Michael Pershan

I should read this...

The folks at Math Medic (whose resources I use and enjoy) describe a limit in calculus as a "prediction." I really like this language and find it useful for kids. How common is this way of talking about limits? Does everybody do this?

Adrián By Juan Valencia

New issue of Southwest Review is really cool, this story in particular is really cool -- interesting and human and scary. southwestreview.com/volume-110-n...

The way the war stuff grinds on and fills the story with all these nitty gritty details that are interrupted by moments of deep spirituality reminds me of that other big book by Hermy Melv.

War & Peace is a slower burn than Anna K. for me so far but right at the start of Vol. 2 there are a pair of deliciously melodramatic and totally unrealistic moments that took my breath away.

English --> math --> English is a fun little language machine. The term journies through mathematics then returns home to English as before but subtly changed.

Was just telling a calc student that "inflection point" is a normal english word, then this piece starts with that in the first line.

@ijkijkevin.bsky.social Found another mathematician/writer! whistlingshade.com/0902/reed.html

Come to think of it in 400+ pages of a novel about a multi-generational family I don't think anyone has died yet. Like come on Chaim Grade, kill someone already.

He he has an endless cast of characters and when it feels like he's at a point where someone simply HAS to change, like we're out of possibilities, he just shifts to someone else from this sprawling world and mines that for a few chapters. Though at this point that feels played out also.

In Chaim Atlas/The Yeshiva the story is about conflicting ideologies. There are conflicting ideologies here but they don't develop. Everyone here starts miserable and stays miserable. There is one emotion and everyone has it. This is not exactly a recommendation but it is impressive.

Though, notice the complete lack of national security or economic competitiveness in anything Thorndike says here. Instead it's about keeping school pleasant and "spending our resources to keep in school boys of 16, 17 and 18 who would be happier and more useful at work or play."

Interesting, so I guess then concern about gifted edu comes after the expansion of high schooling?

The more I inch through this book (switching between text and audio) the more it feels like a story about characters who simply will not change at all no matter what forces they experience. Sort of dull in large doses but feels like a story that could go on forever, or at least until ww2.

Let me know what you find!

When you are 33 some crazy stuff is going to happen at a wuhan wetmarket.

I think these things are actually all post-war phenomenons? Before WW2 math was cool but school intelligence was not of national security importance, Anxiety about our performance vs other countries or worries about our gifted kids comes with that. And mass college attendance is also post-war.

Yo thank you for this. I think I need to get back to working on one story at a time.

Went flipping through @kylerseibel.bsky.social's book looking for a third-person narrator, reread this classic. tacobellquarterly.org/at-this-week...

I don't think that's perennial, in fact this is something special post-WW2.

Hmm, vibes. Open up an arithmetic text from the 18th century then scroll through the old Regents exams on jmap.org. It's not like CCSS has changed math teaching in any real way.

Thing I don't understand about writing #328: do I keep at something I've been struggling with or give up and try something new? Sometimes it feels like extra effort pays off...other times it's just digging myself into a hole.

I guess it depends on what aspects of this history you want to explain to a new teacher. Policy? Peagogy? Conditions of teaching?

daughter just told me every Friday her class has a “burial” for the pencils too small to be sharpened anymore 😭😭 one of her classroom jobs is to give the eulogy 😭😭 THERE IS A SMALL COFFIN 😭😭😭😭

Hey, this is really good.

Door in the Woods by Chris Scott Sarah is hiking up ahead of me, so she’s the first to see it. She goes around the bend, says “Hey now,” and stops in her tracks. Then I see it, too. Right there in the middle of the trail is a sing…

"...I'm overcome with the sudden certainty that she'll vanish, the door transporting her to the moon or Siberia. But before my fear can get away from me, she's already through."

"Door in the Woods" by @iamchrisscott.bsky.social, new flash fiction out today at OKD. 📝

Likewise I don't have a new story to tell you about but if you want to see some of the other stuff I've written check out my very sketchy looking website. michaelpershan.com

Teaching Math with Examples Check out Teaching Math with Examples - Some teachers think that there's little to say about teaching with examples - after all, everyone uses them. But here are just some of the questions you might h...

Hey, I was recently reminded that some of you have bought my math teaching book. Thank you! I wish I had another one but I think it's pretty good so I don't mind telling you about it again. www.amazon.com/Teaching-Mat...

ONE-SENTENCE STORY CONTEST

Reply to this post with a single-sentence, single-post story. Our favorite story will receive one (1) free copy of ISSUE 9 of Outlook Springs!

(There's like over a thousand sentences in this issue, so your return-on-investment is like WHOA.)

I guess part of it is that desire is attention, and maybe all emotion is in a sense a kind of attention.