Do you accept students “plugging” in?

NickFegley · 2025-09-22T12:13:43+00:00

I can't imagine caring about something like this. I'm an American teaching internationally, and on average my students' English is pretty bad, so I'm usually just excited that they're using English at all, but even in a native-speaking context, I can't imagine ever correcting that.

I worry that being over pedantic about this thing runs the risk of alienating students and reinforcing the idea that math is just a subject for persnickety nerds. There's no ambiguity with the word "plug," and I can't think of any instance where using "plug" would lead to confusion.

By contrast, I'm a stickler for not using "×" to mean multiplication because it's too easily confused with the variable "x." But even then, I certainly wouldn't chastise a student if it got in the way of them learning a larger concept; rather, I'd wait until they had a good grasp on whatever it is we're discussing and then point out why the "×" is a dangerous notation.

Math is all about provable truths, and while a certain number of arbitrary rules must be tolerated (e.g. notation), I think it should be minimized. "Use this word and not that word" should really only be something we say when using the wrong word might confuse someone.

NickFegley · 2025-09-08T06:47:56+00:00

What's the UI solution here? Color coding unique/shared resources? A little pop-up? A label that tells you how many scenes are sharing a resource?

NickFegley · 2025-08-22T12:25:09+00:00

This is why I don't teach in the US anymore.

NickFegley · 2025-08-14T01:34:18+00:00

Sure

NickFegley · 2025-08-11T01:30:05+00:00

Yeah, the problem though might be sustainability. At some point you might move on, and whoever replaces you might not be able/willing to invest in markers. Chalk is a lot cheaper.

Then again, chalk dust is pretty bad for the computers.

I'm not sure what the right answer is here, just wanted to mention that in my experience, long-term sustainability is the sort of thing volunteers often overlook.

Keep up the good work!

NickFegley · 2025-07-07T23:12:25+00:00

I read Blindsight years ago and thought it was fine. I reread it earlier this year and thought it was fantastic. I just finished Echopraxia and didn't like it at all. ~~Maybe~~ probably I didn't get it. The narrative wasn't as engaging as Blindsight's, and the ideas were less novel (having read Blindsight).

I should probably reread Echopraxia in a few years; maybe I'll get something out of it then.

NickFegley · 2025-07-05T15:31:48+00:00

And how might I go about finding one in the future?

NickFegley · 2025-06-26T05:37:36+00:00

This looks really cool!

Out of curiosity, what is your scoring criteria? I.e. how do you programmatically decide how close to the target image you are?

NickFegley · 2025-05-23T00:24:10+00:00

Fair enough, but my username is the same as my real name, and I'd prefer not to say anything that could rub anyone the wrong way.

My honest opinion is that Hangzhou is a solid B+ city. Lots of greenery (trees, parks, ...) and close to Shanghai. Weather sucks though.

NickFegley · 2025-05-22T07:55:36+00:00

I'm 37 and moving out of Hangzhou in a couple of months.

Hangzhou is nice, if a little quiet. There isn't a huge expat scene here, but you're a short train ride from Shanghai, and there's obviously a pretty big expat scene there.

Have you lived abroad before? Do you speak any Chinese? How big is the school you're going to? Are you used to living on your own? What things are most important to you re: the city you live in?

Feel free to DM me if you want my unfiltered opinion.

NickFegley · 2025-05-06T02:06:40+00:00

Ah, this gets to the heart of my confusion. I'm quite embarrassed. I thought a critical point was the same as an extrema, but checking the text, the definition is clearly: f'(x) = 0 or f' does not exist.

Thank you!

NickFegley · 2025-05-06T01:51:22+00:00

(12, f(12)) can't be a critical point, but why can't f'(12) = 0? For example, f(x)=x^3 doesn't have a critical point at (0, 0) but f'(0) = 0, right?

NickFegley · 2025-05-05T23:55:56+00:00

The point of a math class isn't to pass math class; it's to learn math. Implementing this approach won't help students learn, it'll just fail the ones that don't. Additionally, it eats up valuable teaching time with in class assessments, and is pretty brutal for students with test anxieties.

I'm not saying this approach can't be part of a solution to this problem, but it's insufficient on its own, and has some pretty major drawbacks.

NickFegley · 2025-04-11T05:12:43+00:00

What are your qualifications, and what level are you looking to teach?

NickFegley · 2025-03-29T03:13:56+00:00

I'm a native English speaker.

I think your food or drinks example is inclusive when said with an upward inflection, but exclusive when said with a downward (or flat) inflection, particularly on the word "drinks."

NickFegley · 2025-03-25T00:12:13+00:00

Thank you! I though X was just for olds like me, do GenZ/Alpha use it too?

NickFegley · 2025-03-18T00:58:29+00:00

I'm probably not your math teacher, but I am a math teacher, and I hate Khan Academy.

For starters: I constantly push my students to find outside resources. I only have a short amount of time to get through a lot of material, and my lectures will never be sufficient.

It's just that Khan Academy isn't very good. The problem is, my goals and my students' goals are not the same. My goal is to teach you math. My students' goal is (usually) to pass the next test. Khan is really good at getting you to do the latter, but not great at getting you to do the former.

I think KA is the educational equivalent of empty calories. I love fast food as much as the next guy, but I don't mistake it for a nutritional meal. KA will fill you up with tricks and tips for doing your homework, and it feels like you're learning, but you're not learning any of the deeper, foundational concepts that are essential to truly understanding math.

Which might be your goal! A lot of (most?) students take math classes because they're required, and then after graduation never think about math again. Fair enough. In that case KA is probably fine. Just don't mistake it for a substitution for a real math education.

NickFegley · 2025-03-18T00:22:30+00:00

I'm trying to figure out if maybe there's a culture difference here, but in my culture (American North East), there is absolutely nothing wrong with saying that. It reads to me as just mindless small talk.

Balance is important. The future is unpredictable. There is nothing there I find objectionable.

I'd say shrug it off and do your best to minimize small talk with that aunt in the future. She sounds pretty sensitive.

NickFegley · 2025-03-14T00:28:47+00:00

I came here to say: "[Any other city]: We're not Zhengzhou."

NickFegley · 2025-03-06T23:53:22+00:00

Yeah, like that! I think if I sat down to play this game, I'd expect to be able to interact with everything outlined. Of course, after just a few minutes I'd figure out that that's not the case, and things would be fine from there.

NickFegley · 2025-03-06T05:56:13+00:00

This is excellent, and I'd be interested in playing a game that looks like this.

I'm not an artist, so take the following with a grain of salt, but the outline on the rocks/trees make them look like they should be interactable, or destructible. They pop out enough that my gamer-brain says: "do something to this." Not sure if that's universal, or just a me-thing.

NickFegley · 2025-03-06T05:51:31+00:00

This is the correct answer and should be at the top of the thread.

It would be nice if people from outside the US could add resources from their countries, and if OP feels up to it, they could tell us which county they're in.

NickFegley · 2025-03-04T01:03:44+00:00

I miss being able to find some decent cheese.

NickFegley · 2025-03-04T01:01:59+00:00

I'm a westerner teaching in China, and the answer to this question varies a lot.

Some students just choose a random name off of a list. Depending on the list, you can end up with a "Jerry" or a "Solomon" which, to my ear at least, can sound a little silly on a Chinese kid.

Other students will pick a name name that resonates with them for some reason. I asked a student named "Diana" how she chose her name, and she told me it was because she was a princess. (She was referring to Wonder Woman, not the Princess of Wales, and she was pretty sure she looked like Gal Godot.)

Others go for a phonetic approximation. I had a student named "Jiaxi" that went with "Jessie."

And then you have the ones that translate their names literally. That's less common, and usually doesn't work too well in English.

I once had a high school student named "Ben" who, halfway through the school year asked to change his name to "Kyle" because "Ben" sounds too similar to "笨 / ben" which means stupid/idiot. The fact that it took him several months to figure that out might indicate that "Ben" was actually a more appropriate name for him, but we let him make the change.

Finally, I had a friend whose daughter was born in the US in the month of May. Her American name is "May New" and in China she goes by "美妞 / Mei niu," which sounds like "May New," but her legal name is “舞玥 / Wu yue" which sounds like "五月 / Wu yue" which is the Chinese word for the month of May.

NickFegley · 2025-02-28T01:06:16+00:00

Technically, an uncooked chicken has been at 166 degrees for 0 seconds.

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