Hey look, Republicans officially want to take away same-sex marriage.

They're not even trying to hide it.

😮‍💨 To think I believed I was dealing with someone mildly intelligent

Tempting, but that would be completely different from how every other planet in the Solar System works.

Also, here: https://youtu.be/o_W280R_Jt8

Well, everything around you is coming with you, so it doesn’t feel like it’s moving. But you can tell the Earth is spinning because the Sun goes bye-bye in the night-time 🌞

Julia is a great first programming language for people interested in STEM https://julialang.org/

The more I teach math, the more I realize that *understanding* a concept is only the start of learning. True mastery is forged in the fires of *practice*.

Think about the area of a rectangle. I could teach you that area is just the number of 1×1 (“unit”) squares in a shape. Then we could look at a few shapes made of unit squares, and count their area together.

Sounds simple, right?

Well, no. Counting unit squares won’t work on a 1024×768 rectangle. That’s where teachers step in. We help you figure out that, in small rectangles (3×5, 2×4, etc.) you can find area more quickly by multiplying the length and width. Eventually, you realize this applies to all rectangles, and you write down a formula: area = length × width.

Now that you know the formula, you’ve learned it, right?

Well, no. Once you receive the problems, unexpected difficulties arise. Maybe you forgot what 9×9 is. Maybe some problems ask for “perimeter”; do you multiply length × width for that as well? Maybe one of the rectangles has a side length that’s a fraction, or a decimal, or a variable. All of this needs to be addressed before we can say you’ve truly mastered area.

Teachers must provide plenty of chances for practice and feedback. Unfortunately, in the Common Core era, practice often gets short shrift in favor of conceptual exploration. I still have 10th graders who find area by hand-counting the squares in a rectangle. And I just wonder, “Why didn’t you receive the practice you needed?” 😣

Instructional coaches are the unsung heroes of education. They help terrified new teachers find their footing and stick around.

Thanks for the link.

I agree that choice and competition are good things. Have you looked into the school choice movement? This is why I support school choice in the form of charter and private schools, as well as education tax credits and open enrollment. It allows low-income families to shop among schools.

A free-market paid school system, however, sounds like a recipe for inequality.

As a teacher, part of my job is to know what’s going on in my students’ home life. This can vary widely.

Some parents pay for school supplies; others send their kids with backpacks that have broken zippers and no pencils.

Some parents check their students’ grades regularly and email when there’s a drop; others don’t give a crap whether their child succeeds.

Heck, some of our students are homeless. We keep deodorant around to make sure they have some. I couldn’t imagine those kids paying tuition.

Truth is, kids are often born into disadvantages that are not their fault. A free education is often their only ticket to a marginally better life.

So usually the problem you are describing is phrased as: how do schools attract and retain talented teachers?

The biggest factors seem to be: salary, support from administration, mentoring/induction programs, class sizes, and teacher autonomy. Source: https://t2m.io/XnpvUarY

It may seem like this costs money, but in fact, losing teachers is *more* expensive than providing these supports.

To the liberty-loving mind, it’s tempting to think this… but no.

Private and charter schools pay teachers less and, after adjusting for student demographics, produce slightly worse outcomes than public schools. There’s a great study on this, detailed in a book called The Public School Advantage by Christopher and Sarah Lubienski: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo16956223.html

Salary, while important, is a smaller factor in teacher retention than admin support. A bad admin will drive you out faster than a bad paycheck. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ898889

This is a good idea. However, many schools are already on summer break.