CUNY Academic Commons | Jonas Reitz | Activity https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/members/jreitz/activity/ Activity feed for Jonas Reitz. Sat, 01 Jan 2050 18:00:18 -0500 https://buddypress.org/?v= en 30 hourly 2 231f819dec13baf7ea6e94192569b173 Jonas Reitz's profile was updated https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/activity/p/987767/ Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:54:30 -0400 30763962b9e8d01549f8cb91086caab8 Jonas Reitz joined the group Teaching and Learning Center https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/activity/p/425437/ Tue, 02 Feb 2016 04:45:21 -0500 bf6e10da6bee0a05190822e75af2195d Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Math You Use?, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/04/24/math-you-use/#comment-26330 Sun, 26 Apr 2015 02:33:57 -0400 Hi Jonathan – what a great post! I’m especially struck by your call for collaboration outside Mathematics departments – the broadening of perspective that comes from working with folks in other disciplines can be […]

]]> 66abba60e71ddaaa9cf887a9f215401c Jonas Reitz commented on the post, StoryMakerBot, on the site Text Transformations http://texttransformations.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/15/storymakerbot/#comment-12 Mon, 23 Mar 2015 03:02:34 -0400 Hey jojo – This is my favorite thing I’ve stumbled across on the Commons today. Really nice work!
-Jonasbot

]]> 2681cfa11f1633fe8eae29b9fc1b3dc1 Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=2800 Fri, 20 Jun 2014 04:14:19 -0400 ThumbnailCity Tech professor Janet Liou-Mark was presented with the Distinguished Teaching Award by the Mathematical Association of America’s New York Section at their annual meeting on May 3rd.   As her colleague, I can […]

]]> cce727a488ee7188bcc3d8541a254db6 Jonas Reitz joined the group Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTL’s) https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/activity/p/243754/ Sat, 04 Jan 2014 02:02:24 -0500 5b7a1fc1bc1efcdd8a56e43735d054e9 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Group theory for liberal arts, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2013/07/05/group-theory-for-liberal-arts/#comment-332 Mon, 12 Aug 2013 02:01:27 -0400 Marcos! It seems you have a certain amount of freedom in choosing the content in your “fundamentals”-type courses, which I envy – ours are more-or-less proscribed by the department, via a detailed syllabus. But […]

]]> e85514e05bc4ecfb1db1f730358569ae Jonas Reitz commented on the post, The Ubiquitous Normal Law, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/09/13/the-ubiquitous-normal-law/#comment-143 Fri, 14 Sep 2012 02:39:22 -0400 What resonates for me is the journey of discovery (and wonder!) that comes from learning about normal distribution, the CLT, and its corollaries. This is one of my recent favorite mathematical ideas, and […]

]]> 4daff8f91d6a9bd967728f913797e8cb Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Mathematics and General Education, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/09/09/mathematics-and-general-education/#comment-138 Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:03:30 -0400 This is such a great post. The question of “what to do about math education” is maybe one of the central themes of this blog (and at CUNY, and in national education), and I often feel at a loss to make sense of […]

]]> 5ccd8fba6ea996460dab63864b63f322 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Homework, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/06/07/homework/#comment-83 Sun, 10 Jun 2012 20:50:57 -0400 Sandra – welcome to the CUNYMath Blog! Great post. The practice of mathematics — wrestling with the problems! — is so important, and it’s constantly amazing to me how few students will do it without some […]

]]> fc42c0120e3def78f641ce7459d72c9a Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Round Up!, on the site Footenotes http://bfoote.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/05/27/round-up-13/#comment-206 Sat, 02 Jun 2012 23:21:46 -0400 Brian – thanks for the shout-out to CUNYMath, and I echo your sentiments about Hunter’s post — he’s raising the bar for us! I think you might also appreciate his latest post, Existence. Let me quote:

“We can […]

]]> 3f26ba974a39f1364b57f5287af2f293 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Mysterium Cosmographicum , on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/05/21/mysterium-cosmographicum/#comment-79 Fri, 01 Jun 2012 20:10:05 -0400 Okay, I finished it. Hunter, thank you for this beautiful and thought provoking post, and for raising the bar for the CUNYMath Blog. I love your list of questions at the end, and I echo the sentiments of Brian […]

]]> e2c8e82cf1ab4fbf4fab0567b4deb3cf Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Mysterium Cosmographicum , on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/05/21/mysterium-cosmographicum/#comment-73 Tue, 22 May 2012 02:43:06 -0400 Hunter, I must admit I made it just about halfway through your latest post before being distracted by your link to the page on “roots” (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/roots/), and, surfacing from this page a half […]

]]> dfc65ff12f87a37253109336e30ae864 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, About the header image, part 3: New results!, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/05/12/about-the-header-image-part-3-new-results/#comment-68 Wed, 16 May 2012 03:19:22 -0400 Great question — it seems quite natural to extend to higher dimensions. The n=3 case seems like such an obvious one to tackle — I’m surprised it isn’t explored in the way that 2D tilings are. I know there is a […]

]]> 61a7adc09d4438cd730cad7da9609938 Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/05/12/about-the-header-image-part-3-new-results/ Sat, 12 May 2012 21:48:25 -0400 ThumbnailThere is often a feeling that anything truly new in mathematics must, of necessity, be obscure, arcane, and require several years of study to understand.  I’d like to talk about a result that was published in the […]

]]> dc4e760b8923f93d512e70ff2045d073 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Some problems with Standardized Tests problems, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/05/01/some-problems-with-standardized-tests-problems/#comment-59 Fri, 04 May 2012 02:46:09 -0400 Great post — these examples are distressing! This resonates with discussions I’ve been having lately with pedagogy-minded folk around my office. What are our students meant to think of all this? How the heck […]

]]> 988295c7f9ec30f8d2717840397f2611 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Who needs me, anyway? Khan Academy and the re-imagining of education, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/04/18/who-needs-me-anyway-khan-academy-and-the-re-imagining-of-education/#comment-54 Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:27:11 -0400 Hi Sue — thanks for the comment! Yes, I think your criticisms of Khan are quite valid — and maybe (for me) the take-away is that they are NOT a replacement for good teaching, and they must be used carefully to […]

]]> d30ebd05e20edcaccf04895a9867595a Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/04/18/who-needs-me-anyway-khan-academy-and-the-re-imagining-of-education/ Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:30:33 -0400

Damn you, Salman Khan, for seeing what nobody else (apparently) could see.

It all seems so simple in retrospect — we have the internet, we have youtube, we have cheap videocameras.  Mini-lectures on focussed […]

]]> 7b667f6a5f05e24b09d3512e71047b0e Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Everything Right is Wrong Again: the death of discovery-based learning?, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/03/28/everything-right-is-wrong-again-the-death-of-discovery-based-learning/#comment-50 Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:27:40 -0400 Hi Mike,
Thanks for the message. Hmm… I admit, I was writing that last paragraph in a bit of a state of shock, since I was so surprised by the message of the article. My point at the time was simply that our […]

]]> e852c0be6115d6e2eed0d231eaae2d91 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, SAGE , on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/04/09/sage/#comment-43 Tue, 10 Apr 2012 02:43:30 -0400 I’ve been wondering about SAGE for some time now — open-source alternatives are in common usage for most applications, but this is one area where I’ve never had the opportunity and motivation to look beyond […]

]]> ae8407c8479cd413c91db6ab8929a6b6 Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/03/28/everything-right-is-wrong-again-the-death-of-discovery-based-learning/ Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:14:59 -0400 I have never had any formal training in “how to a teach” — my own graduate studies, for better or for worse, were purely mathematical — and although I do expend a little energy towards keeping up with the world […]

]]> c26dd3eaf3fbfebba4189f7259f4543b Jonas Reitz commented on the post, About the header image - A reprise, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/03/19/about-the-header-image-a-reprise/#comment-31 Thu, 22 Mar 2012 04:32:07 -0400 Mari — great post! And I like the way your shoes give a nice reference for scale. You’re right – I often do get distracted thinking about patterns. I like your question about beauty, and I do think symmetry is […]

]]> 4f1894d3c8c98003264eb89a3d5bc7ca Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/03/14/my-monumental-ignorance-proofs-i-wish-i-knew-and-the-challenge-of-negativity/ Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:50:45 -0400 As with most things, the farther you go in mathematics the sharper your sense of ignorance becomes.  There is just too much math out there, and too little time to follow every thread that crosses your path.  I’d […]

]]> ff0079780adbd7fabe919f77e52f2ab8 Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/03/07/the-great-search-for-the-16-clue-sudoku-computers-math-and-the-nature-of-proof/ Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:26:39 -0500 Thumbnail

Sudoku (rules can be found here) has always had a problematic association with mathematics.  A first reaction by the ‘man-on-the-street’ to all those numbers is that it’s “too math-y” —  ironic, since the […]

]]> 528c2807f0b217ff594af252dd5e82ed Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Offense and defense, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/03/03/offense-and-defense/#comment-22 Sat, 03 Mar 2012 20:47:51 -0500 Wow. My hat’s off to you, Hunter, for taking this well-reasoned and passionately argued stand. A modest proposal, indeed!

]]> 334c42798a3eeb63bc1fb3cca08ab676 Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/03/01/community-making-in-the-world-of-online-math/ Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:46:00 -0500 There is a general feeling that the internet and our new “connectedness,” have tremendous power to foster new communities.  However, sometimes the internet can feel like a very lonely place (in the same way, I […]

]]> 568f6b5a1ce191705b4beb3c8e8e8396 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Light fields and the vector camera, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/02/22/light-fields-and-the-vector-camera/#comment-21 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:36:02 -0500 Thanks Mari! As far as level, it depends on what you want to focus on — for serious vector work, you’d probably want students in Calc III. However, the basic vector ideas could probably be worked out without […]

]]> 9188475c0fc6c7bea2b7c31e3a5e95cc Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/02/22/light-fields-and-the-vector-camera/ Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:46:12 -0500 Sometimes I see something in the news that just makes me excited about math.  This is the kind of development I would love to explore with a class if I had a few days or weeks to spare!  On the other hand, it […]

]]> f31614aebd46b6462e9e9661c2095b95 Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/02/15/a-too-modest-proposal-and-a-case-against-algebra/ Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:16:03 -0500 ThumbnailThe original A Modest Proposal, written in 1729 by Jonathan Swift, was one of the most scathing and viciously ironic pieces of political satire ever (if you are unfamiliar with it, he proposes the Irish poor sell […]

]]> 04678b11fab244ee0aab20ea33503ad5 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Disturbing violations - mixed numbers, PEMDAS and more, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/02/08/disturbing-violations-mixed-numbers-pemdas-and-more/#comment-16 Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:50:35 -0500 Jim,
Thanks for the great response — this really helps clarify some of my own ideas about the tension between “pure abstraction” and “quirky idiosyncrasy” in mathematics. I guess my personal challenge is my […]

]]> 3e00115c829ddd1d97be527b6d21bbc8 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Welcome to the CUNYMath Blog, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/02/01/welcome-to-the-cunymath-blog/#comment-14 Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:57:30 -0500 Hi jim! I think the system counts “Pingbacks” as comments, which accounts for the discrepancy — you’ll see the Pingback listed after the last comment (this is just a mention of our article that appeared in […]

]]> 7a0f101e524194f3f6bb48a85d442a30 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Gowers on Elsevier, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/02/10/gowers-on-elsevier/#comment-10 Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:26:21 -0500 As an addendum, Gowers and others have created a website http://thecostofknowledge.com/ to publicize this issue and collect names of those willing to boycott Elsevier for their practices (5,000+ so far, and […]

]]> 68dc60decedd5d9e0885405a22709604 Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/02/08/disturbing-violations-mixed-numbers-pemdas-and-more/ Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:23:30 -0500 1. Mixed numbers, the spittle on the front steps of our oh-so-coherent-and-sensible mathematical edifice

I learned to loathe mixed numbers, such as $latex 3 frac{1}{2}$, after dealing amicably with them for […]

]]> 80cc946a15c3f68d518353d5d220f86d Jonas Reitz commented on the post, "Anything on TV tonight?" Round Up, on the site Footenotes http://bfoote.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/02/05/anything-on-tv-tonight-round-up/#comment-185 Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:59:06 -0500 Brian, thanks a bunch for CUNYMath blog mention! We’re excited to have it up and running 🙂
Jonas

]]> 843cd82590b6607ad67b9cd8cf3e99f8 Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/02/04/about-the-header-image-the-cairo-tessellation/ Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:14:23 -0500 The header image was created by Richard Sheinaus, Director of Graphic Design at CUNY Central.  It depicts a tiling of the plane known as the Cairo Tessellation, so-called because it appears in the paving of […]

]]> be4b95e4b99ff02cf5b5b6df38533669 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, City of Solitude, on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/02/03/city-of-solitude/#comment-2 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:40:36 -0500 This especially resonates when I look at my office – a converted classroom housing 7 faculty desks, full of commotion. I like the community this provides, but I have never gotten any serious mathematical work […]

]]> 15c00e5832f4b9546fb79e1d533f3d66 Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/02/01/doodling-in-math-class/ Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:42:38 -0500 test

Five texting in the back.  Three bored, overconfident, ignoring you.  Seven who were placed incorrectly in your class and, after struggling through the first exam, will simply give up.  Four who answer all […]

]]> 809aa11ab973959a927e1fa71e597564 Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site CUNYMath Blog http://cunymathblog.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/02/01/welcome-to-the-cunymath-blog/ Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:38:04 -0500 Hello and welcome!  The CUNYMath Blog is intended as a sounding board by and for the mathematics educators, researchers and graduate students at CUNY.  Ours is a large community, but it can sometimes feel small […]

]]> 9deec87758bce8a494165fcf23a8508c Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Making our developmental math programs work, on the site A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City Tech http://livinglab.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2011/05/17/making-our-developmental-math-programs-work/#comment-164 Thu, 19 May 2011 21:19:01 -0400 Steve, welcome and thanks for joining the discussion!
-Jonas

]]> 0af4a7450d3147f1fec7615e04bf9494 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Making our developmental math programs work, on the site A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City Tech http://livinglab.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2011/05/17/making-our-developmental-math-programs-work/#comment-160 Thu, 19 May 2011 00:18:30 -0400 Dear Remediator, I agree — in fact, I think the most important part of this experiment is the conclusion that we can do remediation well, provided we give it the proper resources (clearly our current remediation, though successful in some cases, has a generally abysmal track record). Maybe the question CUNY should be asking is […]

]]> 3e86241c12e3613f55e91812bd6286eb Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City Tech http://livinglab.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2011/05/17/making-our-developmental-math-programs-work/ Tue, 17 May 2011 17:26:11 -0400 This post is a shout-out to Steve Hinds, a very smart guy who is embroiled in the hard work of trying to figure out how to make developmental math programs work at CUNY. He’s doing great work which is not as widely-known as it should be. Here are two of his papers detailing his work […]

]]> e188f9cccf15539cb5251903868177f4 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Jim Groom's visit--listen in!, on the site A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City Tech http://livinglab.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2011/03/02/jim-grooms-visit-listen-in/#comment-148 Tue, 10 May 2011 16:03:24 -0400 I finally had time to track down one of my notes from Jim’s visit, which was “Check out Dan Meyer in California”. He seems to be the Jim Groom of math — he has a million great ideas of using new media and technology in the math classroom. He works at the high school level, […]

]]> 20e13cde61fe8fa1452b15983268488e Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Today, We Write a Manifesto, on the site A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City Tech http://livinglab.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2011/04/05/today-we-write-a-manifesto/#comment-130 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 10:57:02 -0400 a) I love it! b) You are so right about the proverbial elephant conspicuously absent from the room. I’ve been really enjoying our work this semester, and I notice in myself an indistinct feeling of resistance (apprehension?) to “taking it to the classroom.” All these ideas work so well in my mind, and surely introducing […]

]]> f3c495bef57e2cf607ffa4fbf3ceff68 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Readings for April 8 - Kuh and Bean, on the site A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City Tech http://livinglab.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2011/04/07/readings-for-april-8-kuh-and-bean/#comment-129 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 10:42:41 -0400 Great! Thanks Jody.

]]> 8a2bf0d50f6d81c5ce69e7894a0ab77d Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Today, We Write a Manifesto, on the site A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City Tech http://livinglab.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2011/04/05/today-we-write-a-manifesto/#comment-124 Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:49:32 -0400 Hi Matt, Great links — really funny! You are so right — I love the idea of students writing a self-descriptive genre pieces (a thesis statement, a text message, the first paragraph of a five paragraph essay, a top ten list, …). As your “Charlie Brooker” link illustrates, this could also be a great multimedia […]

]]> 2fd8947e6611c8689a46c46e7192aeb6 Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City Tech http://livinglab.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2011/04/07/readings-for-april-8-kuh-and-bean/ Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:35:32 -0400 I was searching last night for the Bean reading assignment and couldn’t find it (thanks for the reminder, Charles!). I located it this morning in the hard copy agenda from last week, and I’m posting it in case others are in the same dilemma. There are two readings for our April 8th meeting: Kuh, George D. High-Impact […]

]]> 71e9e5c2cb2b218dc4164cf0c73c9372 Jonas Reitz wrote a new post on the site A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City Tech http://livinglab.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2011/04/05/today-we-write-a-manifesto/ Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:54:51 -0400 ThumbnailI came across this and wanted to share — partly because I think it’s awesome, partly because it has a tricky self-referential nature which appeals to my mathematical sensibilities, but mostly because I was inspired — I think it would make a great short writing assignment (write your own manifesto!). For the group, I wanted to […]

]]> f14ee5254d1048a77f00d8409ec27965 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Developmental courses and the First-Year Experience, on the site A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City Tech http://livinglab.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2011/03/22/developmental-courses-and-the-first-year-experience/#comment-113 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:09:02 -0400 I think this issue is worth more exploration. SO MANY of our students spend their first (and second, and sometimes third and fourth) semesters of college in “developmental classrooms,” and many never make it any farther. Students have such a troubled relationship to these classes — they are signs of their own shortcomings, they are […]

]]> ea0334f5a0fc555be9d1c059fccb93f5 Jonas Reitz commented on the post, Is Drawing GenEd?, on the site A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City Tech http://livinglab.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2011/03/24/is-drawing-gened/#comment-112 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:55:41 -0400 Paul, I love this post. While Matt’s argument makes sense to me, I still say “YES” — drawing is definitely gen ed, if anything is. As I’m still searching for a definition of gen ed, I’m not sure how meaningful my proclamation is… but it feels right to me. (Example: Is writing gen ed? How […]

]]> 15c144ec02f603e81973ac29e60b85cc Jonas Reitz started the forum topic Minecraft in the first and second grade classroom in the group CUNY Games Network http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/groups/games-teaching-and-learning/forum/topic/minecraft-in-the-first-and-second-grade-classroom/ Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:49:13 -0400 Minecraft is one of those sandbox / creation tool / exploration games that I think has such potential! Here’s a great article (with hopefully more details coming soon) about using it in the elementary classroom.

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