Culture

Welcome to the third in my series of posts about the forthcoming Scottish independence referendum. In my previous post I interviewed a pro-independence teacher about their personal and professional reasons for choosing to vote Yes. Today I’d like to offer a perspective from the other side of the issue. I …

When I grow up I want to become an epidemiologist. Don’t get me wrong I love teaching. I find change from year to year challenging and exciting, but there is something about disease that tickles my fancy.  Now I know this is not the most common of interests, and at first …

In place of today’s expected Required Readings, I’d like to offer the first of a series of four articles about the forthcoming Scottish independence referendum.   On September 18th, the people of Scotland will vote to determine whether their country remains as part of the United Kingdom or becomes a …

I was browsing my news feed today when I came across the following video, posted by the University of Chicago’s News Office.   Since I’m about to get very critical, let me first talk briefly about the things Cheng does well in this video: 1) She gives a mostly understandable …

Chapter 9 – All the young of both sexes should be sent to school I was going to clean up my language when I published this post.  I wrote the original a week ago and then set it aside.  During that time my anger subsided and I really was going …

Recently we received this question from C^2: I taught a lab class (college physics) for the first time last semester.  I noticed that my one female student would always let the male students do the setup/assembly, and she would watch and/or take data.  Given that I don’t have enough lab equipment …

Schools and television don’t seem to mix very well. I can’t think of many, if any, TV representations of school life that actually get it “right”. Here in the UK we have an depressingly popular television drama called Waterloo Road which is set in and around a fictional high school. …

In the U.S., the first week of May is Teacher Appreciation Week. Have a good story about students showing their appreciation, for better or for worse? Share it in the comments. Someone who didn’t feel particularly appreciated at the University of Pennsylvania was former faculty member Kristen Stromberg Childers, who …

Throughout my training to become a teacher there was one area that was woefully neglected.  It is something that I have to deal with on a weekly basis in one form or another.  I am talking about the epidemic of drawing penises all over my classroom. Go ahead laugh, it …

Around my school over the past week posters that contain jigsaw puzzle pieces have gone up on the walls.  My favorite one is a tree and the puzzle pieces are the leaves.  The words on it say that April is Autism awareness month and today April 2nd is World Autism …