An archived stack of papers: 'Connections'

One Way – Google

In a stack of papers called Connections.

  • Aug
  • 16
  • 2008

I’ve been planning these next two entries for a while now and Dan pretty much summed up my ideas inside of three minutes. If you present the world as if it revolves around your content area, you appear one dimensional and completely boring to students; no one cares as much about your content area as you do. You need to be interested in more things.... read more

First-Draft In Video

In a stack of papers called Writing.

  • Aug
  • 08
  • 2008

I’m sure this gentleman is a nice fellow, that he’s got lots of things to tell the world, that he’s incredibly smart, and that he could teach me a thing or nine about how to better use my computer. However, this is the video equivalent of a first-draft essay being turned in as a final draft. As it ends up, that’s great because this does a nice job in making the point about the... read more

Lit Terms In Modern Media

In a stack of papers called Instruction.

  • Aug
  • 05
  • 2008

I’ve been thinking about this page for quite a while, but I really only had two or three terms to post with links. Once I sat down to write this, though, I found a few others (Updated 10.19.08).

This list provides examples of literary terms, primarily in videos and images, though there are a few written texts here for now. Page updates will happen. Hopefully this helps... read more

As Seen On The Web

In a stack of papers called Connections.

  • Apr
  • 26
  • 2008

For a variety of reasons, I found myself back on Dan Cederholm’s site SimpleBits. I used to visit that site all the time, but the frequency has dropped off in the last few years. Glancing at the home page, Dan includes several quotations from folks high up in the Web design world. Thing is, most of the... read more

Remember Me?

In a stack of papers called Connections.

  • Mar
  • 28
  • 2008

You need to be more than just your job. For so many different reasons, you have to be a complete person and that means spending time working on other areas of your life. Remember who you were before you started working? You’re still that person and still have those interests. In all likelihood, that person and those interests are what got you involved in your current job in the first... read more

Swift And Scoble

In a stack of papers called Connections.

  • Jan
  • 02
  • 2008

“A Modest Proposal” is the classic irony, where Jonathan Swift’s ridiculous answer to a problem pushes readers toward actual solutions. Robert Scoble’s “The RIAA is right” has the same idea, though with more complaints than answers to the... read more

Lil Wayne Or Snoop Dogg

In a stack of papers called Instruction.

  • Dec
  • 01
  • 2007

What do you do when you start thinking that your subject is worthless? “You know, maybe the students are right. Maybe this is all completely irrelevant to their lives.” What do you do when you look at your content standards and think, “why would the average person need to know any of this?” What happens when you decide that what you are doing in class is not going to prepare... read more

Mean, Median, Mode

In a stack of papers called Instruction.

  • Nov
  • 08
  • 2007

I start out many days of the school year with a Daily, usually a quotation on the board the students have to puzzle over and write about for 5 minutes, but lately they have been questions. In order to add up points on these things (and not add a whole lot of reading on my part), students count up lines they’ve filled in order to figure out how many words they’ve written. We create average... read more

Accents And War

In a stack of papers called Instruction.

  • Sep
  • 03
  • 2007

Today continues my chronicling of links to online resources various teachers can use in the classroom. Naturally, a QuickTime version of the video is ready for you to download so you can get this content past the district firewalls. Here’s what I’ll call half a resource for foreign/world language teachers and a full ten-minute running, Cannes-film-festival entering short film for social... read more

Heavy Water

In a stack of papers called Instruction.

  • Sep
  • 02
  • 2007

Yet again, a video on College Humor might provide a good introduction, this time to the concept of density. Science teachers, this one’s yours again.

Similar to Beer Geometry, this video is a bar trick. Oil and vinegar is the obvious non-alcoholic combination to demonstrate in the classroom. Maybe the... read more