Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Michael Pershan

@mpershan.bsky.social

1.3K followers 270 following 1.2K posts

math teacher, writer teaching blog: pershmail.substack.com reading/writing blog: michaelpershan.substack.com website with links to publications etc: michaelpershan.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · Aug 11

Hey check this out!!

HAD @havehashad.com · Aug 11

haven't read a story-within-the-story before quite like today's from Michael Pershan. really love this one!!

"She said at sleepover parties they play this game. Each person says a sentence and together they make up a story. I said, you start..."

https://www.havehashad.com/81ev5

The Gorgeous Fly by Michael Pershan

When she was eight my daughter biked past a five-foot tall shrub without looking and was hit by a car coming out of the alley. Thank goodness she was fine, though she’d broken her leg in several…

www.havehashad.com

2 6 15

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 6h

I should read this...

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 7h

The folks at Math Medic (whose resources I use and enjoy) describe a limit in calculus as a "prediction." I really like this language and find it useful for kids. How common is this way of talking about limits? Does everybody do this?

2 7

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 8h

New issue of Southwest Review is really cool, this story in particular is really cool -- interesting and human and scary. southwestreview.com/volume-110-n...

Adrián

By Juan Valencia

southwestreview.com

1 1

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 8h

The way the war stuff grinds on and fills the story with all these nitty gritty details that are interrupted by moments of deep spirituality reminds me of that other big book by Hermy Melv.

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 8h

War & Peace is a slower burn than Anna K. for me so far but right at the start of Vol. 2 there are a pair of deliciously melodramatic and totally unrealistic moments that took my breath away.

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

English --> math --> English is a fun little language machine. The term journies through mathematics then returns home to English as before but subtly changed.

1 1

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

Was just telling a calc student that "inflection point" is a normal english word, then this piece starts with that in the first line.

Yair Rosenberg @yair-rosenberg.bsky.social · 3d

My latest on what is really happening with the Gaza negotiations and what it will take for them to succeed (gift link): www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

1 1

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

@ijkijkevin.bsky.social Found another mathematician/writer! whistlingshade.com/0902/reed.html

"Whistling Shade Winter 2010" Whistling Shade

whistlingshade.com

1 2

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

Come to think of it in 400+ pages of a novel about a multi-generational family I don't think anyone has died yet. Like come on Chaim Grade, kill someone already.

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

He he has an endless cast of characters and when it feels like he's at a point where someone simply HAS to change, like we're out of possibilities, he just shifts to someone else from this sprawling world and mines that for a few chapters. Though at this point that feels played out also.

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

In Chaim Atlas/The Yeshiva the story is about conflicting ideologies. There are conflicting ideologies here but they don't develop. Everyone here starts miserable and stays miserable. There is one emotion and everyone has it. This is not exactly a recommendation but it is impressive.

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

Though, notice the complete lack of national security or economic competitiveness in anything Thorndike says here. Instead it's about keeping school pleasant and "spending our resources to keep in school boys of 16, 17 and 18 who would be happier and more useful at work or play."

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

Interesting, so I guess then concern about gifted edu comes after the expansion of high schooling?

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

The more I inch through this book (switching between text and audio) the more it feels like a story about characters who simply will not change at all no matter what forces they experience. Sort of dull in large doses but feels like a story that could go on forever, or at least until ww2.

1 1

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

Let me know what you find!

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

When you are 33 some crazy stuff is going to happen at a wuhan wetmarket.

essencesimmone.blacksky.app @essencesimmone.blacksky.app · 5d

Those who are 35+, what advice do you have for people just entering their 30s?

3 23

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

I think these things are actually all post-war phenomenons? Before WW2 math was cool but school intelligence was not of national security importance, Anxiety about our performance vs other countries or worries about our gifted kids comes with that. And mass college attendance is also post-war.

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

Yo thank you for this. I think I need to get back to working on one story at a time.

1 2

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

Went flipping through @kylerseibel.bsky.social's book looking for a third-person narrator, reread this classic. tacobellquarterly.org/at-this-week...

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

I don't think that's perennial, in fact this is something special post-WW2.

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

Hmm, vibes. Open up an arithmetic text from the 18th century then scroll through the old Regents exams on jmap.org. It's not like CCSS has changed math teaching in any real way.

JMAP HOME - Free resources for Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Precalculus, Calculus - worksheets, answers, lesson plansJMAP HOME - Free resources for Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Precalculus, ...

jmap.org

1 1 3

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

Thing I don't understand about writing #328: do I keep at something I've been struggling with or give up and try something new? Sometimes it feels like extra effort pays off...other times it's just digging myself into a hole.

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 3d

I guess it depends on what aspects of this history you want to explain to a new teacher. Policy? Peagogy? Conditions of teaching?

1 2

Reposted by Michael Pershan

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 4d

daughter just told me every Friday her class has a “burial” for the pencils too small to be sharpened anymore 😭😭 one of her classroom jobs is to give the eulogy 😭😭 THERE IS A SMALL COFFIN 😭😭😭😭

31 130 960

Michael Pershan @mpershan.bsky.social · 5d

Hey, this is really good.

Okay Donkey Magazine @okaydonkeymag.com · 5d

"...I'm overcome with the sudden certainty that she'll vanish, the door transporting her to the moon or Siberia. But before my fear can get away from me, she's already through."

"Door in the Woods" by @iamchrisscott.bsky.social, new flash fiction out today at OKD. 📝

Door in the Woods by Chris Scott

Sarah is hiking up ahead of me, so she’s the first to see it. She goes around the bend, says “Hey now,” and stops in her tracks. Then I see it, too. Right there in the middle of the trail is a sing…

okaydonkeymag.com

1 2 6