education
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Sound or Meaning
I saw a post on Facebook recently, as one does. It wasn’t from anybody I followed, because these days most of the posts you see on social media don’t come from people you follow. That’s not the point, but I like to gripe about that fact every once in a while. I don’t want anybody Continue reading
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I broke my Duolingo streak on purpose.
¿Por qué? It’s kind of complicated, actually. The short answer is “I hate their policy related to AI.” But you should understand my personal context. My Duolingo streak was, until Friday, something like 1575 days. I could check the exact number, but I also deleted the app from my phone, so it would be a Continue reading
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Thoughts of a Tutor on Structure
It should not be surprising to say that most high school students are not excellent writers. Most of them won’t have opportunities to get very much better at it when they aren’t students anymore, either. Many people tasked with writing anything of length seem to struggle with the organization of ideas into a logical progression. Continue reading
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A High School Chemistry Equation
At my tutoring job, I have an opportunity to re-familiarize myself with subjects I have not touched in a while. Certain types of questions tend to come up in waves, as groups of students encounter the same conceptual difficulties at around the same time. By the time a wave crests, I am refreshed enough to Continue reading
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The Run-On Sentence
The other day at work, as I was assisting a small group of high school students in collectively and collaboratively editing a writing assignment by making changes to a shared Google document that was purposefully riddled with grammar and syntax errors, the teacher advised them to identify and correct a particularly egregious run-on sentence, and Continue reading
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Reflections on a school lockdown
I work as a tutor in the AVID program at a local high school. As part-time staff, I typically leave for home fairly early, between 1:15 and 1:30. Most days I have a few significant opportunities to help students understand a difficult problem, and a little downtime to read or to work out some puzzles. Continue reading
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The secret to Democrats’ future political success does not lie in selling out transgender people
One of my more self-destructive behaviors is plugging myself in to a social media stream for part of a day and exposing myself to other people’s “takes.” These “takes” are what we call the bite-sized pronouncements of opinion in reaction to the news of the day, as posted by people hoping their particular phraseology will Continue reading
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Triangles
(This essay previously appeared on an earlier version of this blog) When I was a junior in high school, I joined my school’s Academic Team. This was an activity that relied upon the ability of myself and my teammates to recall information from our classes faster than our competition could, and to buzz in like Continue reading
Ink Tea Stone Leaf 