Monthly Archives: November 2007

Hey, did you know that kids like the winter holidays?  Shocking, I know, but I have proof: This is the first year he’s been interested in jumping into raked leaves.  Lots of merriment. (What I particularly like about these pictures … Continue reading →

On the one hand, it seems certain that the recent NEA report alleging a steep decline in reading is alarmist and overdrawn, relying on a tendentious understanding of the history of literacy and underestimating reading in new media. On the … Continue reading →

Monday at preschool, The Little Man was asked what he would be thankful for on Thursday.  His answer: “The food, because if the Indians didn’t share their food with the colonists, then they would all have died.”  (We like to … Continue reading →

<pouting> Special thanks to the League of American Theaters & Producers for wrecking Thanksgiving: The latest round of talks between the producers’ league and the stagehands’ union broke down last night, leaving no end in sight for the strike that … Continue reading →

While glancing briefly at my gmail spam folder, I found these lovely seasons’ greetings: Man power, sex-mas is comming soon! It’s nice to see them getting into the holiday spirit, instead of relying on fear and self-loathing.  I almost sang … Continue reading →

I have a “Views” essay on InsideHigherEd.com this morning, urging faculty to see assessment as a force for good.  From the point of view of actual experts on assessment–which I am not–it probably has a bit of a “water is … Continue reading →

You might be teaching a gen-ed class if it’s November and it occurs to you that not all of your students know your name. (In fact, I discovered this when a student was reduced to describing me to A, whom … Continue reading →

For the second year, I’m teaching a section of the yearlong thesis preparation sequence in my school’s honors program. To ensure continuity of expectations with the other sections, we use the same basic assignments, which in the fall culminate in … Continue reading →

This is probably the wrong semester to plug this, as some of my vaunted organizational skills have succumbed a little under the pressure of some, um, interesting campus developments, but I did want to draw people’s attention to the public … Continue reading →

Today’s Doonesbury is about teaching in the laptop era: Zipper clearly needs to visit Inbox Zero to manage his e-mail. This strip raises some questions for me, though: Aside from the e-mail joke, what do you take to be the … Continue reading →