learning
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ask Auntie Siobhan, 1st installment: “All My Students Are Cheating!”
My new advice column, “Ask Auntie Siobhan,” debuted on Change.org’s education blog this morning. Today’s topic: why are so many of my students plagiarizing their papers? Please go visit and leave your reactions! And if you have a question for Auntie Siobhan, email me at siobhancurious@gmail.com. I’ll be answering one or two questions a day,… Continue reading
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how I saved my teaching career part 6: get more training
The latest post on my series “How I Saved My Teaching Career” appeared on the TimesOnline’s education blog, School Gate, today. This post is about getting more training in order to improve your skills and refresh your perspective. Go check it out! And leave us some comments on the ways you’ve used education to improve… Continue reading
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what makes a blog good?
What do you think are the characteristics of a good blog? My goal for today is to put together a handout for my Travel Literature students, who will be blogging next semester as one of their major projects. Before they begin, I’d like to give them a list of criteria for a good blog, focused… Continue reading
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The Uses of Boredom
I became a reader because I was bored. I learned to read when I was about four years old, but, like most children, I read only picture books until I was seven. My parents brought me to the library every two weeks, and I filled up on library books at school as well, but picture… Continue reading
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There are Worse Things than Dropping Out of School
Craig Althof over at In Pursuit of Excellence emailed me the other day with an article from CNN about “dropout prevention programs” in the United States, including the America’s Promise Alliance’s program, which is chaired by Gen. Colin Powell. The introduction to the article focuses on dropout prevention “foot soldiers” (a coordinator and a police… Continue reading
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professional development meme 2009
I’ve been tagged by Tracy Rosen; thanks Tracy! This meme recently appeared on Clif’s Notes. Directions: Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s… Continue reading
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What’s to Like about School?
Did you like school? (Or, if you’re a student now, do you?) I’m reading Daniel T. Willingham’s Why Don’t Students Like School? It’s totally readable and very interesting, and I’ll post a review when I’m done. (I’ve also joined a reading group to discuss it, over at Dangerously Irrelevant; if you’ve been wanting to pick… Continue reading
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Who Are Your Gurus?
This week has been an exercise in detachment. I’ve been grading very long and sometimes very difficult final papers, and in a moment of hair-tearing frustration, wrote the post 10 Reasons I Hate Grading Your Assignment. When it went up here and, especially, on my Open Salon blog, there was an outpouring of hilarity, with… Continue reading
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10 Reasons I Hate Grading Your Assignment
10. You don’t double-space. You KNOW that I take formatting points off when you don’t double-space. Double-space does NOT mean space-and-a-half. We’ve discussed this. 9. Your printer ink is not black. You KNOW that I take formatting points off when you print in blue, purple or green. You also know that if your print is… Continue reading
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first I take the Times…
I am utterly, utterly stoked to announce that my first guest blogging gig is with School Gate, the TimesOnline (that’s right, folks, the Times of London) education blog. Sarah Ebner generously asked me to sign up. I’ll be writing a series of posts on overcoming teacher burnout and learning to love teaching again. You will… Continue reading
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.
Classroom as Microcosm 