An archived stack of papers: 'reading'
Moving Through Some Changes
In a stack of papers called Reform.
- Sep
- 12
- 2008
I hate doing the same thing every year. It’s boring and implies, “Yup, that was perfect; no need to change that one!” I’m still looking for those lesson plans. There are a few I have that are pretty close to “good,” but “perfect” is a long way off.
Some of these are small but... read more
Day One
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Aug
- 23
- 2008
Syllabus? On Day One!? Are you nuts??
Seriously, consider ditching that dry bit of talk. Push it off as much as you possibly can. The students only need to know certain things right now and chances are that info isn’t on your syllabus. It can wait until later. For now, you have a stage to set and what you do today will impact the rest of the school year. Not irreversibly, but this is... read more
Explosions In Word Clouds
In a stack of papers called reading.
- Jul
- 04
- 2008
Glancing at the design blogs today, SimpleBits brought me two things. I’ll discuss the other one later.
Be Saul Bass!
Wordle creates word clouds from any text you... read more
2007 In Review
In a stack of papers called Personal.
- Jan
- 12
- 2008
I spend a lot of time on teaching. From grading papers to puzzling out tomorrow’s lesson to just being at work, there’s not a lot of free time in my day. But there is some. How do I spend that time? And what do I have to show for 2007? When not standing in front of a group of students, I’m reading, writing, running, or watching.
Table Of Contents
... read more
I Swear
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Aug
- 24
- 2007
How do you feel about censorship? Is it good or is it bad? Under what circumstances?
See, I’m against censorship as a general policy. Education wins over ignorance. I make a concerted effort not to censor my views on things in my personal life. I don’t want to read anything abridged and I never want to listen to the “clean” version of any album. If it’s not... read more
Books Of 2006
In a stack of papers called Personal.
- Jan
- 03
- 2007
Continuing along the line of listing media, I’ve meant to list the books I read each year as a way to keep track of things. Of course, implicit here is that you will write your own and/or weigh in on the titles I list. What have you been reading?
For Work
The Scarlet Letter Siddhartha ... read more
Winter Media Consumption
In a stack of papers called Personal.
- Jan
- 01
- 2007
Thinking back on Winter Holiday/Christmas Break, I realize that I ate through a whole bunch of media. I’ve been writing movie reviews over the past 7 or 8 months, but I didn’t write a review of everything I watched this break. This is an entry for me to remember what I’ve sat through the past 2 weeks.
Graded
2 sets of Weekly Write paragraphs 10 The... read more
One Flew West
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Nov
- 16
- 2006
I’m getting ready to teach One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, experiencing a visit from nervousness while I plan. I usually have materials prepared ahead of time, have an idea of the final product I hope for students to create, know the larger ideas of the work. I have ideas of where we’ll go, but my days are largely dictated by the directions our class discussions take. Since I... read more
Quads, Pairs, Then Solo
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Oct
- 24
- 2006
We’re near the end of The Scarlet Letter and I realize, once again, that I take entirely too long with novels. This makes week 5 of the unit and we’ll likely keep these books for yet another week. It’s difficult to forge ahead with a novel, though, when only 5 students have read. And so I slow down and give people a chance to catch up. Some of them just need an excuse to even... read more
Reading Rationale
In a stack of papers called reading.
- Sep
- 18
- 2006
In the face of only 10 of my 60 English 3 students having read chapters 3 and 4 of The Scarlet Letter, I explained a bit of logic to the kids. Maybe it will help you out.
Boring?
You know what you get when only 5 people in class have read and are prepared? You get a Super-Size portion of boring. It’s a very slim possibility to do anything interesting when so few are... read more