October 2011
1 post
September 2011
1 post
August 2011
2 posts
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myth of the extraordinary teacher →
July 2011
2 posts
June 2011
8 posts
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Book Review: 40 Ways to Look at Winston Churchill
Title: Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill
Author: Gretchen Rubin
Summary: How is a life remembered? Is it by their positive actions? By their mistakes and failures? By their jobs? By their hobbies?
Gretchen Rubin tackles the task of creating a biography of Winston Churchill, which is no small feat given the sheer volume of work that has broached the same subject. Where Rubin differs is...
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May 2011
19 posts
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Monday Morning Questions: When Does the Love for...
The block teeters and falls. With furrowed brow and determination, the architect’s tiny hands maneuver the toys, attempting a new scheme. As the block is gently placed down, a broad smile errupts. Success! She kicks her feet with joy from her accomplishment.
I sit and watch my six month old daughter with awe and wonder. How start of contrast this moment is from the hundreds of moments I...
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Lessons from Lillian: Linguistics
Lillian: Ga Ga Da Ga Ga Ga Ga Ba Ga
Daddy: Oh is that so?
Lillian: Ga Ga Da Ga Ga Ga Ga Ba Ga Ga Ga Da Ga Ga Ga Ga Ba Ga
Daddy: Ga Ga Ga Ba Ba Ga Ba Ga
Lillian: Huh? With raised eyebrow
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Our school system has been constructed by conservatives who were thinking much...
– Jean Piget (1970)
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Bane of My Existence this Week
A cartoon from 4/7/2007
A cartoon from 8/28/2010
Darn End of Grade Testing Week… and boooo to those who force us to subject millions of students to this agony every year. Misery… pure misery.
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U.S. News to Assess University Education Programs →
An interesting NPR story on evaluating teacher training programs. This is one of the most important yet most under studied aspects of the problems in education. The biggest problem is in how to evaluate them… what makes for a good program? what about a program best prepares teachers to teach? Then there is the issue of what evidence proves that one school does it better then...
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From the Classroom: Waterfall
This transpired while coming across waterfall when walking on a wooded trail through a 623 acre nature preserve.
Student: “Whoa! Who turned up the volume on the waterfall?!?!”
Me: “Umm… We are in the middle of nowhere coming upon a… you know… waterfall.”
Student: “Oh… I thought it was like one of those waterfall pictures that they sell at the mall.”
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From the Classroom: Royal Wedding
Student: “Mr. G… Why aren’t you at the Royal Wedding?”
Me: “I was invited, but declined so that I could spend the day teaching you.”
Student: ” Really?”
Me: “No.”
April 2011
52 posts
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NCLB the death of American School Sytem.... →
Written by a former Bush aid…
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The wrong way to teach history would be to show that there’s only one...
– Jonathan Wenn 2001 Disney “Teacher of the Year” from Roosevelt Middle School in Glendale, New York
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What Education can Learn from Angry Birds →
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Lessons from Lillian - Milk
For those who do not know, Lillian is my daughter
There are apparently two types of people in this world: Those who produce milk… and those who don’t.
And apparently I am of the second variety.
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From the Classroom - Vietnam
Me: “One of the reasons that the USA struggled in the Vietnam War was that Vietnam was on the other side of the world.”
Student: “What’s the big deal? Why didn’t we just walk there?”
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Operation Paperless: Laptops and Smartphones and...
This is the second installment of Operation Paperless - documenting my question go (nearly) completely digital.
Three weeks into owning an iPad, my world has been completely rocked. But, when people see me with my iPad and iPhone, the question I keep getting asked is: What is the point? Why have a tablet when you have a smart phone? Why do you need any of those if you have a laptop and a basic...
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From the Classroom - Born
Me: I was born in 1983
Student: So how old were you back then?