two months ago! The current registration was nowhere to be found…. Read More ›

  • Please do not poster on this gate

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    Apparently poster has become a verb. If Harvard says so, it must be true. This sign appears on the gate of the fence that separates Harvard Yard on the south from the Science Center and Memorial Hall on the north:

  • Ashmont Grill (for the nth time)

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    After a hiatus of more than three months, it seems fitting for me to resume blogging with a post about the Ashmont Grill. For Barbara and me it has become our go-to restaurant at least twice a month. It probably… Read More ›

  • A Slight Trick of the Mind

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    You’ll recall that a month ago I wrote a few words about Mitch Cullin’s novel, A Slight Trick of the Mind: I can’t yet review A Slight Trick of the Mind, by Mitch Cullin, as I am only halfway through… Read More ›

  • Dorchester/Roxbury/Mattapan Community Seder

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    Yesterday another successful Dorchester/Roxbury/Mattapan Community Seder was held at First Parish Church in Dorchester. There were only 40 attendees — half of last year’s number — probably because Passover managed to overlap with both Easter weekend and school vacation week… Read More ›

  • High School Quiz Show Quarterfinals

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    Be sure to watch Weston vs. Hamilton-Wenham in the quarterfinals of High School Quiz show, to be broadcast tomorrow night, 4/24, at 7:00 PM on Channel 2!

  • March of the Penguins

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    I finally saw the March of the Penguins. It’s unquestionably informative and beautifully photographed. Almost everything in it was new to me, and I couldn’t help being astonished and moved by what these birds do in Antarctica. (They’re very different… Read More ›

  • A beautiful fractal project

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    In last month’s post about our Fractal Fair, I made the following promise: Stay tuned for a post on one project in particular, a spectacular children’s book on fractals. So here’s the follow-up, or at least a preliminary follow-up. I… Read More ›