Friday logic puzzle

Consider the following deduction: "Bread crumbs are better than nothing. Nothing is better than cheesecake. Therefore, bread crumbs are better than cheesecake."
What is wrong with this deduction? Do you know the name for this kind of error?

Math Class Needs a Makeover

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

They post videos from their conferences regularly. One of them caught my attention a few weeks ago, Dan Meyer's "Math Class Needs a Makeover."

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html

Students who feel stupid because they're Title I eligible :-(

Unfortunately, some students may have had bad experiences with Title I in previous years or see the program as something only for dumb students. Joanne and Jennifer gave some suggestions.

•  " I don't work with dumb kids. If your teachers didn't think you could come and get something out of this, they wouldn't let you come.
• "Do your parents have lots of money? Do think they would rather hire a tutor at home or get free help at school?"
• When giving the pretest to see if they're eligible, you don't have to say anything about how the scores will be used. "Mrs., did I pass?" "You qualified!" Sometimes they'll feel really proud of themselves after hearing that!
• You don't even have to specifically mention Title I.
• Joanne's anecdote:
• I am lousy at free throws on the basketball court.  If you take me out to the court my air balls might not even reach the rim.  I know I stink at it; so I don’t want to go near the basketball court for fear people will make fun of me. That means I never practice, and without practice I certainly won’t get better. However, if you take me to a gym and work with me, supporting my gains and not making fun of my mistakes I will practice and I will improve.  I may never be Kobe Bryant but I will get better. That will make me feel better about trying, so I’ll get out on the court more often, practice more and maybe get even better.  But one thing I know for sure – if I never get help and practice, I will never get any better.

Transmath Books

The Transmath books are very expensive. So, we don't want to order more than absolutely necessary. When you've tested and know which levels you'll need, let Tina or Joanne know. Also, you'll only need one (maybe two for a big class) student textbook for people to share. Students don't get their own textbook to take home. We just do supplemental work during school. We don't assign HW.

CSU/UC Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project

You don't have to do this.
I got the impression that the MDTP gets funding (so can offer these for free) based on the number of tests they send/receive. If you have extra green sheets and want to support them, make a dummy class of some random period, and submit dummy student answer sheets to be graded. You could also make Student IDs that were nothing like the school's actual ones to further separate them out.
You certainly don't have to do it, but I thought I'd let you know.

CSU/UC Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project

There was a miscommunication, and Maribel only ordered one set of supplies instead of one for each school. Please order your own (for _free_) to be sent to your school if you happen to need to test any students in Geometry or Algebra 2.

If you need to test before they come in, still order them but you'll also have to photocopy some tests and answer sheets for your students. When the answer sheets come in, transfer their answers over and send those in.

Instructions on ordering:
Go to
http://mdtp.ucsd.edu/order.php?contact_id=6

To fill the form out, just put your information and school information on the top (don't worry about putting LAUSD information).

You'll need materials for just one teacher.

The questions at the end should just be to ship it to you (at the school's address you entered at the top) then "no" for the last ones.

On the second page, it will probably be easiest to say you need 0 instructions (the yellow sheets you got from me), 0 class sheets (the brown ones you got) and as many tests as you have in students in Geometry and higher.

We don't have Datawise/Measures or Edusoft so leave those blank.

On the next page, we're using
Geometry: GR45A06 0414506
Algebra 2: SR45A06 0314506
You don't have to request a written work CD.


Sorry for the miscommunication with Maribel. Hopefully things work out easily.

Emails

I'll send out the list of people's emails in just a bit when I type them up. I hope your school year has started off well or that you are getting ready to start up soon. One thing I've found helpful is just setting up a time to test a teacher's whole class rather than wait for the pool book sheets to come back then identify the students who are eligible. It might even be less obtrusive than pulling individual or small groups of students out. It does mean that I had to make lots of copies of the intake test, but for those of you who haven't tested yet, you might
want to give it a try.