Tag Archives: assessment

Teaching and Training – 1

I’ve been thinking recently about the difference between teaching and training. Some of you may be familiar with my occasional idea that there’s not really any such thing as “teaching” in the sense teachers are supposed to do: there are … Continue reading

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What are your interests and aspirations for next year?

In response to that question from one of my dept heads, after much thought I finally sent the following response.  It is somewhat overstated and deliberately provocative in the hope that even motivating people to say, “That’s crap!” would be … Continue reading

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Perspective shift

So, a great deal of thought and blogspace, even time at conferences, goes into such topics as “PBL” (problem-based learning), “STEM” (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics”, and “21st-century learning” (which is either self-evident or means so many different things to … Continue reading

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Algorithms, programs, and robots

As I read emails about improving customer service with better software and similar things, I am coming to agree with the conventional wisdom (though it’s not phrased this way) that the more algorithmic your work is, the more likely you … Continue reading

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Just read Thomas Friedman’s column of that name in today’s New York Times.  Guess I have to read the book of Gladwell’s to which he refers, but… I suppose you could say I’ve stayed at St. John’s so long because … Continue reading

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Would that….

this article had come out 25 or 30 years ago…. http://smartblogs.com/education/2013/03/06/teaching-the-last-backpack-generation/ It’s both gratifying and annoying to see that what I’ve been doing in some way for the last at least 25 years, probably my whole career, but I may … Continue reading

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Reading, writing, and understanding

I’m trying something a bit different in senior English today.  As I started writing some questions on the board for them to answer, one of my students said, “We have to discuss this reading before we get assessed on it. … Continue reading

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Different perspectives

In math, a student asked a question about infinity last week, and so we spent the rest of the class talking about Cantor and his innovative approach to dealing with infinite sets.  One student asked whether the information would be … Continue reading

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Group work

We keep hearing that school should involve students in more “real-world” situations (or prepare them for such, at least).  I am of mixed minds about the basic premise, particularly as it applies to group work.  However, I am nonetheless continuing … Continue reading

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Group Work 2

Certainly the topic of the hour: http://www.nais.org/about/article.cfm?ItemNumber=156788&sn.ItemNumber=4181&tn.ItemNumber=147271 I get the point, and I know Pat Bassett is arguing in favor of a particular position, but I am reminded that correlation is not causation.  Also, the Nobel Prize information seems to … Continue reading

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