March 2011
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Favorite Song Friday: My Mathematical Mind by...
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“When nothing in life makes any sense, LOTR makes sense.”
– I say this! (via north-baby)
Words to live by.
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This summer one of my projects is going to be to create high-school friendly versions of classic biology papers.
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Rick Ayers: Letter to a Young Teacher →
everydayramny:
adventuresinlearning:
“letter to a young teacher.”
Dear Malik, We are, sadly, living in the year of hating teachers. Whether it’s Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker rewarding the super-rich while complaining about the high compensation of teachers or Obama’s education secretary Arne Duncan applauding the mass firing of teachers and endorsing the teacher-bashing rhetoric of the...
“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They...”
– Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country (via libraryland)
I have a semi-colon problem. I use them ALL THE TIME.
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Evolution and Religion in the Classroom
Long-ish opinion post about evolution/religion in the classroom. Click through if you are interested.
The bioethics discussion I started today went really well—my kids had some really thoughtful opinions and great, relevant questions. I was impressed, and I had a lot of fun with it. My students were all interested; I have one kid who literally has not said anything in a whole class...
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US Urged to Raise Teachers' Status →
This is certainly an argument I agree with—in fact, I think that status/respect is more important than just increasing pay.
But it’s worth pointing out that the status of teachers in society is still just one small piece of the American education puzzle. We know that socioeconomic status is a leading predictor of academic outcomes in this country. Comparing our educational system to...
You know you're Unitarian Universalist When...
Your minister e-mails the congregation to invite people to participate in an adult religious education series entitled “Understanding White Privilege.”
Let Kids Rule the School - NYTimes.com →
“They are free to cast votes to signal their support/opposition, but those votes...”
– Republican Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, explaining how the Democratic Senators votes will no longer count because they’re in contempt after going to Illinois to prevent quorum. (via wisconsinforward)
WHAT!?
(via positivelypersistentteach)
Can someone more fluent than I in the rules of legislative...
“The candles of the city shine to tell the world what we want,
The candles of...”
– Two young Libyans whose rap music is being broadcast to the front line by rebel Benghazi radio hope they are helping to maintain the morale of fighters outgunned by Gaddafi forces.
“Rap does not physically change things, but it invigorates the soul of people fighting and sends a message to all...
Started a job application for a school district in VA and it is soooo time-consuming and they want so many things. Ugh I hope every school district I apply to is not like this, considering that I will be applying to ALL OF THE DISTRICTS, but I suspect that they all will be.
PA’s hopelessly bureaucratic PA-educator site is beginning to seem inspired.
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I’m a 2011 Knowles Science Teaching Fellow, guys! So excited, honored, gratified, etc. This is going to give me access to an outstanding support system and great resources during my first few years in the classroom. I feel very lucky and privileged to have the opportunity to begin shaping my practice in this context. When I was at the interview weekend I was so energized and...
I was using the copier today, and the math teacher on my team was waiting in line behind me. As I left I said bye to her and then overheard another teacher asking who I was.
“She’s Nikki’s student teacher and she’s great.” My already awesome day got even better!
