Category Archives: Uncategorized

Gentle integration of technology into a basically traditional course

That was one of the points of the Summer Spark talk I gave on Thursday: A Marriage of Equals: Supplement, not Replace I started with the most important thing: why we (should) be teaching what we teach. Habits of mind … Continue reading

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Course musings

Introduction In looking back over the year in senior English, I start to think about the ideas that tie the two courses together.  The main one is philosophy, of course.  For after all, except for guilty pleasure or as a … Continue reading

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ICG

Went to Austin to give a talk this week at St. Stephen’s at an ICG (Independent Curriculum Group) sponsored workshop that served as St. Stephen’s inservice–a very clever idea, btw.  I was set up to talk both on integrating AP … Continue reading

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Monday humor

Just because…. Here are some reportedly actual maintenance complaints submitted by some UPS pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions (marked with an S) by the maintenance engineers. P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement. S: Almost replaced … Continue reading

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Grade what you value…

I am having three colleagues come in this week to lecture on “truth” in their disciplines. The original idea was that they would be covering my English class while I was away at a math meeting. Happily, as it turns … Continue reading

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Loved or feared?

I have now gotten into this discussion with two very different people–essentially, is Machiavelli right when he says it’s better for a leader to be feared than loved. My response is that it’s best to be respected.  Here’s how I … Continue reading

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English and math

I am involved in an interesting discussion with an English colleague about the difference between English and math classes.  Some of my comments below I think are generally true, though colleagues might disagree, and others will be truer of my … Continue reading

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Flipping

Certain locales buzz loudly with talk of flipping, or switching the traditional domains of homework and classwork.  The idea is that students do reading and learning at home (though videos, mostly, it seems) and then class time is spent on … Continue reading

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AP or not AP, that is the question…

Well, in many respects, the issue is not a dichotomous one.  But even so, let’s consider some pluses and minuses of an external, standardized test (and thus, implicitly, curriculum). We’ll start with a specific example and see if any generalizations … Continue reading

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Disclaimers

I have set up this site to encourage discussion, both abstract and pragmatic, into teaching and learning.  Since I am a teacher by trade, many of the points raised will be deliberately thought-provoking and not even necessarily representative of my … Continue reading

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