Tag Archives: reflection

NYT plea for “Lecture me. Really.”

A friend sent me the following link about the value of lectures in the humanities. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/opinion/sunday/lecture-me-really.html My response follows. ———————————– I get the point, and I do agree that lectures can be good in certain contexts, but the professor who … Continue reading

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Public ignorance

This week, I learned the value of public ignorance (or, perhaps, relearned it).  One of my math students wanted to complete a proof by saying, half-way through, “Since all these steps are reversible, just reverse them for the second half … Continue reading

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“Looking up” and “learning”

There’s a lot of talk around (mostly by consultants and bloggers, but still…) about the “looking up” vs “learning” approach to teaching.  It seems to me there are three basic approaches to this question (albeit a large number of shadings … Continue reading

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Panthers

Panthers In order to help me keep my resolution to be educationally bold next year, I’m forming what might more professionally be called a professional learning committee (but which might also be considered my personal support group).  It’s a group … Continue reading

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Teaching 2015 (1)

I was inspired yesterday by going to see the actual furniture I’ll have in my “innovative classroom” next fall.  As a result, I decided to put down some thoughts on how I’ll bring to my teaching some of the innovations … Continue reading

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Collaborative learning (aka “group work”)

A very interesting piece from an NAIS blogger on cooperative learning. http://www.nais.org/Independent-Ideas/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=419 My experience was the opposite of that of the author of the blog.  As a science major, I had lab partners from Middle School through graduate school, and … Continue reading

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Letters to a freshman

A friend of mine in his first year of college periodically writes to get my opinion on things he hears and talks about at college.  He sent me a recent email questioning some statements from one of his courses.  His … Continue reading

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Student and teacher learning

My senior English class is reading Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler and I’ve assigned sections to various people to present.  Listening today, I was struck by a couple of things: what the students pick out as “important” … Continue reading

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“Curving tests”

I had a colleague opine yesterday that if you have to curve a test, it’s not a good test.  I would say that’s only true if your goal is to write a test that doesn’t need curving.  If you have … Continue reading

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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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