Invasive Links
My catching-up–with-links project continues. Two of my links are related to invasive species.
brooklynparrots.com: a website about the wild parrots of brooklyn is loaded with real science, advocacy for not wiping the critters out —
The fact that North America has a new parrot on its shores is in my view a blessing, especially because our countrymen wiped out our only native parrot – the Carolina Parakeet – nearly a hundred years ago. Nature has given us the rarest of gifts: a second chance.
— and some lighter material, such as the answer to the question: "Do Brooklyn Parrots Eat Brooklyn Pizza?".
Is this for real? Yes. This is not a hoax site. Brooklyn has a large population of monk parakeets, as do several coastal communities in northeast states. Later this summer I will spend a few days on Long Island Sound, and the trees next door are loaded with them. Maybe I will put up an audio clip. I will certainly take some pictures.
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The other invasive link is Invasive Species Weblog. Not all invasives are as cute and as green as Brooklyn's parrots. Jennifer Forman Orth runs a lively blog discussing the cute and the not so cute.
My first links
Still catching up on mentioning links:
Edwize
Edwize, the UFT’s blog site, was what began to drag me in. Last fall we were debating the new UFT contract, and I stumbled on the site, and there was open discussion, fairly boisterous mostly, of the issues. I read. I discussed a little. I followed links. And I kept reading and discussing even after the contract was approved (I was opposed. You can read all about it if you like on this page and its links.)
I even wrote for Edwize on a few occasions. Met the administrator, who encouraged me to blog. And, after a few months of hemming and hawing, I started.
NYC Educator
As I got caught up in the contract debates, I learned that some of the debaters maintained their own blogs. I started visiting NYC Educator’s blog and found it well-written, entertaining, at times strident, but overall thorougly enjoyable and sometimes thought-provoking. This was my first evidence that these things didn’t have to be silly. It is still one of my most regular reads.
Frizzle
Ms. Frizzle belongs to a different category. She weaves life and Bronx middle school science teaching into a very nice, respected, well-written, smart blog. And, as I understand it, a blog that is fairly widely read (in the context of teacher blogs). She includes robotics, school-discipline, NY street stuff, education politics, and other stuff in ways that make you just want to read. Lately we have been following her acceptance into a Fulbright teacher exchange program. Go Frizzle.
Pre-Inspiration
For the first month of this blog’s existence, I linked to folk without saying a word or two. I am slowly correcting this.
Before teacher-bloggers existed, there was Kevin.
I first thought about doing something on line when serious New Yorker Kevin Walsh told me a few years ago that he had actually turned his crazy idea for a forgotten New York website into reality: forgotten NY. He’s got old streets and bridges, forgotten ads, forgotten neighborhoods. We’ve gone on walks where I’ve helped him find more stuff. (Not recently, which is entirely my fault). He does tours a few times a year. Cool guy. Cool site.
He was [at this photo-blogger gathering – (link inactive)] Friday with some others.
If I ever put up photos of the public outdoor staircases of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, that will be entirely due to Kevin’s inspiration.
Saturday Photographer Puzzle II: The Barcelona Barber
This is the right day for this puzzle. My long hair is being sacrificed in a little while for my youngest brother’s wedding tomorrow.
Anyway, enough crying. A Barcelona barber usually gives good hair cuts, but today he was spectacular. Ten in a row, absolutely perfect. He hires a photographer to take pictures of the pleased clients in different arrangements.
The photographer is no dummy. He knows the solution to today’s other puzzle and wants to get home in a reasonable amount of time, so he asks for some constraints.
It’s good with the barber. “Take them in two rows of five each. Let each man be taller than the man to his left, and let each man be taller than the man immediately in front of him. And take all the arrangements like that!”
The photographer agrees. How many photos will he take?
I’ve lost track completely of Bertie Taylor, who first posed this to me. I don’t know his source.
Saturday Photographer Puzzle 1
A photographer takes about 15 seconds to line up a group of people and take their photo. Faced with a group of 4 people, and a little extra time, he decides to take their photo in every arrangement possible (this guy always lines them up in 1 row, and never leaves gaps). How long will it take to take all the photos? Guess before you do the math, always more fun that way. ;)
Four more people come along, so he decides to take pictures of the whole group, again in every possible one-row, no-gap arrangement. How long will this take? (guess first!)
Finally, four more people come along. Now with twelve people, how long will it take for him to take all the photos?
Thanks to Jim Matthews for these. I don’t know where he got them from, or if he made them up.
The view from here
Question answered. I asked what camera I should purchase, and without much advise (a friend said 5 MPix is more than enough, Polski suggested going on the cheaper side), I compromised. My new Canon SD450 was a bit more than cheap, though certainly not extravagent. I did add some cost: an extra battery and a 1gig card.
I know this thing must have nice features, but it will take some time to figure them out. Airplane reading?
Now I am going to try to upload a photo (not my first photo, though. No one wants to see the papers strewn about my apartment). And this thing takes movies, but I won’t upload my first movie (me wiggling my toes). Just some roofs and the parkway.
3, 3, 8, 8 has a solution
Edit: A commenter below found a real answer. I was really wrong this time. Sorry. I guess I should delete my embarassing remarks, but better to let them stand as a reminder to me.
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Further edit: My error now seems obvious. My initial approach assumed that the first step would be to combine two numbers (this was correct) leaving a new 24 puzzle with 3 numbers. Good. But then I tried all ways to combine 3 and 3, then 8 and 8, then 3 and 8. I was ok with 3 and 3 and 8 and 8, but when I looked at 3 and 8 I excluded 8/3. Why? I wasn't looking for a fraction on the way to a whole number answer. Sloppy.
Thanks to Eric C for correcting me (below)
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K, since I wrote Monday that in the game of 24 {3,3,8,8} has no solution, I have seen a surge (as much of a surge as you might see if you had a blog with 1 – 2 dozen search engine hits per day) in searches related to this puzzle.
There is a solution. It is illegal. It involves using a decimal, and a line over a decimal. .8 with a bar over the 8…
_
.8
Maybe that is what it looks like. Anyway, 3*[8 / (.8-bar)] – 3 = 24.
.8-bar = 8/9.
8 divided by 8/9 = 9
9*3 = 27
and 27 – 3 = 24
It's illegal. Can't be done legally. You can stop looking now.
Nickleby
No, not Nicholas Nickleby, the book, the movie, or the made-for-tv movie.
Yesterday I heard someone refer to No Child Left Behind (NCLB) as “Nickleby.” Now, I usually say En-Cee-El-Bee, and maybe it sounds like En Seal Be or N’Sealby, and I think I hear it other people say it that way.
The Nickleby guy spends time in Washington. Is that how they say it there? Anywhere else? Or just a weird speaker?
Smaller Classes
Rarely is an idea so unambiguously correct. But we still manage to dig up two categories of arguments agains:
1.The union variety:
a. class-size is an inappropriate subject for bargaining (pttthhhht. Article 7M of our contract).
b. Or, if we get money for reduced class-size, it will reduce our pay. This argument accepts that our job in bargaining is to accept the money the City offers , and decide how to distribute it. It is ridiculous. (“Get the BoE to buy cheaper chalk and paper – the good stuff is coming out of our salaries” ???? Same argument, isn’t it?)
2. The amazing claim that kids don’t learn better when classes are smaller. There are instances where learning takes place completely through lecture – in those cases size doesnt’ matter. But in much of our teaching in NYC, expecially in the earlier grades, but in high school as well, smaller classes mean more teacher attention to each student in class, and more teacher attention to each student’s work out of class. In schools where discipline is a major issue, smaller classes generally have fewer discipline issues, etc, etc.
So, this should be a contractual issue, not a ballot issue. Back in the day when the TWU was really tough, they would include keeping transit fares low as part of their contract negotiations. (!) We should treat class size the same way.
But we are going the ballot route. Not my first choice. It is not where we are most powerful. But still very important for improving schools in New York.
New Yorkers for Smaller Classes is doing a lot. Go. Read their stuff. Sign their petition. Go to the rally next Wednesday.
Were you searching for something?
Math-jd-in-Kansas spent three whole posts answering the questions implied by the searches crawlers used to find him, and shouldn't we all do that every once in a while? Now, I don't have so many hits to choose from, but there's some. So here's my go at it:
Teaching
1. memorizing formulas mathematics value. It is incredibly important to memorize formulas. Only, I think when teaching it is best not to lead with the formulas. Once I delayed π for over a week. Kids were estimating circumferences with "a little more than 3 times the diameter." Believe me, when I finally gave them π, it held, and made more sense than if they had got it the first day.
2. Lots of deal/no deal stuff. Folks, there is no formula for winning. You get picked? You've already won. Only question is how much. I'll address a little of the math here, probably this week, but if you are researching strategy you are probably too clever for Howie Mandell to want you. Better to jump up and down on a street corner saying "I'm feeling 19" (use a different phrase for lower numbers. Just trust me on that). (I will also discuss ro?uxxxllxxxet?te. But I will take steps to keep that word out of the search engines. I couldn't bear that traffic).
New links, and more
I added two to my blogroll today:
1. Teaching Quality Matters (where teachers are central to improving schools) is a teacher-positive consultant-type group. This week they found the answer for all those young principals: rely on your teachers to help you. Think about it. That may not be a perfect response, but isn't it pretty smart? One of their writers has the same name as the guy who used to teach "Social Stratification" at Columbia. But it's not the same guy. Anyhow, here's their policy statement.
2. Assorted Stuff about tech/the internet and education. Author is a Washington cynic who doesn't like cut and dried labels. (So remember that next time before you cut or dry any labels).
I'll take this opportunity to throw in some older links:
3. Schools Matter opens with this rant:
This space will explore issues in public education policy; and it will advocate for a commitment to and a re-examination of the democratic purposes of schools. If there is some urgency in the message, it is due to the current reform efforts that are based on a radical re-invention of education, now spearheaded by a psychometric blitzkrieg of "metastasized testing" aimed at dismantling a public education system that took almost 200 years to build.
Which I think represents a pov I am comfortable with. Today they wrote about cheating on Texas' state tests. They think no one cares. I hope they are wrong.
4. Jenny D is a doctoral candidate in education and public policy, and writes about things that interest me. Clearly.
5. I wish I had thought of Invasive Species, or been even vaguely close to well enough educated to discuss it. Wow. I wish I better understood the implications.
Summer Vacation Planning 3: “Can Rome be seen in a day?” and “Which camera?”
So the dates are getting closer, and I need to focus on specifics.
1. I have a (by design) twelve hour layover in Rome. I have never been there before (except in transit). I speak no Italian, except dialect names for some food. I will go into the city. What should I do?
2. I have been trying for a month to choose I camera. Help!!! I will use it for blog stuff, too. Ideas? Ideas? What is important? What should I not waste money on?
New Link (and 2 older ones)
I'm generally not much of a fan of homeschooling, but if that's what you do, at least make sure that you take the mathematics seriously. Romans Go Home does. Plus its written by the Wife of Brian. Makes you wonder why Monty Python isn't used to teach Latin anymore. Anyway, interesting/curious, and a definite addition to my links.
I am 5 weeks new to this blogging stuff. I recently noticed that bloggers write a bit about additions to their links or blogrolls. I haven't been doing that. Over the next couple of weeks I will catch up. In the meantime, here are two other recent additions:
Linda Moran's kids go to public school, but she supplements the math, and pays attention to the content and the pedagogy (she did teacher training). Smart, and observant. Blogs at Teens and Tweens (among other places). I noticed her writings in opposition to introducing a not very good constructivist middle school math curricula in her upscale town in northern New Jersey.
I need to explain why I blog-rolled this Kansas blog: Evolution-Next Step.
1. The author's name is jd, which are fairly cool initials
2. He uesd to teach math, and sometimes still writes about both (math and teaching)
3. His politics tend to be far from mine, but not nearly as far as I would have guessed. And bly, are they thoughtful. (seems to have a pretty thick libertarian streak. And fairly intellectual. And very honest.) Hell, I understand the appeal. And where government has nothing useful to do, I would prefer it did nothing at all. I just think there are places where it is useful and necessary.
4. He's got all these cool evolution references floating around (though it is not a blog devoted to arguing about evolution)
5. It is very-well constructed. Worth studying well-designed blogs, or at least that is what I am claiming at this moment.
A pair of prime puzzles
1. The difference between two prime numbers is 33 35. What is their product?
2. Can you create a 3-digit number such that the number and all other numbers formed by premutations of its digits, are prime? (eg, 127 is prime, and 271 is prime, but 172, 217, 721, and 712 are not…) How many such numbers are there?
Check out…
… this week's Carnival of Education, hosted by Gotham's own NYC Educator.
Mister Radical
My high school recruits middle schoolers. In particular, we look to get well-prepared 8th graders from our corner of the City to choose us over some better known schools. Why? Well, because the other schools are better known, because we owe it to the local areas to serve their children, and because our not-so-well-known school can actually serve these children quite well.
So Friday we had a busload of 7th graders from a middle school. (Pat self on back, I arranged this one). The parent coordinator set them up in a classroom, several teachers and students came in to speak with them (including 2 alumnae of that middle school), and then the principal came in (for "only 10 minutes.") She wouldn't leave, they were that cute, that engaging, that adorable. Anyway, they asked a ton of questions. Apparently they had been assigned to research our school earlier in the week, and so came ready.
They were in four groups, each of which visited one class. I had eight come with me to my freshman algebra class.
Now, I had planned fractional exponents, which might be too advanced, but I hoped they would follow some of it. I used a normal development (the actual exercises were slightly different):
1. x3*x3 = xn , n = ___
2. 25*25 = 2n, n = ___
3. yn*yn = y2, n = ___
4. xn*xn = x8, n = ___
5. 2n*2n = 2, n = ___
Saturday Puzzle 3
Today is a three-puzzle Saturday. Answers will be up, posted by readers or by me, by next Friday. #3 is the most challenging. Here's a little background:
Sometimes I teach math teachers. One of those math teachers shared this puzzle with me yesterday (warning, I have not yet attempted to solve it). He was quite proud, one of his 7th graders encountered it in a local mathematics competition and solved it, helping her do very well (she may have won).
Find the smallest number n such that the numbers 1, 2, 3, … , n -1, n can be arranged in a circle, and the sum of every pair of adjacent numbers is a perfect square.
for example:
| 6 | 3 | 1 |
| 5 | 8 | |
| 4 | 2 | 7 |
has some good sums:
- 6 + 3 = 9,
- 3 + 1 = 4,
- 1 + 8 = 9,
- but 8 + 7 = 15, no good,
- 7 + 2 = 9,
- 2 + 4 = 6, no good,
- 4 + 5 = 9,
- and 5 + 6 = 11, no good,
but all the sums need to be good
Saturday Puzzle 2
Today is a three-puzzle Saturday. Answers will be up, posted by readers or by me, by next Friday. Here's #2:
I have 3 red handkerchiefs and 6 white ones, and plan on sewing them into one super 3 by 3 hankie. How many ways can I do this?
Saturday Puzzle 1
Today is a three-puzzle Saturday. Answers will be up, posted by readers or by me, by next Friday. Here's #1, the easiest:
5 to the 3rd power is 125 and 3 to the fifth power is 243. (53=125, 35=243)
10 to the second power is 100 and 2 to the 10th power is 1024. (102=100, 210=1024)
Let's limit discussion to natural numbers {1,2,3,…} if x > y, is x to the y always less than y to the x? Are they ever equal? x > y –> xy < yx ??
How many ways? #1 (3-digit numbers)
Today's question is not supposed to be a real poser: How many three digit numbers are there?
The question about the question is more interesting: How many different ways (different methods) can we find that lead to the answer?
Autonomy Zone – Phhht!
Due to another (union-related) engagement, I will not be able to see Eric Nadelstern address this evening's UFT Delegate Assembly. Pity. I would like to report back in detail how he's spinning the Autonomy Zone.
But this much I already know: Nadelstern and the DoE are putting out a pile of vague information about this beast. I would far rather read the details than listen to some slick presentation.
I hope all the delegates are as suspicious as I am.
If you are there, let us know how he spins the thing.
And here's what I wrote about the Autonomy Zone last weekend.
Factors
Even numbers such as 8 have an even number of factors {1,2,4,8} and odd numbers such as 9 have an odd number of factors {1,3,9}, right?
Summer Vacation Part II
Last week I began to focus plans. A day in Rome (hardly counts, but better than nothing) Two weeks in Greece will include Thessaloniki and two or three islands (Alonissos, Samothrace and Thassos.). I'll pass through Alexandroupolos, and maybe find my way into the Thracian or Macedonian countryside for a day. I will not try for Athos (it's probably too late to make arrangements anyhow). Now I need a few reservations, and a thorough search of ferry connections.
Turkey will be mostly or completely Istanbul and environs. I think I am staying on the Anatolian side (Istanbul being divided by the Bosphorous into Anatolian and European sides), in a residential neighborhood. It's been almost a decade since I've taken the ferries. I can almost taste the real Istanbul simit. Only one week! I went once for 2 weeks, but stayed 6.
Let Nadelstern Write
As a Chapter Leader in a NYC school, I attend monthly UFT delegate assemblies (DA). In today’s mail I found the agenda for Wednesday’s DA. Item #3 caught my attention: Eric Nadelstern – Empowerment Zone.
I object.
Failure to retain
My cousin, 2nd year teacher, elementary. Doing a great job, according to all (according to her, and rings true). Having health problems from the stress (exhaustion might be closer to the correct word, though she said "stress").
Every day's planning was a feat of strength to produce. Everything from scratch. No help. No canned lessons to use as a starting point. And her first year lessons? Those were for a different grade.
No help from her principal, who limited her suggestion from her only observation to something equivalent to "your window is open too wide."
None from colleagues, I don't think.
She was working at burn-out pace, and the world just watched silently.
JD2718 