The Burning Schoolhouse: Using Wolfram Alpha to Teach ESL

Using Wolfram Alpha to Teach ESL

Here's a video with lots of ideas on how you can use Wolfram Alpha in the classroom.

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What is a Burning Schoolhouse?

Apparently, those who did not grow up in Canada, perhaps even only Eastern Canada, may not know of Burning Schoolhouses. In Canada, every Victoria Day and Dominion Day (24 May and July 1) concludes with a fireworks display in the twilight. And every fireworks display concludes with a Burning Schoolhouse, a distinctive firework, pictured above.

It's nothing spectacular to see: just a clear white flare, followed by flames slowly licking through the windows of a blackening schoolhouse. The joy is in the symbolism of the thing, helped in older days by the fact that almost every single schoolhouse in Canada was built, in similar style, of red brick.

Bad luck, though, if the schoolhouse does not completely burn, to the ground, to salted cinders. To prevent this horror, custom is also to jam the little red cardboard perdition with any duds from the previous pyrotechnical display, in hopes of making something truly spectacular and bloodthirsty happen.

Freedom! School's out! Glory, glory, hallelujah! No more pencils! No more books!

But this primitive Canadian ritual seems symbolic in another way. Humans, like all God's critters, are born to learn; it is of our essence. Learning is fun; all play is learning. Everyone loves to learn; even if it's just how to manage a yo-yo.

And yet, almost every kid hates school.

These two facts, taken together, suggest we can do better.

Tear down the little red walls!

The Burning Schoolhouse

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Using Wolfram Alpha to Teach ESL

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