The Wearing of the Hats
Hello there! Nice to meet you. Is your life as busy as mine? During a normal day I can take on all the roles we encounter in our lives as teachers. I may be the student who struggles with what she perceives as unfair demands of a teacher. Or who …
Grade changes, exit interview, first-gen collegians, teacher ed, ed tech, and more: Required Readings, 2.16.15
Happy President’s Day and Lundi Gras, readers! We’ll start this week’s Required Readings with an opinion piece burning up the internet over the weekend: Dear Student: No, I Won’t Change the Grade You Deserve. Thoughts? An interview with the departing leader of a large public school system in the D.C. Metro area emphasizes …
Retirement, critical thinking education, school holidays, fair use, and more: Required Readings, 11.16.14
I’m going to set this Required Reading down gently and then back away quickly: Should tenured faculty retire earlier than they are now? Educators interested in teaching critical thinking, reason, philosophy, ethics, and so on (which should really be all of us) may want to check out this developing project from the creator …
Pop Quiz: Python in the Classroom
*Ha! Not the snake! This whole post is about computer programming. This past weekend I went to PyOhio the Python programming language conference held in Columbus, Ohio. The conference serves the needs of both beginner and experienced programmers. So there were an array of different types of talks from introductory (“Hello …
Diploma mills, information overload, college contraception, Scientology in the schools, and more: Required Readings, 7.8.14
According to some researchers, 40-45,000 legitimate PhDs are awarded annually in the United States, while another 50,000 spurious PhDs are purchased here. Further study is needed, however, to collect data on the extent of the problem. In the meantime, check out this list of animals who bear fraudulent degrees. Recent graduates …
The Great Didactic: Teachable Animal
Chapter 6: If a man is to be produced, it is necessary that he be formed by education Recently I was thinking about the foundation of our education system and its philosophical underpinnings. As I was doing this it dawned on me that I have only ever really read about …
Pop Quiz: Learner Centered In Large Classes
Normally, I teach a smaller sized class of anywhere from 27 -35 students. This summer I managed to get a larger lecture class on the order of 80 -100 students. No biggie right? I just have more papers to grade and more copies of homework and exams to get. Well …
Part 4: Creationism – when you teach science there is no controversy.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by animal behavior. At the age of six I embarked on a career path from which I never wavered. Except once. Almost. As a sophomore in college I took two semesters of Astronomy to round out my non-biology science electives. …
Part 3: Debating creationism – why it is good idea (but not always)
For Bill Nye or anyone else to debate a creationist like Ken Ham makes no more sense than for Neil deGrasse Tyson to debate a flat-earther. The science of both issues is settled – debates just give credibility to crackpots. Oh, do I disagree. Dr. Tyson should debate a flat-earther, …
Pop Quiz: Givens
It’s a given that all college professors are liberal, that all students are lazy, that all politicians are corrupt… Stereotypes are thought to provide rapid information about a situation to reduce processing time. They develop from generalizations and therefore remove any individual differences. The issues with it are well known …