Rural and Diverse
Hiya!
"A drawer contains red and black socks. When two socks are drawn at random, the probability that both are red is 1/2." From Fifty Challenging Problems in Probability. How many socks of each kind could there be?
RIP Norm Macdonald, author of Based on a True Story: Not a Memoir and noted fan of radio duo Bob and Ray, whose Slow Talkers sketch makes me laugh very hard.
Blog: Here's my definition of growth mindset: "When students have a tendency to explain their successes or failures in terms of their efforts, they tend to work harder." No need to talk about beliefs about intelligence.
While listening to the Strong Songs episode on Sufjan Stevens' "Chicago" I learned that Stevens is hugely influenced by Steve Reich's "Music For 18 Musicians" and since learning this fact I've been listening to "Music for 18 Musicians" and now "Music for 18 Musicians" is all I listen to.
It's also one of David Bowie's favorite albums.
I'm wrapping up Stone Sky, the third book in N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy. I didn't realize -- she has been writing novels for years with a day job, and used Patreon to become a full-time writer only a few years ago. Impressive. Anyway, she has a very cool blog post that reveals some of the process that goes into beginning work on a new novel for her, "Carving a New World."
Very interesting essay on the nature of education research from David Labaree, "Educational Researchers: Living with a Lesser Form of Knowledge," here's a fun quote: "By contrast, soft-applied knowledge production calls for a social organization of intellectual practice that Becher calls rural and divergent." The idea is that hard sciences (like physics) create knowledge that is organized differently (more "urban" in this metaphor).
A collection of mathematical documentaries.
A brief note: this newsletter will be slightly arrive with slightly less regularity during the school year/holiday season for Jewish people. We (teachers) (also Jewish people) thank you for your understanding.
In my journal entry for August 24 I wrote the words "Cow Spinoza." No recollection of this, but I desperately wish I knew what it meant.
OK, enjoy your weekend.
-Michael