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.
Fontinal (adj): growing near springs. Funtinal (adj): springy and fun. A short list this week, which means each one is extra-special:
Science:
Auto-appendectomy – In the spring of 1961, with no other medical professional around, a Russian surgeon stationed at the South Pole was forced to perform an appendectomy on himself.
Media:
Tree house – A unique and unusual [...]
Finical (adj): excessively precise in trivial matters. Funical (adj): accuracy in amusement. Here we go:
Social:
Road to the Olympics – I’ve mentioned Capzles before as a timeline tool for the classroom, and this is a good example. CBC has included photos and videos of the lead-up to the Vancouver games.
Political manoeuvering – Tom Flanagan, professor of [...]
fanfaronade (n): grandiose trumpet blast. funfaronade (n): grand group of amusing links. Let the blast begin!
End of year/End of decade:
Decade in photos – The Big Picture looks back over the last 10 years with photos that are iconic of the times we lived through. Some are expected (Sept 11th), some I’d forgotten (Elian Gonzales), and [...]
I signed up for ClustrMaps last year at this time – it’s the service that generates the little red-spotted map at the botton-right of the page. Basically, it uses the geographic data from each visitor’s electronic trail to mark a world map of where they’re surfing from. The result is this:
As the counter at the [...]
Now that Christmas is officially over, I thought I’d post all twelve songs from the countdown in one easy-to-get-at place. So here they are:
12 – Relient K – 12 Days of Christmas
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
11 – BarlowGirl – Carol of the Bells/Sing We Now of Christmas
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
10 [...]
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone had a great day with family and/or friends. We had a fun day of food, presents, movies, food and food. We opened many gifts this morning, both kids were pleased with their haul, as were the adults.
I got most of what I asked for, along with some things I [...]
The final song in the countdown is BarlowGirl’s “Hallelujah (Light Has Come),” another Christmas song from the perspective of the parents. This triumphant proclamation (“Hallelujah, we’ve been found/A child is born to save us now” ) is fitting for the day of expectation, the Eve of Christmas.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
–> D/L <–
I don’t have much to say about today’s song, an instrumental version of “I Saw Three Ships” by Rivertribe, other than it manages to add a pleasant Celtic feel to the song, even with modern instrumentation. Have a listen:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
–> D/L <–
Third Day had an impressive showing on the last list, with four songs making the cut. In the interest of not repeating any songs from the previous outing, I’ve only put one on this year’s offering, “What Child Is This?” This is a pretty traditional take on the song, but holds its own against more [...]
Sorry about the late post on this one – I got the email ready early last week, and thought I’d posted it here, too… my bad.
This being the last Fun Friday before the holidays, I thought I’d try and tilt the theme that way as much as possible. Unfortunately, while I did get some end-of-the-year [...]
MercyMe’s rendition of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” is ambitious, yet somehow still simple. I think it has something to do with the spare guitar at the beginning, and the fidelity to the traditional melody, at least on the verses. The choruses are a multi-layered construction that manages not to seem out of place [...]
A couple of months after I wrote the review on the Logitech Freepulse headphones, the power button stopped working, so I had to find a new pair of headphones.
For a while, I made do with a pair of wired headphones, but they’re clearly not geeky enough, so I was looking for a new pair of [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
