teaching
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Ask Auntie Siobhan #3: The Administration Says I’m to Blame for Student Problems
The third installment of Auntie Siobhan’s advice column appeared on Change.org’s education blog this morning. Today’s question: what do I do if the administration blames me for irrational student behavior? Go check it out, and leave your own advice! If you have questions for Auntie Siobhan, please email me at siobhancurious@gmail.com. Continue reading
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dear Auntie Siobhan, installment 2: an absent student is making me crazy
Today on Change.org’s education blog, Auntie Siobhan expounds on what to do when a student refuses to come to class (and thus ruins other people’s lives.) Please visit and leave your thoughts! And if you have a question for Auntie Siobhan, write to me at siobhancurious@gmail.com. Continue reading
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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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Lesson Diary, or, Stuff I Might Do Next Semester
I used to keep a lesson diary. I might start doing it again. I’ve been participating in the Castle Book Club discussion of Daniel T. Willingham’s Why Don’t Students Like School? – half-heartedly, I admit, for two reasons. First, my beloved cat died last week, and since then I’ve been doing everything with only half 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
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.
Classroom as Microcosm 