jennegatron

It took me a second to parse what that common core demo is doing because that isn't how I learned to do it, but when I did take a second to figure out what was going on (which is do small additions to count up to 32 from 12, and then take the sum of the additions you did) it makes a whole lot more sense than the old algorithm to me, as this is a much more intuitive way to think about subtraction, again for me. You can ask what you get when you take 12 from 32 OR you can ask what do you add to 12 to get to 32. If addition & subtraction aren't something you've been doing for decades, it makes more sense to move in chunks of 5's and 10's as those are the easiest patterns to remember, imo. Multiple algorithms will get you to the correct answer, but you have to think about what does the algorithm obscure from the user. I think people encounter math that they're not familiar with and just shut down instead of stopping to think about what is trying to be accomplished.

I mean spending a year tutoring kids tells me that they don't actually understand that multiplication serves as a short hand of adding something to itself x times, and I would have to routinely reexplain it to them, and even if a kid knew their times table, they couldn't tell me what the problems actually meant when they solved them. I think a lot of kids just memorize specifically multiplication tables through rote memorization with no deeper understanding of what's going on underneath. And this becomes a problem when they're unable to apply these abstract processes into applied scenarios, so that when I ask them how many inches is measured by 3 rulers they can't tell me the answer is 36 because they don't realize that 12 * 3 is just the sum of 3 rulers on top of each other, but if I asked them what is 12 * 3, they would have the answer for me because they memorized it.

Well, they actually were pretty thrilled with that. They said as much on twitter. (Basically that user was highlighted by Bungie as a member of the Destiny community, and that person uses the firewatch tower art as their banner across the top of their twitch and when Bungie just pulled that image, it ended up in their tweet, which Bungie took down, but the campo team actually liked it.)

The Mindy Project has been picked up by Hulu after Fox didn't renew it and it's still really good and I like it a lot.

Slidin' into your DMs like wiiiink https://twitter.com/griffinmcelroy/status/629743560766590976

1. I have no idea what "sec" is supposed to mean in this context 2. I'm actually a constant user of FOIL, as it helps me make sure I don't forget any of the combinations when multiplying 2 binomials together, as FOIL was always paired with the physical drawing of lines connecting all the terms you were multiplying together, which I then extended to using when multiplying polynomials of higher order & more terms. Math is taught as a reasonless set of rules that you abide by up until you get into discrete math & abstract algebra and learn how proofs work and stuff. I understand why they treat math as a magic black box, as you have to teach a lot of seemingly unrelated things to build up the foundation of how addition works in a commutative group. It's not ideal though. In order to understand a math textbook you almost always have to know more math than the book is meant to teach (this is especially true up through calculus if you haven't had a discrete math class) (Other tricks I regularly use when doing math: SohCahToa to remember the trig relationships on a right triangle, the memorization of the product & quotient rules in calculus for derivatives & the quadratic formula)

No problem Zeus! I have a lot of thoughts about math & math curriculum & how math is taught & how math is absorbed/learned by students as well as how those experiences color perceptions of math for life. I had already graduated when common core was starting to be implemented, so I'm not intimately familiar with the details of it, but I did spend much of my year after graduating college (2013-2014) tutoring kids K through college, and came across some of it. I understand it's frustrating to be less well equipped at helping your children (not just you, but many people) with subjects that you may have been good at in school! I think that many parents don't trust school systems and curriculum writers especially after things like No Child Left Behind. And the vocabulary they use (like doubles or 5 group visualization) is totally removed from what any previous generation of students used that it leaves tutors & parents alike at a loss for how to help, especially if there isn't a text book for a parent to go through or a text book that uses different vocab than the teacher did in class. General Math Thoughts Not About Common Core I see a lot of resistance is based in "This isn't how I did it, therefore it can't be any good, because I learned this other way that worked for me!" In most cases common core is interested in exposing kids to multiple techniques for solving a problem to find the one that works best for them. Like there are cases where a doubles plus 2 problem could be solved equally correctly by visualizing 5 groups. I remember being scolded by my 5/6th grade math teacher for utilizing tricks I learned in elementary school to help with addition, because she thought I should have memorized that 8+3 is 11. I still get mad about this. Like if I get to the right answer, what is it to you that I count up to 11 from 8 using the 3. I have a math degree and still use that same technique that my first grade teacher taught me! (Shout out to Mrs. Hayes & Mrs. Giannoulias) (I think it's different to grasp mathematical concepts than traditional language, which is where the memorization of spelling words & history and the like land, as opposed to memorizing that 8 + 5 = 13. 8 and 5 and 13 are abstract concepts that can be harder to understand for people, children & adults alike.) Griddlelol: In the US if you want to be a teacher (at not a magnet school) you have to hold accreditation from your state that you're qualified to teach, so if you're a K-6 teacher, you have to have a certificate from the state that says you can teach math, because you have to teach all the subjects when you're teaching elementary school. So even though I have a mathematics degree, no school would hire me to teach Calculus to high schoolers because I don't have a certificate from the state.

Interpreting the worksheet, doubles is, as your daughter started, numbers plus themselves Doubles + 1 seem to be a number plus a number that is one bigger (so 3 + 4) would be a double plus one +1 is just any question that is a number plus one (5 + 1) etc +2 is just any question that is a number plus two (4 + 2) etc I had to look up mentally visualized 5 groups, but it's essentially how you do tally marks. It's easier to group things up into fives, so when you add 8 + 3 (or ooooo ooo + ooo) you can see that if you take two o's from 3, and add them to the 3 leftover o's from 8 you get (ooooo ooooo o) to get 11. All of these are tricks to try and reduce your memorization (so you memorize only the doubles which are easy to memorize, and then you can make smaller additions that are easier to remember and do in your head.) I know a lot of people hate common core, but they're really just trying to find more intuitive ways to teach kids math, because just repeating the thing over and over doesn't actually inspire deeper understanding of math.

Rich Sommer hosts CARDBOARD! a board game podcast. Re basketball players: Oh Timmy D, I love you so much. Also the Green Bay Packers have gotten super into playing Settlers of Catan (which Rich Sommer talks to David Bakhtiari. about on an episode of CARDBOARD! actually)

I have been playing since beta, but don't play much and don't have a large card collection. Basically what I do is I play tavern brawl, and use that to finish my dailies, and earn enough gold to do an arena run. I'm not very good at Hearthstone, nor do I want to dedicate the time it takes to reading stuff to get good, so I really just like to play a couple tavern brawls, yell at my opponent for being SO SLOW and log off.

As someone who is not tall, it never even occurs to me to recline the the seat, and even though other people reclining doesn't actually physically impact me I do get very angry when they do it, as it is never someone who has asked permission to do so or has checked to see who is behind them before doing it. I don't sleep easier in a reclining seat or anything like that, so there is literally no reason for me to recline. I am a very cranky traveler and get very upset about loud children and whistlers. Like we're all in this together, and I am trapped here with you for 3 hours, please be considerate! (I actually really enjoy the sensation of flying.)

In other states, you'll have a designation on your license that indicate that you're not a US Citizen, like that is a temporary or provisional license.

After our talk about leaving kitties home alone, we left our big guy home alone from Friday morning with the intention of being back Monday night. Our flights got delayed and we weren't able to get home until this afternoon, but he seems to have done well though. He isn't particularly destructive when we're gone, as he mostly destroys stuff for attention. We knew that being delayed was a possibility so we left him extra food, and he has the appropriate amount left, meaning he didn't gorge himself while we were gone, and he had plenty of water still. I also had set up a second litter box for him which was clearly necessary, and he didn't go anywhere he wasn't supposed to. All in all, a success! He likely enjoyed this much more than he would have enjoyed being put in the car & then kenneled (and taken to the vet to get his feline distemper shot which I would have had to do last week as his previous vaccination expired on the 9th, so twice in a week and a half he would have had to ride in the car.) He was very excited to see us this afternoon when we got home.

As someone from Illinois, I literally never heard anyone genuinely call them Freedom Fries. I believe there are probably like 6 places that committed to it, but I have only every said "Freedom Fries" as a joke.

I think Spotify's free mobile app requires you shuffle albums, but the desktop does not.

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/06/15/414672124/round-up-a-few-more-worthwhile-thoughts-on-rachel-dolezal This quote out of another Code Switch round up was particularly effective to me in convincing me that this is different. Rachel Dolezal deceiving people hinges upon generations of one drop rules (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule) that she used to her advantage to gain access to circles she would have been denied.

Here are some people smarter than me have talked about this, because there was a lot of this at the time as it coincided with Caitlyn Jenner's magazine cover. http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/06/12/413887930/making-sense-of-rachel-dolezal-the-alleged-white-woman-who-passed-as-black I guess someone could argue that Rachel Dolezal was "black on the inside" or something, but I don't know that I buy that.

This explains the tweet I saw yesterday of "y = mx + terrence"

I just played through this for a second time because it made such an impression and there were some side quests I wanted to do, and it is so very good.

Dropsy the Clown came out, and I finished it in 2 sittings. Probably 2 3 hour play sessions will get you through most if not all of the game, if anyone is still looking for these shorter experiences.

Here's what I was able to solve out of those: