Posted in Argument, College, Education, Students on Oct 26th, 2007 No Comments »
I have a hard time reconciling where I stand when it comes to technology in education, and I blame my students.
I see the benefits of many technological advances; however, much of the positive is outweighed by students’ failing to take appropriate advantage of the tools at their disposal.
Here are a few examples:
E-mail:
When I was in […]
Posted in Argument, Education, Students, Teaching on Sep 11th, 2007 2 Comments »
Having basically sung the praises of my first week of school, the bottom dropped out this morning when I received a particularly vicious e-mail from one of my students.
I’m posting the correspondence below, and it’s verbatim save for the student’s name which has been changed because I don’t want said student getting even five seconds […]
Posted in Argument, Education, Students, Teaching on May 12th, 2007 2 Comments »
Thursday night, while doing a variety of household things, I had the news on in the background, and I stopped to listen to a story about twelve grade-school teachers who have been giving extra help to students.
Friday, try as I might, I couldn’t find the story anywhere online. Of course, I didn’t listen carefully […]
Posted in Argument, College, Education, Students, Teaching, Writing on May 10th, 2007 2 Comments »
I posted my e-mail response to one of my students yesterday, and today, I learned from another of my students what the real scoop was with Ms. Numerous Deaths and Tragedies Girl. She is up for a promotion at a local (low-end) electronics store.
If things go well for her, she’ll soon be an assistant […]
Posted in Argument, College, Education, Students, Teaching on Apr 21st, 2007 2 Comments »
Do you remember the game that challenged you to look at a series of objects and determine which if the objects didn’t belong?
(I’ve always thought if it as a weird twist on the cliché guilt by association. In the case of that game, it’s innocence by association. But, I digress.)
Over the past week, […]
Posted in Argument, College, Education, Students on Apr 11th, 2007 2 Comments »
This debate is part of what’s wrong with the educational system (and the real world): no critical thinking skills are required.
A chunk of America is in an uproar over the on-air comments Don Imus made about the women’s basketball team at Rutgers University, and while I stand with the crowd, my voice carries a different […]
Posted in Argument, College, Education, English, Narration, Students, Teaching, Writing on Apr 10th, 2007 No Comments »
I may have figured out what I am doing wrong in teacher-land: I try to act like an adult, and I presume the people with whom I am interacting are adults.
stupid-stupid-stupid
Last night, after dismissing my final class, I experienced one of those moments when professionalism and simply being human clashed.
One of my students returned to […]
Posted in Argument, Books, College, Education, English, Students, Teaching on Mar 14th, 2007 2 Comments »
The latest buzz concerning the mounting difficulties of being a college student revolves around the cost of textbooks. One article about this states that,
According to a survey conducted by the California Student Public Interest Research Group, college students in California and Oregon spent an average of $898 on new and used textbooks during the […]
Posted in Argument, College, Education, English, Essay, Students, Teaching, Writing on Mar 8th, 2007 No Comments »
Yesterday, while minding my own business checking my department box and running off a few photocopies, I got into a discussion debate an argument with one of my fellow teachers regarding the issue of plagiarism.
The situation began this way: one instructor (we’ll call her Sally) asked another instructor (we’ll call him Boyd) whether or not […]
Posted in Argument, College, Education, English, Students, Teaching, Writing on Mar 6th, 2007 No Comments »
I’ll be honest: sometimes, a student dropping a class is a blessing. Other times, it is an event that passes unnoticed.
Yesterday, a good student dropped one of my classes, and losing a good student is an almost irreplaceable loss: they add to discussions; they motivate other students; the make doing what I do worth […]