Note #1 A colleague sent me a note the other day. A student aide knocked on my door and held out a sheet of paper. The aide said that she had asked him to deliver it. I thanked him, set the paper aside, and continued with cubic functions. I looked at the note later. It […]
Yearly Archives: 2023
A Friends House and Two Libraries
Thu, 23 Nov 2023, 05:50 AM (-06:00)
Ben took us to Beacon Hill today. We walked beside red brick row houses along gaslit streets staring into the windows where we could, making sure not to trip on the bricks and paving stones. We gazed at the dome of the state house in the distance. “That’s real gold,” Ben told us the tour guides […]
Flying to Boston
Tue, 21 Nov 2023, 02:56 PM (-06:00)
1. The Security Line It was a holiday weekend. The line of cars to drop off passengers was long — red brake lights descending down the ramp and around a corner to the departure drop off. It was at least a 20 minute line, and we were already getting nervous. But it was 5:20am, and […]
You Helped Me
Fri, 10 Nov 2023, 04:53 PM (-06:00)
School was over. A familiar face from last year’s class appeared in the doorway. He had AirPods in his ears and was rocking back and forth smiling. “Mr. Hasan!” he called out. “Norman!” “You helped me on the test, Mr. Hasan.” Ok, so this made me nervous. Earlier in the day I had proctored a […]
Closing with Physics
Wed, 8 Nov 2023, 09:10 PM (-06:00)
I have been bringing these students together weekly for surreptitious introductions to the complex plane, vectors, and rotations, although if you asked them, they’d deny discussing such things, since I don’t really tell them that’s what they’re learning, I just let them learn it. This afternoon after we finished the mini-lesson, I closed by drawing […]
No Joke
Sun, 5 Nov 2023, 09:31 PM (-06:00)
I sat on the floor with Hagan and Miles. We rolled balls. We played with puzzles. Hagan did the talking. There was much of it. Miles did the staring, unsure of this stranger but intrigued perhaps by the faces and sounds I made. When it was time to go, I leaned over to stand up […]
Astronomy
Sun, 5 Nov 2023, 09:17 PM (-06:00)
It started innocently enough. A typical distant-family-shows-up visit with the young kids staring at the loud intruders warily. But sitting on the floor helped, as did playing with the puppets and rolling the green ball, which Miles enjoyed immensely. And there was the talking globe where Hagan pointed out India to me. (A fascinating random […]