Little d big P

@JamesAFurey What a day for it! I look forward to joining you around the throne in the future.

After 30 years of being an Atheist, tonight I will be baptized, confirmed, and reconciled to God. I cannot stop thinking about it.

@adamboxer1 🤣 At least there's one kid worse than yours!

Me, recording on Sunday night: reward points are rubbish, because the student with the most reward points often also has the most behaviour points My son, Monday after school: daddy I have the second highest number of dojos in the class! 😬😬😬😬😬😬😬

@teachthemx3 @BH_Chronicles That example doesn't really explain the *why*... Why it works that way is because index notation is shorthand for repeated multiplication, which includes the multiplicative identity, 1. So: 2³=1*2*2*2 2^0=1 2^(-4)=1÷2÷2÷2÷2 (ie, multiplying by 2 negative four times)

@BH_Chronicles This is how I explain it as well.

I was in an Algebra II class today with one of my behavior students. Another student asked why negative exponents turn numbers into fractions. The teacher kept saying, “That’s just the rule.” After a few more “but why?” attempts, he opened a new tab on his Chromebook, googled it, and watched a YouTube video explaining why. It’s okay to pause the lesson and explain the “why.” Often in math, understanding the “why” helps connect the concept to prior knowledge and solidifies understanding. The problem is that many teachers don’t understand the “why” themselves.

@modmaster69420 @pickover You can't "first multiply them together" because that's not how complex number multiplication works. You multiply magnitudes and add arguments / angles. Only - 12 is correct.

@pickover If we individually solve the numbers we get 4i * 3i = 12i² = 12*(-1) = -12 But if we first multiply them together we get √((-16)*(-9)) = √144 = 12 So answer is +-12

Mathematics. Late-night musings, before sleep. The first five people who correctly solve this will be ecstatically happy for the rest of today.

@pickover This is how all academic writing should be!

This is a very short Abstract for a serious scientific paper: only 1 word, with 3 letters.

@VinceBoley @JamesAFurey The one marked "discovery learning" tends to make his text bold...

@JamesAFurey What button do I press to make your text larger and bold?

Back to school tomorrow after two weeks of Christmas Vacation, so you’ll be hearing more from me. Get your mute and block button ready, folx.

@TDevil2028 @peterhickstas @BarnsGreg @TasmanianHospi1 @AFL A "mere" $300m/yr!? There are ~250k taxable individuals in Tas. So that's $1200 per tax payer per year for the next 3 yrs. For my household, that's $10,800! That's a hard NO from me. How many at the 'yes' rally would pay their share up front?

@peterhickstas @BarnsGreg @TasmanianHospi1 @AFL The stadium will not be the cause of all your ills. It is a mere $300m per year over 3 years. It is 12% of the infrastructure budget. Let me guess...you're not Tasmanian? #politas

The self serving statements of interest groups like Master Builders Tasmania @TasmanianHospi1 and small business owners lauding the @AFL stadium in Hobart should be seen for what they are. They all have a vested interest #politas

@NielsHoven If you want bespoke education, home school. It's self-evident that as long as one person is educating 25 students, they're all going to get (largely) the same teaching. Teaching a class is an optimisation problem - that's why it's such a demanding job. Anyone can teach one kid.

Our schools think their job is to equalize, not to educate. But some kindergarteners have been reading for years. Some can't read at all. They should not be learning the same material. They should not be finishing the school year at the same place.

@pickover 5 out of 9 tails has ~25% chance. 6 out of 9 tails has ~16% chance. So the first is more representative of what you'd expect from a fair coin.

Mathematics. A mathematician emerges from a cave, hands you the slip of paper below, and says "Here are two series of coin flips. Which is more representative of a fair coin?" What is your response?

@Rainmaker1973 Keep your helmet on. It's tough to breathe without it...

What's the first rule?

@adamboxer1 It gets their steps up?

(If you can think of a value to doing this that can't be done through a method involving a student saying in their seat, then you win this argument)

"Getting students to come up to the board" is one of those high-risk-zero-rewards strategies that I used to think were great ways to do social constructivism Dunno what I was thinking

@Rainmaker1973 Fully functioning!? Does the blaster work? And can he make pancakes?

If you remember this robot, you may be old. This is a fully functioning, screen accurate, full size replica of Johnny 5 from the movie Short Circuit (1986) [📹 johnny5replica]

@greg_ashman @dylanwiliam I'm suggesting that the greater the complexity of the subject matter and the older the grey matter, the less effective immersion will be. Doesn't introducing arguments about biological primacy just muddy the waters?

@LittledbigP @dylanwiliam Yes. It explains why attempts to learn biologically secondary knowledge by immersion are so misguided.

I know that reading is typically regarded as what David Geary terms biologically secondary knowledge, but this may be an unhelpful simplification. Decoding is surely biologically secondary, but other aspects of reading seem to me to involve both primary and secondary knowledge.

@greg_ashman @dylanwiliam I think this distinction is unhelpful. More complex things are just harder to learn (and harder still with an old brain), but good instruction makes all learning faster. Does stressing this distinction lead to any better practice than couldn't be arrived at without it?

@dylanwiliam I don’t think anyone would claim otherwise. All biologically secondary knowledge that I can think of sits atop primary knowledge. Language comprehension, necessary for reading, is primary. Decoding and encoding is the recent invention that’s secondary.

@pickover No chance.

Astronomy. Space. Rockets. In your personal opinion, will humans ever leave the Solar System?

@greg16676935420 That's exactly how electric cars work. The magnet is just an electromagnet under the hood so you can still see where you're going.

Has anyone made this a reality yet?

@greg_ashman It's often easier to live with the delusion than accept guilt and responsibly. We all do it to varying extents, sometimes helpfully. It's when others start supporting the unhelpful delusion that we run into real trouble.

There is a vicious trap that people can fall into that knows no political, geographical or identity boundaries. We are all at risk. The trap: We decide we are defined by a label or set of labels. This is compelling because it seems explanatory. It is attractive because it removes our guilt and our responsibility. But it is usually not explanatory. Maybe we have to invent invisible systems to go alongside that label. And many psychological labels are entirely circular: I have grumpy old man syndrome and that explains my behaviour. How do I know this is the cause? Because I’m a grumpy old man. And the point about guilt and responsibility is a deep one we used to understand through religion. Freeing us of guilt and responsibility removes our agency. We cannot act in or on the world. We cannot be creative or start a business. We are stuck. We become authors of our own lives who are suffering from writer’s block.

@Rainmaker1973 How do you carbon date a living organism??

Endemic to the Namib desert, Welwitschia mirabilis is a plant that can live up to 1,000 years. Some individuals may be more than 2,000 years old. As the species does not produce yearly rings, plant age is determined by radiocarbon dating.

@tombennett71 @Knight2Susan 🎉

@LittledbigP @Knight2Susan Not letting Tassie down

Thrilled to be coming to Australia in May to visit school and run training. You can find out where I’ll be and how to buy tickets here: tombennetttraining.co.uk/australia-2025…

@tombennett71 @Knight2Susan Phew!

@LittledbigP @Knight2Susan It IS have no fear :) eventbrite.co.uk/e/relationship… eventbrite.co.uk/e/relationship…