Today is Nevada Day (Observed), and as a result, I had my first real school day off since Labor Day (I am not counting Rosh HaShannah or Yom Kippur since I was in services). Instead of spending another morning and afternoon of prep or taking a trip out of town (like I had originally planned),…
read more »Ahh… October. The month that I lost my voice and was delighted to stay at home and read, and relax and ride my bike because my classroom was such a disaster. October, the month I wished that I would get mono so that I’d have an excuse to give up for more than a few…
read more »My mom sent me a note saying “Being in the right place at the right time is Karma.” The following photo was enclosed. This afternoon I stopped to listen to a man asking for donations for refugees in Somalia. After I agreed to contribute I was blessed with a story that resolved some of my…
read more »I want to write a book. My adviser says to finish my dissertation first. And that would be safe, and prudent and probably it will get done before a book will be polished. But part of me thinks that now, in graduate school, with control of my schedule, is the time to do it. But,…
read more »It appears that the public’s interest in explosive, dramatic winners, almost guaranteed that the best known cycling legend of our time would also be a doper and a liar. I can’t imagine a scenario where a cyclist could have become as well loved as Lance with a charity as successful as Lance’s without the expectation-defying…
read more »Note: Since I have fallen behind on blog posts, I am writing a series of rambling mini-updates here. I hope you find them somewhat illuminating. Once of the cliches that I used when talking about teaching before I started teaching was that I was far more scared for Day 34 than I was for Day…
read more »I keep putting off homework to read more news on Lance Armstrong. I’m not surprised by the doping evidence so I think that the story interests me because it wrestles with some of the big questions I’ve asked again and again as a cyclist and as a educator. Is ambition good? Does it always come…
read more »Khan has some fantastic ideas about distributing education using technology and is good at mathematics. However, when I watch his videos on topics such as slope and proportions, I can see that they are likely to promote the same misconceptions that are widely documented in math education literature. I don’t take offense to the ideas…
read more »The last two weeks have been insanely busy even by my standards. Even when I am not working, I am always thinking about teaching my kids, and everything I have to do get ready for them. However, I find that I spend so much of my time doing things that are indirectly related to my…
read more »Education week recently wrote a glowing article describing a group of hard working and dedicated teachers in Utah who were writing curriculum to promote the Common Core Standards. I absolutely agree with the teachers that many textbook companies are repackaging the same materials they developed before the Common Core Standards without substantially changing the content.…
read more »
