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using student blogs
Next semester, I’m going to teach a souped-up version of my Travel Literature course, and I’m interested in using student blogs as a major assignment. Here’s my idea: I’d like to organize my students into “blog circles” of 6-8 people, and have them keep individual blogs and respond to each other. I have two possible… Continue reading
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this week in carnival
This week’s Carnival of Education is up over at Scheiss Weekly. Some highlights: Joanne Jacobs on whether schooling until age 19 should be compulsory. Curriculum Matters on why streaming in middle schools is a problem. Teacher In a Strange Land on curmudgeons who complain about the school band. Scenes from the Battleground on end-of-year pandemonium. Continue reading
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same blog, new name
Brief administrative update: I’ve changed the title of this blog – or rather, I’ve shortened it to “classroom as microcosm” because, well, it’s shorter, and because people are having trouble spelling “Siobhan.” The url remains “siobhancurious.wordpress.com”. Am I going to be sorry I did this? Is it going to cause confusion/complications for readers/subscribers? I have… 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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carnival!
This week’s Carnival of Education is up over at Learn Me Good. Go read; there’s lots of people saying lots of important stuff, especially about these last days of school. Continue reading
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how I saved my teaching career part 3: take time off
The third post in my series “How I Saved My Teaching Career” is now up at SchoolGate, the TimesOnline’s education blog. Go check it out and leave some comments! I’d love to hear what you think. 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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Carnival of Education #225
Welcome to Week 225 of the Carnival of Education! This is my first time hosting the Carnival. I’m excited, but like the rest of you, I am drowning in grading, so I haven’t had two brain cells to rub together this week. I tried to come up with a clever theme. You can imagine how… 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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post #2 at School Gate: how I saved my teaching career
The second in my series of posts for School Gate, the TimesOnline education blog, is now up. The series is called “How I Saved My Teaching Career,” and this post’s topic is “Take Stock: Is Teaching Worth It?” Please go read and comment, and link/forward freely! The more attention these posts get, the happier the… 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 