Alex the Tutor

The Nature of VIrtue

2009-10-08T21:04:00.001-07:00

This blog will involve the nature of virtue with selected students.

Education - Market Forces & Regional Teaching Salaries

2008-01-20T15:18:00.000-08:00

Market Forces & Regional Teaching Salaries

Teacher’s salaries for Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, California, New England states (except Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine), and Mid-Atlantic states were, on average, higher than the US average of $47,000 in 2005. Call these the ‘well-off’ states. Conversely, except for Colorado and Georgia, teacher’s salaries from all southeastern and southwestern states were lower than the US average. Call these the ‘reduced’ states. The same is true for starting teacher’s salaries. Average US starting teacher’s salaries were $32,000 in 2005; this figure was only $29,500 in ‘reduced’ states, while in ‘well-off’ states this figure was $35,000.

Based on salary alone (corrected for regional differences in cost of living), there is less perceived and real risk for southern states to hire teachers than ‘well-off’ northeastern states. Econometric analysis has found little correlation between students' achievement and their teachers' characteristics, such as certification, teachers' test scores, their verbal ability, or their education beyond a bachelor's degree. Employers are largely flying in the dark when trying to select the most qualified teachers, adding to overall perceived risk. The market has been attempting to correct this geo-educational wage discrepancy. In the past 10 years teacher’s salaries in ‘well-off’ states have declined, while teacher’s salaries in ‘reduced’ states have markedly increased (though still well below US average).

With respect to these ‘reduced’ states, annual percent increases of teacher’s salaries are typically greater than annual percent increases of salaries in the private sector. In other words, teacher’s salaries have been growing at a faster rate than private sector salaries in the past ten years, thus increasing the school’s demand for teachers in these ‘reduced’ states. The opposite is true in ‘well-off’ states; private sector salaries have grown at a faster rate than teacher’s salaries, decreasing school’s demand for more teachers.

Adding to these market forces, 10-year turnover rates in the educational sector is comparatively high relative to other sectors. This turnover rate appears greater in ‘reduced’ states than in ‘well-off’ states, meaning most southern schools need to replace teachers more quickly than ‘well-off’ states. A recent survey reports that one in every three teachers who leave the profession cites low salary as a reason for their premature (before 10 years) departure. Increasing college tuition and overall inflation has burdened new teachers who see their starting salaries year after year lose purchasing power.

For instance, a teacher in Alabama would expect to start out with a $31,000 salary (the US average), while a seasoned teacher would receive $38,000 (well below the average of $47,000). The same teacher starting out in Washington (an ‘average’ state) would start out with the average $31,000, and see his/her fellow seasoned teachers make $46,000. Substantial salary increases from starting salaries in ‘reduced’ states are not typical. Eventually, seasoned teachers in such states may just get fed up with their stagnate salaries and either find tenure at more lucrative states, obtain higher teaching degrees, or switch job sectors all together.

Sources

1) American Federation of Teachers. Survey and Analysis of Teacher Salary Trends 2005.
http://www.aft.org/salary/2005/download/AFT2005SalarySurvey.pdf
2) Falch T & Strøm B. Teacher Turnover and Non-pecuniary Factors. Economics of Education Review. Dec 2005; 24(6): 611-631.
3) Hanushek EA, Kain JF, & Rivkin SG. Why Public Schools Lose Teachers. The Journal of Human Resources. Spring 2004; 39(2): 326-354.
4) Monk DH. Recruiting and Retaining High-Quality Teachers in Rural Areas. The Future of Children. Spring 2007; 17(1): 155-174.
5) Rothstein R & Podgursky MJ. How to Improve the Supply of High Quality Teachers. Brookings Papers on Education Policy 2004, 25-39.
6) Roza, M & Hill PT. How Within-District Spending Inequities Help Some Schools to Fail. Brookings Papers on Education Policy. 2004, 201-218.

Calculus - Assignment

2008-01-13T19:18:00.001-08:00

Read chapters 3 and 4 in the assigned book. Type up a one-page (single-spaced, 12-front) response covering the following areas:

1) At least one mathematical topic discussed
2) How you think this topic (or topics) can be applied in the practical real world

ENTRE 101 - Weekly Assignment

2008-01-06T08:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Entrepreneurship 101. Below are the list of assignments for this week.

Assignments (1/4/2008)

Assignment #0 – Daily Journals
Writing in a daily journal is a way to reflect upon your experiences from readings and the real world. Daily journals do not have to be written every day, but there should be roughly three typed pages (double-spaced, 12 font) added to your journal every week. The journal entries can be about any topic related to entrepreneurship: responses from readings, news articles, discussions with friends and family members, reflections from your own personal experiences, even how entrepreneurship relates to video games. Each week, email me your daily journal collection the day before class (Thursday) in word document form.

Assignment #1 – Job Shadowing at Zane’s
Read the chapter 2 in Alpha Dog. Use the information in chapter 2 to come up with at least 5 questions to ask the management at Zane’s Cycles. Email the questions or post them on the course website. After I receive the questions, I will call to either confirm the questions or have you make any necessary corrections. Once the questions are satisfactory, go to Zane’s Cycles and ask management permission for an interview. After your interview, type a quick ‘thank you’ letter to the management at Zane’s Cycles thanking them for their time. Finally, write a short 1 page summary of your experiences job shadowing to be included in your daily journal.

Assignment #2 – Create Your Own Assignment
Everything in life, especially entrepreneurship, takes initiative. Take the initiative to create your own assignment for your parents. More will be said about this during class.

Philosophy - The Art of Education

2008-01-06T08:36:00.000-08:00

I was preparing a series of SAT essay questions for one student of mine; he is years away from taking an actual SAT. When I became consciously aware of this obvious fact, I was suddenly more interested in how a seasoned teacher would respond to one particular question:

If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others. One who ceases to learn cannot adequately teach. – Tryon Edwards

Do you think that teaching something to another person can help you to learn or master a subject or process? In an essay, support your position by discussing an example (or examples) from literature, the arts, science and technology, history, current events, or your own experiences.

The student would likely scribble something down that ultimately added up to triviality–good grammar and sentence structure but still trivial. Insightfulness always replaces triviality during moments of reflection. How would this teacher respond? Quite naturally, Mr. Teacher X would offer the same opinion as this student; this student is no dummy. But, included in Mr. X’s response would be more depth, more dimensions–enough dimensions that a layperson could construct a picture of the world of education from it.

In a sense, Mr. X’s description could be considered art and he would then be considered an artist, proficient in the art of education. If Mr. X was not the philosophical type who wishes to spell out his art for us, rather, if he was the kind of person whose actions spoke for him, his classroom actions would tell us whether he was truly proficient in this art. Regardless, the true degree in education would then be granted years after Mr. X received his actual bachelor’s or master’s degree. A degree is just a pretty piece of paper. It is up to the teacher to turn this paper into the tree it was once was–that is to give life to his degree. His ceremony might begin as a sudden epiphany during the night when lying half-naked in bed. Just as soon as his ceremony will be over, he’ll realize that since learning is continuous process for not just the student but also the teacher, he will inevitably graduate again and again. The day that his personal ‘degrees’ outnumber his students is the day he smiles at the thought of preparing for a journey he knows he will never complete: like finally reaching the moon by foot, only to realize that instincts will tell him to walk to a star that has not been born yet.

That is how education works. The rewards of education don’t exist in a weekly paycheck or yearly test scores nor do they exist in the moment of teaching. The reward has not been born yet. It does not exist today; it may never exist, but instincts tell you: if you teach them, they will grow. One student gave you hell while you taught her. Sure, there was that one time she gave you the warmest smile when she finally understood multiplication. Besides that, she always talked back, never appreciated or had respect for anything or anyone, including herself. That one smile was her only smile that year. You know it. Her father was a drunk who abandoned her, and her mother was clueless about raising kids. (Don’t forget, this student had no respect for anyone, especially her mother). She’ll have to hit rock bottom before she can change. It may be a decade from now, but eventually she will remember you. She will thank you.

It is the most uncertain journey that starts at chaos and, with a little patience and determination, ends at happiness. Determination: my 3rd grade teacher taught me that word. I never did thank her.

Chemistry - How Do Antacids Work?

2008-01-06T08:28:00.000-08:00

(This post assumes a general knowledge of chemistry and organic chemistry).

How does Pepto-Bismol work? Well, Pepto-Bismol is an antacid, meaning that it buffers excess stomach acid. Below is a picture of bismuth subsalicylic acid (pepto-bismol).Now, because bismuth is in the same group as nitrogen, bismuth creates 3 covalent bonds in its most stable Lewis structure. In this case, bismuth covalently bonds to 3 different oxygen atoms. Given that bismuth has an electronegativity of 2.0 and oxygen has an electronegativity of 3.5, the bonds that bismuth has with the oxygen atoms are polar covalent, almost to the point of ionic. In any event, these bonds are exceptionally weak and are prone to break in environments of excess charges (as in the stomach). Also, because bismuth is less electronegative than oxygen (i.e., bismuth is more electropositive than oxygen), bismuth will have a slight delta positive charge, and the oxygens will have a delta negative charge.

When the stomach's parietal cells produce excess gastric acid, the concentration of protons, [H+], increases markedly. Because the oxygen atoms have a delta negative charge, they act as weak nucleophiles; the oxygen atoms are craving some nucleus loving. Well, H+ is nothing but a nucleus. Excess H+ will want to attack the oxygen atom that is directly attached to the benzene ring, producing bismuth subsalicylate!This form of bismuth subsalicylate does 2 things: 1) Acts as a direct buffer by buffering excess H+ via the "aromatic" oxygen; and 2) acts as an indirect buffer by producing a salt of BiO+ and salicylate. As [BiO+] increases, excess positive charge accumulates in the stomach. As far as we know, the human body has no enzymes to convert BiO+ into any electroneutral molecule. So, the body is stuck with BiO+. But, humans have the enzyme carbonic anhydrase (CA) that will convert excess H+ into bicarbonate and eventually CO2 gas (which we eventually exhale out of our bodies). Thus, an increase in [BiO+] will also eventually lead to a decrease in [H+] and therefore less stomach acid.

Also notice that the reaction produces salicylate (i.e., o-hydroxybenzoate), accounting for Pepto-Bismol's slight anti-inflammatory properties. But, salicylate is also able to buffer excess H+ due to its carboxylic and hydroxy groups.

College Advising - Organic Chemistry Vs. Biochemistry

2007-12-30T11:05:00.000-08:00

Which course is more difficult: organic chemistry or biochemistry?

Well it depends on how your mind processes information! Orgo is analytical; its all about finding patterns and some spatial recognition (looking at and manipulating molecules in 3-D), and predicting the most likely outcome. Orgo is almost like algebraic chemistry. In algebra there are negative numbers and positive numbers, and there are a few operations (adding, multiplying, etc) that u can do to these numbers. Once you know how multiplication works, you can multiply any two numbers. In orgo there are big molecules; a big molecule may have slightly negatively charged areas and slightly positively charged areas; these slightly charged areas are usually the places where the big molecule will react with other reagents. All you have to do is determine which parts or 'functional groups' (like hydroxyl groups) make that big molecule slightly negative or slightly positive. Orgo is also like a 3 month IQ test; maybe that's why many people say it’s so hard. But it doesn’t have to be so hard. Like multiplication, orgo never changes. The exam questions never change; if I take the same IQ test 5 or 6 times, eventually I could score high. All you have to do is breathe and realize that nearly 90% of orgo questions just ask you 'where is the positively charged area of the molecule? Here? Ok, now you know that opposite charges attract, so if my reagent is negatively charged, what’s going to happen? Oh, well duh, the two are going to react and yield this product'.

If orgo is all about breaking down things and analyzing each atom or molecule or functional group, then biochemistry is more about looking at the BIG picture to come up with generalizations. Yes, you do analyze molecules in biochemistry, but there isn’t as much emphasis on analysis. The emphasis is more practical. Histidine has slightly charged regions, and so histidine is slightly acidic because histidine's ring is able to donate its Hydrogen. So what? Well histidine is a good pH buffer because its pKa is close to physiological pH (7.4), and it’s no surprise that hemoglobin contains many histidine residues in order to (for example) buffer the pH of the blood. Biochemistry can be easy if you take each relevant biochemical fact and put them together to see the BIG picture. In other words, grow a biochemical rationality so you can say things like ‘oh, it makes sense that eukaryotes have compartmentalized organelles; this allows each cell to perform many different reactions (at different pHs and substrate concentrations) at the same time'.

So! In conclusion, neither course is necessarily harder than the other is. And that’s not really important. The important thing is that orgo is all about knowing a few general rules and taking molecules apart, while biochem is all about synthesizing information derived from orgo to come up with many general rules and being able to connect these general rules together. If u realize this and are able to differ your approaches when you take these courses, you’ll find both courses easier than what everyone makes them out to be. Don’t believe the hype; decide how to look at these courses yourself today and in 3 months you can decide how to celebrate your A’s!

Poetry - Avis Choreographs Docility

2007-12-30T10:50:00.000-08:00

This is a poem I wrote for a friend about our views on education.

Avis Choreographs Docility

Chattering chicks waddle to their pens–
Tattered by their creased city
Telling them of careless cares,
Tattered by the other chicks with
Their innate sense to pilot at will,
Tattered by their feathered cages,
Tattered by their pupils who see
Covers of books but not their pages– 8

…Happy-go-lucky nonetheless
Chicken-scratch… essays at first chance
Hatch… rhythms called success
Wobble then waltz… a tottering dance…
Avis–part swan: cakewalk on a lake
Of cerulean echoes and crimson bark:
Poised as a palm, supple as a brook
Whose stream curves out a question-mark; 16

A lyrical query, she muses over
Every step of every beat:
An epistemic salsa of how
To spin ideas at the webs of their feet;
Part owl: adorned tassels keep
Philosophy drawn to her mind’s eye;
Before dusk, she hunts those that prey
On her flock: pedantries lurk nearby… 24

Uncultured cultural quacks; Oh no,
She dares not call a forest a tree,
Just to swoop unseen but blind
Down to the ground and pick up debris–
No! ...she relents only to her heart
To perceive those musical utensils–
The sound, the sound of education:
Errors, and scribbles, and weathered out pencils; 32

And verb, six, seven, eight
Viva, baile, cante, swoon!
‘I see Cygnus in the sky’,
Scribe the dapper, dapper hip-hop saloon;
Tethers now cut; and so ashes now fly
Their pulse as high as the moon–
Magenta spews from the freshest dragon’s mouth;
A c o n s t e l l a t i o n revives the gentle south. 40

Algebra - Numbers Divisible by 9 (Friendly Version)

2007-12-30T10:37:00.000-08:00

How do you know when a number is divisible by 9? If the sum of its digits is divisible by 9, then the original number is divisible by 9! For example, 6525 is divisible by 9 because the sum of its digits (6 + 5 + 2 + 5 = 18) is divisible by 9 (18/9 = 2). But, how and why does this happen?9 times 1 is 9, and 9 is divisible by 9; 9 times 2 is 18, and 18 is divisible by 9; 9 times 3 is 27 and 27 is divisible by 9; so, in general, 9 times any number is divisible by 9. 9x is divisible by 9; 9y is divisible by 9. It doesn't matter; x can be a number or a long sum of numbers; just as long as you multiply by 9, you can always divide a 9 out. Let us remember 9x. We want to get a number in the form of 9x. Then we know it has to be divisible by 9.Take 6525 for example! Now ask yourself if the mathematical sentences are true or not.

Is sentence below true?

6525 = 6(1000) + 5(100) + 2(10) + 5(1)

Yes; look at the metric system: 6m + 5dm + 2cm + 5mm = 6525mm

Is sentence below true?

6525 = 6(999 + 1) + 5(99 + 1) + 2(9 + 1) + 5

Again, yes because 10 = 9 + 1; 100 = 99 + 1, and so on.

Is the sentence below true?
6525 = 6(999) + 5(99) + 2(9) + 6 + 5 + 2 + 5

Yes, because we are allowed to distribute numbers like this. For example, x(x + 2) = x^2 + 2x, or 25 = 5(5) = 5(2 + 3) = 5(2) + 5(3) = 10 + 15 = 25. Now notice that the numbers on the right are the sum of the number 6525, which is 6 + 5 + 2 + 5 = 18, and 18 is divisible by 9 because 9 times 2 =18, and again 9 times any number is divisible by 9.

Is this sentence below true?
6525 = 9(111)(6) + 9(11)(5) + 9(2) + 9(2)

Yes, because all we did was factor out a 9 from each term. The last term was the sum of the digits 6525.This sentence below is true because we can factor a 9 from each term, we couldnt have done this if the sum of the digits in 6525 was NOT divisible by 9, so we need the sum of the digits to equal a number that's divisible by 9 in order to factor it out at this step!

6525 = 9[6(111) + 5(11) + 2(1) + 2]

Now remember, we said 9 times ANY NUMBER is divisible by 9, well let's make that number [6(111) + 5(11) + 2(1) + 2], now we have shown not only how but why if the sum of digits are equal to a number divisible by 9, that number MUST be divisible by 9, and vis versa. Here are all the steps in order:

6525 = 6(1000) + 5(100) + 2(10) + 5(1)6525 = 6(999 + 1) + 5(99 + 1) + 2(9 + 1) + 5
6525 = 6(999) + 5(99) + 2(9) + 6 + 5 + 2 + 5
6525 = 9(111)(6) + 9(11)(5) + 9(2) + 9(2)
6525 = 9[6(111) + 5(11) + 2(1) + 2]

6525/9 = 6(111) + 5(11) + 2(1) + 2725 = 666 + 55 + 2 + 2 = 725

Grammar - The Grammar of 'Either'

2007-12-30T10:28:00.000-08:00

What is the grammatical function of the word 'either'? If you are confused, you're not alone!

Let's look at 'either' when it is used as a pronoun: 'Marry either of the two women.' sounds grammatically correct and it is. 'Marry any of the three women.' not only sounds better than 'Marry either of the three women.' but is also the grammatically correct choice. Just as 'between' is used to talk of 2 and only 2 entities and 'among' for 3 or more entities, 'either' is used to talk of 2 and only 2 entities while 'any' for 3 or more entities. In other words, use 'either' when talking about two things and use 'any' when talking about more than two things.

Nothing seems straightforward in grammar though. During the Old English (6th cen to 10th cen) and early Middle English (10th cen to 13th cen) periods, 'either' was taken to mean 'each of two' or 'both'. It wasn't until the late Middle English period where 'either' took on the disjunctive sense of meaning 'one or the other (but not both)'. The disjunctive sense was also covered by the word 'outher'; but, 'outher' became obsolete around the 16th cen, and so 'either' once again denoted the two prior meanings. Over the next 5 centuries the two prevailing meanings competed with each other. Eventually, the disjunctive meaning became dominate in Modern English.

Nonetheless, the original meaning has left a remaining residue of confusion in current language speakers. The Oxford English Dictionary actually recommends that the original meaning "must often be avoided on account of [its] ambiguity".

However, using 'either' is preferred over 'any' for whence a sentence talking of 3 or more entities yields an ungrammatical sentence. Thus, the sentence, 'President Nixon was either a good president, a bad president, or the best president' is a grammatical exception and therefore correct since using 'any' in this situation would yield an ungrammatical sentence.

Abstract Algebra - Numbers Divisible by 9 (Technical Proof)

2007-12-30T10:21:00.000-08:00

This is a technical proof of how if you sum the didgets of any number and that sum is divisble by 9, then the original number is divisible by 9.

Let ai denote a digit in mod 10 and let a1a2…an denote a positive integer with an n number of digits. Then, 9a1a2…an Î Z+ if and only if 9Si = 1, n ai Î Z+.

Proof. Factoring out a 10n from the nth digit gives

a1a2…an – 1an
= 10(n – 1)a1 + 10(n – 2)a2 + … + 10(n – (n – 1))an – 1 + 10(n – n)an
= 10(n – 1)a1 + 10(n – 2) + … + 10an – 1 + an

Since [(10n – 1) + 1] = 10n,

= [(10n – 1 – 1) + 1]a1 + [(10n – 2 – 1) + 1]a2 + … + [(10 – 1) + 1]an – 1 + an.

Distributing ai to each term gives

= (10n – 1 – 1)a1 + a1 + (10n – 1 – 1)a2 + a2 + … + (10 – 1)an – 1 + an – 1 + an

Because 9(10n – 1) "n Î Z+, 9 can be factored out from each (10n – 1) to leave (S i = 0, n 10i).

= 9a1(S i = 0, n – 1 10i) + 9a2(S i = 0, n – 2 10i) + … + 9an – 1 + a1 + a2 + … + an (5)

The number a1a2…an – 1an contains the sum Si = 1, n ai. Let 9Si = 1, n ai = R. Factoring out 9 from each term gives

a1a2…an – 1an = 9a1(S i = 0, n – 1 10i) + 9a2(S i = 0, n – 2 10i) + … + 9an – 1 + 9R
= 9[a1(S i = 0, n – 1 10i) + a2(S i = 0, n – 2 10i) + … + an – 1 + R]

Because a1a2…an – 1an can factor out 9, 9a1a2…an – 1an. This could not have occurred if R did not factor out nine as well. Further, if 9a1a2…an – 1an, then a1a2…an – 1an gives a 9R term by equation (6). 9R = Si = 1, n ai and 9Si = 1, n ai. QED