Thanksgivingish Math and Ed Carnivalia
Three upcoming of note:
Teachers Pot Luck. November edition is at Ms Whatsit. E-mail your submissions to whatsit81[at]yahoo[dot]com. Deadline is November 19 (tonight), midnight.
Carnival of Education. I mostly boycott, because of rampant anti-unionism and anti-teacherism (and otherwise unpleasant) hosts. This week is an exception. Submit via this tool by midnight, Tuesday November 20, 2007 (tomorrow).
Math. MATH! What happened to the carnival of mathematics that should have appeared Friday? Nowhere in sight! I don’t know what happened to Winter’s Haven. Looks like he crashed and burned just before this week’s event.
But the next one is being hosted by Ben Webster at the Secret Blogging Seminar (The SBS). The SBS is a “group blog by 8 recent and future Berkeley mathematics Ph.D.’s” and worth peeking at. Oh yeah, submit by clicking this. You have time. The Carnival goes up a week from Friday (November 30)
Windowsill Cayenne
A few years ago I was visiting a friend of McRib. I admired what looked like an ornamental chili plant. Not ornamental, it turned out, and he offered me a few peppers. “Plant them in a pot, you’ll get chilis.” So I did, and I did.
It was nice having a little bush of them. I plucked them as I cooked. I sauteed them with oil and garlic for quick pasta. And they looked pretty.
(Sad part and happy part and another photo, beneath fold –>) Read more…
Mike Klonsky got censored
[Update: the rightwing blogger, almost a full year slow, changed his terms of use notice, and contacted WordPress to complain about my (!) copyright violation. I am reluctantly removing the photo. – jd2718, July 31, 2008]
He says Yahoo took down a photo (read it here).
Back in August he blogged about former Secy of Education Rod Paige calling the NEA terrorists (post is here, but censored). Mike included a photo of Paige with a rightwing blogging yahoo (small y). It’s the photo that Yahoo deleted.
I’ll put the original, with censored photo, beneath the fold. Read more…
Puzzle: McRib
McRib? Is that like McNuggets? Nope. ‘McRib‘ is my friend. In fact, years ago, he had a thing for 2 for a dollar McRibs, but we all eat better today. Today. Today McRib has a broken rib, and, while stuck flat on his back, considered the following question:
Given a circle inscribed in a right trapezoid, express the radius of the circle in terms of the bases of the trapezoid.
Inscribed = four points of tangency. Right trapezoid = quadrilateral, exactly 2 parallel sides (bases), one of the other sides perpendicular to the bases.
Put discussion and questions in the comments section, below.
Please put answers (and discussion of answers) here (in a separate post). The answer is ‘surprisingly simple’ and I would like to learn why.
Solution: McRib
(This space is for solutions. For the original problem, and for general discussion, click here.)
Given a circle inscribed in a right trapezoid, express the radius of the circle in terms of the bases of the trapezoid.
This space is for answers, and for discussion of answers. If you have a result, look at it. Amazingly simple! Amazingly familiar. Why? I’d really like help understanding.
…beneath the blast, thou thought to dwell…
My weekend plans got turned upside down. Instead of going to the math conference, I made my way for a long walk, and then off to visit a friend. He fell off his bicycle and is mending, slowly. It’s 3 weeks now. Rib broke clean in two and shifted, so that the bottom of the front half is just barely in contact with the top of the back half. Ouch. And louder ouch. He needs company.
Yesterday we watched Finding Forester. There should be a category, “movies that continue well past their ending”. The last Lord of the Rings movie would of course lead the list. I do like the soppy Forester storyline. Later another friend came over, and we watched “300” which was hardly better than those claymation space movies I grew up with. I said goodnight in the middle.
Earlier his kid made brownies (Sprinkling grated dark chocolate halfway through baking? my idea!). We played 4 games of blitz. With white I won once, and then lost on time with 2 seconds on her clock, but blundered badly once with black, and the other black game she dominated completely without me knowing what I did wrong. A few more of those sorts of games and I will know that I no longer can play with her (she’s like 12, at ~1750, and improving).
Most fun was chatting with my friend. Flat on his back, what is he doing? Math. I will post a nice problem he shared.
Title refers to the “plans” in the poem “To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With A Plow” (Burns, 1785), whence “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men…” It’s much more than one line, and the Scots English is not impossibly difficult. Sounds better than it looks.
ATMNYC Fall Conference
Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York City is having its fall conference tomorrow morning at Hunter. Jim Matthews from Siena is the keynote speaker. If you are a math teacher and were wondering what to do tomorrow…
“Math: Food for Thought”
| SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2007 8:00 AM – 1:00 PM Hunter College West Building, 7th Floor Lexington Avenue and 68th Street New York, NY |
Workshops for teachers of all levels
Need help with Firefox?
I am lousy at this sort of stuff. I may even be lousy at describing it. I get fairly well-automated updates for stuff on my mac. I usually just accept them without thinking about it. Last round of updates, my mouse’s behavior changed to the point of distraction. I am thinking about just dropping the browser if I can’t fix this stuff.
- When I put the mouse over a hyperlink, the url used to appear along the bottom margin of the window, and stay put. Now it appears for a quarter second or so, and disappears. I need to move the mouse to make it reappear, but then it again reappears. I hate clicking when I don’t know where I am going. This has me concerned/upset.
- As I type I see a url popping up after each key, but too fast for me to read it. I see http // and something like adopt dot specificclick and then dot net, then a long string of characters. There may be an ad doubleclick in the string, and then more numbers and letters. Again, way too fast for me to read it. Is this Firefox, or do I have a serious problem?
- Last, when I hover the mouse over a Firefox tab, or a toolbar item, the item or tab blinks fairly rapidly. This one is just distracting.
Any ideas?
Puzzle – terms in the expansion
Fairly basic, but this is what I do…
How many terms are there in 
How many terms in 
Can you generalize to more terms? (check yourself with 
Puzzlette: How many multiples?
Do you have a cute way of counting the multiples of a number on a given interval? Eg. how many multiples of 11 are there from 2000 to 2500? (that sort of question)
Came up in the comments (here) and it occurred to me that I do a lot of things without thinking about them. I think I am practical, but not cute. I wonder what you do. Tell us.
Progress Reports? Minus one for the bad guys
Doesn’t mean one for the good guys, but Bloomberg and his chancellor have been taking it on the chin. Little bloggers and malcontents didn’t like these Reports. Then schools. Principals. And parents. Yesterday the NY Times. And just about every last teacher or educator in NYC, except my poor friend Frizzle who thought there was something positive, and Leo who was strangely quiet (though Maisie wrote something sceptical in advance) (maybe Leo could reprint some of the UFT official resolution). Even the reasonable middle has realized there’s no reasonable middle* here. Now the only ones left saying anything nice are the ideologically blind and those in Bloomberg’s direct pay.
The UFT went through draft after draft of a resolution, each time toughening it a little more. The earlier versions emphasized support of ‘accountability,’ welcomed that the City was trying, and made technical suggestions on improving the Progress Reports. But it was revised and amended. When we reached the Delegate Assembly Wednesday, there was already a tougher resolution. And by the time it had been yet again amended, in three places, it was a clear anti-Progress Report statement (with too much mushy stuff up front, but I’ll take the stronger soundbites at the end), and a clear pro-School, pro-kid, pro-teacher resolution.
I don’t think the mayor will tough this out. He could try to look good in retreat. He could make changes while claiming to stand firm. We’ll see. But don’t forget, this guy has been getting his way on issue after issue, or making us forget that he didn’t. One stubbed toe won’t make him a changed man, it’ll just make him cranky.
And the good guys? Longer discussion. We have more to talk about.
If you liked the last one…more 3, 5, 7
Did you like this puzzle? Then you might like to try this one that I found on a French math olympiad site:
Le grand mathématicien suisse Léonhart Euler est né à Bâle le 15 avril 1707. Il meurt plus d’un demi-siècle plus tard à Saint Pétersbourg en laissant une ouvre mathématique considérable. Dans une vie qui a duré moins d’un siècle il aura eu le temps de s’intéresser à l’analyse (l’essentiel de ses travaux), à l’algèbre, à la géométrie, à la théorie des nombres, aux probabilités sans parler de la physique et de la philosophie auxquelles il a consacré quelques articles.
Il meurt un 18 septembre à un âge qui n’est divisible ni par 3, ni par 5 ni par 7. L’année qui suit sa mort est une année bissextile dont la somme des chiffres est divisible par 5. A quel âge est mort Euler ? Quel jour de la semaine ?
*Sont bissextiles les années divisibles par 4 à l’exception des années multiples de 100 et non divisibles par 400. *Une anné normale a 365 jours et une année bissextile 366.
I think it says that Euler was born in Basle April 15, 1707. He died more than a half century later in Saint Petersburg, leaving a considerable mathematical legacy. In a life that lasted less than a century he had the chance to engage himself in analysis (his most important work), algebra, geometry, number theory, and probability, without even speaking of physics and philosophy, about each of which he wrote several articles. He died on September 18 at an age that was not divisible by 3, by 5, or by 7. The year after his death was a leap year, and the sum of the whose digits was divisible by 5.
At what age did Euler die? What day of the week?
Is this a good olympiad-style question? Seems strange to me, but that 3, 5, 7 business appeals.
Counting non-multiples
How many numbers from 500 to 999, inclusive, are not multiples of any of 3, 5, or 7?
Bonus: I posed this problem Monday, solved it with class on Wednesday. What topic was I teaching?
Isn’t the sieve of Eratosthenes on the left pretty? It won’t help with this problem, but seemed related. It’s actually a quilt! and the work of a strange blogger who seems to like visitors.
Less is more…
After PD Day Tuesday I couldn’t find the time/inspiration to blog. Three days of nothing. So why was this the busiest week I’ve seen outside of Labor Day weekend and hosting the mathematics carnival last Spring?
By the time the week closes tonight there will have been 3,500 3,747 visitors and 5,000 5,238 page views. Not too shabby.
Good Math PD, Bad Math PD
It’s easy to find bad professional development in New York City, just ask a teacher what they were doing last Tuesday. They were sitting through bad PD.
(A few were at good PD, but more were sick).
So good PD? Does it exist? Where is it?
Turns out, for mathematics teachers in New York, there’s plenty. It’s just not what the Department of Ed tortures us with.
The UFT Math Committee puts together some nice stuff. One of the commenters in a previous post mentioned a higher level workshop, but my impression is that more of their stuff is elementary.
AMTNYS (the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State) runs a two-and-a-half day fall conference each year, alternating between western new york and this side of the state. Here’s one of the keys: at any one time there are a dozen or more workshops going on, and teachers can choose what suits them. AMTNYS also runs sessions devoted to examining, questioning, or getting clarification on state policy. Helpful, helpful, helpful.
(lots more below the fold, and a plain listing at the way bottom –>) Read more…
PD was wonderful
Teachers from several schools gathered. We broke into departments, and then broke into courses. Where there were a lot of teachers for one course, we broke into smaller groups of about 10-12 teachers. Each smaller group had a few senior teachers (and more beginners).
Some people from each group had material prepared in advance. All of us (prepared or not) had a bit less than ten minutes to hold the floor – either to share something nice we do, or to ask questions. Some teachers gave handouts. After a break we moved into another course, and after lunch we moved into a third.
We had a bit of time at the end to sit with our own schools and pick out highlights.
Psych.
Know what I did? I listened to a woman talk for an hour and forty-five minutes about how listeners can’t process more than 15-20 minutes worth of material. She certainly involved her audience in proving that point!
But I’m sure some of you have stories that are worse.
Watch Utah
Teachers should be watching today’s voucher vote in Utah (looks like it will go down). Everything I know about the issue I learned from Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub. Here’s his latest post: The whole world should be watching Utah, but search his site for “Utah” to get lots and lots of very good background. “E” who trains math teachers in Utah, has also written a bit.
School-wide merit pay in NYC?
The agreement is all but in place in NYC. When the legislature approves the pension changes (and they will), then the merit pay system will open.
Vote for people who commit to share the $ equally.
- It starts with 200 schools in 2008-09. Then 200 more (400 total) in 2009-10.
- It was in the 2005 contract agreement. It was point 14 from the Memo of Agreement (reproduced at bottom)
- It certainly wasn’t prominent in the discussions or the factsheets that our leaders provided. But it was there. And, it will be here, most likely.
- It is merit pay. School-based is less bad than individual, but let’s not mince words.
- Over on Edwize they claim it shuts the door on individual merit pay. How?
There is a danger that in some schools the committees will degenerate into real merit-pay committees. They certainly will be making the test data easily available to all the teachers and administrators in your school.
If your school gets a “bonus committee,” put people on it who know what solidarity really means. Put on people who pledge up front that any “bonus” will be shared equally, regardless of test scores, regardless of title. Put on people who refuse to play teacher against teacher or (teacher against para, or teacher against secretary or teacher against counselor).
We don’t like PD
That’s professional development. And “we” is teachers.
Tomorrow is election day, and students don’t come in. Teachers get professionally developed, instead.
Don’t get me wrong. Most of us like learning stuff. I have been to math conferences where I pick up a ton. AMTNYS and some of its local affiliates run great stuff. But tomorrow we get topped down. And most of us don’t like it.*
In fact, most teachers I know grumble that they would rather be in the classroom tomorrow. Teaching goes fast. Getting PDed is like watching paint dry.
So, do you like PD? or no? And if you don’t like it, and we had to be developed, what would you plan instead?
I kind of expect a choir of math voices saying we want to talk with our colleagues about lessons and curriculum, but I wonder…
* My friend got injured, can’t come in, and is happy for PD. If he has to miss a day, he’d rather miss a non-teaching day….
Puzzle: length of the diagonal
A student walked into tutoring with a problem she picked up outside of school. The tutor had seen it before, and called me over. The answer wasn’t so tough – but we were looking for a cute solution. See what you find.
A rectangle is inscribed in a square. It is oriented 45∘in relation to the square, so that any two consecutive vertices of the rectangle, with the included vertex of the square, describe an isosceles triangle. The sum of the areas of these four isosceles triangles is 200. Find the length of the diagonal of the rectangle.
Can you find the diagonal? Can you find a cute method?
(The diagram is from a wonderful false proof. Click and play with it, if you have a moment)
Just another spoke in a great big wheel
The New York City Department of Education has been making a concerted effort to standardize school level data so that it is easily accessible and comprehensible to outsiders (for the purposes of this blog, an outsider is either a consultant/vendor or a DoE employee without pedagogical experience who reports to a non-teaching worksite. In plain language, a young Tweed suit who knows Jack about teaching.)
They want to have all of your students’ test scores, at Tweed, at the push of a button. Why?
They started last Spring. In high schools, all of our courses have new codes this year. Want to know why? We were forced to adopt new codes so that the management vultures could evaluate our schools without talking to us. Want to know what’s funny? They still couldn’t figure them out. We had too many permutations of courses, too many variations, too many pacings, levels, ways of dividing stuff up. In the biggest single flop, they insisted we designate each course as “core” or “not” meaning needed for graduation, or not. But as any teacher could have told them, we often do not know in advance if a course will be used to meet a graduation requirement. Flop, flop, flop. Know what’s not funny? Changing all those codes confused us, and students, and colleges, for no reason. Know what else isn’t funny? They are still trying.
The Data is You
(below the fold —->) Read more…
Poverty in Southern schools
I read Jim Horn’ Schools Matter – very ideological, but has time to dig up some interesting links from parts of the mainstream press that I would never see (he’s strongly anti-NCLB with a genuine sense of social justice) – but I haven’t linked him (beyond putting him in the blogroll).
But here he is, in his own words, drawing an ugly picture of poverty and education in today’s South. Even if you decide he’s over the top, you should pause to read this one.
New Rules for “Mandated Reporters”
The contents of this post may affect teachers in New York State.
- Highlight: Mandated reporters are now all required to make their reports to the State Central Register (SCR) personally.
I received this in an e-mail from the United Federation of Teachers. It concerns teachers’ legal obligations in cases of suspected child abuse. Read it carefully, but treat it as an alert. Get a fuller explanation from your Chapter Leader and your Principal. You might ask both to put this on your next Faculty Conference and your next Chapter Meeting agenda (whichever comes first, or both).
New guidelines for mandated reporters of child abuse
(Full text beneath fold —>) Read more…
Carnival of Math 二十
And quite a nice Carnival #20 it is. Murray of SquareCircleZ has created a slightly-themed carnival. Since he blogs from Asia, the posts are numbered with Chinese, binary, and our Arabic numerals. That “=” “+” in the title? Nope, it’s the digraph for 20…
If you are here, you’ve probably already seen my contribution (#13).
High School student submitted on encoding…
More interesting? Entry #4 This is the first ever CoM post by a high school student: Andy found a flaw in a polynomial-based encoding system (he shows it is not as strong as it claims. In fact, it would be nice to show that it is not secure, but I don’t know if that is possible, and I am reasonably certain that, even if it were, the math would be beyond my skills.)
Next C o Math is at http://wintershaven.net/ and after that? if you are interested in hosting, contact Alon at alon underscore levy1 at yahoo dot com.
Teacher Pot Luck #4 – The Post-Halloween Edition
Ms. Whatsit hosted Pot Lucks 1, 2, and 3, but today I am your host for #4. Bad host! There were over a dozen submissions, but most turned out to be spam. We don’t have much of a pot luck today!
Larry Ferlazzo reports on using lunch to teach (!) in Whose Lunch is it Anyway?
Ms. Whatsit sets the record straight on London Fog, a sherbert punch that I recognize, but we called it something else. (What was it? I don’t remember)
Meeyauw’s daughter Amy makes the most amazing chocolate lava cakes. I think it is a family tradition. While you are visiting, take a look at some of the spectacular Vermont photography. I stole an example (below)
See Ms. Whatsit for information on future Pot Lucks. Next should be on or about December 1. With a few more contributors, please!
JD2718 