I thought the people who read my blog might enjoy the message I sent to my students over Christmas Vacation.
I’m the son of a piano teacher who made it her life’s work to build children’s self-image and give them the tools to have wonderful lives, using piano as the medium. Much of what makes me a popular (and effective) teacher came from my mom. Not surprisingly, I’m a strong supporter of the music program at my school. I sometimes bring my 5-string hybrid violin/viola to school and play with the kids at string ensemble rehearsals. On Thursday evening, I attended their winter concert, some of which they repeated in an assembly during school Friday morning.
Lockdown drills are the modern-day equivalent of the air raid drills I got to practice when I was in elementary school. Both gave parents the peace of mind that comes from knowing that even when the unthinkable happens, our school has a plan. Granted, the likelihood of the plan being useful is relatively small, but we have a plan and we practice it regularly.
I’m finally getting around to grading the 5-second timer labs my students did earlier this quarter. One of my students’ timers was a ceramic bowl with an amount of men’s cologne that burned for 5 seconds.
Unbeknownst to me until I read his lab report, he gives the following list of data as he was researching the experiment:
Anyone who thinks research & development is not interesting should talk to this student.
…is better than the devil you don’t.
I just finished correcting the end-of-quarter exams for my honors physics students. While they did quite well and will be pleased with their grades, I did notice a trend that was noteworthy: several of them learned a skill or technique and applied it on a homework assignment, but reverted back to their prior knowledge and skills on the test.
I’m a nerd. I’m proud of it. I even have two “Nerd Pride” pocket protectors from MIT (different designs) to provide as evidence. Because I’m a nerd, friends, co-workers, students, and acquaintances like to ask me what I think of the TV show Big Bang Theory. My answer: I hate it.
One of the things most high school students don’t learn about in their science classes is quantitative error analysis. (The closest they usually get to the topic is significant figures.) This year, I started off by teaching my students to estimate uncertainties and propagate the uncertainties through their calculations. Quantifying their estimated uncertainty will continue to be a requirement on lab write-ups throughout the year. Continue reading
One of the signs on my wall states, “You can’t learn effectively without the freedom to make mistakes.” It’s a new school year, and my new batch of students is working on learning this lesson.
It seems like the harder we work at teaching students to be good at math, the more problems they have, and the worse they become. We seem to be trapped in a vicious downward spiral. I believe that a lot of the cause is that we’re trying to solve the problem at the wrong level.
A lot of Americans are understandably dissatisfied with the state of our educational system. Some of the problems stem from unworkable and unenforceable laws that demand much more than they can fund. Others stem from a system that is entrenched in its own habits—both good and bad—that typically take a generation to change.
As friendly debate gradually gives way to heated argument and battle, reformers grasp at straws, looking for the silver bullet that will end all of our problems and usher in a new era of prosperity. One of those straws is the role of seniority/tenure in the hiring and retention of teachers.
