education
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I Love This Alot
I was going to try to write a post today, but thanks to Adriana, I found this… The Alot Is Better Than You At Everything …so I don’t have to! It’s all about the fantastical creature “Alot,” and it makes me very happy. Now reading my students’ papers full of grammatical errors will be an Continue reading
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Joanne Jacobs’ New Blog: Community College Spotlight
The always enlightening Joanne Jacobs has started a new blog, Community College Spotlight. Here’s a little info that she passed on to me earlier today: Nearly half of college-goers go to a community college. And when people talk about educating our way to prosperity, that will happen at community colleges — or not at all….Community Continue reading
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A World Without People
Yesterday, when I left school, I wanted to live in a world without people in it for just a little while. My classes that morning had gone well – my Child Studies students just finished reading the first Harry Potter book, and we talked about why most of them loved it, and I asked them Continue reading
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Why Children Shouldn’t Read
I love this excerpt, published in today’s Globe and Mail, from children’s author Susan Juby’s new memoir, Nice Recovery. This book has gone straight to my list of “what to read next,” and it may be a contender for the reading list for next fall’s personal narrative course. In it, Juby discusses her struggle, beginning Continue reading
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What I’m Learning From Roberto Bolaño’s The Skating Rink
A friend gave me a copy of The Skating Rink for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. I’d told her that I’ve been trying to get into mystery novels lately, and she’s been devouring Bolaño but didn’t want to plunge me into his difficult masterpiece 2666. It’s a relatively slim book, with an attractive, Continue reading
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What I’m Learning From What I’m Reading: Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto
On Thursday, I received a number of pre-spring-break, post-1st-major-assignment visits, emails and phone calls from students who are now hopelessly behind. These communiqués are always bad for my blood pressure. I start obsessing about what I will say if they challenge my “no makeups without a medical excuse” policy. I twitch every time I think Continue reading
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What I’m Learning From What I’m Reading: Zadie Smith’s Changing My Mind
There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What Continue reading
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Teaching This Week: 5 Cool Things
I managed to make some time this week (mostly due to a couple of sick days) to mess around online, and see what the world of teaching looks like right now. 1. The big talk is around the New York Times Sunday Magazine’s article “Can Good Teaching Be Learned?” (or, as it is known online, Continue reading
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Steven Pinker, Jezebel, Cathleen Schine and Others on the Value of Reading
In response to my recent posts on the value of reading (and teaching literature), I’ve been sent some terrific links that shed light on the topic. BikeLizard over at my OpenSalon version of this blog mentioned a Jezebel article called “Page Rage: When Books Make Kids Hate Reading.” In it, the author grapples with the Continue reading
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Literature and the Meaningful Life
Here’s a little something I found in my inbox this morning. What makes for a meaningful life? I consider each day, not just the life as a whole. I look at four ingredients. First, was it a day of virtue? I’m talking about …avoiding harmful behavior of body, speech, and mind; devoting ourselves to wholesome 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 