Reddit mentions: The best educator biographies

>What sort of pitfalls are there to self-publishing a book like this? Just out of curiosity, can you briefly describe the process?

Step one was getting the book written, which can be daunting in and of itself. I had the support and encouragement of my wife, and Reddit had told me in no uncertain terms that if I wrote the book, I had an audience for it.

Once I got my momentum going, story after story poured out of my head. It allowed me to sort some memories and unresolved feelings, I think.

I then took my first draft and gave it to a couple of trusted people and had them tear into it. Based on their suggestions, I made the first round of corrections.

Once the 'early draft' was written, I had to get it professionally edited. While my prose isn't the worst, there are a lot of little errors that one can make that readers might find distracting, so any author would do well to have his work at least copy edited, and ideally edited for content and flow as well.

I paid ~ $600 - $700 for comprehensive editing from an experienced editor. He wrote pages of notes for me, not just about typographical errors and the like, but about style and distracting habits and practices that would make me less attractive to readers or publishers. The fee was steep, but I consider it tuition, as I gained skills that will serve me well in the future.

So after waiting and chewing on my nails for a few weeks, I got back a marked up manuscript and pages of notes. I then had to do a re-write of the book, going through page by page and revising meticulously.

Once I had my final copy, I spent a few days trying to figure out how to format it for Kindle on my own until I ran across an awesome service called LiberWriter that does a fantastic job for $25 if you have an uncomplicated manuscript. If you have a bunch of figures or other stuff, you may want to look at something else, but LiberWriter worked great for me.

Then I had to get cover art. Some folks pay for cover art, but I'm not terrible at image editing, so I made my own cover art and showed draft after draft after draft to friends and my wife until I hit on one that 'popped' and looked professional.

Once that was done, I had to decide what I was going to do in terms of publishing.

There are a lot of options. You can try to send it to publishing houses (waiting weeks or months for a response from each one). I knew I had some people expecting a book from me on Reddit, and I didn't want to wait disappoint them. I also figured the book would be more expensive for readers if I went through a publishing house, and I'd like to keep it as affordable as possible as I imagined many of my readers might be college students thinking about teaching themselves.

So self-publishing it was. For the e-book, I decided to go exclusive with Amazon.com, because people with Amazon Prime accounts can 'borrow' your book from the Kindle Owner's Lending Library for free (and you still get paid!) if you go exclusive. I liked the idea of people getting my book for free while I still got paid. Win-win.

Next was pricing. Amazon has two royalty options: 35% and 70%.

70% is only available if you sell your book for $2.99 or more.

If you sell for $0.99 it's 35% royalty.

Which means I had a choice between making $2.00 per sale (but possibly making less sales) and making $0.35 per sale.

I'd need to sell ~ 7x as many books at 0.99 cents to make the same money, so I figured the $2.99 price point was my best option. I was hoping to at least recoup the editing fee.

I also set up a print on demand system through CreateSpace, which is owned by Amazon. This allowed me to offer print books for people who didn't want the e-book version, and it cost me nothing to do this. Because of the cost of printing the physical books, the paperback costs $8.50 + shipping. I get about $2.00 from the sale of each paperback.

After that came the question of how to market the book. The problem is, after you've put in all of this work writing, editing, proofreading, designing a cover, building an e-book.... your book exists in a vacuum. Not a single soul knows about it or the fact that you wrote it.

So I set up a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and a website.

I also set up accounts on Shelfari and Goodreads.

I spent many hours tweaking the product page.

The domain name, wordpress.org software, etc. altogether ran me about $50.

So at that point I was trying to maintain a Twitter account (build followers), a Facebook page, and an education blog. While working on a PhD.

To build followers for the Facebook page, I made a Facebook ad, and that helped me accumulate some followers (~200) and build some buzz on Facebook.

I also paid for Reddit self-serve advertising (not a single sale from that as far as I could tell), Goodreads self-serve advertising (it was glitching when I tried to do it, and they ended up refunding my money), Google AdWords advertising (spent several hours on the phone setting that up to make sure I got all my keywords right, yielded ~ 0 sales), and probably some I can't remember.

In total, my investment in the book was now ~ $650 editing, ~ $250 marketing, ~ $100 miscellaneous (LiberWriter, shipping physical copies of the book to potential reviewers, etc.).

I knew from my /r/bestof'd post that there were thousands of people out there who enjoyed my writing, but now the trick was how to let them know that I had actually written the book. And how to do this without being a commercial hack about it?

I've got to admit, I agonized over this one. Reddit was the community that gave me the strength to finally write the book. I did not want to be disrespectful of what they'd done for me, and I didn't want to be 'that guy' just trying to make a buck off of Reddit.

So I tried to create original content, submitting some of my blog posts here and there to /r/blogs, and I tried to get Reddit involved in the process of working on the book with me so there would be buy in (Reddit actually helped me title the book). I really wanted the community to be as involved and excited as I was.

When it came time for the big launch, I did an AMAA in the /r/IAmA subreddit. It was good, but it didn't get huge or anything.

The book was released in April. It sold 49 e-books and ~ 25 physical copies.

In May, it sold 20 ebooks and 1 physical copy.

In June, it sold 51 ebooks and 13 physical copies (I had a post get /r/bestof'd, and I think that drove some sales).

I made $2.00 per sale, so that's 159 books sold + ~ 20 books borrowed for ~ $338 total in three months. (Which means I'm still $562 in the hole for those doing the math at home).

And realistically it was trending down as the Reddit buzz faded. I couldn't justify investing more in advertising, because I was seeing minimal return on my investment. Almost all sales were coming from Reddit.

As an author, it's a little depressing when only 159 people have read your book after three months. Getting the message out was more important to me than making a bunch of money, so, I set up a Free Weekend promotion with Amazon (this is straightforward to do through the Amazon interface).

I announced it on as many subs as I felt I could do so appropriately. Almost all of the subs were /r/shamelessplug or free book related subs where I felt I wouldn't be seen as abusing Reddit's good nature. Check my submission (not comment) history to see my marketing blitz.

And I set up this AMA (in /r/AMA, since I’ve already done one in /r/IAmA) to try to get as many people to download as I could. Told folks to spread the word so people could get it while it was free.

...I gave away 7,700 free e-books this past weekend.

Schooled hit #1 on Professional/Academic Biographies, and made it to the Top 50 of Free Nonfiction books in the Kindle store. It hit something like #178 in the whole Kindle e-book store. (Making it high in the lists is a good thing, because it makes Amazon suggest your book to people more often, and makes you more visible).

I decided that I like people reading my book, and since it wasn't moving at the $2.99 price, I'd set the price to $0.99.

As of right now, 54 units have been sold at the $0.99 price since it went there today. Most of that is probably still momentum from the free promotion.

Right now, it's at #3,044 Paid in the Kindle store..

Lessons learned:

• Writing is hard work.
  
  
• If making money is your goal, be cautious. You’ll have to persevere and work hard for a long time to turn a profit.
  
  
• I've no regrets, and I've had a blast. It's been an exciting ride, and I'd call the project a success with nearly 8,000 readers and climbing.
  

> to really mean just most popular college football team.

No, I took it to mean total number of active fans of any sport, which is thoroughly dominated by football and men's basketball. But I certainly also count fans of the men's tennis teams, all 200 of them.

> VT used to be just a mid-size school of average-to-good academic stature like JMU, Radford, VCU, or ODU today. Like many other higher ed leaders and boards, they started putting money into the football program in the 80's which increased applications and enrollment. With the increased enrollment they were able to grow the school and be more selective in admissions.

I am surprise you managed to be 100% incorrect for this paragraph, though I applaud your success in getting a perfect 100%.

VT history is something of a hobby of mine. I'd say it never resembled JMU or Radford or VCU. Historically it was a senior military college which was overwhelmingly undergraduate focused and primarily concerned with STEM and agriculture. API (now Auburn) has the most similar origin, not a SMC but has a strong ROTC. VT changed in the late 1960s under the plans of T. Marshall Hahn who sought to become a comprehensive university with extensive graduate programs and multiple campuses with a flagship in Blacksburg. He intended to merge with the existing Virginia State University (Petersburg) and take the name, a move which was blocked in the General Assembly. Nevertheless, the school added numerous colleges, liberal arts, social sciences, a vet school. It also greatly expanded the graduate school, and enrollment in the corps of cadets fell drastically as a proportion. It then began to focus on sponsored research, becoming an R1 in the late 80s - that was all decades before any serious football success, which started in 1993. There's actually a fascinating book on this entire transition.

Aside from some major research institutes, the medical school in Roanoke is the only major addition to VT since Beamer's early successes, and I would argue the school is simply larger version of what existed in 1985. In fact, it has been the largest research university in the state for decades, and that income ($500m per year) dwarfs the income generated by football.

I have no idea where this nonsensical rumor that football made the university more selective or improved its academic rank came from. I love VT football, but we've been about as selective and about the same rank since I was in middle-school in the 1990s. I remember buying printed copies of the old US News rankings guide from the bookstore every year, and VT has always been about 15th in engineering, about 25-30 among public national universities. The overall rank fell from mid-60s to mid-70s due to US News' decision to move some high performing master's colleges from the regional to national rankings (e.g. Villanova was #1 NE region for a decade, now ~50s national).

If anything, I'd argue VT's research institute infrastructure has done more to change the nature of VT, which for the last 30 years (well before football success) has been a large R1 research university. JMU and Radford are undergraduate focused masters-colleges, VCU is an amalgam of an undergrad career institute and a fantastic medical school, which today is also an R1 but of a very different character. ODU is an R2 which historically was a satellite campus of W&M.

> Yes, VT football is more popular than UVA football, as it should be with all the money and support VT gives to it.

Actually not true, UVA has spent more on football over the last decade, including paying more for their coaches and assistant coaches. They also have a larger athletic budget. If this year is any indication, that may be paying off.

> But if you stop disregarding the bigger picture of their athletic programs, then UVA is more popular to the average sports fan.

Maybe, but I'd still be surprised if that were true given the substantially larger living alumni base and the popularity of football compared to non-revenue sports like lacrosse, volleyball and wrestling. UVA has probably closed the gap though given their incredible basketball success.

You said earlier, UVA students don't care as much because they're so much more engrossed in academics. I don't entirely buy this, but if true, then where are all these fans coming from? Are they just bandwagon fans in rural VA who really love the UVA men's soccer and golf teams???

> Like I said earlier, I don't have a dog in the VT/UVA fight. I went to art school.

Ironically, I am affiliated closely with both schools and currently work for UVA (went to VT obviously, hence the username). I'm well aware of how fantastic UVA is as a university and its history; we spent 80% of the faculty orientation discussing it.

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

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

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.

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! :)

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 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>

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&ie=UTF8&qid=1405720480&sr=1-1&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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

Does he like reading? If he does, buy him these books:

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character

What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character

The man who loved only numbers

Those are amusing biographies of two scientists, Richard Feynman and Paul Erdos.

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!

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?

The licensure program. The four+ years of training and grunt work we must go through in order to get a teaching license and be allowed to teach in the greater united states. I'm not sure how the license program works anywhere else.

And as far as the other statement, I'm honestly not sure. I could quote Payne and say that "discussion of academic topics (among those in poverty) is generally not prized. There is little room for the abstract. Discussions center around people and relationships. A job is about making enough money to survive. A job is not about a career", but that's not direct evidence. However, this link popped up on reddit a few days ago that had an excellent quote that works here: "There was just one problem: If Neal took the book to the checkout counter, he was sure that the girls who worked on the counter would tell his friends. "Then my reputation would be down, because I was reading books," Neal said. "And I wanted them to know that all I could do was fight and cuss.""

I really like that story because it shows how one good teacher/librarian was able to reach a student stuck in that rut of wanting to learn but not wanting to look like they wanted to learn. In a country where only 39% of blacks graduate high school, it's nice to know that there are ways to reach them.

If you're interested in a first had account of a teacher's experience with poverty level students, I also suggest Educating Esme.

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...

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.

These are quite a few, but I need...

1. The Norton Reader with 2016 MLA Update (Shorter Fourteenth Edition) - https://www.amazon.com/Norton-Reader-Update-Shorter-Fourteenth/dp/0393617416/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Melissa+A.+Goldthwaite+The+Shorter+Norton+Reader+%2814th+edition%29&qid=1566982292&s=gateway&sr=8-1
   
2. The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream - https://www.amazon.com/Pact-Three-Young-Promise-Fulfill/dp/157322989X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=1.+The+Pact%3A+Three+Young+Men+Make+a+Promise+and+Fulfill+a+Dream&qid=1567480556&s=books&sr=1-1
   
3. A Place to Stand: The Making of a Poet - https://www.amazon.com/Place-Stand-Jimmy-Santiago-Baca/dp/0802139086/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1567480526&sr=1-1
   
4. The Freedom Writers Diary (20th Anniversary Edition): How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them - https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Writers-Diary-Teacher-Themselves/dp/038549422X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+freedom+writers+diary&qid=1567480237&s=gateway&sr=8-1
   
   [Will pay using Amazon e-gift card!]

Unfortunately, even today, it very much depends upon the school, so my advice for her would be to wait and feel out what this school is like. I also don't know what the laws are around sexual orientation and employment in England (especially if the employer is a religious organization), but recommend that she check them out.

If she determines that her job wouldn't be at risk if she were out at school, it's still totally her decision. One factor to put on the side of coming out is that there are pretty much guaranteed to be LGBTQ students at her school, and many of them probably feel very alone. An openly lesbian teacher could be a role model that gives them hope for their futures, and she might be someone they could turn to for support and advice. By being out, she could also help kids who aren't gay gain an understanding that gay/lesbian people are still people.

Even if she doesn't come out, I encourage her (and all teachers, gay or straight) to explicitly require tolerance in their classrooms, mention important LGBT historical figures, crack down on "gay" as an insult, etc.

*Stealth edit: Oh, I recommend One Teacher in Ten, a 1994 collection of essays from LGBT teachers, or the 2005 second edition of new essays. They are incredibly moving.

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'.

1. Fumbling the Future -- How Xerox Invented, then Ignored, the First Personal Computer. I was there for part of it (late 70's) and this book pretty much gets it right.
   
   
2. The Man Who Loved Only Numbers. It's about the mathematician Paul Erdos and is one of the more amazing true stories I've ever read.
   
   
3. For extra credit, try the book The Man Who Knew Infinity. There's a recent movie based on the book (I haven't seen it yet); it's gotten a mix of very-good-to-meh reviews.

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.

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.

> 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

The standardized (American) school system was designed by something called the Committee of Ten, in the year 1892. They were a working group of educators led by the president of Harvard University, Charles William Eliot. Their goal was to provide an outline for curricular learning for subjects like mathematics, the sciences, English, Latin, Greek; and other more modern languages. They were the ones who designed the 8 years of elementary school and 4 years of high school.

The original school system was designed in Prussia during the 18th century. They were the first to provide a tax-funded, 8 year education to their citizens. They taught the basics, math, reading, and writing; along with strict lessons on ethics, discipline, and obedience. The goal to see who would be smart enough to continue their education and go to universities, and who would become the lower, working class. This foundation spread quickly across Europe, especially after the French Revolution.

I recommend Salman Khan's (Khan Academy) book, The One World Schoolhouse. It's a lot about what he wants to do to change education for the 21st century, but provides a better description of what I tried to explain. http://www.amazon.com/The-One-World-Schoolhouse-Reimagined/dp/1455508381

Edit: added the word 'year'
Edit 2: made a sentence more clear regarding the languages

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.

1. The man who loved only numbers (just generally a good read):
   
   http://www.amazon.com/MAN-WHO-LOVED-ONLY-NUMBERS/dp/0786884061
   
   
2. Four colors suffice (really good if you like graph theory):
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Four-Colors-Suffice-Problem-Solved/dp/0691115338
   
   

One person that believes passionately about a particular idea in order to help out a group of people.

If you want a good read on what it's like to start a nonprofit, read 'One Day, All Children' by Wendy Kopp who started Teach For America. It basically answers all your questions, and then some (What it's like to try and secure major donors, keep staff, etc). Short, but interesting read.

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.

My Freshman Year by Rebekah Nathan is a great text for students to get a feel for what an ethnographic study would be like. Since many have college on their minds at this point, it will also serve to give them a great inside look at what to expect.

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.

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.

If you could be more specific as to specifically what issues interest you most, that would be helpful.

But something I'm fairly passionate about is K-12 education. I would look into Sir Ken Robinson and look into the KIPP school programs. The creators of KIPP also wrote a book, Work hard. Be Nice.

Submission statement:

Adam Carolla interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson. Tyson is promoting, Letters from an Astrophysicist, but they still make time for race cars.

P.S.: This is a great interview too.

Anyone read Chocky?

I really enjoyed The Midwich Cuckoos.

I couldn't really get into The Day of the Triffids.

ETA: Saw DuMaurier's short story collection there. Her "weirdest" novel is The House on the Strand which is ostensibly about time travel but is much more satisfying than most sci fi that tackles that subject.

I highly recommend "Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire" for your reading pleasure!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143112864

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.

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers is all about Mr. Erdos' life. A great read, IMO, and I'm not super strong in math!

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.

My wife teaches that age range and loved this book: Teach Like Your Hair Is On Fire by Rafe Esquith.

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.

I'd recommend reading two books:

• Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas
  
• Changing Minds

The Freedom Writers Diary

http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Writers-Diary-Teacher-Themselves/dp/038549422X

Amphetamine. Not methamphetamine.

Source: The Man who loved only numbers

I haven't seen listed yet:

• The Ethics of What We Eat
  
• The Man Who Loved Only Numbers
  
• Metamagical Themas
  
  also upvote:
  
  
• Gödel, Escher, Bach
  
• Freakonomics
  

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:

• The Asperkid's (Secret) Book of Social Rules: The Handbook of Not-So-Obvious Social Guidelines for Tweens and Teens with Asperger Syndrome
  
• Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence

http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-Who-Knew-Infinity/dp/0671750615

Excellent biography of S.Ramanujan

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

I remember reading this when I was a lot younger. I still find it to be incredibly useful.

Here's a really good book about him.

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.

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.

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

A very accurate account of Ramanujan's life

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Loved-Only-Numbers/dp/0786884061

• The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel
  
• Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning by A. D. Aleksandrov et al.
  
• Visual Complex Analysis by Tristan Needham
  
• Geometry and the Imagination by David Hilbert and Stephan Cohn-Vossen
  

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 don't have a great book yet, but the book that got me back into mathematics was actually a biography of Erdős.

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!

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.

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.

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 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.