February 2011

Flood of Mysteries and Science

Well worth your time time to read: How We Know by Freeman Dyson | The New York Review of Books: “The information flood has also brought enormous benefits to science. The public has a distorted view of science, because children are taught in school that science is a collection of firmly established truths. In fact, …

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De Grading

A big thanks to Joe Bower for pointing these links from Alfie Kohn out on Twitter today: From Degrading to De-Grading Grading: The Issue Is Not How but Why I also have to thank Joe for being one of the inspirations for my own “de-grading” trend in the classroom this year as I continue my …

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My Teaching Career in a Nutshell (or Parachute)

This short video sums up what I’ve learned about teaching over the last six years… get out of the student’s way and let them point you to real discovery. Camera Into Space – a set on Flickr “Hey, that worked!” Exactly. Thank you, Caroline and Ethan.

Cautionary Wave

People (especially students) don’t do their best work when compensation or reward is based on intermediate performance goals: Google Wave: Why did Google feel that Google Wave was a good product? – Quora: “In short, Google was experimenting with a drastically new model in an attempt to retain key talent and ended up getting the …

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Sweet Reader

One of my 8th Graders is blogging about dessert pictures she takes that remind her of books she reads (she’s an avid reader). You should follow along… Sweet Reader Yes, it is awesome.