teaching 5

Our brains remember some things better. Explaining that way makes it stick. Here are the eight things, most important first, that help you: Structure explanations memorably: Face. You remember faces before facts. So cast characters: “Imagine you’re a courier carrying a packet.” Prefer archetypes to real names — less baggage, more imagination. Place. You’re reading down a list now — and the top feels more important. That’s spatial wiring. Turn any concept into a map. Use higher, deeper, nearer, inside, … Tale. You read #1 and #2 first because they came first. Your brain built a cause from that sequence. Time creates cause for free. “Because” makes anything believable. Scale. “Two feet tall” lands instantly. “60 cm” forces you to convert. Your brain doesn’t measure — it compares. Give it reference objects, not just numbers. Deliver explanations memorably: ...

Jaidev’s The Bridge of Asses reminded me of my first coding bridge. It was 1986. I’d completed class 6 and was in a summer coding camp at school. M Kothandaraman (“MK Sir”) was teaching us how to swap variables in BASIC on the BBC Micro. This code prints the first name in alphabetical order (“Alice”): 10 A = "Bob" 20 B = "Alice" 30 IF A > B THEN 40 TEMP = A 50 A = B 60 B = TEMP 70 END 80 PRINT A The homework was to print all details of the first alphabetical name: ...

If students can use ChatGPT for their work, why not teachers? For curriculum development, this is an easy choice. But for evaluation, it needs more thought. Gaining acceptance among students matters. Soon, LLM evaluation will be a norm. But until then, you need to spin this right. How to evaluate? That needs to be VERY clear. Humans can wing it, have implicit criteria, and change approach mid-way. LLMs can’t (quite). Hacking LLMs is a risk. Students will hack. In a few years, LLMs will be smarter. Until then, you need to safeguard them. This article is about my experience with the above, especially the last. ...

In 2021, I made 3 resolutions. Lose 10 kgs. I lost 5 kg in 3 months. But gained it back by the year-end. Fail big. I practiced confronting people – and failed. I still run from fights. Even when important. Calendar integrity. I stuck to my calendar 90% of the time. But personal commitments slipped. On learning, I discovered network clusters. My PyCon talk on movie networks is the start of a fascinating exploration of actors that I’ll write more about. ...

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Miss Wormwood. Comments Suraj 13 Feb 2016 4:34 am: I pity his babysitter Rosalyn more!