A little bit of a bonus for continual fear.

Back in 2001, Houston Independent School District gave me a $10,000 sign on bonus to teach history. History. The story of the past. An exploration of causes that explain our present and, hopefully, a method to peer into a glimmer of the world we’re creating. I loved teaching history. My most memorable class featured a […]
I Always Tried to Use Chicago Style

Technology creates anachronisms faster than we educators understand and realize. Take the citation as an example. In high school I turned in papers MLA style (make sure to get the commas in the correct place). For graduate school it was ALA. For my undergraduate senior thesis I went with Chicago Style if only because it […]
Curriculum Wars – What’s Missing
In the many education feeds that I monitor, curriculum war stories always lack a fundamental reality check. First, a short explanation. In the United States, curriculum wars are typically painted as a battle between conservatives and liberals over state curriculum and, by extension, textbooks. This is a simplification, but a simplification that serves our media’s […]
You’ve Lost the Argument
Seth Godin features a post on how to loose an argument. Personal favorites: Forget the pitfalls of Godwin’s law. Any time you mention Hitler or even Communist China or Bill O’Reilly, you’ve lost. Bring up the slippery slope. Actually, the slope isn’t that slippery. People don’t end up marrying dogs, becoming cannibals or harvesting organs […]
Tacky but Effective?
Dan Myer opines that stock photo + quote = tacky lameness. I suppose from a purely intellectual stance he might have a point. But sometimes we teachers love tackiness. Scott Mcleod, technoedu evangalist supreme apostle, puts one up every week. Monday’s feature: