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Posts Tagged ‘teaching’

The Value of Term Papers

Posted in Education, Language and Literature, tagged , , , on January 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The brilliant professor Mark Bauerlein scores yet another direct hit in a recent post about the value of those old-fashioned writing assignments: In my classes I include both types of assignments, short, one-page writings and longer 7-page papers (I rarely go over 10 pages these days, but I try to make the class have 25-30 [...]

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Me Quoted On Writing

Posted in Education, tagged , , , on January 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

A couple of months ago, a student at my school came in and asked my opinions about student writing.  I thought she was just writing for the school newspaper, but a couple of weeks ago her story ran in the local paper, the Las Vegas Review Journal.  It’s quite good.  She got some good material [...]

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Fall Finals Freshmen Follies

Posted in Education, tagged , , , on December 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

I had some spectacular deja vu two weeks ago as my college classes were studying for finals.  I took them down to the building’s huge main lobby, where I hung butcher paper on the walls, with titles I wrote in the center, based on the major units of the semester.  I broke them into teams, [...]

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Voluntary Martyr Teachers

Posted in Education, tagged , , , on November 8, 2011 | 4 Comments »

In my first few years of teaching, I tried to be one those Hero Teachers–the guy who stays at work ten hours a day, who goes in sometimes on Saturdays, who takes tons of work home and grades while he tries to unwind at night. During that third or fourth year, a scary thought hit [...]

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Scrutiny in Teaching Writing

Posted in Education, Language and Literature, tagged , , , , on November 5, 2011 | 3 Comments »

A post at National Review, and some great follow up comments from readers, offers some great ideas about teaching writing: The only way to address writing is to give line-by-line feedback. We cannot assume that students know what good writing looks like. Every time students pass a written assignment at any level with subpar writing, such [...]

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Professor Huston Performs and Lectures on YouTube

Posted in Education, Language and Literature, tagged , , , , , , on October 1, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Ever since I started blogging, I’ve wanted to do some kind of podcasting: I’ve always been told I have a pretty good voice, and I try to have an energetic, engaging classroom presence.  Therefore, I thought I’d post some audio of me at work, to see if anyone else out there might like it or [...]

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Great Letter From A Teacher

Posted in Education, tagged , , , , on August 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Today, the Las Vegas Review-Journal ran a letter from a teacher about standards and testing.  It was both touching and practical.  Her story ends like this: Let’s get back to studying science, teaching cursive writing, the stock market, great literature and history, and a remarkable thing will happen: Teachers will love to teach again and [...]

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Two New Quotes For You

Posted in Education, tagged , , , , on August 9, 2011 | 1 Comment »

From Sol Stern’s “A Solution for Gotham’s Reading Woes,” City Journal, Summer 2011: Noting that SAT reading scores nose-dived in the 1960s and have remained flat ever since, Hirsch blames the nation’s education schools. “Our teachers and administrators are taught brilliant slogans like ‘rote regurgitation of mere facts’ which make factual knowledge sound objectionable,” Hirsch [...]

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Parents Are Not Entertainers

Posted in Living well, tagged , , , , on August 5, 2011 | 1 Comment »

I used to love it when my children would come up to me and ask me to play with them.  This is what it’s all about, right?  Quality time, giving them your full attention, responding to their needs.  But after a while I began to realize what was really going on.  Most of those requests [...]

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Notes on “Educating the Saints”: An Expansive Philosophy of Education

Posted in Education, tagged , , , , , , on August 2, 2011 | 5 Comments »

Below is the text of Hugh Nibley’s classic 1970 essay “Educating the Saints” (copied from this online source, with fair use in mind), including my notes on what we can learn from it, as teachers and students, about education.  I submit that, though Nibley was writing for and about Mormons, this is the best work [...]

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Speaking of Aardvarks…

Posted in Humor, tagged , , on July 20, 2011 | 1 Comment »

One of the hardest things to do naturally as a teacher is to transition smoothly and logically from one topic or activity to another.  Sometimes lessons are closely related; often they’re not.  Sometimes a useful transitioning device will present itself; usually they don’t.  I’ve been quite fortunate to discover some pretty clever ways of connecting disparate [...]

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A Response to The New Yorker About Writing and Literature at UNLV

Posted in Education, tagged , , , , on June 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

The New Yorker just ran an excellent essay looking at some thorny educational issues: why do so many people go to college today?  Are they getting much out of it?  Should college be different?  The author sympathetically looks at different angles to these issues, and addresses recent ideas and research on them.  At one point, though, [...]

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On Teaching Writing Vs. Teaching Literature

Posted in Education, tagged , , , , , , , on May 31, 2011 | 1 Comment »

A couple of notable essays have appeared recently about focusing on teaching writing, as opposed to literature.  Here are a few money quotes, starting with the original piece in Salon: It’s hard to blame anyone for not wanting to teach writing, which, while it might not involve manual labor or public floggings, is hard, grueling work. Often [...]

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Logical Fallacies and “Asians in the Library”

Posted in Politics and Society, tagged , , , , , , , on March 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

An excellent teaching moment came my way yesterday.  My English 101 class spends the last half of the semester doing a unit on persuasive writing, and the textbook has a whole section on logical fallacies.  In addition to a dry review of them last night, I ended class with something a little more unique and [...]

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When I Became A Real Teacher

Posted in Education, tagged , , on March 26, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

When I was doing my student teaching, kids would ask all the time, “Are you a real teacher yet?  When will you be a real teacher?”  I’d usually respond, “What?  Because I’ve been faking it so far?” But here’s a better answer: When I started student teaching, I wasn’t as scared of those classes full [...]

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