So I’ll be the first to admit that because of my wide variety of classes taught, my marking has been somewhat schizophrenic. I don’t generally mark the same way in CPT as I do in History, French or Science, and each class lends itself to specific ways of gathering marks. Readers will note that I [...]
Read the full story »Movies, music, books and other elements of culture.
Teaching, instruction, students and whatnot.
Family stories, legislation affecting families, discussion on family issues.
Gizmos, gadgets and the latest gear.
Politics, news and happenings around the world.
This article (http://blog.coreknowledge.org/2010/05/17/why-does-it-have-to-be-eitheror-it-doesn%E2%80%99t-but%E2%80%A6/) gets across far more elegantly what I was trying to say in my previous post… that process, held above content, leads to selection of content not on its own merits, but on the merits of the skills it can impart to students. This is the triumph of process [...]
I’ve come to realise the underpinnings of a fundamental disagreement with the direction of education in my school and the province. At heart, I’m a product-orientated person. I don’t care how you do something as long as it gets done to a particular level. The problem I have is that things like UBD and new [...]
Foinery (n): fencing; swordplay. Funery (n): wordplay. Here are your links for this week:
Social:
Gulf oil woes – The Big Picture has a series of photos on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. As usual, they are excellent.
Red families vs. Blue families – Social consequences of the divide between the way red [...]
I originally signed on to Facebook a couple of years back because a friend told me I could find an old high school buddy through the site. Fair enough. Since then, I’ve reconnected with a couple of old friends, but not in any meaningful kind of way – just a few chats now and then. [...]
Felsenmeer (n): flat arctic area covered with angular boulders. Funsenmeer (n): flat computer screen covered with arch comedy. Here are this week’s links!
Afghanistan – The Big Picture’s monthly look at the lives of combatants and civilians in Afghanistan.
The Morning Guy – Interesting (and humourous) look at the brain science behind the workday and productivity.
CIA’s target [...]
funambulism (n): tightrope walking; show of mental agility. Hey! That word already starts with fun- … I guess that answers the question, “Where’s the fun in that?” Here are your links:
Language Arts:
Challenged books – The ALA’s list of the most challenged books in 2009 is now available at Flashlight Worthy. The reasons that some of [...]
My district finds itself in a bit of a pickle finance-wise this year. Three factors have come together to create one of the toughest financial times this school district has faced.
The first is inability to raise our own funds. The Saskatchewan government last year announced that it was removing the ability of local school boards [...]
Farraginous (adj): disordered; jumbled; miscellaneous. Funraginous (adj): pile of assorted amusements. I only have eleven this week, so here they are, unordered:
BBC photo classes – The Beeb’s Wildlife Magazine’s “12-part series on the art of wildlife and nature photography. Each issue [...] will focus on a different type of photography and demonstrate how you [...]
Filipendulous (adj): hanging by or strung on a thread. Funlipendulous (adj): the thin thread that ties this definition to amusement (whoa, meta). Here we go!
Social:
Old age – This is the elderly age. As the article points out, “Of all the people in human history who ever reached the age of 65, half are alive [...]
Since tomorrow we are all off on vacation, I thought I’d do the links roundup thing today. Here’s the list:
Social:
Afghanistan – The Big Picture’s monthly take on life in the troubled country of Afghanistan includes celebration and tragedy.
Letters to the President – Every day, President Obama reads 10 letters from ordinary Americans to get a [...]
I’m really enjoying the new Matt Maher album, Alive Again. A line from one song in particular (Flesh And Bone) has stuck with me:
I met a man who walked on water
Who wore His crown like a blue collar.
I met a man who treated children
Like they were ambassadors to the kingdom.
I wonder how often the church [...]
Given what Jesus had to say to the rich young man, what do you think He would have to say to a church that is using a $4.5 million Easter Egg Hunt to get people to come to church on Easter Sunday? This church in Texas is giving away fifteen thousand gift bags valued at [...]
After having Patrick Ness‘ books recommended to me by the fine folks at io9, I went to the library and picked up a copy of The Knife of Never Letting Go, the first book of the Chaos Walking trilogy. And, man is it good! So good, I went and read through the sequel, The Ask [...]
I’ve had many discussions with outstanding teachers around the country (Teachers of the Year, Milken Educators, NBCTs, and so forth). It always amazes me how few of the teachers being recognized for their accomplishments in the classroom can brag on the support of their administrators. Much more common are stories of subversion, sneaking around policies, [...]
When I went to mow the lawn the other day, the kids asked why I’d let the grass get so long. I told them it was so the elephants would have a place to hide, not really thinking about it. Of course, with a line like that, the kids wanted to know all about elephants [...]
When I started this blog in 2002, it was with the intention of it becoming a repository of links to stories I was interested in. It has evolved over the past eight years to become that and much else. While my weekly links roundups serve much the same purpose as the original story file, the [...]
Fideism (n): doctrine that knowledge depends on faith over reason. Fundeism (n): doctrine that places amusement above all. This will be my last Fun Friday update for this school year – they’ll pick up again in the fall, time permitting. Here are your links for this week:
Social:
Scenes from the Gulf – The Big Picture has [...]
As I mentioned in my last post, I volunteered my summer to go up to our local church camp and film the events of the week. I’ve put up some of the videos on YouTube, so for those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter, here’s what I’ve got so far:
Rules video – all [...]
My impression of Canada Post’s online tracking system:
Day 1: Your package has been electronically submitted.
Day 2: Your package has been processed in Mississauga.
Day 3: Your package has been processed in Mississauga.
Day 4: Your package has been processed in Mississauga.
Day 5: Your package has been processed in Mississauga.
Day 6: Your package has been processed in Mississauga.
*package [...]
Alfred Thompson mentioned earlier today via Twitter that he was interested in seeing medal counts per population for the countries involved. Realising that this kind of math was right up my alley, I decided to make such a table for my own interest… The first four columns were what Alfred was talking about, and I [...]
