Karen A on a science teacher's speech

At our school's Honors Night last spring, one of the Science teachers, prior to introducing the winners of a particular award, remarked at how great it was to recognize these academically motivated and high-performing students, because after all, they are our future.

It was just such a sweet moment, because it was so heartfelt on his part. As a teacher, he pours his heart and soul into teaching his students because he understands how important it is for them (and for the betterment of society) to learn the fundamentals of Physics.

K, my daughter, has no plans to pursue Physics at a higher level, but to be an informed citizen, she needs to have a basic knowledge of the principles. Other kids, who do have an interest in those fields, must have that base so they can go on to the next, higher level in college. And so on.

It was just nice to hear that sentiment expressed out loud. Our children--teach them well--they are our future.

Alex, the Gifted Research Parrot, Has Died

I may be preempting Catherine with this post, but here is the link to the story about Alex, a gifted parrot with extraordinary language skills. I first learned about Alex while reading Animals in Translation.

Gifted research parrot Alex found dead


Catherine here

Karen did preempt me!

A good thing, too.

I've written my account of Alex, and of meeting the parrot here in New York whom I believe has language, here. [whom? one of these days I will learn grammar]

I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again: I emerged from writing Animals in Translation thinking that birds are way smart, possibly smarter than people. Alex was one of the reasons for that feeling.

The Times obit says that Alex worked with Dr. Pepperberg, his owner, up to the day of his death.

Even up through last week, Alex was working with Dr. Pepperberg on compound words and hard-to-pronounce words. As she put him into his cage for the night last Thursday, she recalled, Alex looked at her and said: “You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you.”

He was found dead in his cage the next morning, Dr. Pepperberg said.

update

I've just read the MSNBC account.

Pepperberg said the last time she saw Alex on Thursday, they went through their goodnight routine, in which she told him it was time to go in the cage and said: "You be good, I love you. I'll see you tomorrow."

Alex responded, "You'll be in tomorrow."

Correct use of the pronoun "you" is language.

Many, many autistic children can't use "you" in this way, including Jimmy (though I think he can use it correctly.....I'm going to have to see if I can figure this out).

Jimmy always used "you" to mean "I."

"Do you want some fries" meant "I want some fries."

He has been using the pronoun "I' correctly for years now, but I'm not sure whether he uses "you" to mean someone he's addressing.

This is a terrible loss:

Pepperberg said Alex hadn't reached his full cognitive potential and was demonstrating the ability to take distinct sounds from words he knew and combine them to form new words. Just last month he pronounced the word "seven" for the first time.

The cause of Alex's death was unknown. The African Grey parrot's average life span is 50 years, Pepperberg said.

Apparently parrots are extremely vulnerable living in captivity. (I don't know about their health status in the wild).


That Damn Bird
video of Irene Pepperberg describing Alex
Meet Alex the Parrot

A Limerick

There once was a teacher, Dick Nipple,
His name it caused quite a ripple,
One day during autumn
He fell on his bottom
Which caused our laughter to triple!


Mr. Teacher
a limerick

more on freshman year in college

from Karen A:

I teach a class at the college level for first semester freshmen. It's intentionally designed as a process course and is targeted at students who think they want to major in business. However, students have to accumulate a certain GPA with a certain number of credit hours before they are admitted to the College of Business (COB). In the meantime, they are taking gen ed courses, and other required courses that serve as prerequisites, such as the managerial and financial accounting classes.

The course itself has multiple goals: we want to introduce them to the standards and expectations that the COB has for its students, we want to cover each of the substantative areas involved (accounting, finance, insurance, management, technology, marketing, international business, ethics, etc.), so that the students have an understanding of what a business degree involves, and we want to introduce them to the Career Center and get them started thinking about what job opportunities might be available with certain majors and the steps that they need to be taking to make their goals become a reality.

With first semester freshmen, I also talk with them quite a bit about the expectations of professors and how college is not the same as high school. For example, professors actually expect that students will read the Syllabus.

Some students are going through a tremendous adjustment. For almost all of them, they are on their own for the first time: mom (or dad) isn't there to get them up in the morning and make sure they get to class, and mom's not there to nag them to get to bed on time and to eat healthily and to remember to exercise.

For some, this freedom is overwhelming, and quite frankly, some of them have to learn some painful lessons the hard way. I always talk to them about how hard it is to dig out of a hole of a lousy first semester GPA. Some students don't have good study habits; some just aren't interested. Most of them admit to being procrastinators; it's just that they aren't very effective at it. It takes a lot of practice and skill to become good at procrastination.

I also ask them to think about and focus on why they are at college; what are their expectations, why are they here, etc. Quite frankly, some of them have no idea; it was just the next step after high school. Others are quite focused and know exactly what they want to accomplish.

I also talk with them about the accounting and finance courses. These courses are tough courses substantively. Accounting is cumulative; most students need to do the homework on a daily basis, and actually start studying well before the first test. And, if they don't do well on the first test, the outlook isn't good for the remainder of the semester (without significant changes) because they don't have the foundation in place. It may be seen as a "gatekeeper" class, but there are reasons for that. Accounting is the language of business, and if students can't gain minimal proficiency, we're not willing to rubber stamp their diploma.

Separate and apart from the "survival" issues (and yet intertwined as well) are whether the students have sufficient background knowledge in the first place. I require my first year students to do a lot of writing; the assignments are varied in length and have multiple purposes. I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the semester making sure that they fully understand what my expectations are in that regard. You don't want to staple your paper? Fine, but after a grace period, you are going to lose points. You don't use complete sentences? You will lose points. However, I go to great pains to follow my procedures, and part of that process includes a lot of what I will call direct teaching, with lots of examples.

To be frank, some (perhaps most) students catch on pretty quick. Others don't, for a variety of reasons. But the bottom line, and I tell them this, is that I want them to succeed.



job placement after college

Catherine again: Slightly off-topic, I have a question about business majors.

What is job placement like with a degree in business areas?

And: what are the various business majors??

Thanks!

Math Humor of the Day

There are three kinds of people in the world: those who can count and those who can't.

My 14 year old shared that with us at lunch today.

math story

from Karen A:

M, our 8th grader, is in Algebra this year. M tends to get math conceptually. However, we have noticed several problems, which can sometimes be the difference between an A and a B for her.

One, she doesn't always know the material as well as she thinks she does. Two, she doesn't always pay close enough attention to detail. As a result, on quizzes and tests, those factors can mean the difference between an A and a B.

Let me note that her teacher is doing a nice job of teaching and the text itself is fine. Plus, there are online practice quizzes available (in addition to the daily homework, which the teacher goes over every day in class).

M had a test this week on Factoring and she needed to get an A on the test in order to get an A for the quarter. So, she was motivated! She started preparing for the test several days ahead of schedule by taking online quizzes.

The night before the test she worked all of the problems on the Review sheet. She had several equations to memorize and she came up with the following poem as a memory device:

"When factoring the difference of squares, write the answer in plus or minus pairs."

Her older sister coached her on paying attention to detail; especially in noting plusses and minuses within the equations.

M then came up with a list of five things that she absolutely needed to remember; she wrote them down and then memorized them. One of these was a reminder to be sure and read the question carefully, so that she knew what the question was asking for.

In short, she was well-prepared and as a result, she was the first one finished. Instead of handing in her paper, she went back through each problem, carefully checking for possible errors (and she caught several minor mistakes). She was the last person to hand in her test.

The result? She scored 100% on the test. Afterwards, she said, "I like math; I enjoy solving equations."

What is the takeaway? There are several, at least in my mind. First, I think she is finally starting to understand that having a conceptual understanding is not enough; she has to know the material thoroughly (and this requires hard work and practice). Two, she has to pay attention to detail (the old pencil and paper thing). Three, "rote" knowledge of arithmetic is essential so that the brain is freed up to do the next level of skills required.

Fourth, there is a tremendous amount of memory work required and that is essential (at least in my mind) for success in Algebra.

mnemonic device

I'm going to remember this one:

"When factoring the difference of squares, write the answer in plus or minus pairs."

Karen A's 8th grade daughter came up with that!