teaching
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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
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Why Study Literature?
Why should young people study literature? Why, in particular, should seventeen-to-twenty-year-olds who don’t read for pleasure and have weak literacy skills be forced to spend their time reading poetry, novels, plays etc. instead of working on simple reading comprehension and writing skills? Is it as important for students to read Salinger or Ishiguro as it Continue reading
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Top 10 Posts of 2009
Have you gotten behind on your blog reading? Do you wish you’d had time to read EVERY SINGLE POST here at Classroom as Microcosm this past year? Or are you a new reader who doesn’t know how to get caught up on all this teacherly goodness? Never fear – I’ve put together a handy list Continue reading
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The New Semester: 10 Resolutions
Classes start again in less than two weeks. (Primary, secondary and university teachers who are already back at work, I know what you’re thinking: “Shut up.” Believe me, I know how good I’ve got it.) I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. However, one theme that presents itself frequently in my Buddhist meditation practice and my Continue reading
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Dear Auntie Siobhan: Should I Become a Teacher?
Hi Siobhan, First, let me say that your blog is a great resource. I stumbled on it a few weeks ago and have read almost all of the entries. Your writing is refreshingly articulate, and I have enjoyed reading it. I’m considering a career in CEGEP teaching down the line. At this stage I have Continue reading
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Education and the Meaning of “Growth”
Is education primarily about growth? What exactly is “growth,” and does it always equal “education”? The philosopher John Dewey defined education as an accumulation of experiences that stimulate both growth and the capacity for further growth. In Experience and Education, Dewey tells us, “…the educative experience can be identified with growth,” and further clarifies that Continue reading
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Arrows Into Blossoms
I’ve just finished reading Pema Chodron’s Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears. If you’re not familiar with Chodron, she is perhaps the world’s most famous Tibetan Buddhist American nun, and her works are meant to help Westerners understand the basic precepts of Tibetan Buddhism and apply them usefully in their own 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 