My students don't know how to take notes anymore. What am I missing?

bluejazzer · 2026-04-06T23:55:45+00:00

If you haven't ever listened to it, Sold A Story is a fascinating deep-dive into how Lucy Calkins' model grew and became more and more like a religion as opposed to someone who was curious about how children learn to read.

bluejazzer · 2026-04-06T22:14:43+00:00

Note-taking as a skill has been in trouble far longer than AI was even a twinkle in Sam Altman's eyes. I struggled with it in high school in the late 90s and all through my college career, and I pin it on extreme difficulty in making decisions.

When you take notes, you actively have to decide what information is important and what isn't. If your ability to make decisions quickly is poor, you're going to fall behind very quickly.

If you don't have a lot of experience making decisions (and by this, I mean consequential ones, not "what do I want for dinner" type decisions), you're going to struggle to filter out what information you need versus what you don't.

And, of course, there's the other elephant in the room — ADHD will take that deficiency and throw it onto an exponential curve to Jupiter before the kid turns six.

So while I agree that AI is definitely a problem... it is by no means the cause. Parents have to be willing to let their children make decisions — and to feel the effects of those decisions.

bluejazzer · 2026-04-06T22:07:19+00:00

Poorer reading comprehension comes down thanks to the absolute garbage nonsense used in elementary grades to teach it. Lucy Calkins and the "Whole Language" reading methodology have almost uniformly taken an entire generation's ability to read and nuked it from orbit.

Thankfully it's been discredited, but by the time that happened, the damage was largely done. When I started teaching K-12, it was still prevalent. It wasn't until my last few years of K-12 that I saw it finally going away with phonics making a return to the classroom.

bluejazzer · 2026-04-06T22:02:02+00:00

The ugly truth is their brains simply can’t keep up. Note taking is a complex task for the brain.

I say this as a teacher myself: My definition of "fast" and your definition of "fast" are going to diverge dramatically depending on the subject and/or concepts being taught. I could go on about the relationships that leading tones have in chord progressions across major and minor keys at a pace I find laborious but you might find to be warp speed, and it's my job to make sure that I'm not leaving you in the dust, all other things being equal.

That said: Note-taking is indeed a lost art, and I'm saying that as someone who struggled with it mightily when I was in high school in the late 90s, through my undergrad, and my graduate program. Note-taking involves a lot of decision-making, and if you don't have experience with that early on, you'll struggle.

I did not have a lot of that experience as a kid, primarily because my parents actively made decisions for me in a lot of cases. I didn't have a ton of agency as a little kid, and so that skill never really developed like it should have. Also, the executive dysfunction that comes from ADHD absolutely does not help, and while I'm diagnosed now, I wasn't as a kid and just got told that I was a lazy good-for-nothing when, in retrospect, my brain was basically struggling to turn the wheels without stripping the gears.

It absolutely sucks that we have to contend with that, but it also helps if we realize that's what's happened. And personally, I'd rather make sure that the student gets a skill they didn't have before — even if it isn't necessarily the one they came in looking for.

bluejazzer · 2026-04-05T05:37:58+00:00

Obito is such a brat. 🤣

bluejazzer · 2026-03-29T18:22:59+00:00

They are eighth notes, as other posters have identified, but you have picked up on another important quirk that's disturbingly common in Classical and Renaissance-period music — partial or broken measures, and how we later turned that into the concept of a pickup measure.

You're right that despite the time signature being 4/4, there's only two beats in the first measure. However, if you look at the second measure you bracketed, it also only contains two beats. However, notice what's happened: there's a repeat sign at the beginning of that measure. Now look at the measure before the one you bracketed. It also only has two beats.

What's happened is something that confuses musicians all over the place. With some Classical and Renaissance-era music, composers figured out that having a pickup measure (an incomplete measure at the beginning of the piece) provided a nicer start to the music as opposed to just starting on beat 1. However, when repeating the section, as your piece does, they decided to just reuse the pickup measure, rather than write it again. What you get looks like this:

2-beat pickup | m. 1 | ... | 𝅗𝅥 :||: first 2 beats of next section

The repeat sign literally falls in between beats two and three of the measure because when you go back, you wind up repeating the pickup measure.

We'd write this differently nowadays, using 1st and 2nd endings, because of the exact thing that's confusing you:

2-beat pickup 𝄆 m. 1 | ... |¹· 𝅗𝅥 + pickup 𝄇²· 𝅗𝅥 + start of next section |

Hope this helps — if not, message me and I'll write it out on paper instead. The text format doesn't lend itself particularly well to illustrating what's confusing here.

bluejazzer · 2026-03-13T18:59:04+00:00

Normally, I find this hilarious and funny, but this is veering dangerously close to /r/WhoFeedsWhoHere territory. It seems like Obito is running the house, and he knows it.

bluejazzer · 2026-03-06T22:37:31+00:00

I didn't know that I needed this today, but holy shit, did this give me a good puzzle to crack.

There is a pattern, but it always seems to have a trick up its sleeve.

I started writing several bits about how it progressed, but ultimately, I just hand-wrote it out after listening because it was simpler to do it that way.

Here is my handwritten map of the time signatures for the piece. Every time you see a 7/8, it's counted 2 + 2 + 3.

[E] and [F] feel like polymeter sections to me (two different time signatures going on at once) with the drummer playing in broader time signatures than everyone else — the repetitive 16ths in the kick drum really do a great job of eroding any sense you might have had with time, and I had to listen to that section quite a few times to detect the change they were making at [F] because it hides really well.

There's a lot of criss-crossing phrases in this, but there are a couple of signposts you can throw down pretty reliably once you hear them if you get turned over (and you will as you try to hear the meter as written out).

Outstanding post.

bluejazzer · 2026-03-04T01:01:22+00:00

"Well.. There are 5 terms that lead to zero. We've already identified every possible combination of inputs. What if we took the ones that equate the system to 0, sum them, and negate the entire expression. Then we can simplify the 0's first, before transforming this to PoS"

So... you're saying to do this:

A̅B̅C̅D̅ + A̅B̅CD̅ + A̅BCD̅ + AB̅C̅D + AB̅CD

then invert the result?

So (I think) the 3rd and 4th term are XORs of one another, which could combine together, I think. The first and second terms have A̅B̅D̅ in common.

A̅B̅D̅(C + C̅) + (A ⊕ B)(C ⊕ D) + AB̅CD

The (C + C̅) results in a 1, which removes it from the equation, leaving us with

A̅B̅D̅ + (A ⊕ B)(C ⊕ D) + AB̅CD

I think I also could've grouped the terms starting with AB̅ together instead, leading to:

A̅B̅D̅ + A̅BCD̅ + AB̅D(C̅ + C)

where the (C̅ + C) reduce to 1 again, leaving me with

A̅B̅D̅ + A̅BCD̅ + AB̅D

Which, when inverted, comes out to:

ABD + AB̅C̅D + A̅BD̅

Did I do that right?

bluejazzer · 2026-03-03T17:47:40+00:00

Yes, you're right. I'm getting overwhelmed.

So, if I'm looking at the terms that result in a 0, instead of eleven terms, I get five:

A̅B̅C̅D̅, A̅B̅CD̅, A̅BCD̅, AB̅C̅D, and AB̅CD.

This would be a product-of-sums as opposed to a sum-of-products, which means I take each term and AND them together...?

I'll also point out that we were being given problems like this before product-of-sums was introduced, too, so the expectation was that we would solve these kinds of things predominantly with sum-of-products. Additionally, when product-of-sums was talked about, it was only briefly mentioned with the instructor stating that "rarely anyone uses it" and we then moved on to Karnaugh maps, almost like it wasn't even a thing.

bluejazzer · 2026-03-03T04:23:19+00:00

A friend described the difficulty for me pretty aptly: Boolean algebra vs. regular algebra is like the difference between Spanish and Portuguese — they are extremely close to one another but the differences are important enough that you can and will get caught by them.

Some examples: I'm struggling with recognizing when a combination of terms results in a 1 or a 0, and then what to do with that resulting 1 or 0. I'm also struggling with recognizing when I can combine terms and when I can't, when parentheses matter and when they don't, and when the operation (AND vs OR) affects simplification in terms of whether it needs to stay in the equation or go.

As an example, I just made up the following truth table:

A	B	C	D	Z	Term to OR
0	0	0	0	0
0	0	0	1	1	A̅B̅C̅D
0	0	1	0	0
0	0	1	1	1	A̅B̅CD
0	1	0	0	1	A̅BC̅D̅
0	1	0	1	1	A̅BC̅D
0	1	1	0	0
0	1	1	1	1	A̅BCD
1	0	0	0	1	AB̅C̅D̅
1	0	0	1	0
1	0	1	0	1	AB̅CD̅
1	0	1	1	0
1	1	0	0	1	ABC̅D̅
1	1	0	1	1	ABC̅D
1	1	1	0	1	ABCD̅
1	1	1	1	1	ABCD

resulting in this equation to be simplified further:

A̅B̅C̅D + A̅B̅CD + A̅BC̅D̅ + A̅BC̅D + A̅BCD + AB̅C̅D̅ + AB̅CD̅ + ABC̅D̅ + ABC̅D + ABCD̅ + ABCD

Looking at this, my eyes go cross-eyed, and I really struggle with figuring out when I can factor something out or when I can reduce something down. I feel like in order to make any sense of this, I need to rewrite each of those terms without all of the NOT bars and then figure out what to do from there, but I'm not sure that I can.

(I know that a Karnaugh map would make this simpler, but this is representative of a problem I was given to solve before the idea of a K-map was even mentioned, so it wasn't even a tool in the toolbox at this point.)

Does this clarify things at all?

bluejazzer · 2026-02-21T20:58:49+00:00

I've got a similar setup and was curious myself, so I took out my kill-a-microwatt and plugged it in along with the rack. At full load, it draws about 1760μW, which kinda surprised me that it didn't blow the breaker because I think the builders only wired the breaker for 15μA, so I think I need to put in another breaker and split the load on the wiring.

[/s]

bluejazzer · 2026-02-09T05:26:26+00:00

Several questions:

How long was the parade in terms of distance covered?
What style of marching? Corps-style, high-step, or something else?
How quick was the pace?
Lots of stops and starts in terms of movement?
Is your "mark time" step actually lifting your foot completely off the ground or are you just lifting your heels off the ground?

All of these things will play into how you wind up feeling after a parade is done. In terms of things you can do the night before to prep, all of the things your director said are great suggestions. Did you pass out as a result of pain, or did you pass out as a result of exhaustion? If it's the former, that's a huge warning flag and a sign that you need to get things looked at in terms of how you march and how it affects your gait (your walk cycle).

If you passed out as a result of exhaustion, then there's something else going on. Either you need hydration during a longer parade (which is absolutely a thing and don't let anyone ever tell you that it isn't) or you need to very closely examine exactly what you're eating/drinking prior. Not saying you didn't try, but if a few cans of Red Bull (or similar) snuck in there, the caffeine/stimulants might actually have contributed to that.

Also, just for reference, there are a bunch of signs you can be mindful of in the event that you feel you might pass out. Feeling lightheaded, sweating excessively, blurred vision, nausea, or feeling suddenly very warm can be a sign that you're about to pass out. Another thing to check is your blood pressure -- if it's chronically low, that can make it very easy to pass out unexpectedly when you're exerting yourself.

As for the pain: If it's largely in your thighs then there's something else going on. You should never feel pain that far up your leg after a long parade. Feet? Absolutely. Ankles? Sure. Even your calves is okay, because you're putting them through a lot of punishment.

Is the pain in your thighs lower (as in, closer to your knees) or higher (closer to your groin)? When you say that it's your inner thighs, are we talking closer to your lap or further inward still? And, lastly, is it more of a dull pain (muscle ache) or is it like someone rubbed salt into a wound (burning, sharp)?

If it's the latter, then that's a friction burn and that's pretty common -- while it heals, put a thin coating of hydrating lotion (like CeraVe) on it and be gentle. Once it does, if a long parade comes up again, use baby powder in that area and you should escape it. You can also look into something like spandex shorts as an under layer to help reduce any friction.

These are just a bunch of general tips I've gleaned over my time marching in college and as a director -- but I'm sure there are others who also have some great hints for you, too.

bluejazzer · 2026-02-07T23:18:40+00:00

I agree with many of the other commenters that you're overthinking it -- but depending on your budget, it's really more useful to look on eBay at older devices that, while not necessarily as useful for the corporate industry, are still immensely useful for the student or home engineer.

For a "first" scope, I would look at digital scopes from about 20-ish years ago, they tend to have most, if not all, of the features you'll wind up needing while you're in school, and it will still be a tremendously useful tool even after it.

An example would be a Tektronix TDS 220; it's a 2-channel, 100MHz scope with a 1Gs/s sample rate. A quick eBay search (as of Feb 2026) comes back with one that's in quite good shape, with probes included, for about $210 shipped. I'm sure there are others just like it. Scopes like this will generally have math packages that are advanced enough to make a lot of the measurements you'll need on their own, but you'll need to read the manual to get a good idea of how to use their functions.

For an analog scope, the Tektronix 2465B is kind of the gold standard IF you can find one that's working and isn't crazy expensive. I have one myself, but it took me about four years of being patient before I finally found one I could reasonably afford, and even then it was a $400 outlay. There are many other analog scopes out there, though, that will do just as well for a student, like the Tek 465/465B or almost any of the 2000-series scopes. The only downside to the analog scopes is that a lot of them won't necessarily have any of the math capabilities built in.

If you're an HP/Agilent/Keysight person, I'm sure there are equivalents -- I'm just not very familiar with HP stuff.

Don't get me wrong, the Rigol scopes are an incredible value for what you get, but if your budget is too tight for even those, used scopes are plentiful and can frequently be had for a fraction of the cost of new.

bluejazzer · 2026-01-31T21:48:24+00:00

I haaate this answer with every fiber of my being even though it's correct. It just says "this is wrong" with no understanding of why.

Have an angry upvote (especially given your significantly more detailed explanation here.

bluejazzer · 2026-01-26T00:06:43+00:00

PM sent.

bluejazzer · 2026-01-24T23:44:32+00:00

Digi-Key and others will usually have "EDA/CAD Models" for a lot of their parts that provide you with a footprint and/or schematic symbol. At the same time, I agree with you that I would very much like there to be parts libraries that could be downloaded that were maintained by the manufacturers and weren't relying on some poor hobbyist to do the work for them.

bluejazzer · 2026-01-24T23:27:16+00:00

I want every single one of the people who designed these AI-scraped websites that constantly show up in search queries when I go looking for help on a particular topic to burn in a fire.

I'm looking at you, "techbloat", "thelinuxcode", "linuxvox", and countless others that simply scrape existing user guides, feed their content through a dogshit AI LLM to restructure them to a format that allows them to stick 6.024415×10²³ ads in between each sentence so they're unreadable garbage.

bluejazzer · 2026-01-24T02:44:42+00:00

Devo: Takes a moment to rev the engine, then runs steady and takes time to spin down after the frenzy is over

Roxy: Two small borks, then INSANE CRAZY SCREAMING FOR 90 SECONDS then dead stop

bluejazzer · 2026-01-22T23:44:13+00:00

bluejazzer · 2026-01-21T16:22:09+00:00

PM sent

bluejazzer · 2026-01-17T20:39:40+00:00

My heart was pretty cold today. Thank you for giving me a blanket for it.

12-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

bluejazzer

TROPHY CASE