Best educator biographies according to redditors
We found 121 Reddit comments discussing the best educator biographies. We ranked the 35 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 121 Reddit comments discussing the best educator biographies. We ranked the 35 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
I highly recommend reading The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel. The first 1/3rd or so is slow, it's about Hardy & Littlewood and the Tripos-test era in Europe, but it really picks up when Ramanujan is introduced.
edit
If you'd like to browse through the textbook which inspired Ramanujan, it's available here.
If you enjoyed this I highly recommend Paul Hoffman's biography of Erdos
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Loved-Only-Numbers/dp/0786884061/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484066739&sr=8-1&keywords=the+man+who+loved+only+numbers
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers is all about Mr. Erdos' life. A great read, IMO, and I'm not super strong in math!
I strongly agree that the history of mathematics and computing should be taught as an integral part of any CS / Math degree.
Two books you might want to read by way of a 'history assignment'.
Wow! Hey, thank you so much.
Feel free to share your honest opinion on the Amazon page under 'customer reviews', so other people can know whether it's a good buy or not.
Alternatively, feel free to tell me what you thought by mailing [email protected].
I read a Japanese autobiography about Japan's first American translator in the 1800s. His friends and him laughed about Chinese medicine even then.
Not much of theory to base your teaching on, but A mathematician's lament is a nice read.
I like Papert, so you could read Mindstorms or look about Constructionism (his theory).
There are some French guys that I like as well, such as Brousseau and Duval. Duval in particular is very nice.
As for general pedagogy, you could read on the classical psychologists, such as Piaget and Vygotsky, or an introduction in general to see which ideas you like best.
I never took things literally (in fact I only ever knew one aspie guy who actually did this), but when I was about 9 years old my dad gave me the book Freaks, Geeks and Asperger syndrome. This book was written by a 13 year old aspie guy who described what having aspergers is like. My dad hoped that this book would help me to learn about my condition, but for some reason I thought that because I also had aspergers, I had to act the same way as the author of the book did when he was my age. So my dad was really surprised when I suddenly started to take everything literally and performing rituals before going to bed.
http://www.amazon.com/MAN-WHO-LOVED-ONLY-NUMBERS/dp/0786884061
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Colors-Suffice-Problem-Solved/dp/0691115338
God Created the Integers, edited by Stephen Hawking. Includes selected works of various big names in mathematics with a brief biography of each preceding the math. The wiki article on the book has a list of all mathematicians included.
Prime Obsession, about Riemann and his famous hypothesis.
The Man Who Knew Infinity, about Ramanujan.
Haven't read it, I'll look into it! I read Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome, which is written in part as a self-help book for Asperger's teens, by a 13 year old with Aspergers. He talks a lot about how his home life is different - one younger sibling has ADHD and another is on the lower end of the autism spectrum - and how he has to handle school and social life differently.
A lot of ASD folks don't want to be forced to change and lose what they feel is an integral part of themselves. It's one of the many reasons most autistic people feel a huge disconnect from groups like Autism Speaks (where it's an organization for parents of children with autism, they don't take input from people with autism themselves). Instead there's what's called the neurodiversity movement - sort of like disability rights for people with neurological differences, so they are not treated as malfunctioning people, but people who function differently than most.
I don't have a great book yet, but the book that got me back into mathematics was actually a biography of Erdős.
Interesting story...
The mathematician (number theorist) Paul Erdos was reportedly a daily user of amphetamine (non-perscription). His colleagues and friends tried to get him to end his habit by wagering a sum of cash that Erdos couldn't quit for a month. Erdos did quit, but claimed that he hadn't done much good math in the month of abstinence, and promptly resumed popping pills. He lived to be 83 and is one of the more famous mathematicians. Check out his biography... it's spectacular.
Anything by Simon Singh is worth reading. In addition to what others have recommended, these books are good:
[The man who loved only numbers](http://www.amazon.com/MAN-WHO-LOVED-ONLY-NUMBERS/dp/0786884061/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254333710&sr=8-1
)
Flatland
Prisoner's Dilemma
A mathematician reads the newspaper
A mathematician plays the stock market
Innumeracy: mathematical illiteracy and its consequences
Also, while not exactly about Maths:
Surely you are joking, Mr Feynman
What do you care what other people think?
The Art of Computer Programming
Yes, there are a lot of rules!
What kind of rules do you want? Social interaction in general, or romantic interaction?
The problem is that people (NTs) in general learn them intuitively from a very young age by interacting with other people. Trying to learn social rules from a book without actually practicing in the real world those rules is IMPOSSIBLE. You will have to practice them (with real people) A LOT to actually make a difference.
Also, rules are dependent on the context and sometimes the culture. For example shaking hand with friends, family, coworkers, and random strangers. IT DEPENDS.
There are two books that I haven't read yet but they seem exactly for that:
I'd recommend reading two books:
Yes, if it complements what you do at home. I would recommend you read the following book: Maria Montessori: Her life and work and see if you agree with that philosophy. Once you read the book, look at the different Montessori schools in your area and see if they implement the philosophy.
The other commenters are spot on in that some schools really implement Montessori's methods, while others just use the word for markup. Also, make sure to commit yourself to treating your kid that way 100% of the time, otherwise it won't benefit your kid at all.
Been There, Done That - Try This (edited by tony Atwood) might be useful. There are a couple of good books aimed at teenagers also which may or may not be helpful - freaks, geeks and Asperger syndrome by Luke Jackson and the asperkids book of (secret) social rules by Jennifer O’Toole
The other thing to consider is using trusted neurotypicals as social rules translators - no book is going to cover every situation fully or enable you to see clues that may be obvious to NTs.
If she was just diagnosed, I'm thinking it's probably more likely that she's high-functioning since you probably would've noticed earlier on if she was low-functioning. And the fact that she doesn't resist affection is a really wonderful sign! My brother wasn't very affectionate when he was her age but he did have some of those same behaviours - not responding to commands, self-focused etc. The word Autism itself comes from 'auto', so naturally a huge component of Autism is a focus on oneself rather than others which makes for more difficulties in social situations. Like I said, our situations are very different because my brother is 3 years older than me but going back to my 5 year old mindset, how I managed to communicate with my brother was through his common interest which is music. He'd play piano and I'd sit with him, we'd talk about our favourite artists etc. Since your sister is still pretty young, it might be difficult to establish a common interest right now but my advice would be interest yourself in whatever she finds interesting, getting her to talk about what she's doing, what she likes. And I hope that as she gets older, she's put in 'typical' child environments so that she doesn't miss out. I'm really happy to say that my brother had a lot of support when he was younger and now he's 23 and extremely well-adjusted and living in his own apartment and has a job that he loves. I wish I could offer you some reference books or something but all of the ones that I read were for younger siblings of Autistic children. If you're interested though here are a few that helped me:
Freaks, Geeks & Asperger Syndrome <-- it's about Aspergers but a lot of the characteristics are similar and more importantly, it provides a lot of information for siblings
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime <-- fictional but takes place completely inside the mind of an Autistic person! And it's an amazing read!
The Reason I Jump
A very accurate account of Ramanujan's life
https://www.amazon.in/CHANAKYA-NEETI-R-P-Jain-ebook/dp/B01FAWGHAO
You're very welcome - if you haven't had enough Erdos then I strongly recommend The Man Who Loved Only Numbers. It was actually thinking about this book (which I read a few years ago now) that prompted me to search for and watch this documentary yesterday.
History of science books are 80% of what I read, and Bryson's book was great, but many of the books that I'm seeing here are oddly not close to Bryson's in terms of style or content.
Just off the top of my head, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers would probably be an excellent read. It has been awhile, but I remember Lost Discoveries was along a similar vein with a similarly light writing style. How I Killed Pluto is pretty fun as well, although it veers off into personal stuff as well.
For anyone who has not read his biography, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers it is an interesting book, even if you aren't into mathematics.
Rafe Esquith's Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire. It's amazing how his experiences teaching 5th graders relate to so many of my own teaching college students. This won't offer a lot of insight into the specifics of college classroom management or course design, but it will inspire you to make this a profession you love -- it least, it has done so for me. Best of luck!
https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Like-Your-Hairs-Fire/dp/0143112864
Some suggested reading:
Alfie Kohn
Descriptions of the Sudbury Valley School experience.
Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire
The Teaching Gap
The Learning Gap
John Taylor Gatto
If you look at nothing else, look at this:
Sir Ken Robinson's "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"
> I think a good solution would be raising teacher salaries to a 100K flat pay with bonuses for student performance.
Trying to solve problems using extrinsic incentives is an obvious, but flawed approach. Check out Freakonomics for an example of how (and why) such incentive based systems for education go wrong.
At the very root of the situation, it is a problem of incentives. It's just more likely to be solved by focusing your investigation on nurturing the intrinsic motivation that kids have to learn stuff.
There are many problems with modern education but they all seem to stem from a lack of concentrating on the desired outputs. This failure is then propagated back into the system and the wrong types of measurements are taken.
There are a fair number of popular level books about mathematics that are definitely interesting and generally not too challenging mathematically. William Dunham is fantastic. His Journey through Genius goes over some of the most important and interesting theorems in the history of mathematics and does a great job of providing context, so you get a feel for the mathematicians involved as well as how the field advanced. His book on Euler is also interesting - though largely because the man is astounding.
The Man who Loved only Numbers is about Erdos, another character from recent history.
Recently I was looking for something that would give me a better perspective on what mathematics was all about and its various parts, and I stumbled on Mathematics by Jan Gullberg. Just got it in the mail today. Looks to be good so far.
I wasn't referring specifically to Catholics there, but I'm aware in red states teaching evolution is often extremely contentious.
I know it's policy in a lot of schools to give Evolution and Intelligent Design equal time...
I have read this book, which describes, among other things, how difficult it was for the poor guy to teach evolution. Students reacted to the topic with anger, many wanting to walk out of the classroom. They had been taught all of the misconceptions you could imagine.
Amphetamine. Not methamphetamine.
Source: The Man who loved only numbers
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers is a beautiful telling of Paul Erdos' life.
Someone else mentioned The Man Who Knew Infinity which I also love.
Not to diminish your concerns (knowing someone's name IS important), but there are, like, 24 other things that you should be deathly afraid of. But soldier on! You can do it! I recommend The First Days of School by the Wongs and Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire.
And you remember kids' names like anything else-- use mnemonic tricks. Learn at least one thing about each student that you can identify with his or her face (and name). Also name cards, seating chart, get-to-know-you games, etc. Say their names as often as possible until you learn them.
Good luck!
This might be what you're looking for.
The Man Who Loved Numbers, biography of Paul Erdos, one of the most prolific and bizarre mathematicians of the 20th century. It is pretty light on the actual math but is a very entertaining read regardless. Also he was from Poland, and the book has quite a few stories about being a Mathematician in Eastern Europe.
Do you have any strong interests? For example, I love math, and the book The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, which is a biography of Paul Erdos.
If you are interested in graphic novels, and they are allowed for the assignment, Logicomix is the quest of Bertrand Russell for an ultimate basis of mathematics, and how the journey of understanding can often lead towards obsession and madness.
If you're interested in physics, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman is a great book that is arguably a biography.
So, what are you most interested in?
Well, this is the general history of post-revolutionary France. France went through 2 monarchies and 2 empires to get a stable Republic.
Fighting the influence of the Catholic church has been the obsession of Republicans and for the Catholic church fighting the Republic has been an obsession too.
France was late to give the voting right to women and one of the main argument was that women were dominated by morality and they would follow the sermons of priests and this would be the end of the Republic and the return of the monarchy with the Catholic church behind it.
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The part about school being used to turn the sons of peasants into factory workers in more universal though. As far as I know, it's called the Prussian (or Russian ?) model.
You can read for example the first part of this book from Salman Khan (the founder of Khan Academy) on the origins of industrial era schools.
https://www.amazon.com/One-World-Schoolhouse-Education-Reimagined/dp/1455508373
You can also find talks by him on Youtube.
If you want something shorter, there is this famous TED animation about a talk by Ken Robinson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U (I disagree with a lot of what is said in this video though, it's full of bullshit and wishful thinking)
That's great! I'd say the original Montessori texts are good of course. Paula Polk Lillard has some good books. And to understand who Montessori was, what this all stems from, etc. I like E.M. Standing's biography of Maria Montessori.
A lot of mathematics before college is taught in an uninspired, disconnected way by poor, unmotivated teachers. Students are often given no way to connect what they're learning with anything they understand intuitively. Having never been given the opportunity to flourish mathematically, they have resigned themselves to being "not good at math". It indicates a failure of the system they were educated in. If someone says they're bad at math, I usually ask them about the experiences that led them to that conclusion. Though sometimes people just say that so I'll shut up about math. If that's what they're doing (and if I can tell that that's what they're doing), I usually just shut up about math.
If you're interested in how mathematics education is failing our children, I cannot recommend Saymour Papert's Mindstorms enough. It's a fantastic read.
There's Ramanujan's biography that looks very interesting. And of course, the one about Nash (the one the movie A Beautiful Mind was inspired by): A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash.
I own a copy of both and I haven't read them cover to cover yet, but I found they have exactly what I'm looking for in this kind of biography: 1. they attempt as far as possible to describe the inner workings of these people's minds, not just the final output; 2. they devote some time to explain some of the trickiest concepts developed by them (and thus these are also good popular science/math books); 3. they have a good narrative/historical element, too, with interesting anecdotes and vignettes.
Part of me wants to be a teacher but this is why I'm not. The accusation is inevitable, regardless of your behavior. I know I wouldn't be able to handle that stress.
It also gives female students power over male teachers, as described in an episode in Schooled. The author also had a male student accuse him of violence in an attempt to manipulate him. He ended up only teaching one year : /
I really don't have a favorite. All language suck; it's just a question of finding the one whose suck is the least poorest fit for the problem you're trying to solve.
One reason I rather like meta-languages - that is, languages for constructing languages; Lisp being the canonical example - is that if you can close that disjoint gap significantly before you even start writing your solution, the rest of the exercise will go much quickly and smoothly. Of course, learning to write good DSLs is quite a curve in itself, not aided by the lack of shared expertise and prior art that comes from have a mass modern pop programming culture whose idea of improving efficiency is to bang the rocks together faster.
Right now I use Python to develop my own special-purpose kiwi automation language and toolset (my day job), and Swift for a novel new general-purpose scripting language and re-treaded macOS automation library I'm irregularly working on as personal side projects for now.
I'm using Python cos it already provides the libraries and dynamism I need for the former, Swift cos it's rapidly accummulating the audience size and long legs I want for the latter; i.e. pragmatic logistical choices. I'd love to have a big meaty project I could do all-declaratively (e.g. using ML/Haskell, or even something more exotic), my currently works won't quite fit that mould, but perhaps in future. At least kiwi's partly-declarative, which goes some way to helping me explore and learn how and where automating away repetitive scutwork can and should make the language's user's life easier and more productive (e.g. memory management in garbage-collected/ref-counted languages such as Swift, determining appropriate order in which to perform operations in non-sequential languages such as Haskell, describing highly specialized powerful operations in extremely concise simple code in custom DSLs build on metalanguages such as Lisp).
...
One link I think you'd like to check out:(from here) is one of Alan Kay's more recent explorations in how to make computing suck less not by increments but by magnitudes:
https://github.com/damelang/nile/wiki/socal.pdf
Its given title—"The Nile Programming Language: Declarative Stream Processing for Media Applications"—is perfectly appalling in its uselessness. (Alan may be a brilliant technical visionary, but his sales skills suck. And his visual design skills are even worse so you'll need a tissue to mop up your eyeballs after reading that PDF, but it is worth it.) The presentation really should've been called "How to Write a 10KLOC Program in 100 Lines Or Less!", because the project's true goal is to explore how to get a 10X reduction in code size and complexity just by using a meta-language to build a task-specific language and the writing your program in that. (The Gezira program example uses a task-specific language written in another task-specific [meta-]language written in the original meta-language to obtain a 10 10 = 100X reduction in total.)
Alan Kay is one of the most fascinating explorers in HCI to follow, and still alive and working too! (We're really running short now!) iI's a shame he hasn't tried harder to transform ideas and technology POCs into living Products and communicate successfully to everyone else just what these products really are and how each of us can make them work for us. (If you think Alan Kay's achievement is giving us OOP, you're probably the sort who thinks of Doug Engelbart as inventor of the mouse. None so blind as those who aren't paying attention.)
Plus my always-obligatory link to Papert's Mindstorms, which'll tell you what Logo was created to be (an open-ended, universally accessible platform for enhanced Computer-Aided Thought, and hand it to every person from 8 to 80 to self-build and grow her own perfectly tailored toolbox that serves her needs and fits her interests), as opposed to what Logo got sold as by the time entrenched interests, impermeable mindsets, and Chinese whispers reduced it down to by the time it got real-world deployment ("Good morning, class, today we will learn to write loops…").
...
My own language development work of the last decade convergently evolved quite accidentally to roughly where Papert was already at before I was even in diapers. Since then I've taking a lot* more interest in the non- and pre-C/Unix history of computing and discovering it's an absolute treasure trove of exciting, unorthodox, and yet almost entirely untapped ideas.
So I figure if all the big fat lazy pussycats of today's programming culture are all too incurious and complacent to pay it any heed, or even know it's there(!), than that's just more 100% free opportunities to collect every dusty genie lamp I can find and polish them up for my own personal profit and glory; and maybe put a few more noses out by empowering several billion other "ordinary pidgeons" just like me to get in on their cozy little "programming" hustle too... ;p
[Down in Bristol Bay: High Tides, Hangovers, and Harrowing Experiences on Alaska's Last Frontier] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P8JFP4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1)
[North of the Sun: A Memoir of the Alaskan Wilderness] (https://www.amazon.com/North-Sun-Memoir-Alaskan-Wilderness/dp/0806513179)
Here's a really good book about him.
Alan Watts' autobiography is In My Own Way. However, it is within The Joyous Cosmology that he details his psychedelic experiences(s), if I recall correctly.
Aldous Huxley details his psychedelic experience(s) in The Doors of Perception.
Edit: Timothy Leary's autobiography is Flashbacks.
My wife teaches that age range and loved this book: Teach Like Your Hair Is On Fire by Rafe Esquith.
Teaching is definitely fun, because you can see real results. A lot of my students last year could not correctly answer the "gotcha" style questions on the state standardized test, but every one, and I guarantee this, every one of them can tell you, given the choice of four poets, the correct writer of any poem by Dickinson, Frost, Whitman, or Shakespeare - based on the style alone. For final projects, we did things like "rewrite a Frost poem in the style of Whitman." Is it on the state test? No. But the unit covered a lot of things that were, and most importantly, it got them excited about learning and literature. In the middle grades, I think drilling the test questions just fosters a sense of apathy. ("Staying low on Bloom's" as you might call it in your classes!)
I think the most jarring aspect of education is realizing that you cannot ever be the teacher you envisioned when you were in high-school or college. Everything I had planned to do as a "pre-teacher" would eventually (1) hurt my classroom management, (2) cater towards only one or two learning styles, or (3) end up being more "fun" than educational. It sucks, but in order to be a truly effective teacher, you have to look at what have been empirically proven to be good teaching techniques, even if they're something you hated doing as a student. You have to make new role models for yourself, like this guy, or this guy, and practice what they teach - even if it means working as many hours as they do (over 60).
If you are interested in educational policy, you should definitely give this book a gander. It basically takes every educational debate in the country, explains both sides, and gives examples of laws/precedents/statistics to support each side. Great stuff. In order to get my master's degree, I had to write an actual district/state/federal law and try to get it on the ballot. I used that book to make sure my case was air-tight!
Keep up the good work, the enthusiasm you're showing now is what makes great teachers. Many teachers get into the job because their parents did it, or because they thought education would be an easier major than math. Idealism leads to innovation.
Anatomy of a thread:
1. Karlibear points out the dangers of taking drugs from strangers, and says a non-expert could take a poisonous mushroom by mistake. This is true. Being someone who has studied mushrooms enough to know, I can identify the more desirable forms of psilocin-containing mushrooms, usually through bruising or spore prints. There are also mushrooms containing muscimol, and some of these can be poisonous, but some of them also contain atropine, a deliriant chemical that is also the antidote for muscarine, a dangerous poison. In Siberia there are native people who consume mushrooms containing muscimol for their psychedelic effects.
2. 853 makes the broad and stupid generalization that "people" don't ever take the wrong mushrooms, especially not the sterling intellectuals in colleges getting a high quality education.
Of course no one ever eats poison mushrooms. Right? It never ever ever happens.
3. nnnslogan says he remembers that the first unfortunate death among the hippies in the 60s, as reported in Timothy Leary's biography "Flashbacks" was from mushrooms that either had been poisoned or were poisonous mushrooms, which had been packed into pills (gel caps) for ingestion as a psychedelic. Again, it's been a long time since I read the book, and I don't have it any more, so I can't quote the exact passage, the name of the man, or even the exact year it happened. It could have been 1969 or 1972. Until I come across a copy of the book again, I can't tell you that, but it was the accidental ingestion of poison while trying to take a psychedelic mushroom. This is based on memory, which I have already pointed out.
4. 853 shows that he's not only an anonymous coward, but also a prick by insinuating that I'm making the story up by pointing out what he sees as an inconsistency in that I said the man was trying to ingest psychedelics and ended up poisoned trying to take mushrooms. "Then you changed your mind." Nope. I didn't change my mind. I must not have been clear enough in my statement.
5. I tried to clarify what I said, and mentioned the fact that it's been a while since I read the book. It's called Flashbacks by Timothy Leary so if you want to prove I have a bad memory when it comes to the details of the story, go buy it and then be a dick about it some more if I'm wrong, or eat your words if I'm right.
6. 853 shows how stupid he is by revealing that he's unaware of the fact that people have packed the plant material from psychedelic mushrooms into gel caps before. There are a variety of ways to ingest them. Some types are more foul tasting than others. Some people even eat them in peanut butter sandwiches.
Then you accuse me of changing the "typical college liberal" meme (you added the word typical, something that completely disagrees with the photograph used to represent the stereotype) to mean "I'll pop whatever pill is available." Then you say the "person" the meme depicts "does not do that." Unless you're talking about the person in the photograph who is used to represent the stereotype, you can't really say that because a meme is not a person. I don't know if you have such a solid concept in your mind of what every single person in a group that represents a stereotype is capable of, but let me assure you that some college students, whether liberal or conservative, do pop pills. How do I know? Because I've known plenty of college students who did.
Then you suggest that I'm "grasping at straws" and "embarrassing" myself. I don't feel particularly embarrassed. Sorry if you think your magical or psychic powers are so great that you think you know how I feel or what I think, but they're clearly not working. Maybe you need to cut down on the random pills you take from strangers.
7. I suggest that you're obviously stupid because you make broad generalizations, believe in fictional characters created for the purpose of memes, and can't follow what I'm telling you in clear English.
It's a shame about your brain. I suggest a little self-love.
8. You say "try to follow along" and then make up a magical fairy tale wherein you actually understood this thread instead of drooling over your keyboard and banging your head into the screen mindlessly. Then you suggest that I've been crying or that my butt is red and hurt. My ass is fine, no thanks to your bizarre sexual proclivities, and my eyes are dry and tired from a long day of Christmas doing my duties as a husband and father. I'm sure you're not familiar with these things being that you're probably just some kid experimenting with drugs and seriously overvaluing his own knowledge, which is probably only based on other people's research and all comes from the internet. Pick up a fucking book every once in a while. You might learn something.
Initially I'd avoid books on areas of science that might challenge her (religious) beliefs. You friend is open to considering a new view point. Which is awesome but can be very difficult. So don't push it. Start slowly with less controversial topics. To be clear, I'm saying avoid books that touch on evolution! Other controversial topics might include vaccinations, dinosaurs, the big bang, climate change, etc. Picking a neutral topic will help her acclimate to science. Pick a book related to something that she is interested in.
I'd also start with a book that the tells a story centred around a science, instead of simply trying to explain that science. In telling the story their authors usually explain the science. (Biographies about interesting scientist are a good choice too). The idea is that if she enjoys reading the book, then chances are she will be more likely to accept the science behind it.
Here are some recommendations:
The Wave by Susan Casey: http://www.amazon.com/The-Wave-Pursuit-Rogues-Freaks/dp/0767928857
Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh: http://www.amazon.com/Fermats-Enigma-Greatest-Mathematical-Problem/dp/0385493622
The Man who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman: http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Loved-Only-Numbers/dp/0786884061/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1405720480&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=paul+erdos
I also recommend going to a book store with her, and peruse the science section. Pick out a book together. Get a copy for yourself and make it a small book club. Give her someone to discusses the book with.
After a few books, if she's still interested then you can try pushing her boundaries with something more controversial or something more technical.
My Story of Transportation
The Freedom Writers Diary
http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Writers-Diary-Teacher-Themselves/dp/038549422X
I haven't seen listed yet:
also upvote:
These are quite a few, but I need...
[Will pay using Amazon e-gift card!]
> Until you have something you want to put on the website so you can show it to the world, what do you want with a website?
I won't go so far as to say that this is how Scratch is usually used in the classroom or whatever, but if you look into the literature behind the creation of Logo (the ancestor of Scratch) you can see that this was absolutely the guiding principle behind its design. The turtle (sprite) is thought of as an "object to think with", and you use it to try to follow your curiosity, answering questions you might have about how (say) gravity works, or the relationship between different parts of a system of gears.
Using Scratch would be a lot more effective if people go back to the original rationale behind why it was created in the first place: https://www.amazon.com/Mindstorms-Children-Computers-Powerful-Ideas/dp/0465046746
http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-Who-Knew-Infinity/dp/0671750615
Excellent biography of S.Ramanujan
He wrote an autobiography
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Loved-Only-Numbers/dp/0786884061
Follow your passion. This is a field that is full of people that just figured it out.
Computer science is a big field. Math does not overlap with much of it. You can fail out of college math and still be amazing at programming. We like to think they are closely linked. Being good with logic is the important requirement.
There are some very common patterns in programming that have very little to do with math. Get input from user, save data, query data, present data to user, send/receive data to some other system. I won't say that math will not help you, but it is not required to do any of that.
Your failure at math may not be your entirely your fault. To fix your math problem, you need to start over. Fix your issues with early math (That you may not realize that you have) and the later stuff gets easier. https://www.khanacademy.org/ This book by the same person explains what I am talking about: [One World Schoolhouse] http://www.amazon.com/One-World-Schoolhouse-Education-Reimagined/dp/1455508373/ref=la_B00DIE8GXS_1_1_twi_pap_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1457283970&amp;sr=1-1
He was also one of the most productive mathematicians of all time. He would just visit you, without prior notice, with his trunk that held all of his wordly possessions, and work with you until you couldnt work anymore. Then, after you got 4 hours of sleep, he would just make noise in the kitchen so you got up again, and continued working with you. People publicising with Erdös directly now have the Erdös number 1. If you work with somebody who worked with Erdös you have the Erdös number 2, etc. This guy is a legend.
Source: this biography
the stories are also available in kindle format
Freaks, Geeks and Aspergers Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1843100983/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_hV8JzbQ685CQB
Be aware it's written for early teenagers, though!
Whenever this topic comes up, I recommend reading the one world schoolhouse. It tells the story behind khanacademy.org and in the process it talks about how poor of a job the current education system does teaching math. It highlights the problems created by it.
It really pissed me off reading it because I fell into every one of the traps created by the system just as you have too. I felt robbed by my own education.
The good news is that it's not too late for you to correct your problems and make math easy again. You just have to start over at the beginning.
Read his autobiography, "Flashbacks". It's all in there.
https://www.amazon.com/Flashbacks-Timothy-Leary/dp/0874778700
Read this
I think this is an older version, but Pre-Referral Intervention Guide. They made us get that book for my internship, but it has helped me incredibly as a classroom teacher with interventions for TIPS/RtI.
Also, Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire gave me the idea for my classroom economy which was incredibly successful my first year and super inspirational.
Finally, I just started reading Ron Clark's books, and I wish I had read them before. They're super motivational/inspirational. The Essential 55 and The End of Molasses Classes.
Protip: I know I looked these up on Amazon, but check out Better World Books for cheap, good quality (for the most part) books with mostly free shipping...and the company donates a book for each book you purchase! :)
I remember reading this when I was a lot younger. I still find it to be incredibly useful.
For light, math-related reading I've always enjoyed semi-biographical books about mathematicians, because these books usually include a summary of their mathematical contributions without getting too technical or dry. And they always get me pumped to do more math. Here's books I'd recommend in that vein:
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers An Autobiography of Paul Erdos. This one's a really great read with lots of Number Theory and Graph Theory in it. Not to mention a heartwarming bio of Erdos. If you haven't read this yet, give it a go.
The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved - A book about the history of Group Theory and how Galois was able to prove the Abel-Ruffini Theorem. At times it's a little simple, but it's fun to read, and it gives some insight into elementary group theory.
Of Men and Mathematics - not too much actual math in this one, but it's a very solid cheap, quick read. Well worth the money/time.
What part of science? Scientists, like a biography? Scientific theories (natural philosophy), starting with the Greeks? Scientific philosophy?
Sir Roger Penrose in his book "The Emperor's New Mind" goes over the (relevant) discoveries/theories of science in a chronological order and uses them to argue that consciousness isn't something you can code into a machine. He touches on a lot of subjects and it may seem really dry if you're not passionate about science, but IMO it's very interesting read, despite him not having a very convincing argument, mostly because we don't know enough about the human mind yet.
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers is a biography of Paul Erdos. I like the book because it describes Erdos as a person who has an exceptionally passionate work ethic and I admire mathematicians.
I think you'll have a hard time finding what you're looking for because of the lack of specifics in your question. You might want to narrow it down to, whether you're interested in biology, chem, psychology or physics or something else like archaeology or biographies. Otherwise you won't find a great depth, because each field has become massive in terms of literature, and each are filled with bewildering questions that can kickstart a philosophical discussion.
Good luck with your search though!
Take a read of "The One World Schoolhouse" by Sal Khan (of Khan Academy). You can get it for less than $1 on Amazon (used).
He goes over why our school systems are they way they are, how to better optimize them, and more. Really fantastic book and a pretty quick read.
I highly recommend "Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire" for your reading pleasure!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143112864
I have a copy of the book [The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth] (http://amzn.com/0786884061) (Amazon) by Paul Hoffman. It is a great read if you like that sort of thing.
Erdos seems to be unique in his ability to ingest copious quanties of stimulants and improve his life.
I hope that you are not too affected by the disruptions and violence in the Middle East. I really hope for peace.
I would love to visit Israel one day...
Funny thing about Erdos... I read The Man Who Loved Only Numbers. Although the book never mentions him being diagnosed as such, he's got some signs of being OCD.
Fr'instance, apparently he'd splash so much water around bathrooms trying to get his hands clean it would ruin the linoleum. Also the book mentions a childhood illness which seems to happen to OCD children too iifc.
Anyway, it left me thinking Erdos insane passion for numbers might've been a symptom of obsessive compulsive disorder. ( I wonder this about Isaac Newton too actually).
I know it's always "don't argue on the internet" but this joke is horrible. It captures the intellectual laziness that arises from most testing, but does so at cost of ignoring how flagrantly inhumane they are to begin with.
Nobody is "good" at test taking. Filling in bubbles on staged, artificial questions with dubious motivation is an artifice so far away from anything you can reasonably be good at it's a joke to even relate the terms. You can be not bad at it—it's not hard—or you could decide that if that's the reason why you're here, spending all day locked in a thrill-less environment then you'd rather just opt out.
People who are good at tests are ones who have become addicted to the validation it brings in one way or another. This addiction is a poison as while validation from authorities is tremendously useful in society, it's also increasingly a farce as you become more and more of an authority yourself. This happens naturally, by aging or becoming more skillful or networked, so if you do not kick that poison at some point then you will find yourself seeking validation from those who have not the time or energy or skill to determine whether what you're doing deserves validation at all.
Tosh clearly knows what many high school students learn—taking tests and doing well enough on them can be a minimal involvement exercise that frees you up to do more interesting things in life. It's like paying taxes. Nobody is good at paying taxes except for accountants, but we all realize that if we just do it then we can go back to living in what is morally a tax-free world.
If you don't discover that kind of motivation, though, or can't quite pick up the addiction to external validation, then the way that schools tie merit, accomplishment, and power to this whole noxious affair will kill your spirit, heart, and mind.
Read A Mathematician's Lament which discusses the terrible state of affairs around math education—a thing that leads one of the most beautiful endeavors of humankind anemic, hidden, and feared by the majority of "educated" society.
Or if you're looking for optimism, read Mindstorms to see how teaching children to play, create, struggle with real problems and then inherit the tools and technology of their ancestors to grow, and fly, reverses some of that effect. The author of that book was able to convince children who hated mathematics that it was lovely, fun, and something they were quite talented at in just a few months.
The movie Idiocracy suggested that we were evolving towards stupidity because of reproductive pressure favoring people who foolishly have more children. Instead, I think we're already here due to an educational system which actively destroys the minds of our children before they even have a chance to use them.
</rant>