Picture This…
Let's face it: not everything needs an app. In fact, some processes and products are better left alone. Then there are other times where minor refinements breathe fresh air into an otherwise stale world. Enter Rocketbook: an erasable notebook paired with a smartphone...
Conference Calling
I just returned from a conference of the National Association of Biology Teachers. This year the conference was in Chicago. It certainly makes it easy when the conferences are close by, hp the train in Grand Rapids, no fuss. I try my hardest to get to at least one...
A Rose by Another Name (Shakespeare)
We’ve heard students discuss tests, of course: "too long, too hard, too often"-therefore I am always surprised when I hear students at the END of the semester bemoaning the fact that there were NOT ENOUGH tests. They state that they want to "be able to prove what they...
The Parking (Learning?) Conundrum
It happens every year when the snow hits the parking lot. People forget how to park. Those of us that go to work every day generally park our cars in a parking lot 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year. We don’t seem to have any trouble getting our car parked between the...
Full Rekognition
Three years ago, Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched Rekognition, a video scanning service designed to recognize key elements within a video frame. If IMDB ever helped you recall which actor starred in what movie, then think of Rekognition as the ultimate video search...
Helping Students Remember
As I mentioned in my last post, this summer I read Small Teaching by James Lang and found it incredibly informative. Another interesting topic he writes about is how to help students remember course information. He calls this retrieval and says that if we want...
Testing: Week 3
After spending several hours more than I had hoped working on a test (two of them actually) this week, in addition to redoing a lab students found online (and yes, copied), I revisited Brown Et al. ("Make it Stick") to keep me motivated Brown Et al suggest the...
“Okay, Boomer”: Fair Play, Reasoning, and Exercising Power in Argument
By the time I post this 4X4, the “Okay, Boomer” meme is already passe. It came into my consciousness only a couple weeks ago because my husband has become fascinated with the different ways it can be used even on those who are not literally Boomers. Among his chess...
When it Clicks
I teach math. Everybody’s favorite subject … to hate. Nothing gives me more satisfaction in my job than when what I am teaching finally clicks with the student. I teach students that love math and I teach more students that hate math. I have to say that the...
My Cloud Data is Where?
Flash back to 10+ years ago. Apple's iPhone launched in 2007, followed by a wave of other devices over the next two years. The first use of an iPhone required a computer connection, including backups. Now return to present day 2019. We are used to so many wireless...