This entry is part 2 of 35 in the series Teaching TransparentlyOne of the reasons I love to teach is that I get to learn. Be it from my students or the people who come to our class… every semester I acquire new knowledge, ideas, and perspectives thanks to what happens in the classroom. As(…)
This entry is part 8 of 35 in the series Teaching Transparently We are at the 1/2 way spot in our semester. It’s midterm grading time (here the grades at midterm are pretty simple: Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory, Really Unsatisfactory and Never Seen This Person). It is also a perfect time to ask the students to evaluate(…)
I’m going to give a lecture today that basically is the toughest one I’ve ever had to give, and for some of you it’s the toughest one you’ve ever had to hear. Last month, Jonathan Turley posted an entry about Richard Quinn, an instructor at the University of Central Florida who confronted his class after(…)
This entry is part 14 of 35 in the series Teaching TransparentlyIt has been a busy spring, what with our infamous birds and a remarkably rough and tumble college admission process for my eldest son. My energies, needless to say, have been diverted away from this space. There has been a lot of chatter recently(…)
This morning I upgraded TweetDeck for the mac. There are a gazillion different twitter readers out there…I started using this one when Twhirl died on me. TweetDeck allows you to not only manage multiple accounts…which I seem to have (personal, LLU, and soon… my class)…it also allows you to search for key words or just(…)
This entry is part 18 of 35 in the series Teaching TransparentlyThe lesson: Understand how to form and use comparisons of equality and comparisons of inequality. Figure out the superlative and how to use it. Learn all of the irregular forms. Make it make sense. Make it work. Have fun. Go. The semester is winding(…)
This entry is part 21 of 35 in the series Teaching Transparently My job is a language center director first and foremost, but the opportunity to teach language classes gives me a perspective on teaching and learning that I would not get by just running the CILC. It also helps me do the job better.(…)
This entry is part 25 of 35 in the series Teaching Transparently Lesson #3: Marc Prensky got it all wrong Marc Prensky’s famous and yet false binary that says our students are digital natives and the rest of us are digital immigrants has addled me for years. As -if- we needed to create any more(…)
This entry is part 26 of 35 in the series Teaching TransparentlyLesson # 2: It’s not about you: actually, it’s always been about them I believe that before you apply any of these new, disruptive, innovative, learner-centric tools to your teaching, you -yes you- have to embrace these tools first. They have to be a(…)
This entry is part 32 of 35 in the series Teaching Transparently February 1, 2009:I have spent the day crafting a document that ended up being less of a step by step syllabus, and more of a “what we want the outcome of this class to be” treatise. The document is parked over here with(…)
For much of the last three weeks, this comic has been my life: mooching free wireless (thank you, jrodie, whoever you are) from a neighbor while living out of boxes in my new apartment here in San Francisco. Earlier this summer I accepted a position at UC San Francisco, working in the Center for Instructional(…)